A teaser for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming World War II epic, Dunkirk has been released, and it is intense!

The clip only shows a few snippets but the thrill is palpable. We are shown long stretches of empty beaches, and a large crowd of battle weary soldiers just standing there. There is no music just the sound of ticking showing that time is of the essence. The last part is pure genius as a large number of soldiers filling up an entire wharf look up to the sound of an overhead bomber, and since they are trapped with nowhere to run they merely move their heads down.

We see no signs of the film’s main stars among the many faces. But the movie does boast an impressive line-up, which includes Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, and One Direction star, Harry Styles in his first ever acting role. And what a way to go with your first time, since the teaser seems to show, a dark edge to it on top of the World War II setting.

Dunkirk will tell the story of a pivotal moment in World War II, known as the Dunkirk evacuation.

In 1940, Allied forces failed to prevent the German invasion of France and have retreated to the beaches of Dunkirk, France. 300,000 British forces were trapped with Belgian and French soldiers with their backs to the sea and the only course of action was an evacuation to Britain along the English channel. The problem is, they didn’t have enough ships to evacuate such a large number of men in a short period of time. So the British government had to conscript any civilian vessel in the coast they could find, private yachts, motor boats and fishing vessels were recruited.

All in all 800 boats took part and Winston Churchill hailed the evacuation as a “miracle” and the British press referred to it as “disaster turned to triumph”.

The premise alone would be worth a watch!

Dunkirk is scheduled for a theatrical release on July 21, 2017.