Hardware

Photos: Behind the scenes on The Imitation Game

By · November 24, 2014, 6:01 AM PST

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  • The Imitation Game tells the story of father of computing and Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing.

    Released in the US this Friday, the film focuses heavily on the role the British mathematician played in helping the Allied forces crack the Nazi's coded communications.

    The film has earned many positive reviews, with particular praise for Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Turing, but also criticisms for where it has deviated from the truth.

    To mark the movie's release an exhibition of the props are on show at Bletchley Park in England, the site of the Government Code and Cypher School where Turing worked during the war.

    Bombe sketches

    Turing played a major role in designing the Bombe, an electromechanical machine that partially automate code-breaking. The Bombe helped decipher Nazi military communications that had been encrypted using Enigma machines.

    Here, diagrams of the Bombe drawn by Turing during the film are shown surrounding a recreation of Turing's desk.

    The Bombe and its role in cracking Enigma-coded messages stemmed from the work of a series of individuals. The Bletchley Park Bombe was later refined by another Bletchley Park codebreaker Gordon Welchman and was actually built outside Bletchley Park by engineer Harold Keen.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • The Bombe

    The model of the Bombe machine used in the film.

    During the height of the war about 200 Bombes were used at Bletchley Park to decipher messages sent by the German army, air force and navy.

    By the end of the war the fleet of Bombe machines were capable of resolving the settings used to encrypt messages within 20 minutes.

    While there were 158 milion million million possible settings for encrypting messages using Enigma, the number of settings that had to be checked by the Bombes was brought down to about one million by human codebreakers, who identified cribs that gave clues as to how the Enigma machine had been set up that day.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • Dismantling the Bombe

    After the war the the Bombe machines used at Bletchley were dismantled by order of Winston Churchill, as were the Colossus machines used to crack the Lorenz code used by the Nazi High Command.

    Those who worked at Bletchley didn't talk about the work they did until decades later, as they were bound by the Official Secrets Act.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • Costumes

    Outfits from the film. From left, uniforms from Turing's childhood at Sherborne School in Dorset, a cardigan worn by Turing's close friend Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), and a suit worn by Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch).

    Turing is said to have proposed to Clarke and have introduced her to his family, but later broke the relationship off in 1941.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • Official documents

    Characters in the film use replicas of official documents used by staff working at Bletchley during the war.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • Joan Clarke

    Clarke's (Knightley) hat and suitcase from when she arrives at Bletchley in the film. The film has attracted some criticism for focusing on Turing's friendship with Clarke and not on his homosexual relationships.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • The bar

    Part of a pub used in the film. Visitors to the exhibit can have their photo taken at the bar.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • Denniston's desk

    The film's recreation of the desk of Commander Alastair Denniston (Charles Dance), the head of the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • The exhibition

    The Imitation Game exhibition, with an Enigma machine in a glass case and, sat behind, the model Bombe machine used in the film.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • Coded intercepts

    Tape showing encrypted messages sat on top of notes made during the movie's portrayal of codebreaking.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

  • Turing's prosecution

    In 1952 a burglary at Turing's home set off a chain of events that eventually led to his prosecution for gross indecency. During the course of the investigation Turing admitted a homosexual relationship, at a time when homosexual acts were illegal.

    Turing's punishment was an experimental chemical castration, a treatment whose negative effects are thought to have contributed to Turing's decision to kill himself.

    Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

The Imitation Game tells the story of father of computing and Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing.

Released in the US this Friday, the film focuses heavily on the role the British mathematician played in helping the Allied forces crack the Nazi's coded communications.

The film has earned many positive reviews, with particular praise for Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Turing, but also criticisms for where it has deviated from the truth.

To mark the movie's release an exhibition of the props are on show at Bletchley Park in England, the site of the Government Code and Cypher School where Turing worked during the war.

Bombe sketches

Turing played a major role in designing the Bombe, an electromechanical machine that partially automate code-breaking. The Bombe helped decipher Nazi military communications that had been encrypted using Enigma machines.

Here, diagrams of the Bombe drawn by Turing during the film are shown surrounding a recreation of Turing's desk.

The Bombe and its role in cracking Enigma-coded messages stemmed from the work of a series of individuals. The Bletchley Park Bombe was later refined by another Bletchley Park codebreaker Gordon Welchman and was actually built outside Bletchley Park by engineer Harold Keen.

Image: shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

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By Nick Heath

Nick Heath is a computer science student and was formerly a journalist at TechRepublic and ZDNet.

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