''Dunkirk'' is a 2017
historical
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...
war
War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
written, directed, and co-produced by
Christopher Nolan
Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...
that depicts the
Dunkirk evacuation
The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...
of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
from the perspectives of the land, sea, and air. It features an
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast to the po ...
including
Fionn Whitehead,
Tom Glynn-Carney,
Jack Lowden,
Harry Styles
Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His showmanship, artistry, and flamboyant fashion have had a Cultural impact of Harry Styles, significant impact on popular culture.
Styles's musical ca ...
in his feature film debut,
Aneurin Barnard
Aneurin Barnard (; ; born 8 May 1987) is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Davey in '' Hunky Dory'', Claude in '' The Truth About Emanuel'', Bobby Willis in '' Cilla'', Tim in '' Thirteen'', King Richard III in '' The White Queen'', Will ...
,
James D'Arcy,
Barry Keoghan
Barry Keoghan ( ; born 18 October 1992) is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on ''The Irish Times'' list of Ireland ...
,
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( ; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. List of award ...
,
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy ( ; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. His works encompass both stage and screen, and his accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 pl ...
,
Mark Rylance
Sir David Mark Rylance Waters (; born 18 January 1960) is an English actor, playwright and theatre director. He is known for his roles on stage and screen, having received numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Oliv ...
, and
Tom Hardy.
The film portrays the evacuation with little dialogue, as Nolan sought instead to create suspense through
cinematography
Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...
and
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
. Filming began in May 2016 in
Dunkirk
Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...
and wrapped that September in Los Angeles, when
post-production
Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...
began. Cinematographer
Hoyte van Hoytema
Hoyte van Hoytema (; born 4 October 1971) is a Dutch-Swedish cinematographer. Renowned for his handheld camera work and for shooting primarily on film, he has received two Academy Award for Best Cinematography nominations, for the Christopher ...
shot the film on
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...
65 mm and 65 mm
large-format film stock
Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed,
edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent pl ...
. ''Dunkirk'' has extensive
practical effect
In filmmaking a practical effect is a special effect produced physically, without computer-generated imagery or other post-production techniques. In some contexts, "special effect" is used as a synonym of "practical effect", in contrast to "vi ...
s. It employed thousands of extras as well as historic boats from the evacuation, and period aeroplanes.
Distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film studio and distribution arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros., both of which are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex ...
, ''Dunkirk'' premiered at
Odeon Leicester Square
The Odeon Luxe Leicester Square is a prominent cinema building in the West End of London. Built in the Art Deco style and completed in 1937, the building has been continually altered in response to developments in cinema technology, and was the ...
in London, a few days before its release in the United Kingdom and United States on 21 July 2017. It grossed over $530 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing World War II film until it was surpassed by Nolan's ''
Oppenheimer'' (2023). ''Dunkirk'' received praise for its screenplay, direction, editing, score, sound design and cinematography; some critics called it Nolan's best work, and one of
the greatest war films as well as one of the greatest movies of the 2010s.
It received
various accolades, including eight nominations at the
90th Academy Awards
The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...
, including
Best Picture
The following is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various films, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Bes ...
and
Best Director. It went on to win for
Best Sound Editing,
Best Sound Mixing, and
Best Film Editing.
Plot
In 1940, during the
Battle of France
The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
,
Allied soldiers retreat to
Dunkirk
Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...
encircled by
the enemy. Tommy loses his squadmates and flees through the perimeter held by French troops to the beach, where thousands await evacuation, and helps Gibson to bury a body. After
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
dive-bombers attack, they attempt to board a hospital ship at the single, vulnerable
mole
Mole (or Molé) may refer to:
Animals
* Mole (animal) or "true mole"
* Golden mole, southern African mammals
* Marsupial mole
Marsupial moles, the Notoryctidae family, are two species of highly specialized marsupial mammals that are found i ...
available for embarking on deep-
draft
Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
ships, by rushing a wounded man on a stretcher but are ordered off. They overhear Commander Bolton, Colonel Winnant and a Rear Admiral discuss the best way to get their army evacuated. The ship is sunk by a Luftwaffe attack; Tommy saves a
Highlanders regiment soldier, Alex. The three board a
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
, but it is hit by a
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...
before it can depart; Gibson saves Tommy and Alex as the ship sinks, and they return to the beach.
The
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
requisitions civilian vessels in England to get to Dunkirk. In
Weymouth, civilian sailor Dawson, with his son Peter, set out in his boat ''Moonstone'', rather than let the Navy commandeer her. Their teenage hand George joins them on impulse. In the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
, they save a shivering
shell-shocked soldier from a ship sunk by a
U-boat
U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...
