‘Dunkirk’ is based on the incredible true story of the evacuation of close to 300,000 stranded men, belonging to the allied British, French and Belgian forces, upon being surrounded by the German forces. Following the battle of France, the allied forces were forced to retreat to the northern French coast by the German resistance. The stranded soldiers were then rescued from the beaches and harbours of a small French town, after which the movie is named.
Of all the characters in Dunkirk, Tom Hardy’s Farrier makes perhaps the greatest sacrifice of all. It was established near the beginning that the fuel gauge was damaged by an enemy bullet; despite this, he limps on, with only a vague idea of how much time in the air he has before the engine cuts out. As soldiers pour onto the flotilla of small vessels lining up on the beach, Farrier, now effectively gliding with no juice left in the tank, uses his last precious few minutes in the air to head off a potentially deadly assault from an enemy fighter.
