Benedict Cumberbatch breaks Nazi codes (and chases an Oscar) in the first trailer for The Imitation Game

We're still in the midst of summer blockbuster season — but if you want a sneak peek at this year's Oscar race, look no further than the trailer for The Imitation Game.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the mathematician and computer genius who was recruited by the British government during World War II to help crack Germany's Enigma machine, which enabled them to use sophisticated ciphers. "It's the greatest encryption device in history. The Germans use it for all major communications," says Cumberbatch, who proposes building their own machine that could "break every message and win the war." To bring his plan to fruition, he works alongside a team that reads like a who's-who of talented British actors, including Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, and Charles Dance.

So far, so good — but The Imitation Game has already been met with a fair amount of controversy. It attracted early criticism for allegedly downplaying Turing's homosexuality (and the British government's horrific response to it). Since then, the film's producers have promised that there was never a version of the script "where Alan Turing is anything other than homosexual" — but that part of the story isn't exactly apparent in this trailer.

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The Imitation Game hits theaters in November. --Scott Meslow

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