. Realising that Dawson is going for Dunkirk, the soldier grows fearful and Peter locks him up. The soldier escapes, urging they turn back and tries to wrest control of the boat; in the scuffle, he elbows George who suffers a head injury that blinds him; as the soldier dwells on his actions, George reveals to Peter he came hoping to do something noteworthy. Three
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
Spitfires fly towards Dunkirk, to provide cover for the evacuation, limited to one hour of operation by their fuel supply. They engage in a
dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is an air combat manoeuvring, aerial battle between fighter aircraft that is conducted at close range. Modern terminology for air-to-air combat is air combat manoeuvring (ACM), which refers to tactical situations requir ...
with an enemy fighter. After shooting it down, one of the pilots, Farrier, has his fuel gauge smashed by another fighter. He and the second Spitfire pilot, Collins, determine that their leader has gone down and fly on with Collins radioing Farrier about their remaining fuel. The crew of the ''Moonstone'' witness the two RAF pilots protect a
minesweeper
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
History
The earliest known usage of ...
from a bomber escorted by fighters: Collins’s Spitfire is hit and he
ditches. Although trapped in his canopy as the plane sinks, Collins is saved by Peter.
Tommy, Alex and Gibson and Highlanders soldiers hide in a grounded trawler in the
intertidal zone
The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...
outside the perimeter, waiting for the rising tide. After its Dutch sailor returns, Germans start shooting at the boat for target practice, and water enters through the bullet holes. Alex, attempting to lighten the boat, accuses Gibson, who has been silent, of being a German spy. Gibson reveals he is French; he took the identity of the British soldier he buried. The tide finally lifts the trawler but at sea, the group has to abandon the sinking boat. Gibson is entangled in a chain and drowns. Noticing another bomber, Farrier chooses to continue aiding the evacuation, despite realising that he will never make it home. Despite his attempts, the destroyer is bombed and sinks, as ''Moonstone'' manoeuvres to save men in the water, including Alex, as the shivering soldier starts helping. Peter finds George is dead; asked by the shivering soldier, he says George will be fine. Farrier shoots the bomber down; its crash ignites oil on the water, but Peter saves Tommy. Farrier reaches Dunkirk just as his fuel runs out. Gliding, he shoots down a dive-bomber approaching the mole, and is cheered on by the troops. Farrier lands his Spitfire on the beach beyond the perimeter, burns it and calmly awaits
capture. Dawson has the boat evade aerial attack, using a technique taught by his deceased elder son, a pilot lost at the start of the war.
With 300,000 men successfully evacuated, Commander Bolton stays to oversee the French evacuation. In Weymouth, the shivering soldier sees George's body and exchanges a glance with Dawson, as he and Collins depart. Tommy and Alex board a train with others and are heralded by the public at
Woking
Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...
, as Tommy reads
Churchill's address. Peter arranges for the media to eulogise George.
Cast
*
Fionn Whitehead as Tommy
*
Tom Glynn-Carney as Peter Dawson
*
Jack Lowden as Collins (Fortis 2)
*
Harry Styles
Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His showmanship, artistry, and flamboyant fashion have had a Cultural impact of Harry Styles, significant impact on popular culture.
Styles's musical ca ...
as Alex
*
Aneurin Barnard
Aneurin Barnard (; ; born 8 May 1987) is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Davey in '' Hunky Dory'', Claude in '' The Truth About Emanuel'', Bobby Willis in '' Cilla'', Tim in '' Thirteen'', King Richard III in '' The White Queen'', Will ...
as Gibson
*
James D'Arcy as
Colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
Winnant
*
Barry Keoghan
Barry Keoghan ( ; born 18 October 1992) is an Irish actor. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on ''The Irish Times'' list of Ireland ...
as George Mills
*
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( ; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. List of award ...
as
Commander
Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...
Bolton
*
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy ( ; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. His works encompass both stage and screen, and his accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 pl ...
as Shivering Soldier
*
Mark Rylance
Sir David Mark Rylance Waters (; born 18 January 1960) is an English actor, playwright and theatre director. He is known for his roles on stage and screen, having received numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Oliv ...
as Mr Dawson
*
Tom Hardy as Farrier (Fortis 1)
*
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...
as Fortis Leader (voice)
*
Elliott Tittensor as Highlander 2
*
Will Attenborough
William Attenborough (born 26 June 1991) is a British actor and climate campaigner.
Early life
Attenborough was born in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of theatre director Michael Attenborough and actress Karen Lewis, the grandson of actor- ...
as Second Lieutenant
*
Matthew Marsh as
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral.
Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
Production
Development
Director
Christopher Nolan
Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...
conceived the film in the mid-1990s, when he and his future wife
Emma Thomas
Dame Emma Thomas, Lady Nolan (born 9 December 1971) is a British-American film producer. She has produced all of the feature films directed by her husband Christopher Nolan, which have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide and are regarded a ...
sailed across the English Channel, following the path of many small boats in the Dunkirk evacuation.
Nolan considered improvising the entire film instead of writing a script, but Thomas convinced him otherwise.
In 2015, Nolan wrote a 76-page screenplay,
which was about half the length of his usual scripts
and his shortest to date.
Its precise structure necessitated fictional characters, rather than ones based on eyewitnesses.
The story is told from three perspectives—land (one week of action), sea (one day of action) and air (one hour of action).
Nolan structured the film from the point of view of the characters, intending to use visuals rather than dialogue and backstory.
He wanted to incorporate throughout the film what he calls his "
snowballing effect," where several seemingly disparate storylines connect, that he had previously used only in the third acts of his other films.
Nolan said that he approached research as though it were for a documentary,
and was attracted to the subject matter because of its inversion of the "Hollywood formula", depicting a military retreat centered on the Franco-British forces in place of the typical
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
ic narrative of victorious Americans.
