Christopher Nolan writes and directs this war drama which tells the story of the Dunkirk evacuation during WWII. In May 1940, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers are trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk after being pushed back by the German army during the Battle of France, prompting a massive rescue operation to evacuate them. As the evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, gets underway, the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force hold a shrinking position as the Nazis advance upon them.

Meanwhile, civilian sailors are called upon to use whatever vessels they have to aid the rescue effort across the Channel as the Royal Air Force tries to defend the vulnerable troops on the ground from the skies.