Summary
World War II. Soldiers walk through an abandoned village as papers fly through the air. Text on the screen says, “The enemy have driven the British and French armies to the sea. Trapped at Dunkirk, they await their fate.” One of the soldiers catches one of the papers, a map that shows that the enemy has surrounded the soldiers—many arrows, all of which are pointing at the word “You.”
Another soldier drinks from a hose nearby as the men wait for orders about what to do next. Suddenly guns begin to fire and the soldiers run for it, some of them getting shot. One soldier, Tommy, climbs over a gate and grabs a shotgun, panting as he loads it. He runs over a rooftop before hiding behind a dumpster and shouting to the men who shoot at him, telling them he’s English and speaking French. He runs over to them and stares at them, before continuing to run towards the shore, looking at the troops standing along the beach there.
On the beach, he sees a man burying a dead man. The man hands him a canteen and he takes a swig. Walking away, he sees soldiers lining up and one of them tells him, “It’s grenadiers, mate” excluding him from being evacuated. He wanders farther down the beach, where he sees a group of soldiers lining up along the “mole.”
Suddenly planes begin flying overhead, dropping bombs. The men fall to the ground as bombs are detonated. Tommy stays on the ground, but is not killed. He and the surrounding survivors stand as someone wonders, “Where’s the bloody air force?”
Meanwhile, in a nearby seaside village, members of the Royal Navy are planning to send over private boats to evacuate the area. A boy, Peter, is helping his father, Mr. Dawson, a mariner, who is unpacking his boat, to get ready to go pick up some men from Dunkirk. A friend, George, approaches the boat and hears about the relief initiative.
Planes fly overhead, flown by pilots named Farrier and Collins, who are there to provide support for those on the ground. The three planes fly through the air, keeping their eyes on Dunkirk.
Down on the beach, Tommy wanders around, looking at the various bodies of the dead and wounded. When he and Gibson, another soldier, find a wounded soldier on a stretcher, they pretend to be medics and carry the stretcher towards the boat that is leaving imminently. A British soldier tells some French soldiers that the ship will only be taking English soldiers back. “It’s a British ship…you have your own ships,” he says, impatiently, as the Frenchmen protest.
As Gibson and Tommy arrive at the boat, a horn goes off and a soldier tells them they have missed it, but they run towards it anyway. They push their way through throngs of men to the front.
Farrier, the pilot, complains that Dunkirk is so far away and wonders why they could not load at Calais, as the Fortis leader tells him that the enemy is preventing that. "Down here we're sitting ducks," Farrier says as the Fortis leader tells them to remain vigilant.
As Gibson and Tommy near the front of the line to get on the evacuation boat, there is a large hole in the dock where a bomb has blasted through and a soldier advises them to run across a thin precarious board, which they do as the men cheer.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dawson tells George to push off. When George asks if he's waiting for the Navy to give the go-ahead, Mr. Dawson tells him that they will fulfill their duties independently. Peter and Mr. Dawson push off, headed towards Dunkirk, and George jumps on as well, much to Dawson's surprise and dismay. "Into war, George," Dawson says, to which George replies, "I'll be useful, sir."
In the air, Farrier notices German fighter pilots coming towards them and surrounding them. One of them gets on Collins' plane, and Collins begins to worry, but Farrier comes in for reinforcement.
Tommy and Gibson board the boat with the stretcher, but a lieutenant orders them to get off soon enough. As he gets off the boat, Tommy sees that Gibson is hiding on the side of the mole, hanging off a sort of ledge to wait for the next boat. Tommy climbs down to hide there with his friend.
Peter, George, and Dawson make their way towards Dunkirk, when a plane flies overhead, startling George. They pass by a large evacuation boat and George looks at the grim-faced soldiers onboard.
Farrier and Collins struggle with the German pilots, trying to elude and avoid them. In the process, their squadron leader gets shot down and they must fend for themselves. Farrier tries to contact Fortis Leader, but cannot get in touch. He notifies Collins.
On the mole, Tommy and Gibson climb their way along the bottom, as Commander Bolton and a soldier discuss what to do about the wounded soldiers. "One stretcher takes the place of seven standing men," Bolton says definitively.
Analysis
From the very beginning the film drops the viewer into the Second World War, with hardly any exposition or narrative other than the information that the French and the British have been cornered in Dunkirk. We see the soldiers in the streets, wondering what to do next, as the silent threat of violence surrounds them, when suddenly shots ring out and they must run for their lives. The viewer is not guided slowly into the narrative, but dropped into it unceremoniously.
The cinematography, for a film about the gritty reality of war, is quite beautiful and aesthetic, and director Christopher Nolan creates a profoundly specific sense of time and place. The first image of the film is a group of French soldiers wandering through the abandoned seaside town of Dunkirk, as papers fly through the air. The content of the papers is menacing and threatens violence, but the image of them showering down looks more like a beautiful snowstorm than a harbinger of impending violence.
A tremor of suspense runs beneath the action of the film, as we await the violence that will soon occur. The score, by Hans Zimmer, only adds to the suspense, as the eerie dissonance of strings accompanies the physical action. Every moment of calm or silence threatens the interruption of an explosion or a gunshot. Such is the surprising and abrupt structure of war itself.
The tension of the film is further raised by the fact that the film shifts between different fronts. On the one hand we see the most vulnerable soldiers, those who are trapped on the beach at Dunkirk. Additionally, we are privy to the pilots overhead, who are keeping their eyes on the soldiers on the beach. And finally, we are also aware of the civilians, such as Mr. Dawson and his helpers, who are sending over private boats in order to aid in the evacuation. These various moving parts, all working simultaneously to keep the soldiers safe, raise the stakes of the action.
The film focuses on a small slice of a very large war. The Battle of Dunkirk was a unique, but pivotal battle in World War II, and director Christopher Nolan is quoted as saying, "This is an essential moment in the history of the Second World War...If this evacuation had not been a success, Great Britain would have been obliged to capitulate." The limited scope of the film makes it that much more affecting and compelling, in that the events contained in the battle of Dunkirk are the sole focus of the film, making the details of each scene all the more important and pivotal.
