SCENES
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Scene Map 60
# PG SLUGLINE
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INT EXT INT/EXT hover for full slug
Scene Map
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# PG SLUGLINE
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THE IMITATION GAME Written by Graham Moore Based on "Alan Turing: The Enigma"
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INT. MI-6 - MENZIES OFFICE - DAY — Until it’s finally deposited on the desk of STEWART MENZIES, the Director of MI-6. British Secret Intelligence Services. ALAN TURING (V.O.)
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EXT. ALAN TURNING’S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER Detective Nock and Sergeant Staehl walk away from Turing’s house. SGT. STAEHL I’ll give you a bob if you can name
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INT. EUSTON STATION - LONDON - DAY - 1939 Alan Turing — 11 years younger — HURRIES through Euston Station on the day that Britain declares war on Germany. The station is preparing for war: PAPERBOYS SCREAM the headlines: “800,000 CHILDREN EVACUATED!”
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - COMMANDER DENNISTON’S OFFICE - LATER A few minutes later, Alan sits alone in a cluttered office. He stares ahead blankly at the empty chair behind the desk. Waits. COMMANDER DENNISTON (O.S.)
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - DAY - LATER ANGLE ON: A machine. It looks like a typewriter that got left on the set of Blade Runner. Wires running all over it. Extra gears sticking out of the sides. Blinking lights that reveal German characters. Half electrical, half mechanical.
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EXT. SHERBORNE SCHOOL FOR BOYS - DAY - 1927 TEENAGE BOYS play cricket in the green front gardens of a boys boarding school. Behind them looms the school’s stately central manor house. ALAN TURING (V.O.)
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INT. COFFIN - A FEW MINUTES LATER ... Alan is now inside a coffin. He’s KICKING AT THE WOODEN BOARDS ABOVE and SCREAMING TO BE RELEASED. It’s not helping.
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EXT. SHERBORNE SCHOOL FOR BOYS - SECONDS LATER Walking away from the half-finished school room, Christopher helps Alan as he hobbles. YOUNG ALAN ... It’s not my fault. The carrots
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EXT. MANCHESTER STREETS - LATER Detective Nock and Sergeant Staehl walk through Manchester, away from the police station. SGT. STAEHL ... So are you going to catch this
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INT. POLICE STATION - MANCHESTER - LATER QUICK SHOTS: Nock PAINTS TIPP-EX over his own name on the letter he just stole, and TYPES IN A NEW ONE — “ALAN TURING” INT. ADMIRALTY RECORDS OFFICE - DAY - LATER Detective Nock walks up to a SECRETARY.
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 14 - DAY — And carries it through Bletchley — — The grounds surrounding the mansion at Bletchley Park are now littered with 18 WOODEN “HUTS” — hastily constructed structures that contain all of Britain’s top secret
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - DAY BACK TO HUT 8: The team is still buried in pile after pile of undecrypted messages. Another convoy has been lost because they couldn’t move fast enough, and they’re so far behind they don’t even
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - MOMENTS LATER Hugh, John, Peter, Keith and Charles all exit Hut 8, shaking their heads and laughing at what an impossible weirdo Alan is. In the window, we see Alan’s face, alone with his work.
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - MAIN GATE - LATER Stewart Menzies walks out of the Bletchley’s MAIN GATE, through security, when’s he’s approached by: ALAN TURING Mr. Menzies! You’re headed back to
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - MINUTES LATER Alan, Hugh, John and Peter walk back into Hut 8 after the meeting — resigned, unhappily, to their fate. JOHN CAIRNCROSS ... So what do we do now?
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EXT. MI-6 HEADQUARTERS - LONDON - DAY Alan bicycles through London, passing a group of GASMASKED SCHOOLCHILDREN being led calmly on a DRILL by their TEACHER. As a MILKMAN crosses a BOMBED OUT BUILDING to delivers his wares, Alan comes to a stop beside a MARRIED COUPLE who are
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INT. CLASS ROOM - CONTINUOUS Alan and Stewart Menzies are in an MI-6 conference room. It’s been set up like a class room: Rows of identical desks, at which sit a COLLECTION OF CROSSWORD ENTHUSIASTS. There are around 20, all men.
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INT. CLASS ROOM - MINUTES LATER Minutes later, TWO PEOPLE have survived the crossword test. Joan is one of them. STEWART MENZIES Congratulations, and my warmest
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INT. MANCHESTER POLICE STATION - DAY - 1951 A crowded POLICE STATION. Detective Nock approaches his boss, SUPERINTENDANT SMITH, as the latter walks through the station dropping PAPERS onto various DESKS and checking the work of other POLICE OFFICERS.
