The initial answer was no, but a show about Cobretti's son, Marian the second, hamstrung by modern police restrictions, would be welcome; any more Cobra is welcome. — Kyle Brandt
The son, Bruno Cobretti, should be played dead serious rather than by Andy Sandberg; Tom Hardy or Shalamay could win the Emmy. — Bill Simmons
The hosts read that after filming concluded by August 2013, Jeremy Piven was added and extra scenes were shot, but he does not appear in the finished film; they call it an editing what-if. — Sean Fennessey
Piven's energy would not have worked, though a liked comedian popping up in J Squad would have been welcome. — Sean Fennessey
A sarcastic line about marveling that Tom Hardy was in J Squad leads to the point that none of the J Squad actors have become big names in six years. — Sean Fennessey
The hosts read that Brad Pitt was originally considered for Cage; it would need the winking Pitt of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or Mr. and Mrs. Smith rather than the self-serious World War Z version, and Cruise is judged the better fit. — Chris Ryan
The hosts read that Ryan Gosling was also considered because Cage is younger in the novel; comic Nice Guys Gosling would work, but blank Drive, Only God Forgives or Blade Runner Gosling would not. — Sean Fennessey
The hosts read that an actress best known for The Artist was up for Rita, which seems odd; she is called a good actor, possibly also in a Bond movie, and both hosts are glad they got Blunt. — Sean Fennessey
"Well done."; "Men my age dictate this war. Why should we be allowed to send our children to fight it?"; "You can practically see it from here." "What?" "Home."; "I'm staying. For the French."; "Then it's good that you're Army and I'm Navy, isn't it?"
"Well done" is offered first, with the exchange with the blind man about surviving. — Sean Fennessey
Rylance's "men my age dictate this war" and the weekend-sailors exchange are recited. — Sean Fennessey
Bolton's "You can practically see it from here." "What?" "Home." is recited.
Branagh's "I'm staying. For the French." is the only line that stood out for one participant, the payoff where Britain can live up to its ideals.
Branagh gets the best lines, including the tide exchange ending "it's good that you're Army and I'm Navy", called a good one.
Hardy's shrug when he stays to defend the medical ship and his opening the cockpit while gliding are gestures that read as lines; a best-gesture category is joked about.
Hardy coasting over the shoreline in silence is as good as any quote; the town scenes were shot elsewhere because Dunkirk was destroyed. — Chris Ryan
Harry Styles was written down but the film may not be that kind of movie; Hardy could be an inverted case, doing the most with the least while masked.
Leads cannot win: Rylance on the boat, Hardy in the air and the unnamed kid.
Branagh and Murphy are considered; Rylance is a lead over Murphy, so there is a case for Murphy, though PTSD performances are tricky. — Sean Fennessey
The Murphy section is one participant's least favorite part, compared to not liking every story in Magnolia or Slacker, though its brevity makes it work and his first reveal is great.
George is picked, and a second voice says it will go George too: "Barry Keown" (transcript spelling). — Sean Fennessey
The structure is brilliant, still elusive in its construction, and rewards rewatching; nothing is out of place in the first half and the middle is a symphony. — Sean Fennessey
The film deserved its Best Editing Oscar and it is a crime the score did not win; the score may define the decade.
Zimmer recorded the ticking from one of Nolan's pocket watches and processed it through synthesizers; the clock does not stop until Alex and Tommy sit safely on the train. — Sean Fennessey
Zimmer and Nolan are compared to Leone and Morricone; the score works as sound filling a palette left open by sparse dialogue.
The film is framed as a Hitchcock movie masquerading as a war movie, a suspense puzzle about who will survive, with the question whether that had been done before.
The closest predecessor offered is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: cross-cutting held together by the "earnest gold" theme, Hardy's plane recalling Buddy Hackett and "Mickey Runy" (transcript spelling), the trapped boat recalling Sid Caesar and Edie Adams in the basement, and both being convergence movies.
The sound design, especially the dive-bomber overhead, is separate from the score and visceral. — Sean Fennessey
Mark Rylance, seen in Wolf Hall and known for female Shakespeare roles, brings stillness to the old man going to sea. — Sean Fennessey
Nolan's virtuosity: Dunkirk, rather than The Dark Knight, is called his Apex Mountain; it dealt him in as a great filmmaker beyond Gotham and science fiction and brought Warner Brothers along as Kubrick did; Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet are original big-budget studio stories.
It is hard to imagine the film imitated or topped; a linear cut would not hold together; the faces look like photographs of British soldiers in 1940. — Chris Ryan
Harry Styles, covered in oil, plays the soldier most aggressive toward the French character and is good despite being a huge pop star. — Sean Fennessey
The heavy cross-cutting makes the category a pickle; Hardy running out of fuel stretches across about 20 minutes in three sections, and one participant says the three of them can set the rules anew. — Sean Fennessey
A scene here is rarely two characters in a room; Nolan captures moments rather than scenes in a quiet movie that is also one of the loudest. — Sean Fennessey
The host offers four picks: the leaflets falling through to the beach and the mole credit, saving the shivering soldier, Commander Bolton seeing the armada, and Farrier setting his plane ablaze while being taken. — Sean Fennessey
Not knowing that a mole is a jetty, one participant first thought it meant a spy. — Chris Ryan
The first 45 minutes are treated as a sequence running from the leaflets to the beach and the mole credit, followed by the air attack on the beach with perhaps the greatest shot in war-movie history. — Quentin Tarantino
The lead (Tommy) is apparently never called by name in the film and meets no one who knows him.
His silence is compared to Eastwood and Siegel's Frank Morris in Escape from Alcatraz rather than McQueen in Le Mans; the kid is not heroic, just trying to survive, and the opening scene has him trying to relieve himself. — Quentin Tarantino
Nolan shoots practically when he can; the beach shot was probably staged with a series of closer explosions and a dummy touched up afterward; Saving Private Ryan's great shots are all in its opening section.
Tommy's story is a series of jailbreaks that each land him in another prison, as when the boat goes down after the jam sandwich and tea. — Chris Ryan
George running up to the boat is heartbreaking on rewatch because he is going to die.
The film is both vast and enclosed: ocean and beach against cockpits, sinking ships and the narrow mole; the only solution was 800 boats from England. — Sean Fennessey
The first dogfight gives a primal playing-with-toys feeling, and its "I'm on him / he's on me" exchange is named as a personal best quote. — Chris Ryan
The fire-on-the-water sequence with the men on the Moonstone and Hardy's point of view of the bomber while low on fuel is called unreal; the first dogfight ends when the flight commander's plane is nicked. — Chris Ryan
Asked for more, the sinking of the ship is named. — Quentin Tarantino
The sinking of the ship is called amazing, along with the shot of the torpedo seen coming toward the men like Jaws.
Asked for a vote, one participant says for the emotion it has to be the British soldiers seeing the armada.
Another voice agrees but would probably throw a vote to the stretcher run, where Zimmer's score truly kicks in; the men carry the stretcher for mercenary reasons, trying to get on the boat, and are booted off.
Another goes with the leaflet scene as both peaceful and terrifying. — Sean Fennessey
One participant calls the opening his favorite scene but says the Armada is the emotional payoff; watching it in London, all the Brits were crying.
Branagh is cast for that payoff; old men in small boats coming to take their boys home feels perfectly British, as does the blind man handing out blankets.