Nolan postponed ''Dunkirk'' until he had acquired sufficient experience directing large-scale action films.
To convey the perspective of soldiers on the beach, for whom contact with the enemy was "extremely limited and intermittent", he did not show Germans on screen (several Germans who take Farrier prisoner are out of focus). He omitted scenes with
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
and generals in
war rooms, as he did not want to get "bogged down in the politics of the situation".
Nolan showed key members of the crew eleven films that had inspired him: ''
All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930), ''
The Wages of Fear
''The Wages of Fear'' () is a 1953 thriller film directed and co-written by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck and Véra Clouzot. The film centres on a group of four down-on-their-luck European men w ...
'' (1953), ''
Alien'' (1979), ''
Speed
In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...
'' (1994), ''
Unstoppable
Unstoppable may refer to:
Film and television
* Unstoppable (2004 film), ''Unstoppable'' (2004 film), an American film directed by David Carson
* ''Unstoppable: Conversation with Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks, and Ossie Davis'', a 2005 America ...
'' (2010), ''
Greed
Greed (or avarice, ) is an insatiable desire for material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions) or social value, such as status or power.
Nature of greed
The initial motivation for (or purpose of) greed and a ...
'' (1924), ''
Sunrise
Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon.
Terminology
Although the S ...
'' (1927), ''
Ryan's Daughter
''Ryan's Daughter'' is a 1970 British epic romantic drama film directed by David Lean and written by Robert Bolt. Loosely inspired by Gustave Flaubert's 1857 novel ''Madame Bovary'', the film stars Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles as a married ...
'' (1970), ''
The Battle of Algiers
''The Battle of Algiers'' (; ) is a 1966 Italian-Algerian war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. It is based on action undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa, the ...
'' (1966), ''
Chariots of Fire
''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 historical drama, historical Sports film, sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Summer ...
'' (1981) and ''
Foreign Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...
'' (1940)—only two of which are war films.
Other film influences include ''
A Man Escaped'' (1956), ''
Pickpocket
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for Misdirection (magic ...
'' (1959), and ''
Saving Private Ryan
''Saving Private Ryan'' is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller ( Tom Hanks) ...
'' (1998). The historical consultant was author
Joshua Levine,
who also wrote the book adaptation, ''Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture''.
Levine accompanied Nolan while interviewing veterans.
During these interviews, Nolan was told a story of soldiers seen walking into the sea in desperation, which he incorporated into the screenplay.
The production team and scouting locations were chosen before Nolan and Thomas solicited
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film studio and distribution arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros., both of which are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex ...
to make the film. Nolan and his production designer
Nathan Crowley toured the beach of Dunkirk while
location scouting
Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work ...
, and decided to film there despite the logistical challenges,
discarding
Suffolk
Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
as an alternative. Crowley set up a makeshift art department in Nolan's old garage, as is tradition, and colourised black-and-white photographs to better understand the visual representation. The design aesthetic was made to look as contemporary as possible.
Hoyte van Hoytema
Hoyte van Hoytema (; born 4 October 1971) is a Dutch-Swedish cinematographer. Renowned for his handheld camera work and for shooting primarily on film, he has received two Academy Award for Best Cinematography nominations, for the Christopher ...
, who had previously collaborated with Nolan on ''
Interstellar'', was chosen as the
director of photography
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...
.
''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' stated that Nolan made a deal with Warner Bros. to receive a $20 million salary plus 20% of the box office gross;
however, ''
Vanity Fair'' reported that Nolan agreed to a low upfront salary in exchange for a large backend percentage.
Pre-production began in January 2016. For the uniforms, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland aimed to balance historical accuracy with aesthetics that would favour the film stock. As the original heavy wool fabric had not been produced since 1940, it was made from scratch, tailored for the main cast and over a thousand extras. Uniforms were made in a factory in Pakistan and the boots by a shoemaker in Mexico. The costume department then spent three weeks ageing them at
Longcross Studios. Each garment was made to look distinct in regiment and personality: Tommy wears a large
greatcoat
A greatcoat (also watchcoat) is a large, woollen overcoat designed for warmth and protection against wind and weather, and features a collar that can be turned up and cuffs that can be turned down to protect the face and the hands, while the Cap ...
, while Alex dons the Highlander cut. Kurland found references at museums, in contemporary magazines, photo archives and books. The mole was rebuilt over four months from the original blueprints. Sand was brought from Dunkirk to create make-up consistent with the environment. Oil and tar were specially made and prosthetics were water and fire resistant.
Casting
After first-hand accounts of the evacuation revealed how young and inexperienced the soldiers had been,
Nolan decided to cast young and unknown actors for the beach setting.
He was also adamant that all of the cast be British.
John Papsidera and Toby Whale were the casting directors for ''Dunkirk''. Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance were in talks to join the ensemble as supporting characters in late 2015.
Fionn Whitehead was cast as the lead in March 2016,
while Jack Lowden, Aneurin Barnard and Harry Styles were added shortly after.
Cillian Murphy joined the following month.
James D'Arcy, Barry Keoghan and Tom Glynn-Carney were included later that May.
