MovieChat Forums > The Imitation Game (2014) Discussion > Breaking up with Joan

Breaking up with Joan

posted 8 years ago by candym105
6 replies | jump to latest

I didn't understand why Menzies threatened Joan to Turing. Was it because he wanted Turing to break up with her so that they wouldn't be connected post-war and possibly leak information about breaking enigma? I saw that they were actually engaged at one point in real life too, so was the threat from Menzies actually real? And did she ever know why Turing really broke it off with her or did she think he was being honest when he said he never cared for her? It seems like she forgave him at least since she went and visited him post-war...

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

Turing broke off the engagement most likely because he realised he couldn't go through with a marriage that was never going to be a normal marriage - perhaps he thought it unfair to Joan. yhey remained good friends though. Menzies had nothing to do with it. There is no evidence that Turing even knew Menzies. Bletchley Park was a big place, with a lot of people working there. It wasn't just five men in a hut like this film suggests.

[–] benbrae76 8 years ago

It's almost certain that Menzies and Turing were acquainted. Menzies was appointed Chief of Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in 1939. He expanded wartime intelligence and counterintelligence departments and supervised codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park, overseeing the work of cryptanalyst and mathematician Alan Turing.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

Youmay be right. I know i read that Turing probably never met John cairncross, who he is supposed to have been blackmailed by. I may have got him mixed up with Menzies.

[–] benbrae76 8 years ago

That could be it. The information Cairncross passed on came from the later Tunny decrypts. Turing wasn't involved with the breaking of Tunny (Lorenz), and would most likely have been working in America at that time anyway. The blackmail plot is all hogwash.

[–] candym105 8 years ago

Thanks for the info!