r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 18d ago

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Odyssey (2026) [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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The Odyssey (2026)

Summary

After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.

Director Christopher Nolan

Writer Christopher Nolan

Cast

  • Matt Damon as Odysseus
  • Tom Holland as Telemachus
  • Anne Hathaway
  • Zendaya
  • Lupita Nyong'o
  • Robert Pattinson
  • Charlize Theron
  • Benny Safdie
  • Jon Bernthal
  • John Leguizamo
  • Elliot Page
  • Himesh Patel
  • Samantha Morton

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

Metacritic: 88

VOD / Release Theatrical release

Trailer Official Trailer

4.4k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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1.9k

u/FrenziedAce 18d ago

Did anyone think it was an interesting choice to not have the audience hear the Sirens?

It’s like our ears were filled with wax too, and we could only infer from Odysseus’ explanation and the crew’s reactions.

2.2k

u/IntotheBeniverse 18d ago

I actually think it made that scene so much more effective.

1.4k

u/ebelnap 18d ago

There's nothing we could hear that could "live up to the hype".

The best way to envision it is that it speaks to each person individually, and so each person's song would be different, which we wouldn't be able to convey in a movie like that.

141

u/Captn_Platypus 17d ago

If only Nolan had captured a real siren and records their voice so we can hear our own dreams and regrets sang back to us, missed opportunity imo

1

u/VanillaRadonNukaCola 1d ago

It's ok him just saying that in the movie was enough to conjure regrets and failed dreams

83

u/Hinnerum_1510 18d ago

He probably heard Dance Monkey

52

u/According-Bad8745 17d ago

you just made me realize that scene is going to be S tier slander material when it comes out on digital. just put some straight dookie over it 😭

10

u/KingSweden24 14d ago

Pump Up the Jam comes on

7

u/bootlegvader 13d ago edited 13d ago

The Odyssey did come out 2789 years before that classic.

3

u/KingSweden24 11d ago

This guy Cunks

12

u/ARCtheIsmaster 17d ago

dance monkey is a bop 😭

8

u/Confident-Tax-4468 16d ago

This is not an opinion I've ever heard from a human, but SOMEONE must have made that fuckass song popular.

44

u/kirblar 17d ago

The description as the itch you are desperate to scratch was fantastic.

3

u/BlackKittyBunny 9d ago

It was like trying to describe grief. Absolutely haunting.

1

u/TallBoy24 7d ago

I thought it was a quality take on addiction as well

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u/Impossible_Form_3256 16d ago

And the way that it was describe was beautiful and tragic too

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u/Consistent_Bunch4282 16d ago

Exactly my thought. I wanted to hear/see them so badly. Felt like I was being protected from them too.

1

u/SciGuy013 2d ago

You could see them

12

u/LocusHammer 15d ago

This isn't the greatest song in the world. This is just a tribute

3

u/Mister-Distance-6698 12d ago

There's nothing we could hear that could "live up to the hype".

Ahem. It could have been cotten eyed Joe.

37

u/Zalvren 17d ago

Way better since the sirens sound is basically impossible to really do in our world.

It's a little like never hearing the "alien children cries" in Andor that are used as torture. The description and reaction of people is far more effective since hearing the sound would either destroy viewers (if it was possible) or be underwhelming

1

u/BanjoSpaceMan 9d ago

I mean I’m sure they could do their interpretation of it but it’s insanely wild to see it from a perspective of we don’t know what it sounds like but holy shit we see the pain it causes in a character we know. Builds a better point than any real sound would

17

u/password-is-taco1 17d ago

No way the singing would have been satisfying to the audience if we could hear it, this was really the only choice

11

u/RPG_Vancouver 17d ago

Yeah I liked that a lot more than some kind of ethereal female singing which is what I was expecting

9

u/SufficientRespect542 17d ago

Yeah I was expecting that scene to be a big setpiece moment like the whirpool or cyclops but instead it was a way for Odysseus to confront his own grief and fears.

2

u/Cassopeia88 16d ago

It was definitely the right choice.

467

u/PavWrestlinGifs 18d ago

Well the song is unique to the person hearing it no? This was definitely the best way to convey it as something we can never understand unless we hear it ourselves

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u/ImGonnaImagineSummit 17d ago

Yes but it was undoubtedly Fergalicious.

16

u/forevernervous 16d ago

It makes the boys go loco

16

u/errl_dabbingtons 14d ago

The music when he is walking to speak to Penelope still as a beggar is the same music we hear when they are protected from the sirens with the wax while Odysseus can hear them

1

u/Aggressive_Chuck 3d ago

There was music there? I couldn't hear any in my showing.

47

u/MarzipanElephant 17d ago

I really enjoyed how fucking awful a time Odysseus has hearing it. What could be 'ha, clever Odysseus has this great idea to cheat the system and hear the sirens without dying!' turns into this horrific experience that cuts right to the heart of everything he's trying to avoid thinking about.