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is a retired English actor. Known for his distinct Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over Michael Caine filmography, a career that spanned eight decades an ...
had a voice
cameo role
A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking one ...
as Fortis Leader, as a nod to his role in the film ''
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...
'' (1969).
According to D'Arcy and Nolan, Winnant and Bolton act as a
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus () in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, is a homogeneous group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the action of the scene they appear in, or provide necessary insight into action which ...
to give the audience context. Whitehead went through a secretive auditioning process lasting several months.
His character was named after the
slang term for the ordinary British soldier.
Styles was cast for his "old fashioned face", as stated by Nolan.
He won the role after auditioning against hundreds of candidates,
when Nolan was unaware of his renown as a singer.
Murphy spoke to Nolan and read about the psychological trauma the soldiers endured, to understand his character's
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...
.
Nolan chose Rylance for his work in the theatre and performance in ''
Wolf Hall
''Wolf Hall'' is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, ''Wolf Hall'' is a sym ...
''. As research, Rylance piloted his character's boat every day,
listened to audio recordings at the
Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...
,
and read accounts of men like Mr Dawson. Between takes, he encouraged rehearsal through improvised scenes.
The principal cast members did their own stunts.
John Nolan, uncle of Christopher, played Blind Man.
Will Attenborough
William Attenborough (born 26 June 1991) is a British actor and climate campaigner.
Early life
Attenborough was born in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of theatre director Michael Attenborough and actress Karen Lewis, the grandson of actor- ...
played the Second Lieutenant who orders Tommy and Gibson off the hospital ship.
Filming

Principal photography commenced on 23 May 2016 in Dunkirk, planned so as to avoid
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. It is referred to, both legally and commonly, as () in French, though ''la fête nationale'' is also u ...
and coincide with the dates of the real evacuation.
Production continued for four weeks in
Urk, Netherlands,
one week in
Swanage
Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the Unit ...
and Weymouth in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
, United Kingdom,
and for two weeks at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center and
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Ligh ...
in
Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Rancho Palos Verdes is a coastal city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated on September 7, 1973, the city has a population of 42,287 as reported in the 2020 United States census. The city sits atop the bluffs of ...
, United States.

Filming in Dunkirk took place at the location of the real evacuation,
while the street scenes were shot in nearby
Malo-les-Bains because most of the buildings in Dunkirk were destroyed in the war.
Shooting times on the beach and mole were determined by
tidal patterns. French
labour strikes and regulations also affected the schedule.
To minimise the need for
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...
(CGI), cardboard cut-out
props of soldiers and military vehicles created the illusion of a large army.
Real or scale-model fighter aircraft, and real warships and private boats, provided realism that could not be achieved from CGI.
Scale models were created via
3D printing
3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...
. The mole set was frequently rebuilt after being damaged by bad weather. Because French authorities had prohibited
pyrotechnic
Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating fireworks, but also includes safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts (and other fasteners), parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarrying, and demol ...
charges to protect marine life, air cannons were used instead. Six thousand extras were needed in France.
Early scenes of the film were shot at Weymouth harbour, and the final scenes at
Swanage railway station.
Universal Pictures
Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...
' Falls Lake studio in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
was used for interior and exterior sets of a sinking ship and plane, with the ship interiors filmed in a water tank using
stuntmen.
To get acclimatised to cold water scenes, Styles and Whitehead underwent training sessions at
Point Dume.

Crowley and marine coordinator Neil Andrea located nearly sixty ships,
which Nolan had reconditioned for the shoot.
These included the retired
French Navy
The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...
destroyer ,
which was made to look like a 1940 British warship
as there were no wartime British destroyers left with working engines. Three retired
Royal Netherlands Navy
The Royal Netherlands Navy (, ) is the Navy, maritime service branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It traces its history to 8 January 1488, making it the List of navies, third-oldest navy in the world.
During the 17th and early 18th centurie ...
ships were also used: the minesweeper
HNLMS ''Naaldwijk'' portrayed ,
HNLMS ''Sittard'' portrayed and , and MLV ''Castor'' (a Royal Netherlands Navy armed
pilot vessel) portrayed .
The motor torpedo boat ''
MTB 102'' and the 1930s Norwegian steamer ''Rogaland'' were also used.
Over fifty other boats included twenty actual
Little Ships of Dunkirk
The Little Ships of Dunkirk were about 850 private boats that sailed from Ramsgate in England to Dunkirk in northern France between 26 May and 4 June 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo, helping to rescue more than 336,000 British, French, and othe ...
, piloted by their owners. A small 1930s
motor yacht
A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
called ''Moonstone'' served for six weeks of filming; its most demanding scenes, with up to sixty people on a boat designed for fewer than ten, were shot on the Dutch lake
IJsselmeer
The IJsselmeer (; , ), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed-off freshwater lake in the central Netherlands bordering the Provinces of the Netherlands, provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of with a ...
to avoid the challenge of the Dunkirk tides. The hospital ship which was sunk in the beginning, was the Norwegian cargo ship, and World War II veteran, MS ''Rogaland.''
Aircraft were equipped with dual cockpits for filming in flight.
A
Yakovlev Yak-52TW
was modified to resemble a
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...
,
and two
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...
Mark IAs, a Spitfire Mark VB, and a
Hispano Buchon painted to look like a
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the ...
