“At the point of crisis. At the point of annihilation. Survival is victory.”

The first teaser for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk delivers audiences a bleak, terrifying, and awe-inspiring message. The setting for this message is during WWII at the battle of Dunkirk (on the coast of France) during which the Allies faced off against a series of German attacks that left them flanked and vulnerable on all sides. The film tells both the story of the Allied fight for survival as well as one of the war’s most noted rescue mission resulting from a three day Halt Order sanctioned by Adolf Hitler.

Dunkirk stars Tom Hardy (The Revenant), Cillian Murphy (Inception), Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet), and Oscar winner Mark Rylance (The BFG) and also features singer Harry Styles (One Direction) in his film debut.

Known for his massive in scale and high production value films, – the Dark Knight series, Inception, Interstellar – Nolan seems to be delivering on expectations. The first teaser highlights a chilling scene in which the Allied forces uniformly brace themselves against an overhead German attack. We see Nolan’s signature towering camera style where man and man-made structures serve as the figuratively terrifying “monsters” of the film. Regardless of its final product, audiences can safely bet on Nolan to deliver another visual cinematic spectacle.

Dunkirk hits theaters on July 21, 2017. See the first teaser below.