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INT. CLARKE HOUSE - LONDON - DAY Joan returns home from the market when she hears a familiar VOICE from the sitting room. ALAN TURING (O.S.) — Well it’s a very important radio
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - DAY Joan and a few OTHER WRENS exit a BUS that’s deposited them in front of the Park’s central mansion. Looking up at it, she sees Alan walking across the way. He gives her a small wave, which she returns with a small
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 11 - MOMENTS LATER Alan stands alone with his machine, tinkering, comparing the assembly to his SCHEMATICS. Hugh BURSTS in — HUGH ALEXANDER
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - MINUTES LATER Alan goes back into Hut 8, which is now empty. He goes to a far STORAGE CABINET, from which he removes a STACK OF ENIGMA MESSAGES. Alan FOLDS THE SHEETS, STUFFING THEM INTO HIS COAT POCKETS —
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INT. JOAN’S FLAT - CONTINUOUS It’s dark inside... JOAN CLARKE (whispering) Could you have made a bit more
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - THE NEXT DAY REVEAL: Alan has been injured in his fall. (Climbing is not his strong suit.) Alan walks through the grounds into: INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - CONTINUOUS
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 11 - MINUTES LATER In the machine Hut next door, Alan touches his precious machine for comfort. Whenever he feels lonely, misunderstood, isolated — he has his machine.
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - DAY Alan enters Hut 8 to find his team hard at work. He’s carrying a BAG OF APPLES. HUGH ALEXANDER (sees apples)
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INT. SHERBORNE SCHOOL FOR BOYS - DAY - 1927 Young Alan and Christopher are in math class. The TEACHER drones on as the students pretend to pay attention. Young Alan and Christopher PASS NOTES —
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EXT. SHERBORNE SCHOOL FOR BOYS - CLOISTERS - MINUTES LATER Now alone, Alan DECRYPTS THE MESSAGE. One at a time, the letters become intelligible. ON THE NOTE: “SEE YOU IN TWO LONG WEEKS, DEAREST FRIEND.” ON ALAN: Christopher called him his dearest friend.
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 11 - DAY Alan and the team (Hugh, John, Peter) stand in a half-circle around the now-completed Christopher. An ELECTRICAL ASSISTANT feeds fresh Enigma messages into one end of the machine.
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 11 - EARLY MORNING As the machine CLACKS away, Alan is frantically going over his papers. He’s unshaven, wearing yesterday’s clothes. He hasn’t gotten a wink of sleep. ON ALAN’S FRANTIC PACING: Why isn’t it working? Why?!
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INT. MANCHESTER POLICE STATION - DAY - 1951 Sergeant Staehl walks eagerly through the police station. He comes to an office marked “SUPERINTENDANT SMITH”, where he OPENS the door to find INT. MANCHESTER POLICE STATION - SMITH’S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS
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INT. POLICE STATION - INTERROGATION ROOM - MOMENTS LATER As Nock and Smith stands outside the INTERROGATION ROOM, Sergeant Staehl points through the window in the door: Inside is ARNOLD MURRAY, 20s, nervous. SERGEANT STAEHL
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INT. JOAN’S FLAT - DAY - 1941 Joan comes home to her flat. She looks sad as she puts her key in the lock and opens the door. She enters to find: HUNDREDS OF MATHEMATICAL PAPERS ARE SCATTERED ALL OVER HER
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - BEER HUT - NIGHT An impromptu ENGAGEMENT PARTY in the Beer Hut that night: — A BANNER made from PUNCH CARDS reads: “CONGRATULATIONS!” — Music plays as DANCERS TWIRL in the center of the Hut. — Joan LAUGHS with her WREN FRIENDS in one corner, while in
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INT. SHERBORNE SCHOOL FOR BOYS - ALAN’S ROOM - DAY - 1927 CLOSE ON A LETTER: “I LOVE YOU” is written on the paper. REVEAL: Young Alan sits in his dormitory room, ENCRYPTING his love letter to Christopher. Slowly, letter by letter, Alan transforms “I LOVE YOU” into
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INT. MANCHESTER POLICE STATION - INTERROGATION ROOM - 1951 Alan Turing sits alone in the interrogation room with his eyes closed. Detective Nock enters. DETECTIVE NOCK
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 11 - NIGHT - 1942 Alan and his team — Hugh, John, Peter — anxiously stand before Alan’s huge machine as it CLACK CLACK CLACKS, ferociously loud. The gears are spinning, current is flowing through the wires,
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - BEER HUT - LATER It’s crowded in the beer hut, even this late at night. On one side of the room, Alan, Hugh, John, and Peter are drinking. Commiserating about their fate. On the other side, Joan is drinking with her friend HELEN — a
