Dunkirk
Page 10
ALEX
I can’t bear it. You read it.
TOMMY
Can’t bear it?
ALEX
They’ll be spitting at us in the streets. If they’re not locked up waiting for the invasion.
Cut to:
EXT. WEYMOUTH TOWN – DAY
Peter walks down the deserted high street. He stops. Walks into the office of the local paper, the Herald …
INT. HERALD OFFICE – CONTINUOUS
Peter hands the Editor a photograph. Of George.
Cut to:
INT. COCKPIT, SPITFIRE 1 – CONTINUOUS
Farrier checks his canopy is locked, stows loose items, pumping the handle all the while …
EXT. SPITFIRE 1 – DAY
The landing gear inches out of its housing …
Cut to:
INT. TRAIN – DAY
Tommy looks down at the paper. Starts to read. Poorly.
TOMMY
‘Wars are not won by evacuations.’
Alex shakes his head at this.
The train starts to pull into the station …
The platform is crowded with civilians. Alex slinks down into his seat, turning away from the window …
A Civilian bangs on the glass, peering in …
ALEX
I can’t look.
TOMMY
‘But there was a victory inside this deliverance which should be noted …’
Alex turns. The Civilian grins, holding up two beer bottles. The platform is packed with cheering and waving civilians …
Women with sandwiches and drinks rush up to the windows …
TOMMY
‘Our thankfulness at the escape of our army –’
Alex opens the window, grabbing food and drink as Tommy continues to read …
‘– must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France … is a colossal military disaster …’
INT. COCKPIT, SPITFIRE 1 – DAY
Farrier pumps the handle –
EXT. SPITFIRE – CONTINUOUS
The landing gear inches past halfway down …
INT. COCKPIT, SPITFIRE 1 – CONTINUOUS
Pumping the handle, Farrier checks his belts –
TOMMY
(voice-over)
‘And we must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately …’
Farrier holds the plane steady in its descent towards the sands …
EXT. BEACH AT LA PANNE – CONTINUOUS
Spitfire 1 swoops onto the flat sand, wheels down.
TOMMY
(voice-over)
‘We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France …’
Farrier slides back the canopy and climbs out of the plane …
INT. MR DAWSON’S HOME – DAY
Peter, gets up from the kitchen table. Mrs Dawson is at the stove, her back to us.
As Peter grabs his coat he runs into Mr Dawson, letters in hand, looking at the Herald. He hands it to Peter …
TOMMY
(voice-over)
‘We shall fight on the seas and oceans …’
The small headline:
LOCAL BOY, GEORGE MILLS, JUST 17, HERO AT DUNKIRK
Peter looks at his father. Nods with satisfaction.
EXT. BEACH AT LA PANNE – DAY
Farrier brushes sand from the wing of his beloved Spitfire …
TOMMY
(voice-over)
‘We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air …’
Farrier pulls his flare gun … He shoots into the cockpit …
INT. TRAIN – DAY
Alex hangs out of the window, guzzling from a beer bottle, grinning at the women outside …
TOMMY
‘We shall defend our island …’
Alex turns, deliriously happy, beer running down his chin –
ALEX
What?!
TOMMY
(louder, over the celebration)
‘We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be – we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds …’
EXT. DUNKIRK HARBOUR – EVENING
Bodies gently bob in the water …
TOMMY
(voice-over)
‘We shall fight in the fields and the streets …’
Abandoned trucks and anti-aircraft guns, piles of boots, stacks of rifles catch the last light …
‘We shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender …’
Bodies line the length of the mole …
‘And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island … were subjugated and starving …’
EXT. BEACH AT LA PANNE – CONTINUOUS
Farrier kneels, hands on head, as dark shapes of German soldiers (seen only from behind) surround him …
TOMMY
(voice-over)
‘Then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle …’
Farrier is led away from the burning plane …
INT. TRAIN – DAY
Alex is oblivious. Tommy continues, to himself …
TOMMY
‘Until, in God’s good time …’
EXT. BEACH AT LA PANNE – TWILIGHT
Moving towards the burning Spitfire …
TOMMY
(voice-over)
‘The New World, with all its power and might –’
The shape of the plane is still visible beneath the flames …
‘– steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.’
Move in on the burning Spitfire until the flames fill the frame and we –
Cut to black.
Credits.
End.
* In previous drafts of the script, this is the point at which Bolton and Winnant first see the Little Ships. Ultimately in the cutting room, they returned the entrance of the Little Ships to this location in the film.
STORYBOARDS
THE MOLE AND THE HOSPITAL SHIP
CONFLUENCE
Copyright
First published in 2017
by Faber & Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
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London WC1B 3DA
This ebook edition first published in 2017
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
DUNKIRK and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
WB SHIELD: TM and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s17)
The right of Christopher Nolan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Storyboards drawn by Richard Bennett
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ISBN 978–0–571–33626–5