20 facts you might not know about 'Dunkirk'

Way back in the mid-‘90s, long before Batman Begins turned Nolan into a star director, Nolan took a boat trip with his producing partner (and now wife) Emma Thomas. They sailed across the English Channel, following the path of the boats that helped with the Dunkirk evacuation. This gave Nolan the idea of a Dunkirk movie.

Nolan always wanted Dunkirk to be bare bones and naturalistic. When he first imagined the project, he may have gotten a little too into that idea. Nolan was pondering improvising the entire movie instead of writing a script. It was Thomas who convinced him that a script was probably a good idea.

Ultimately, Nolan would write a script for Dunkirk in 2015. It turned out to be a mere 76 pages, about half the length of his usual screenplays. The typical rule of thumb is that one page of script equals one minute on screen, but this is not a 76-minute movie. The difference is that the script is mainly descriptive of action and involves less dialogue, which shortened its length.

A lot of war movies have an epic scope. Nolan wanted Dunkirk to feel a little smaller and claustrophobic. He focused on the point of view of his characters, which meant enemies barely being seen on screen and politicians and generals in war rooms not being included.

For the beach section of the movie, Nolan decided he wanted young and unknown actors. Additionally, he insisted that all the actors cast actually be British (though a couple of Irishmen snuck in). This is how we ended up with Fionn Whitehead as the ostensible lead in Tommy Jensen.

Back in the day, your run-of-the-mill British soldiers were called “Tommy Atkins.” As such, a soldier could be called “Tommy Atkins” or just “Tommy,” something German soldiers even did evidently. This is why Whitehead’s character is named Tommy.

OK, so Styles is a notable name among the soldiers on the beach. Styles was not cast for his name, though. He actually auditioned along with dozens of other actors for the role. Nolan reportedly liked his “old-fashioned face” and claimed to have no idea of Styles’ career as a musician.

Caine is an actor that Nolan loves to cast, and he has a role in Dunkirk. However, it’s not an on-screen role. Caine voices the Fortis Leader in an uncreated cameo. It’s a nod to the fact he starred in the 1969 war film Battle of Britain.

Rylance, who won an Oscar for Bridge of Spies, plays Mr. Dawson in the film. He’s a civilian who pilots his boat for the evacuation of the beach. Unsurprisingly, Rylance read books about real men like Mr. Dawson and listened to the Imperial War Museum recordings. Rylance also learned to helm his character’s boat and did it daily in preparation.

Nolan and historian Joshua Levine did research as well. They interviewed veterans who were part of the Dunkirk evacuation, and Nolan used things he was told in the script for the film. Additionally, after the movie was complete, Levine wrote a book called Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture.

Nolan wanted historical accuracy for his costumes, which meant costume designer Jeffrey Kurland and his crew had to go all out. For example, the wool used for uniforms back then isn’t used for clothes anymore, so they had to make every outfit from scratch, tailoring them for every cast member and extra. Additionally, three weeks were taken to age the costumes properly.

The first time you watch Dunkirk, it can be hard to figure out what is happening and when. Nolan has no interest in holding the viewer’s hand. Also, each section's different length of time is a little complicated. The land action takes place over one week, the sea action over one day, and the air action over one hour.

For part of the film, Nolan went to the actual beaches of Dunkirk where the evacuations happened. However, that’s not the only place where the movie was shot. Filming also happened in Urk, Netherlands, Swanage, and Weymouth in the United Kingdom, and Rancho Palos Verdes in California.

The Imperial War Museum did more than help Rylance's research. It also provided Spitfire plans for the film. Dan Friedkin, the billionaire owner of those Spitfires, actually piloted the one that landed on the beach of Dunkirk. They only had 45 minutes to shoot that scene before the tide came back in.

Warner Bros. decided to promote and market Dunkirk as an action blockbuster instead of a prestige war movie. It may have paid off. Dunkirk made $525 million worldwide. It surpassed Saving Private Ryan as the highest-grossing World War II film. Not adjusted for inflation, that is.

While the movie was marketed as an action film and not a prestige film, the Academy was still a fan. Even with many unknowns in the cast keeping it from being an acting play, Dunkirk got a whopping eight Oscar nominations. That includes a nomination for Best Picture and another for Best Director.

Dunkirk did not go home with the big awards at the 90th Academy Awards. This was the year of Guillermo Del Toro and The Shape of Water. It did win three Oscars, though. Dunkirk won Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing, back before they were combined into one category and Best Film Editing.

Dunkirk got a lot of credit for its historical accuracy, but it wasn’t 100 percent on that front. For example, German planes didn’t have yellow noses until the month after the Dunkirk evacuation. Plus, the weather wasn’t quite as bad as it was in the film. Still, those are minor quibbles.

Hardy plays Farrier, a Spitfire pilot, and he spends the bulk of his screen time with a mask over most of his face, with all of his dialogue muffled. For some reason, Hardy was in the middle of a run where this was the case. He spent a lot of time in Mad Max: Fury Road wearing a mask and mumbling as well, and there is his infamous turn as Bane in Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, where his dialogue had to be rerecorded so that he could be understood.

Many boats were used for the Dunkirk evacuation. As the end credits of the movie state, 12 ships actually used in the real evacuation were used in the movie. That means you see some pieces of history on the screen.