Trivia

Only eight U.K. military ambulances from World War II remain, and this movie made use of them all.

Director Joe Wright had wanted Keira Knightley to play the role of Briony in her late teens, but Knightley immediately liked the character of Cecilia, and also wanted to get away from playing girls on the brink of womanhood and play a more mature character for once.

James McAvoy considered the script the best he had ever read.

The small English town of Redcar stood in for the French city of Dunkirk, and the Dunkirk set built there was the most expensive one in this movie, costing an estimated one million pounds sterling.

Saoirse Ronan was only 12 years old when this production began shooting and turned 13 by the time she received her first Oscar nomination.

Joe Wright: Appears during the lengthy tracking sequence on Dunkirk beach.