E, were also used for the combat scenes, flying to
Urk from
Lelystad Airport. Large-scale radio-controlled model aircraft were filmed crashing into the English Channel.
The real Spitfires were provided by the
Imperial War Museum Duxford
Imperial War Museum Duxford, also known as IWM Duxford or simply Duxford, is a branch of the Imperial War Museum near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England. Duxford, Britain's largest aviation museum, houses exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraf ...
, and owner
Dan Friedkin piloted the one that was filmed landing on the beach in Dunkirk. These takes had to be done within forty-five minutes, before the tide came back in. IMAX cameras were attached to the fighter planes using specially made snorkel and
periscope
A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position.
In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...
lenses—in the back and the front
—and large-scale
mockup
In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...
s were submerged with cable rigs for a crash scene.
Scroggins Aviation and Gateguards UK performed period aviation reconstruction.
Aerospatiale Ecureuil G-WHST, with IMAX cameras front, and a
Piper Aerostar
The Piper Aerostar (formerly the Ted Smith Aerostar) is an American twin-engined propeller-driven executive or light transport aircraft, designed by Ted R. Smith. It was originally built by Ted Smith Aircraft Company, but the design was acquired ...
enabled filming from the air, also with IMAX cameras front and rear. Dogfights over the Channel were shot by an aerial unit based at
Lee-on-Solent Airfield and one at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands. Hardy and Lowden spent the final stages of the shooting schedule on a cliffside in Palos Verdes, inside purpose-built cockpit
gimbal
A gimbal is a pivoted support that permits rotation of an object about an axis. A set of three gimbals, one mounted on the other with orthogonal pivot axes, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain independent of ...
s, with limited contact with the rest of the cast and crew.
''Dunkirk''
wrapped on 2 September 2016, after sixty-eight days.
The film was shot in
natural lighting
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...
using both
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...
65 mm and 65 mm
large format
Large format photography refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120 film, 120- and 220-roll film), and much la ...
film stock
Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed,
edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent pl ...
in
Panavision System 65,
with more IMAX footage than in any of Nolan's previous films
—an estimated seventy-five per cent.
The sparsity of dialogue made it possible for IMAX cameras, which are notoriously noisy, to be used as the primary format.
Panavision
Panavision Inc. is an American motion picture equipment company (law), company founded in 1954 specializing in cameras and photographic lens, lenses, based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk a ...
and IMAX lenses enabled filming at night.
For the first time in a feature film, IMAX cameras were used hand-held,
which
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
and
Ron Howard
Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American filmmaker and actor. Howard started his career as a child actor before transitioning to directing films. Over his six-decade career, Howard has received List of awards and nominations r ...
advised as the best way to shoot on vessels.
Post-production
Nolan's regular collaborator
Lee Smith returned to edit ''Dunkirk'',
beginning in September 2016 after Smith had assembled shots unsupervised while filming was still in progress.
Editing took place in Los Angeles with an
audio mixing
Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more audio channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aest ...
team of eight people.
Nolan singled out the editing of the aerial sequences as a particular challenge,
likening this to a
chess game.
Limited computer-generated imagery was applied to improve some scenes, but none consisted entirely of CGI.
Weather continuity presented less of a challenge than was expected, with filming both in Europe and California. At least ten to fifteen feature-length versions were cut to further refine the dramatic impact.
Once a cut was completed, only then did they apply music.
Post-production had fifty-four hours of raw footage to work with.
The only usable sounds from production recordings were voices—everything else was recreated.
Sound designer
Richard King sent two
sound mixers to audio record the Spitfires at the
Imperial War Museum Duxford
Imperial War Museum Duxford, also known as IWM Duxford or simply Duxford, is a branch of the Imperial War Museum near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England. Duxford, Britain's largest aviation museum, houses exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraf ...
using twenty-four microphones. Unable to find an actual dive siren of a Stuka dive bomber, King
reverse engineered
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
one from old photographs in an attempt to replicate the sound. For scenes in which ships gave out sounds of people in distress, voices were captured using an
ADR "loop group".
C-4 and liquid
propane
Propane () is a three-carbon chain alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but becomes liquid when compressed for transportation and storage. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum ref ...
were blown up to record sound for the explosions. Also featured were the whistles attributed to German bombs during the Second World War.
Bomb noises were made to increase in pitch the closer they got to impact, to stay true to reality.
Double Negative
A double negative is a construction occurring when two forms of grammatical negation are used in the same sentence. This is typically used to convey a different shade of meaning from a strictly positive sentence ("You're not unattractive" vs "You ...
undertook the
visual effects
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...
work.
FotoKem, the
film laboratory A film laboratory is a commercial service enterprise and technical facility for the film industry where specialists develop, print, and conform film material for classical film production and distribution which is based on film material, such as n ...
, also handled the release prints.
Music
Hans Zimmer began working on the score in 2016,
continued for eleven months, and eventually created a 100-minute demo.