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - CONTINUOUS - SEQUENCE Everyone chases Alan across Bletchley Park — — GUARDS YELL at Alan as he bypasses security checkpoints — — Guards are screaming at them, drawing guns as he and Joan barrel into Hut 8 —
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - CONTINUOUS Alan runs from Hut 8 to Hut 11, the team chasing behind him. INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 11 - CONTINUOUS Alan, Joan, John, Peter and Hugh burst in — ALAN TURING
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - CONTINUOUS Where Alan takes a DUMMY ENIGMA MACHINE, turns the machine’s rotors to the setting he wrote down (”EXBAO...”) — ALAN TURING Give me a fresh message. The last
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - DAWN Dawn rises over Bletchley Park. INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - DAWN The team has been there working all through the night. There’s a flurry of activity: Decoding messages, translating
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INT. TRAIN - DAY Alan and Joan ride the train from Bletchley into London. They know what they have to do. EXT. TRAIN STATION - DAY Alan and Joan exit the train and walk down the platform.
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - LAWNS - SEQUENCE At 6am, dawn is threatening to break across the Park. ALAN TURING (V.O.) They codenamed it “Ultra.” INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - WREN’S HUT - SEQUENCE
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - DAY Jack turns his Enigma machine to the day’s setting — “FSOQR” — and one by one types in the newly intercepted messages, recording the now decrypted results in a BOOKLET. On the cover, the booklet is marked: “ULTRA.”
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - CENTRAL MANSION - DAY Alan borrows a phone in the central mansion. ALAN TURING (into phone) I need to speak to Menzies...
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - DAY - FLASHBACK Flash to the first scene where Alan met his new team after arriving at Bletchley. Commander Denniston explains how Enigma works, while Menzies stands in the corner, observing. Menzies keeps a special eye on Cairncross as Alan and Hugh
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EXT. BLETCHLEY VILLAGE - STREET - NIGHT - FLASHBACK Cairncross walks through the village with the suitcase — STEWART MENZIES (V.O.) Even information that will help them against the Germans. So much
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - JOAN’S FLAT - CONTINUED STEWART MENZIES That’s why I’ll need your help now to work out what to leak to John. What to feed the Soviets, as well
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - PATHWAY NEAR HUT 8 - DAY Joan walks towards Hut 8, showing her ID to the new GUARDS who are closely monitoring entry to the Huts. In front of Hut 8, Alan watches her. Steeling himself up for what he has to do.
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INT. SHERBORNE SCHOOL FOR BOYS - HEADMASTER’S OFFICE - 1927 Young Alan enters the HEADMASTER’S OFFICE. YOUNG ALAN You wanted to see me, Sir? HEADMASTER
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INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - HUT 8 - 1943-5 - SEQUENCE Alan, Joan, John, Hugh, and Peter decrypt messages together for another two exhausting years. ALAN TURING (V.O.) The war dragged on for another two
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INT. MI-6 - WAR ROOM - DAY AN MI-6 WAR ROOM: The Messenger delivers the Green Folder to Menzies and a TEAM OF MI-6 AGENTS. They look over Alan’s analysis and decide what military actions to take. The Agents TELEPHONE Churchill’s office in London.
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EXT. WHITEHALL (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) - DAY ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: On V-E Day, Churchill speaks to millions from a balcony in Whitehall. Truman dedicates the victory to Roosevelt as Times Square erupts into drunken cheers. The whole world kisses. The whole world cries.
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INT. MANCHESTER POLICE STATION - INTERROGATION ROOM - 1951 Alan Turing finishes telling his story to Detective Nock. DETECTIVE NOCK That’s... Unbelievable. ALAN TURING
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INT. ALAN TURING’S HOUSE - SITTING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Joan takes a seat while Alan fusses, embarrassed at the state of the place and trying to clean up for her. JOAN CLARKE ... You never responded to my
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EXT. SHERBORNE SCHOOL FOR BOYS - DAY - 1927 Young Alan sits under the tree where Christopher first taught him about cryptography. He’s holding the book that Christopher gave him. He starts to cry. He’s alone now, and he will be for a very
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EXT. BLETCHLEY PARK - NIGHT - 1945 Alan, Joan, Hugh, John, and Peter stand before the MASSIVE BONFIRE that’s been built in the center of the Park. TITLE: Alan Turing committed suicide in 1954. TITLE: His machine was never perfected, though it
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The imitation game

