In the past few years, Christopher Nolan has given us a taste for superhero theatrics in the Dark Knight trilogy, taken us to the various levels of dreams in Inception, and traveled through space and time in Interstellar. But his next feature is a bit more grounded in reality; in fact, it draws a bit from history.

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Dunkirk, a film that follows the events of the British military operation that helped save the lives of 330,000 soldiers while on the shores of French seaport of Dunkirk. Check out the trailer below.

This may be just a small announcement teaser, but there is a lot to be excited about for Dunkirk. That ominous ticking combined with selected chilling shots of the various locations of the seaport that ranges from the shore to a shot of bodies to finally a small scene of soldiers on the boat, with one looking to the sky in terror as they are about to be, what we think, shelled by an enemy aerial force. We never see what’s above, but again, the ticking that signals something devastating is about to happen pretty much tells us that this will be a true ground war movie.

Harry Styles (yes, the guy with the long hair from One Direction), Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, and James D’Arcy star.

Nolan collaborates with a few of his friends for this film. In addition to Hardy and Murphy being on the cast, the director reunites with Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar) who will be the film’s cinematographer and Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Interstellar) who will score the film.

And just in case you want to know a little more about the film, here’s a brief description.

“Dunkirk” opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.

Dunkirk arrives July 21, 2017.

Trailer

[Source: Warner Bros. Pictures]