My God, you did it. You just defeated Nazism with a crossword puzzle.
There are five people in the world who know the position of every ship in the Atlantic. They are all in this room.
Oh, good God.
Oh, I don't think even He has the power that we do right now.
[getting closer to map]
No. There's going to be an attack on a British passenger convoy. Right there.
God, you're right. Those U-boats are only twenty, thirty minutes away.
Civilians. Hundreds of them. We can save their lives.
And knock out a whole German fleet in the process.
I'll phone Denniston's office so that he can alert the Admiralty.
No.
Do you think there's enough time to save them?
There should be. If we can get a message to that convoy—
No, no! [grabs and hangs up phone]
What the hell are you doing?
You-you can't call Denniston. You-you can't tell him about the attack.
What are you talking about?
We can have air support over that convoy in ten minutes.
Let the U-boats sink the convoy.
Look, it's been a big day, maybe you're suffering from—
Oh, shut up—
No!
[Alan smashes the phone on the ground. Hugh punches him in the face, knocking him down]
Oh, Hugh! Hugh! Stop! That's enough!
Stop, Hugh!
John, the attack is in minutes.
Yes, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm fine. [to Hugh] Do you know why people like violence, Hugh? It's because it feels good. Sometimes we can't do what feels good. We have to do what is logical.
What's logical?
The hardest time to lie is when the other person is expecting to be lied to.
What?
If someone's waiting for a lie, you can't just, uh, give them one.
Damn it, Alan's right.
What?
What would the Germans think if we destroy their U-boats?
Nothing. They'll be dead.
No. No, you can't be right.
So our convoy suddenly veers off course... a squadron of our air bombers miraculously descends on the coordinates of the U-boats... what will the Germans think?
The Germans will know that we have broken Enigma.
They'll stop all radio communications by midday, and they'll have changed the design of Enigma by the weekend.
Yes.
Two years' work. Everything we've done here will all be for nothing.
There are 500 people in that convoy. Women. Children. We're about to let them die.
Our job isn't to save one passenger convoy, it is to win the war.
Our job was to crack Enigma.
Oh, we've done that. Now for the hard part. Keeping it a secret.
Carlisle.
What?
[points to the map]
The convoy you're about to... it's, uh... The HMS Carlisle is one of the ships. We can't act on every piece of intelligence? So fine, we won't. Just this one.
Peter, what's the matter with you?
My brother's... well, he's on the Carlisle. A gunnery ensign.
I'm... I'm so sorry.
Who the hell do you think you are? This is my brother. He's my big brother, alright, and you have a few minutes to call off his murder.
We can't.
He's right.
Alan. Joan. Hugh. John. Please, I... the Germans, they won't get suspicious just because we stopped one attack. No one will know. I'm asking you. As your friend. Please.
I'm so sorry.
You're not God, Alan. You don't get to decide who lives and who dies.
Yes, we do.
Why?
Because no one else can.