For intensity, the script was written to accommodate the
auditory illusion
Auditory illusions are Illusion, illusions of real sound or outside stimulus. These false perceptions are the equivalent of an optical illusion: the listener hears either sounds which are not present in the Stimulus (physiology), stimulus, or sound ...
of a
Shepard tone, which had previously been explored in Nolan's 2006 film ''
The Prestige
''The Prestige'' is a 1995 epistolary science fantasy mystery novel by Christopher Priest. It tells the story of a prolonged feud between two stage magicians in late 1800s England. Its main structure is that of a collection of diaries that ...
''. This was coupled with the sound of Nolan's own
pocket watch
A pocket watch is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist.
They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatches became popula ...
, which he recorded and sent to Zimmer to be
synthesised.
Zimmer also heightens the tension with subtle
Risset rhythms throughout the entire movie—seemingly endless increases in tempo (however, these effects were removed for the official soundtrack release). Additional music was provided by
Lorne Balfe
Lorne Balfe (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish composer of film, television and video game scores.
A veteran of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, Balfe's scoring credits include the films '' Megamind'', ''Penguins of Madagascar'', ...
, Andrew Kawczynski, Steve Mazzaro and
Benjamin Wallfisch
Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch (born 7 August 1979) is a British composer, conductor, and music producer known for his work on film scores. He has contributed to over 50 feature films since the mid-2000s, including notable works like ''Blade Ru ...
.
"Nimrod" from
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
's ''
Enigma Variations
Edward Elgar composed his ''Variations on an Original Theme'', Op. 36, popularly known as the ''Enigma Variations'', between October 1898 and February 1899. It is an orchestral work comprising fourteen variations on an original theme.
Elgar ...
'' is part of the theme,
which was slowed down to six
beats per minute
Beat, beats, or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact
* Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact
* Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of in ...
with added bass notes to avoid it sounding sentimental. Instrumentation included a
double bass
The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
and fourteen
cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
s played in high register. King relayed to Zimmer the sound of a boat engine, which served as a reference for the tempo.
Zimmer visited the Dunkirk set for inspiration, taking back a jar of sand,
and chose not to view raw footage whilst composing. The music was recorded at
AIR Lyndhurst Hall with mix engineer
Geoff Foster.
Release
The world premiere was on 13 July 2017 at
Odeon Leicester Square
The Odeon Luxe Leicester Square is a prominent cinema building in the West End of London. Built in the Art Deco style and completed in 1937, the building has been continually altered in response to developments in cinema technology, and was the ...
in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.
The film was theatrically released on 21 July,
projected on
IMAX 70mm,
digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Businesses
*Digital bank, a form of financial institution
*Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company
*Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
,
70 mm and
35 mm film.
It is the fourth Nolan film to be released in the third week of July, a period in which Warner Bros. Pictures has previously achieved success.
It was Nolan's preference that the film opened in July instead of the northern-hemisphere autumn awards season.
The film was initially screened in 125 theatres in 70 mm,
the widest release in that format in twenty-five years.
''Dunkirk'' received a special IMAX screening at the 2017
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
, the first Nolan film to appear at the festival since ''
Following
''Following'' is a 1998 British independent neo-noir crime thriller film written, produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Christopher Nolan in his feature film directorial debut. It tells the story of a young man who follows strange ...
'', nineteen years earlier. This screening also coincided with the 50th anniversary of IMAX.
After its original release of 126 days,
the film was re-released in fifty IMAX and 70 mm theatres on 1 December, expanding to 250 additional cities in January 2018.
Home media
''Dunkirk'' was released digitally on 12 December 2017, and on
4K,
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
and
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
on 18 December 2017 in the United Kingdom and 19 December 2017 in the United States.
Marketing
The
announcement teaser debuted in cinemas ahead of ''
Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad is an antihero/supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first version of the Suicide Squad debuted in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #25 (September 1959) and the second and modern version, cre ...
''
and was released online on 4 August 2016.
According to
data analytics
Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data sci ...
firm ListenFirst Media, it generated the most
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
engagement of any trailer released that week.
The first full-length
trailer was released on 14 December 2016,
alongside a five-minute
cinema-exclusive prologue shown before selected
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...
screenings of ''
Rogue One
''Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' is a 2016 American epic space opera film directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. Produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the first '' ...
: A Star Wars Story''.
''Dunkirk'' was the most discussed film that week according to media measurement firm
Comscore
Comscore, Inc. is an American-based global media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, advertising agencies, brand marketers, and publishers.
History
Comscore was founded in July 1999 in Resto ...
.
The prologue returned for a week before selected IMAX showings of ''
Kong: Skull Island''.
Footage from the film was well received at
CinemaCon 2017.
Warner Bros. aired a
TV spot to coincide with the
2017 US national basketball playoffs.
The official trailer was released on 5 May 2017, after a countdown on the film's website
and four 15-second teasers leading up to it.
''Dunkirk'' was again the most discussed film that week according to ComScore.
The video game developer
Wargaming
A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...
included in its titles ''
World of Tanks
''World of Tanks'' (''WoT'') is an armoured warfare-themed multiplayer online game developed by Wargaming, featuring 20th century (1910s–1970s) era combat vehicles. It is built upon a freemium business model where the game is free-to-play ...
'', ''
World of Warships'' and ''
World of Warplanes
''World of Warplanes'' (''WoWp'') is a free-to-play aerial combat Massively multiplayer online game, massively multiplayer online (MMO) game developed by Persha Studia and published by Wargaming (company), Wargaming.net. The game was originally rel ...