A brilliant mathematician is recruited by the British government during World War II to help crack the unbreakable German Enigma code, but his personal life and unconventional methods put him at odds with his superiors and teammates.

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Overview

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Unique Selling Point

The unique selling proposition of 'The Imitation Game' lies in its blend of historical drama with a deeply personal story. It not only highlights Turing's monumental contributions to the war effort through codebreaking but also delves into his tragic personal life as a gay man in a repressive society. This duality makes it compelling for audiences interested in both historical events and character-driven narratives, offering a poignant reflection on the cost of genius and the societal failures that can accompany it.

AI Verdict

Model upgrade — Mar 31, 2026: Analysis is from our newer, stronger readers. Scores aren't directly comparable to pre-upgrade analyses.
Claude
 Highly Recommend
Gemini
 Recommend
GPT4
 Highly Recommend
See Details in P/C/R/HR Section
Story Facts
Genres:
Drama 60% War 40% Thriller 25% Crime 15% Romance 15% Science Fiction 10%

Setting: 1927-1954, Primarily Bletchley Park, Manchester, and Sherborne School in England

Themes: Societal Rejection and Persecution of the Different, The Nature of Intelligence and Genius, The Moral Dilemmas of War and Secrecy, Love and Relationships in the Face of Adversity, The Power of Collaboration and Teamwork

Conflict & Stakes: Alan Turing's struggle against societal norms and legal persecution due to his homosexuality, while also facing the pressure of wartime codebreaking efforts that could save lives.

Mood: Somber and reflective, with moments of tension and urgency.

Standout Features:

  • Unique Hook: The story of Alan Turing, a key figure in WWII codebreaking, whose personal struggles with identity and societal acceptance are intertwined with his professional achievements.
  • Major Twist: The revelation of John Cairncross as a Soviet spy, which adds layers of intrigue and betrayal to the narrative.
  • Innovative Ideas: The depiction of early computing technology and its role in codebreaking, showcasing Turing's visionary ideas.
  • Distinctive Settings: The contrast between the secretive, high-pressure environment of Bletchley Park and the personal struggles faced by Turing in his private life.

Comparable Scripts: The Imitation Game, A Beautiful Mind, The Theory of Everything, Good Will Hunting, Hidden Figures, The Social Network, The Man Who Knew Infinity, The King's Speech, The Cuckoo's Calling

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Overall Score: 8.43
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