Enigma | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Michael Apted |
Produced by |
Mick Jagger Lorne Michaels |
Screenplay by | Tom Stoppard |
Based on |
Enigma by Robert Harris |
Starring |
Dougray Scott Kate Winslet Jeremy Northam Saffron Burrows Tom Hollander |
Music by | John Barry |
Cinematography | Seamus McGarvey |
Edited by | Rick Shaine |
Production
company |
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Distributed by |
BVI (UK) Manhattan Pictures (US) |
Release date
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Running time
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119 min. |
Country | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $15,705,007 (Worldwide) |
Enigma is a 2001 espionage thriller film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. The script was adapted from the novel Enigma by Robert Harris, about the Enigma codebreakers of Bletchley Park in the Second World War.
Although the story is highly fictionalised, the process of encrypting German messages during World War II and decrypting them with the Enigma is discussed in detail, and the historical event of the Katyn massacre is highlighted. It was the last film scored by John Barry.
The story, loosely based on actual events, takes place in March 1943, when the Second World War was at its height. The cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, have a problem: the Nazi U-boats have changed one of their code reference books used for Enigma machine ciphers, leading to a blackout in the flow of vital naval signals intelligence. The British cryptanalysts have cracked the "Shark" cipher once before, and they need to do it again in order to keep track of U-boat locations.
The film begins with Tom Jericho returning to Bletchley after a month recovering from a nervous breakdown brought on by his failed love affair with a coworker named Claire Romilly. Jericho immediately seeks to see her again and finds that she mysteriously disappeared a few days earlier. He enlists the help of Claire's housemate, Hester Wallace, to follow the trail of clues and learn what has happened to Claire.