'' missions and rewards related to the film.
On 6 July, Warner Bros. released another trailer, which for the third time was the most discussed film of the week.
The prologue was shown at selected ''
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...
'' IMAX screenings in July.
It also toured three European countries with a
mobile cinema.
Sue Kroll, president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, said that it was important that ''Dunkirk'' be marketed as a summer
event movie
Event may refer to:
Gatherings of people
* Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion
* Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest
* Event management, the organization of ev ...
as opposed to a
period war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...
, to highlight its "magnificent scale and originality". This strategy was maintained throughout the campaign. To convince audiences that the film was best experienced in theatres, the prologue was never made available online. TV spots were distributed sporadically during sports games and notable television series to establish the film's themes.
Social media
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
infographic
Infographics (a clipped compound of "information" and "graphics") are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly.Doug Newsom and Jim Haynes (2004). ''Public Relations Wr ...
s described the scale and importance of the Dunkirk evacuation. Additionally, a Google 360 Experience interactive adventure, an
Amazon Alexa
Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant technology marketed by Amazon and implemented in software applications for smart phones, tablets, wireless smart speakers, and other electronic appliances.
Alexa was largely developed from a Polish speech s ...
programme and a
360-degree short film, were created. In partnership with fast food restaurant
Carl's Jr.
Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain store, chain owned by CKE Restaurants, CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., who also owns Hardee's, with franchisees in North and South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and Africa.
...
, the film was branded on four million cups, as well as
pop-ups at nearly 3,000 locations.
Research saw the film appeal to twenty per cent of infrequent moviegoers.
Reception
Box office
''Dunkirk'' grossed $189.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $340.6 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $530 million, against a production budget of $100–150 million.
Globally, it became the highest-grossing World War II film (not adjusting for inflation) at the time, surpassing ''
Saving Private Ryan
''Saving Private Ryan'' is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller ( Tom Hanks) ...
''s $482 million,
until it was surpassed by Nolan's own ''
Oppenheimer'' in 2023.
In the United States and Canada, industry tracking for the opening weekend ranged from
''Variety'''s $30–40 million
to ''
Deadline Hollywood
''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...
''s $35 million,
while ''
BoxOffice
''Boxoffice Pro'' is a film industry magazine dedicated to the movie theatre business published by BoxOffice Media LP.
History
It started in 1920 as ''The Reel Journal'', taking the name ''Boxoffice'' in 1931 and still publishes today, with a ...
'' speculated an opening weekend of $55 million,
and
IndieWire $50 million and $500 million worldwide.
''Dunkirk'' made $19.8 million on its first day, including $5.5 million from preview screenings. It went on to finish first at the box office with $50.5 million, marking the third-largest opening for a World War II film (behind ''
Captain America: The First Avenger''s $62.1 million and
''Pearl Harbor'''s $59.1 million), as well as the fourth-largest of Nolan's career.
In its second weekend, it grossed $26.6 million (a drop of 44.3%), beating newcomer ''
The Emoji Movie
''The Emoji Movie'' is a 2017 American animated comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was directed by Tony Leondis from a screenplay he co-wrote with Eric Si ...
'' to the top spot.
The film grossed $17.1 million in its third weekend, second to newcomer ''
The Dark Tower'' ($19.2 million),
and was again second in its fourth week, behind ''
Annabelle: Creation'' with $10.9 million.
The film opened in France on 19 July 2017, and made $2.2 million on its first day. It was released in seven markets the following day, earning an additional $6.3 million, and on 21 July in forty-six more countries, grossing $12.7 million from over ten thousand theatres, including $3.7 million from the United Kingdom.
The international debut totalled $55.4 million, including $4.9 million in France, $12.4 million in the UK and $10.3 million in Korea.
The film remained number one in the United Kingdom for five weeks.
It opened in China on 1 September
in the top spot,
grossing $30 million from its weekend debut.
Its opening weekend in Japan earned $2.9 million from 444 screens.
Critical response
Some critics called ''Dunkirk'' Nolan's best film to date
and one of the greatest war films ever made.
On the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 472 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads "''Dunkirk'' serves up emotionally satisfying spectacle, delivered by a writer-director in full command of his craft and brought to life by a gifted ensemble cast that honors the fact-based story."
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 94 out of 100 based on reviews from 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
According to
MRQE, it has an average rating of 86/100, based on 128 critics.
Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data.
Background
Ed Mintz, who ...
gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while
PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 88% overall positive score, with 63% saying they would recommend it.
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' ranked the film at No. 13 on their list of "The 50 top films of 2017". ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' named it the 7th-best film of the year. ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine included the film on its "Top 10 movies of 2017" list.
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educat ...
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' awarded the film five out of five and called it Nolan's best to date, saying that he "surrounds his audience with chaos and horror from the outset, and amazing images and dazzlingly accomplished set pieces on a huge 70 mm screen, particularly the pontoon crammed with soldiers extending into the churning sea, exposed to enemy aircraft".
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for '' Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...
of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' also lauded the film, calling it "an impressionist masterpiece" that was "deeply moving" but without "manufactured sentimentality or false heroics". He also praised the score, which "enormously strengthens the film" and "incorporates both sound and music to extraordinary effect".
