8 Details You Didn't Know About 1917

8. They All Float

When shooting around the river Tees where Schofield climbs on the floating bodies, the crew had to put up warning signs telling people who lived nearby that there was no cause for alarm and that the river wasn't filled with real corpses.

Sam Mendes wanted the river scene to feel almost mythical and compared it to the river Styx. In Greek mythology, the river Styx serves both as a pathway and a border between Earth and the Underworld, and life and death. When Schofield jumps into the water he literally climbs on the dead, almost as if he's walking on corpses and stops at nothing to come back to life and leave Hell behind.

The mythology symbolism and escape from death and Hell are cemented by the song Schofield hears and follows as soon as he has left the water. The religiously themed song about going home is no coincidence, as he finds himself back home with his fellow Brits.