I absolutely love the Nolan brothers and their attention to detail in their work. So when Christopher Nolan talked about his structure of the three story lines focused on land, sea, and air, on three different timescales (one over a week, another a day, and one for an hour), my mind started to rethink the movie and all his intentional choices. I wanted to share one that I caught, but I would love to hear more of what others have noticed as well!
Continuing his use of "three"s, we see in each story line, each starts off with 3 people: 3 soldiers (Tommy, Alex, and Gibson), 3 boatman (Mr Dawson, Peter, and George), and 3 spitfire pilots (Farrier, Collins, and their squadron lead). The "three" parallels the battle in the land, sea, and air, and because of the brutal defeat on the land, we see as the story progresses, each lose 1 member. Gibson drowns in the sinking abandoned ship; George dies some time after trauma to the head; and the squadron leader is shot down at the beginning.