I’ve become a pretty big fan of filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s work. The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception and Interstellar were all movies I really enjoyed and sometimes puzzled over. Now, Nolan is turning his attention to World War II with the same kind of depth and detail that his previous outings had. A trailer was released today and I’m pretty excited to go see this movie.

As France fell, Allied forces including much of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were surrounded at Dunkirk. A temporary delay in the attack ultimately allowed the forces to escape, however, the army was attacked repeatedly from the air and ships trying to evacuate the forces were targets.

A minor military miracle, the BEF was able to escape thanks to a massive effort to get enough ships to move the men from the beaches back across the channel. Military ships were of course involved but it was the efforts of pleasure cruisers, fishing boats, and other small and private vessels that took part that helped make the ultimate difference.

There is a good amount of air combat and aerial scenes in the trailer including a beautiful Spitfire flypast, a Stuka making a dive bombing run, and a few different scenes of a Bf109 and a Spitfire in various states. For once, a major Hollywood movie appears to have got the aerial details correct. We see the Spitfire Mark I, Bf109E, Ju87B… the fast moving glimpses all look authentic to the May-June 1940 period. Great!

Dunkirk is in theaters on July 21, 2017.