Peter Debruge of ''Variety'' praised the plot (although calling Zimmer's score "bombastic"), writing: "
olan hasdelivered all the spectacle of a big-screen tentpole, ratcheting up both the tension and heroism through his intricate and occasionally overwhelming sound design".
Manohla Dargis
Manohla June Dargis ( ) is an American film critic. She is the chief film critic for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Career
Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', Dargis ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' described the film as a "tour de force of cinematic craft and technique" and lauded Nolan's elastic approach to narrative.
She named ''Dunkirk'' "the best film of 2017".
Mick LaSalle of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' called it a "triumph" and "masterpiece", commending Nolan's unique approach to directing a war film.
''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'' labelled ''Dunkirk'' "a remarkable film" and a new classic.
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' gave the film four out of four and said it was one of the best war movies of the decade, describing it as "tight, gripping, deeply involving and unforgettable... triumph in filmmaking".
Chris Nashawaty of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' gave the film an "A", calling it the best of 2017: "By the end of ''Dunkirk'', what stands out the most isn't its inspirational message or everyday heroism. It's the small indelible, unshakeable images that accumulate like the details in the corner of a mural".
Robbie Collin
Robbie Collin is a British film critic.
Collin studied aesthetics and the philosophy of film at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He edited the university's student newspaper, '' The Saint''.
Collin has been the chief film critic at ''The ...
of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' gave the film five out of five, lauding it as "a work of heart-hammering intensity and grandeur".
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born June 27, 1943) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film i ...
of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' awarded it his first four-star rating of 2017 as "maybe the greatest war film ever", adding: "There's little doubt that
olanhas, without sentimentality or sanctimony, raised
he survival film">survival_film.html" ;"title="he survival film">he survival filmgenre to the level of art... with the resonant force of an enduring screen classic". He also called it the first major Academy Awards">Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People and fictional and mythical characters
* Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar
* Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...
contender of the year.
Michael Medved awarded it four out of four and called Hardy's performance "outstanding", and the action "seamless", declaring: "This is not only the best WWII movie since ''Saving Private Ryan'', it is very simply one of the greatest war movies ever made".
gave it a score of three and a half out of four, despite not liking the film, stating that he "loathed parts of it and found other parts repetitious or half-baked. But, maybe paradoxically, I admired it throughout, and have been thinking about it constantly".
'' praised the film's realism, but was disappointed that it ignores the part played by French troops.
is 106 clamorous minutes of big-screen bombast that's so concerned with its own spectacle and scale that it neglects to deliver the most crucial element—drama." He also suggested that ''Dunkirk'' felt like a ''
'' video game.
David Cox of ''The Guardian'' felt the film had historical inaccuracies, a paucity of female characters, small scale, a thinly characterised cast and lack of suspense.
and commended Zimmer's soundtrack as an effective match to the film.
In 2018, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for ''
'' magazine saw it ranked among the "100 Best British Films" of all time.
'' named ''Dunkirk'' as one of the "23 best films of the 2000s".
classified it as one of the best films of the 2010s.
cited it as among his favourite films of all time. In 2024, ''
'' ranked it number nine on its list of the "50 Best PG-13 Movies of All Time", writing "Leave it to Christopher Nolan to make a war movie like ''Dunkirk'', one that can leave you on the edge of your seat without resorting to graphic violence. The PG-13 rating may limit the amount of blood on screen, but Nolan's filmmaking still makes this cinematic representation of an incredible historical event extra harrowing."
, and Best Production Design.
.
.
.
The film was noted for its generally realistic representation of the historical evacuation. It accurately depicts a few
aeroplanes dogfighting the Luftwaffe over the sea, limited to one hour of operation by their fuel capacity. The combat, however, is portrayed at much lower altitude than the reality. Destroyers and fighter aircraft were indeed held back from battle, as the Royal Navy and Air Force would have been the sole defenders against invasion. There was indeed a temporary withdrawal of destroyers during the early stages after considerable losses; however, an appeal to the Admiralty by Admiral Ramsay reversed that decision. Also noted were the accurate depictions of how a small boat evaded aerial attack, and of how soldiers returning to England saw a civilian population largely unaware of or unaffected by the war.
British officers did initially refuse to evacuate French soldiers, although Churchill later insisted that the French be evacuated alongside the British.
The realism of the film was acknowledged by Dunkirk veterans, although Branagh said that some thought it was "louder than the battle".
(the lack of an actual depiction of Clouston drew criticism following the film's release, and attention was drawn to honour him for his role in the evacuation)
. Dawson is inspired by
to the evacuation.
The character of Collins is analogous to the experiences of Spitfire pilot Jack Potter, with Collins's ditching partly inspired by that of
. Some media outlets suggested Farrier was inspired by
.
When the beach scenes were shot, the weather was worse than during the real evacuation; Nolan explained that this helped to understand the danger faced by the
.
, which a veteran pointed out as inaccurate protocol.
Noses of German planes were not actually painted yellow until after the evacuation; this was done to differentiate the German planes. Contemporary shots were used for aerial views of the town, whereas Dunkirk was in ruins by the time of the evacuation. The design of the
was similar to those used in 1940, although the originals were not in colour.