33
votes
Accepted
Is Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk historically inaccurate in portraying absence of the Indian army?
TL;DR
Indian soldiers were stuck in the Dunkirk too. And the Royal Indian Army Corps was not only present on the beach, but also involved in transporting supplies to terrains that were not easy to ...
A J♦
- 58k
20
votes
Accepted
Why does Farrier not choose another escape route?
I'm not a pilot but from my readings they'd much rather make a safe landing than jump from a plane they can land even if there was the possibility of capture.
Jumping/parachuting from a fighter was ...
- 141k
16
votes
Accepted
Is there any CGI used in Dunkirk?
Yes, there is some CGI, as Nolan explains to Business Insider:
Guerrasio: I couldn't tell what was visual effects and what was
practical in this movie, particularly the sinking destroyers and
...
- 49.6k
15
votes
Accepted
Why did Collins not eject his seat when his plane was about to crash?
Firstly, there were no ejection seats in British fighters during WWII so that would not have been an option.
In general, jumping involved, for the most part, inverting the aircraft (if you can) and ...
- 141k
11
votes
Accepted
Were the pamphlets shown in the opening scene really published/circulated?
Yes & No
Leaflets demanding that the British surrender were dropped from the air, but not of the design used in the film.
Left: The pamphlet in Dunkirk. Right: The real-life pamphlet that ...
- 141k
10
votes
Why do I have scenes without black bars and with black bars on my Dunkirk DVD edition?
Since making The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan had used a combination of IMAX footage along with more standard photography in every film he has directed with the exception of Inception.
Dunkirk has ...
- 8,137
9
votes
Accepted
Why do Mr. Dawson and Peter hide the truth from the soldier?
As noted by Mr. Dawson, the soldier was suffering from shell shock, and would, "Likely never be himself again," after Peter asked if the man was a coward. It's not really the shaken soldier's fault he ...
- 19.9k
9
votes
Accepted
What is the significance of Nimrod to Dunkirk's original score?
Elgar's Enigma variations - and Nimrod, in particular - have long been a part of the British consciousness.
Interestingly, Elgar ended up writing 14 variations (Nimrod being number 9).
Zimmer is ...
- 12.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Why would sunken footage be destroyed if it hadn't been shot on film?
Most movies today are not shot on actual film, but are instead shot using digital cameras. Like some other directors, Christopher Nolan prefers shooting on film because he likes the look of it better ...
- 1,903
8
votes
What is the significance of Nimrod to Dunkirk's original score?
Horuskol, has already given a good answer but specifically Nimrod is played at the Rememberance Day Ceremony that takes place each November in London to honour British and other nations war dead.
...
- 754
7
votes
Accepted
Dunkirk Character Stories
The characters are fictional...
All the characters in Dunkirk are made up, though Nolan did his research in creating them. He and Joshua Levine, a historian who helped work on the script, consulted ...
- 141k
6
votes
Why are there two fades to black at the end of Dunkirk?
First fade to black:
The fade to black for Farrier signifies that his story has ended. He gets captured and probably killed later, but that part isn't important for the story. What matters is what we ...
- 338
6
votes
Accepted
Why does Farrier land his plane like this?
There were several factors that forced Farrier to fly straight and land in the direction he was heading
His position and heading precluded a different landing approach
Farrier was over the mole when ...
- 7,622
6
votes
Accepted
What happened to this German plane during the Dunkirk ending?
Info from the scene you linked to and the script (pdf download).
There are 2 different German planes:
Messerschmitt Bf 109: Flying towards the Moonstone (with Mr. Dawson)
Stuka (dive bomber, Junkers ...
6
votes
Accepted
Why are the Nazis just "the enemy" in Dunkirk?
Possibly to make it more of a suspense thriller, rather than a typical war film. (Thank you Napoleon Wilson for pointing me in a direction).
You save a lot of money on paper,” he jokes about his 76-...
- 23.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Why did they kick these two characters off the boat?
As Paulie_D said the ship was for wounded and medical personnel only. Moreover there were thousands of people waiting in the line to board the ship. If they had let them in the boat it would have been ...
- 1,670
6
votes
Why does Farrier not choose another escape route?
He once thought about opening his parachute. But on a second thought, he did not want the Allied to see the aircraft go down, which would affect the Allied's spirit negatively. Then he decided to ...
6
votes
Accepted
Who drowned in the beached ship?
Gibson
As the ship sinks, Gibson gets tangled in a chain and drowns.
Alex and Tommy swim for a nearby minesweeper, but it is sunk by a German bomber. Mr Dawson's boat arrives on the scene and takes ...
- 141k
4
votes
What exactly is the old man at the end of Dunkirk going through while distributing food to the survivors?
The motif of how all Brits played a role in a the Dunkirk evacuation is reinforced by the use of the old blind man toward the end of the movie. Women, old men, young boys all filled their roles, so ...
4
votes
Accepted
How does he end up alone?
The events of the film are not exactly chronological. The subplot of the soldiers (called "the Mole") takes place over the course of a week, whereas the subplot of the people on the boat (I think it's ...
- 490
3
votes
Dunkirk Character Stories
In terms of accuracy, it rates pretty highly. There are no big, glaring historical whoppers. The characters whom Nolan invents is to serve his narrative
purposes are realistic, and his scenes depict ...
- 116
1
vote
Is Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk historically inaccurate in portraying absence of the Indian army?
Actually There is lot of noise going on in India regarding not showing Indian army: The Times of India article
France Main articles: British Expeditionary Force (World War II) and Battle of France
...
1
vote
How does he end up alone?
The sole survivor of that shipwreck mentions that a U-boat attack sunk his vessel. This implies a torpedo strike, which as we see later in the film can cause a ship to founder in minutes. It's not ...
- 399
1
vote
How does he end up alone?
This is explained at Wikipedia
They encounter a shell-shocked soldier on the wreck of his ship, the sole survivor of a U-boat attack, and take him aboard. When he discovers that Dawson is still ...
- 141k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible