History NightmareFuel / Dunkirk

WarIsHell, ''defeat'' during war is worse, and ''Dunkirk'' does ''not'' fail to demonstrate either.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dunkirk_teaser900.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[NothingIsScarier Not pictured]]: Death from above.]]

* The [[TickTockTerror ticking clock]] that persists throughout the entire movie, reminding the audience that the soldiers don't have much time left before Germans storm the city entirely. Dunkirk was truly the DarkestHour in 1940.

* The [[RaceAgainstTheClock ticking clock]] that persists throughout the entire movie, reminding the audience that the soldiers don't have much time left before Germans storm the city entirely. Dunkirk was truly the DarkestHour in 1940.

* The [[RaceAgainstTheClock ticking clock]] that is regularly heard, reminding that the soldiers don't have much time left before Germans storm the city entirely. Dunkirk was truly the DarkestHour in 1940.

** It wouldn't be a surprise if veterans freak out everytime they heard a plane.

** It wouldn't be a serprise if veterans freak out everytime they heard a plane.

WarIsHell, ''defeat'' during war is worse, and ''Dunkirk'' does ''not'' fail to demonstrate it.

[[caption-width-right:350:Death from above.]]
WarIsHell, and ''Dunkirk'' doesn't fail to demonstrate it.

** The fact he was ''so close to the latter''.

* German soldiers are [[TheGhost never seen onscreen]] [[spoiler:save for the very end when they take Farrier prisoner.]] The only thing viewers see is gunshots coming at Tommy in the first scene and mowing down his section one by one, and later as they shoot for training on the Dutch trawler Tommy, Gibson and others sheltered themselves in outside of the allied-controlled perimeter. Throughout the film, they seem less like a wartime enemy and more like an unstoppable force of nature.
* For every Allied soldier on the beach or everyone on the boats, German planes only means DeathFromAbove. Stukas strafing and bombing the beaches and boats especially, with their [[HellIsThatNoise terrifying]] [[StukaScream trademark noise]].
** Imagine you're a British or French soldier. [[HopeSpot You've just been evacuated from the continent and feel safe]]. Then, you hear a whine in the distance, as though something overhead is in free fall. It grows louder, and louder. You look up, and see the unmistakable black shape of a Heinkel He 111 or a Junker Ju 87 "Stuka" hurtling towards you, ready to release its payload...
** Every air attack is preceded by a long, wide overhead shot of the British soldiers huddled on the beach, showing just how exposed and vulnerable they are and giving the sense of something huge and terrible, almost Lovecraftian in nature, about to strike down the helpless men from above.
** The frantic shots displaying the interiors of sinking ships, what with springing leaks, water flooding in, and passengers and crew trapped inside. Not only do they have civilian nurses and medical staff on board in addition to soldiers and seamen... not everyone makes it off. [[spoiler:In fact, the only survivors of the sinkings depicted are male military personnel.]]
** To make it even ''worse'', during the sinking of the hospital ship, several soldiers are trapped between the mole and the hull. Their water-distorted agonised screams as the ship sinks makes it clear they weren't quick deaths.
** With all the explicit details showing why staying on the deck gives one the best chances of survival on a sinking ship, many - if not all - viewers would never treat going below decks on an actual ship the same way ever again.
* [[spoiler:Gibson]] drowning inside the Dutch trawler. The only thing we see is his hand when it stops moving.
* [[spoiler:When the oil spill from the destroyer catches on fire towards the end, several soldiers trapped in the water burn to death, in the movie's most gruesome scene. The camera lingers on one poor bastard, trying desperately to hide under the water, until he surfaces due to lack of oxygen...only to burn to death.]]
** Speaking of, [[spoiler: one soldier has the lovely choice of diving underwater and trying not to drown, or staying above and burning to death. He picks the former, and we get treated to a shot of his scared face as the fires burn above him.]]
* Collins [[spoiler:crashing his spitfire into the sea, struggling to get out as he attempts to smash the window of the cockpit with his flare gun several times, only sinking further. Then he's submerged underwater for almost a whole minute until Peter shows up in the nick of time to save him]]. Holy ''shit''...
** Made even worse as [[spoiler:we first see it from Farrier's point of view, where Collins seems to be waving that he's okay. Then the ''Moonstone'' story provides a OnceMoreWithClarity that reveals he was actually struggling to open the cockpit.]]
* A low-key example, but after the grim naturalistic palette of the beach scenes and the relatively bloodless violence thus far, there's something a little... [[SymbolicBlood squicky]] about the bright red jam on the pieces of bread issued to the soldiers in the belly of the ship they're meant to evacuate on. It almost evokes bloody bandages. [[spoiler:Sure enough, the aid ship -- and all the staff on it issuing food and drink to the exhausted, hungry soldiers -- meets a terrible fate.]]

* The powerfully ominous score becomes almost unbearably tense and nerve-wracking in places.

* The [[RaceAgainstTheClock ticking clock]] that is regularly heard, reminding that the soldiers don't have much time left before Germans storm the city entirely. Dunkirk was truly TheDarkestHour in 1940.

** Imagine you're a British or French soldier. You've just been evacuated from the continent and feel safe. Then, you hear a whine in the distance, as though something overhead is in free fall. It grows louder, and louder. You look up, and see the unmistakable black shape of a Heinkel He 111 or a Junker Ju 87 "Stuka" hurtling towards you, ready to release its payload...

* German soldiers are [[TheGhost never seen onscreen]] [[spoiler:save for the very end when they take Farrier prisoner.]] The only thing viewers see is gunshots coming at Tommy in the first scene and mowing down his section one by one, and later as they shoot for training on the Dutch trawler Tommy, Gibson and others sheltered themselves in outside of the allied-controlled perimeter.

** Speaking of, [[spoiler: one soldier has the [[SarcasmMode lovely choice]] of diving underwater and trying not to drown, or staying above and burning to death. He picks the former, and we get treated to a shot of his scared face as the fires burn above him.]]

* [[spoiler:Gibson]] drowning inside the Dutch trawler. The only thing we see is his hand stop moving.

** Speaking of, [[spoiler: one soldier has the [[SarcasmMode lovely choice]] of diving underwater and trying not to drown, or staying above and burning to death]]. He picks the former, and we get treated to a shot of his scared face as the fires burn above him.]]

* German soldiers are [[TheGhost never seen onscreen]] [[spoiler:save for the very end when they take Farrier prisoner.]] The only thing viewers see is gunshots coming at Tommy in the first scene and mowing down his platoon one by one, and later as they shoot for training on the Dutch trawler Tommy, Gibson and others sheltered themselves in outside of the allied-controlled perimeter.

** The torpedoed aid ship, with springing leaks and water flooding in and soldiers trapped inside. Not only does that ship have civilian nurses on it in addition to soldiers... not everyone makes it off.
** To make it even ''worse'', during the sinking several soldiers are trapped between the mole and the hull. Their water-distorted agonised screams as the ship sinks makes it clear they weren't quick deaths.

** Speaking of, [[spoiler:[[TrappedBetweenARockAndAHardPlace one soldier has the lovely choice of diving underwater and trying not to drown, or staying above and burning to death]]. He picks the former, and we get treated to a shot of his scared face as the fires burn above him.]]