It was well-done but in a sense, a narrowly-told story: for example, there was nothing about the German approach and its ultimate delay that greatly enabled the rescue. There wasn’t any portrayal—except at the end—of Churchill or the nation’s political leadership.

But the story itself is quite a bit itself anyway without much of the context. The story is told through three parallel time shots involving 3-5 sub-plots. One subplot involves one of the small boats and its crew that embarks on its rescue mission across the channel. A second subplot involves the soldiers on the beach; a third centers around an RAF pilot (the Tom Hardy character) sent to fight off the Luftwaffe and protect the ships seeking to get the soldiers home. These three main plots are gradually brought together by the end of the film, partly through the usage of other characters and situations.