I did not want to go through the dialogue, tell the story of my characters. "The empathy for the characters has nothing to do with their story. Michael Caine as Fortis Leader (uncredited).Tommy reads Churchill's address to the House of Commons citing the "miracle of deliverance" in Dunkirk. Tommy and Alex board a train and receive a hero's welcome when the train arrives in Woking. Peter arranges for a local reporter to publish a story about George's role in the evacuation, calling George a hero, which he shows to his father the next day. Arriving back in Weymouth, the shell-shocked soldier sees George's body being carried away. Royal Navy Commander Bolton stays to oversee the evacuation of the French. He sets fire to his plane before being taken prisoner by the Germans. Gliding over the beach, he shoots down a dive-bomber, saving ships and troops, and lands beyond the perimeter. Asked by the shell-shocked soldier, he lies and says that George will be fine.įarrier reaches Dunkirk just as his fuel runs out. When a nearby minesweeper is sunk by a bomber, Moonstone manoeuvres to take on those in the water, including Tommy and Alex. The group abandons the boat when it begins to sink, but Gibson is entangled in a chain and drowns. Gibson reveals he is French he stole the identity of the dead British soldier he buried, hoping to be evacuated with the British. Alex, hoping to lighten the boat, accuses Gibson, who has stayed silent, of being a German spy.
During the wait, German troops start shooting at the boat for target practice, and water enters through the bullet holes. Tommy, Alex and Gibson join some soldiers of a Highlanders regiment and hide inside a beached trawler in the intertidal zone outside the Allied perimeter, waiting for the rising tide to refloat it. Its pilot, Collins, is rescued by Moonstone. After their leader is shot down in a dogfight, one of the pilots, Farrier, assumes command, but the other Spitfire is hit and ditches. Elsewhere, three Spitfires, tasked with defending the evacuation, cross the English Channel. When he realises that Dawson is sailing for Dunkirk, the soldier demands that they turn back and tries to wrest control of the boat in the scuffle, George suffers a head injury that renders him blind. At sea, they rescue a shivering shell-shocked soldier from a wrecked ship. Their teenage hand George impulsively joins them. In Weymouth, a civilian sailor Dawson, with his son Peter, sets out on his boat Moonstone, rather than let the Navy commandeer her. With a single, vulnerable mole available for embarking on deep- draft ships, the Royal Navy requisitions civilian vessels in Great Britain that can get to the beach. The ship is sunk by dive bombers Tommy saves Alex, another soldier. After a Luftwaffe dive bomber attack, they attempt to get aboard a hospital ship but are ordered off. At the beach, he finds thousands of troops awaiting evacuation and meets Gibson, an inventor, who is burying a body. Tommy Jensen, a young British private, is the sole survivor of a German ambush. In 1940, during the Battle of France, Allied soldiers have retreated to Dunkirk. The film received various accolades, including eight nominations at the 90th Academy Awards: Best Picture and Best Director (Nolan's first directing Oscar nomination) it went on to win for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing. Dunkirk received praise for its screenplay, direction, musical score, sound effects, and cinematography some critics called it Nolan's best work, and one of the greatest war films. It is the highest-grossing World War II film, making $526 million worldwide. Dunkirk has extensive practical effects, and employed thousands of extras as well as historic boats from the evacuation, and period aeroplanes.ĭistributed by Warner Bros, the film premiered on 13 July 2017 at Odeon Leicester Square in London, and was released in the United Kingdom and United States on 21 July. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot the film on IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film stock. Filming began in May 2016 in Dunkirk and ended that September in Los Angeles, when post-production began. Its ensemble cast includes Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles in his film debut, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy.ĭunkirk portrays the evacuation with little dialogue, as Nolan sought instead to create suspense from cinematography and music. Dunkirk is a 2017 war film written, directed, and produced by Christopher Nolan that depicts the Dunkirk evacuation of World War II through the perspectives of the land, sea, and air.