Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk: Watch dramatic main trailer

The official main trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, starring Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Harry Styles, suggest we're in for an epic and moving war movie

Video by The Skinny | 14 Dec 2016

"When 400,000 men couldn’t get home, home came for them." Steady your stiff upper lip, because the official main trailer for Christopher Nolan’s epic war drama Dunkirk has just dropped. The film, the tenth from the Interstellar and Memento director, will tell the story of Operation Dynamo, which saw the rescue of 400,000 Allied troops who were surrounded by Nazis soldiers and stranded in the French beach town during World War II.

From the looks of this official main trailer, it seems the film is going to cross between three strands: the effort by British fishermen and other civilian vessels who helped in the evacuation of the beaches of Dunkirk (led here by Mark Rylance); the British Air Force's effort to give the men stranded at Dunkirk protection (Tom Hardy plays one of the pilots); and the conditions for the men on the beach waiting for rescue (who include Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh, Aneurin Barnard and, er, former One Direction star Harry Styles).

Shot in suitably muted colours, the film looks gorgeous, while the score comes from regular Nolan composer Hans Zimmer. We'll find out if the Dark Knight Trilogy director has another hit on his hands when the film is released 19 July in the UK.

Posted 14 Dec 2016: teaser trailer showing the first clips of Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Harry Styles looking handsome and sad in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan, the director behind Interstellar, Memento and the Dark Knight Trilogy, is back with World War II drama Dunkirk. The director’s first period film, it depicts the bloody chaos during the evacuation of 400,000 Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France in 1940 after German forces invaded the country. The star-studded cast is headed up by Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Mark Rylance, and eagle-eyed viewers will also be able to see a glimpse of One Direction’s Harry Styles in his first big screen acting role.

As one would expect from a Nolan picture, Dunkirk looks spectacular. The trailer begins with German planes dropping leaflets on the beach urging the Allied forces to surrender; soon the Germans are dropping more than leaflets.

Take a look at the trailer in the player above and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.


Dunkirk will preview on IMAX screens from 19 Jul and open across the rest of the UK 21 Jul