Dunkirk Timeline [SPOILERS]

The 2017 World War II thriller about the evacuation of British and Allied troops from Dunkirk beach.
User avatar
Posts: 1310
Joined: May 2017
Location: Elk Grove, CA
666kalpa wrote:Image
Perfect. Not too descriptive, but looks good. Thanks!

User avatar
Posts: 2577
Joined: June 2016
I wish I could have found the curved graph I saw somewhere.

It had the convergence slightly before the end of the timeline. It may be Nolan who said the convergence starts when the little ships arrive. The curved graph showed convergence of two timelines slightly earlier than their convergence with the third. Then the converged timeline continued (for a short time) to the end of the film.

User avatar
Posts: 1310
Joined: May 2017
Location: Elk Grove, CA
I don't really like the "meet at the end of the film" thing that everyone says, because you see repeated timelines prior to that. Yes, there may be a time where they are all concurrent, but there are times that the timelines repeat before that. The first one is when Dawson calls out the spitfires, because prior to that we saw the three RAF pilots fly overhead the Moonstone in a shot.

User avatar
Posts: 2577
Joined: June 2016
I like how the new chart shows the cutting between timelines.

I found the curved graph. As I remember it shows the converge before the end of the film but I was wrong about when each converge - it shows the 3 timelines all converging at the same time.

Curved graph
https://i.redditmedia.com/q2opblsuJar2S ... 246f278011

User avatar
Posts: 1310
Joined: May 2017
Location: Elk Grove, CA
dormouse7 wrote:I like how the new chart shows the cutting between timelines.

I found the curved graph. As I remember it shows the converge before the end of the film but I was wrong about when each converge - it shows the 3 timelines all converging at the same time.

Curved graph
https://i.redditmedia.com/q2opblsuJar2S ... 246f278011
Yeah, I'm more about the "cutting between timelines," at least that's what the thread was created for. The curved graph just says: "They're separate, then they're together."

User avatar
Posts: 2577
Joined: June 2016
I think where the convergence is is also relevant.

Discussion where I got the graph.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dunkirk/commen ... cting_the/

Some think the timelines crossed - i.e. converged and then again diverged.

Obviously Farrier can't be exiting and burning his plane at the same time Alex and Tommy are reading the paper on the train.

User avatar
Posts: 3067
Joined: December 2016
So if our main timeline is "The Mole"/land then the shot of Farrier burning his plane is a flashback. And the "Air" sequences prior to the trawler sequences is a flash-forward.

What's interesting to me is once Tommy and co. leave the beach they become part of the "Sea" timeline/perspective (am I right?).

User avatar
Posts: 2577
Joined: June 2016
They leave the beach many times. If you mean once they are on the Moonstone, I do think they are then SEA timeline.

And I don't think Farrier landing/exiting/burning/capture is a flashback. I think AIR has crossed the converged SEA+LAND timeline and now what Farrier sees/experiences, rather than being in the future of other timelines is now in the past of the remaining converged timeline.

User avatar
Posts: 3067
Joined: December 2016
I meant when they went inside the trawler. It's like that part starts on LAND then obviously becomes part of the SEA timeline and when that happens both the LAND & SEA become one.

Wait... about Farrier. Let's do this linearly (kind of):

He shoots down the Heinkel => hovers over the beach and shoots down an ME 109 => slowly lands outside the perimeter. In the mean time, the Moonstone takes the soldiers to Dorset and they leave to the train station.
The next day, Tommy reads the newspaper.

If we look at it as a linear/traditional structured movie then the shots of Farrier landing and burning his plane - after they wake up the next day - is a flashback when the main timeline is LAND, because it has already happened the day before.

So basically, AIR should probably end way before LAND & SEA in the EVENT TIMELINE.
666kalpa wrote:Image
Last edited by Tarssauce on August 13th, 2017, 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Posts: 1310
Joined: May 2017
Location: Elk Grove, CA
^ That's correct.
Image

Post Reply