After the bombing, one unfortunate British soldier screams, “Where’s the bloody Air Force?” ushering in a second story line. Above this hopeless situation, Nolan adds another dimension to this limbo with a pair of protagonist Spitfire pilots whose Sisyphean task is to try to protect the men on the beach and the escape ships from the Luftwaffe. Their small consolation is they might survive to fly away, but the empathy they feel for those trapped below is obviously enormous. The life of one of the pilots, Farrier, becomes further complicated when his fuel gauge is damaged and he must rely on mere estimation of his remaining fuel reserves. Nolan’s third set of protagonists come in the form of a small boat manned by a civilian crew of an older man, Mr. Dawson, his teenage son, Peter, and his friend George. They are responding to the British government’s call for aid in evacuation of the trapped troops. Unlike the military figures, they make a voluntary choice to enter this limbo purely out of a sense of duty. Unlike most, Dawson takes a leap of faith even prior to leaving. He puts his spiritual faith into the idea that his son, a deceased air force pilot will watch over them. This blind faith serves as the core of his sense of duty and keeps him assured at all times.

Nolan highlights the importance of this lesson of discipline, unity and faith by using the rule of three, trial and error, narrative structure. During two failed attempts to leave the beach and sneak aboard rescue boats, first, Tommy saves the Highlander solider, Alex, and then Gibson saves Tommy and Alex. On the third attempt, Alex discovers Gibson is French and tries to force him at gunpoint off the leaky boat to lighten it. Tommy makes a leap of faith realizing that they all must stand united in the attempt to escape this limbo, and he defends Gibson’s right to remain.

Symbolic and literal leaps of faith appear in several earlier Nolan films as well. In The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Bruce Wayne makes an impossible leap onto a stone ledge when climbing out of a pit. Cooper pilots his spacecraft into the black hole in Interstellar (2014), hoping somehow for the best. In Inception (2010), Saito keeps telling Cobb he needs to take a leap of faith to put faith in others. In these cases, the heroes remain calm and refuse to panic, channeling their fear as a motivator. They do what they can and leave their fate in the hands of a higher power. As much as they wish, there is nothing the men on the beach at Dunkirk can do to physically affect their fate.  Viewers can visually see Tommy’s mind race as fear and the survival instinct take hold of him. He is driven solely by the urge to save himself. Any sense of unity, discipline and mission disappear. The idea Nolan seeks to communicate is that the predicament of the men on the beach is what galvanized the British nation’s will overnight and made them confront and fight the evil that was growing stronger every day. The men had to be rescued in the fashion they were to make everyone understand, as Mr. Dawson does, that war is coming, like it or not. Until this occurrence, the men have to wait.

Dunkirk’s noble lie for the men on the beach is that help will come. This is the epitome of taking a leap of faith. In other Nolan scenarios, the heroes had skill sets which could help put the odds in their favor. Commander Bolton, in Dunkirk, however, has no idea, as to whether or not ships will be able to reach the troops in time. Bolton is lying to his men, providing them unsubstantiated hope to keep their primal fears in check. He knows more men will survive if the group remains unified. Early on, he tells subordinates that Churchill publicly maintains the illusion that Britain and France are brothers in arms to preserve unity as long as possible to get the troops home and plan for Britain’s own defense. For the pilots in the air, the noble lie is similar; continue the mission, focus on it — not your own survival — and you will make a material difference to the men on the ground. Nolan adds to the noble lie on the civilian boat when Peter informs the shell shocked solider that George is doing alright and will recover when George is dead. Mr. Dawson approves of this lie knowing that the shell shocked solider needs it to have any hope of regaining his mental health. Later in the film, Peter delivers a school photo of George to the local paper used for the headlines, “LOCAL BOY GEORGE MILLS JUST 17, HERO AT DUNKIRK.” This heroic noble lie works because people see it as a realistic and practical example to follow of someone doing the best possible job he could. Nolan is taking his Dark Knight Rises idea of the any man hero and applying it in a more realistic and more practical effective setting. Most importantly, it builds the public’s sense of unity needed to defeat this enemy and not give into panic. People think that if this nobody can make a difference, then so can I, rather than hide in fear.

In Dunkirk’s final moments, the audience hears the famous quote “The New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue in the liberation of the old.” This quote perfectly embodies the idea of faith. We may not always know when help will come, but it is our infinite ability as a species to put faith in others that gives us the edge. Even when that hope is based on a lie, it has proven to be a powerful tool, capable of getting us through the worst of times. I contend that not only has Nolan grown as an auteur, but that he has perfectly captured a universal truth to which all may relate and celebrate.

Peter Bell (@PeterGBell25) is a 2016 Master of Arts – Film Studies graduate of Columbia University School of Arts in New York City. His interests include film history, film theory and film criticism. Ever since watching TCM as a child, Peter has had a passion for film, always trying to add greater context to film for others. His favorite films include Chinatown, Blade Runner, Lawrence of Arabia, A Shot in the Dark and Inception. Peter believes movie theaters are still the optimal forum for film viewing, discussion and discovering fresh perspectives on culture.