1)

In the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940, the film portrays the evacuation of the Allied troops from German territory.
Tommy, a British survivor of the fight meets Gibson, a Frenchman burying a body in the sand.
Gibson is a French soldier, hoping to disguise himself as British to onboard a British ship. Upon witnessing
many Frenchmen get denied access to the ship, the two soldiers carry a dead body and gain access to the ship.
There, Tommy saves a soldier named Alex, onboarding a ship that is faced with a torpedo. Later, their boat
starts to sink, leading Alex to accuse Gibson of being a German spy.
In a second sub-plot, a civilian named Dawson with his son Peter are accompanied by George, a volunteer to
save soldiers in the ocean. They rescue the group, but George eventually faces injury to pass away. In the air,
Ferris and Collins take a more offensive stance against the German.
Eventually, Tommy and Alex are able to evacuate, faced with passerby congratulating them for their bravery.
On the contrary, Ferris is captured by the German troops, sacrificing his plane to buy the British more time.

2)

Dunkirk reflects the ideological desire to place one’s own survival before moral or ethical considerations of
others. The ideology is evident when Tommy, Alex, and Gibson onboard a ship that starts flooding due to its
entrance of German territory. Upon the realization, the group decides that one person must leave the ship to
lighten its weight. Alex immediately nominates Gibson, claiming that he is a German spy. Although Tommy
agrees it is immoral to sacrifice a teammate to save oneself, he acknowledges that he values his own life over
Gibson’s. In fact, when asked to leave the ship himself, Tommy denies. Later, it is revealed that Gibson drowns
in the ship while his persecutors are able to escape without facing any repercussions. Through this ideology,
Nolan demonstrates that deciding to aid others in a dire situation is overruled by one’s own survival instincts.
Gibson was a French soldier disguised as British. He died trying to aid the British, representing France
defending the Allied perimeter, many of the French soldiers sacrificing themselves for Allied powers.
4)

While Dunkirk improves the audience’s perception of the extent in violence of the Battle of Dunkirk, Nolan
portrays that people often forget the sacrifices many soldiers make to honor the survivors. Many of the soldiers
that survive in the film are not ones with the best moral standards. On the contrary, those who do pass away
often do at the expense of others. For example, at the end of the film, Alex is congratulated by the bystanders
with beer, and is labeled a hero by Winston Churchill. However, Gibson’s efforts to save the troops from a
torpedo go unrecognized by the public. In fact, he is eventually turned on by the British soldiers. In addition,
When Ferris is captured by the German soldiers, he burns his plane to spare exposing more information about
British technology. This means that he would destroy any hope of being saved. Ferris’ sacrifice is barely
recognized at the end of the film, much like the public perception. However, it is important to recognize that the
efforts of the survivors were emphasized by Nolan to portray how deadly the battle of Dunkirk truly was.