Official Trailer Released For ‘Dunkirk,’ Featuring Tom Hardy And Harry Styles
Wednesday, an official trailer was released for Christopher Nolan’s 2017 film, Dunkirk. The trailer for Dunkirk, which is still experiencing an internet buzz, comes about four months after an official teaser for the film was released by Warner Bros.
Christopher Nolan does not make small, subtle projects. With one look at the trailer, it is apparent that Dunkirk will follow Nolan’s filmography of high-budget, high-action films. Nolan, whose films have grossed over $4.2 billion worldwide, according to The Guardian, is the creative genius behind blockbuster hits like Interstellar, Inception, and the Dark Knight trilogy. In the Dunkirk official trailer, consistent with other Nolan films, the audience sees expansive wide shots, quick cuts, beautiful aerial shots, and plenty of action and explosions.
Aside from high-grossing action films, Nolan is known for his affinity of plot twists and non-linear story telling. The story of Dunkirk will be the first ever historical event that Nolan has tackled as a director. With history already being written, Nolan will have to keep his plot straight forward, avoiding his signature plot twists and instead focusing on the most entertaining and compelling way to re-tell history.
As referenced in a previous Inquisitr article, Dunkirk will be telling the story of the Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation: Dynamo, a mass evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France. After being badly beaten, and pushed to the coast of France by Nazi forces, British, Belgian, and French troops were surrounded, with only Nazi controlled France behind them, and the vast English Channel in front of them. As shown in the official trailer for Dunkirk, Allied soldiers waiting for rescue were under constant terror from Nazi forces in the form of bombs and machine gun fire from attack aircraft.
With inescapable pressure from Nazi forces bearing down, over 330,00 soldiers stranded at Dunkirk were able to evacuate across the English channel to the United Kingdom during an eight day span from May 26, to June 4, 1940. Occasionally called the “Miracle of Dunkirk” for its improbability, Operation: Dynamo was made even more unbelievable due to the fact that civilians from England helped evacuate most of the Allied troops by ferrying troops from the shore to waiting Allied ships.
While August’s teaser for Dunkirk focused on hoards of soldiers rather than individuals, Wednesday’s trailer spotlights several big name actors like Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy.
Kenneth Branagh, an Irish actor who’s been in Valkyrie, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, appears in a medium shot during the Dunkirk trailer as an Allied general delivering a desperate, but somewhat hopeful message about just how close his soldiers are to safety.
“You can practically see it from here — home,” says Branagh.
While attempting to reach home, Cillian Murphy’s character has a complicated encounter with Mark Rylance in Dunkirk’s trailer. Murphy, known for roles in Inception, The Dark Knight, and Batman Begins, plays an Allied soldier who escaped Nazi attacks and is picked up in the middle of the English Channel in a small boat, captained by Rylance. A shivering, shell-shocked Murphy is mortified to hear that rather than continuing on across the channel to England, Rylance actually plans on returning back to Dunkirk, presumably to rescue more soldiers.
While it is not made explicitly clear in the trailer which side he is fighting for, Tom Hardy makes a brief appearance as a fighter pilot.
Much of the internet buzz surrounding the trailer for Dunkirk is because of the appearance of mega pop star Harry Styles, making his first big screen appearance. Unfortunately for legions of fans of One Direction, Styles is shown being shot at by Nazi fighter pilots in his small role in Dunkirk’s trailer.
Dunkirk is scheduled to hit theaters in July, 2017.
[Featured Image from Weymouth, South West England/AP Images]