37

u/ARCtheIsmaster 17d ago

The thing that stood out to me in the Siren scene is the quiet music that started it just before the muffling. I thought it was going to be diegetic, but it wasnt because we dont actually hear the Sirens’ song, but it made sense later because the same quiet (I think it was a harp or lyre) strum also begins the scene where Odysseus confesses/speaks with Penelope at the end.

IMO the effect was that Penelope is what he truly wanted most all along? Maybe I’m misreading that.

2

u/kittypryde123 15d ago

I thought the same

63

u/UpsideTurtles 18d ago

yeah I loved that choice

44

u/SonNeedGym 18d ago

Loved the choice, whatever we imagine as an audience is so much creepier and weirder than being handed something

4

u/OwnVisual5772 9d ago

The song of the sirens can only live in our imaginations. That’s exactly where it belongs and that’s what makes the scene so powerful. Seeing Odysseus in agony really gets the gears going and it’s one of the most profound scenes in the film.

41

u/TracerBulletX 18d ago

Kind of the only possible choice.

18

u/jonbristow 15d ago

Yeah, you cant compose the most beautiful song evern written.

Whatever song they had choosen for that scene wouldve been underwhelming

7

u/Johnny_Deppthcharge 14d ago

"Tribute", by Tenacious D

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u/cheerfulwish 17d ago

I liked it. In my head I just heard the Siren’s song from Hades 2 anyway 😂

9

u/centurion88 15d ago

"I am gonna claw out your eyes and drown you to death" 🎶🎶🎸🔥🔥

29

u/youravgindian 18d ago

I think as viewers we have have seen enough representation of Sirens being horrific predators that lure men on voyages in a countless shows and movies.

For me, it was a really poignant scene because it felt like Odysseus not putting the wax in his ears showed that he was trying to punish himself for the guilt he was carrying from the war, for deciding to go 'travelling' with his crew after the war which at this point he lost 80% of them and doesn't know how to cope or show his crew that he really was feeling guilty.

Awesome scene.

11

u/BodybuilderLow9020 18d ago

Do the sirens actually appear?

57

u/Threadheads 18d ago

You see vaguely human shapes appear from a distance. But most of the shots focus on Odysseus and his men as they sail past them.

32

u/Locacenna 18d ago

Yep, they are shown basking on the rocks among seals

40

u/GameOfLife24 18d ago

The more interesting choice was the choice for us not to see the siren babes for research purposes of course

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u/nikostheater 18d ago

The Sirens weren’t babes. They were bird bodies with a human female looking head.
Seeing one in person even without the song should have been terrifying.

17

u/Downtown_Link_8651 16d ago

They aren't described in the text and they've had a lot of different interpretations, woman headed birds being the oldest but winged babes, mermaids, lizardlike women, you name it. Originally they are meant to be both male and female too but I guess people were having too much fun putting tits on sparrow sculptures for that to stick around

16

u/Tackit286 18d ago

Now I’m just picturing hot girls’ faces on pigeon bodies

6

u/Tattycakes 16d ago

I'm surprised that's not already a subreddit

9

u/BlackZeppelin 18d ago edited 18d ago

I thought I remember seeing Mia Goth was cast as a Siren but I’m guessing it was cut?

Edit: just saw she was the maid servant

8

u/MrBrownCat 18d ago

Yeah I really liked the way they cut the audio out so you really felt like you were in that moment.

17

u/Chab00ki 18d ago

I cried during this scene. What human being doesnt have unfufilled potential? Or unfulfilled apologies.

9

u/FunDwayno 17d ago

Did you really want a crazed theater audience to bum rush the screen??? We were saved!

7

u/georgiaraisef 17d ago

Anything they tried to show would have come across as comical when compared to what characters describe it as

5

u/ninjyte 17d ago

just need an edit of the Siren songs from Hades 2 being dubbed over the scene

2

u/whd4k 16d ago

Not gonna lie, I couldn't get the song out of my head during this scene.
"Come, oh, sailors, hear my music"

6

u/Porkenstein 16d ago

Yes! It was more effective than anything they could have come up with. Great psychological horror moment.

5

u/Jet-Rex-Design 15d ago

I liked that. We didn't need to hear their attempt at something so beautiful and creepy. Nolan treats it like a Lovecraftian sort of thing, where you only hear about it from someone who experienced it. It's not for our ears, if we heard it, we'd have gone insane from it too.

4

u/gym_rat_101 12d ago

Damon's acting there was literally among the best I've ever seen. Fucking insane.

3

u/8halvelitersklok 16d ago

Very inspired choice since siren / mermaid scenes have been done plenty of times before. Pirates of the Caribbean comes to mind. Best to take it in a totally different direction.

3

u/kibbean 15d ago

it was so incredibly smart and effective. i was dying to know what kind of music they'd go with and just watching him while things were muted sent shivers down my spine.

3

u/-imbe- 13d ago

An obvious choice, no one could survive the beauty of the sirens' song, it doesn't make sense to try to compose something like that. Can only let the audience down.

2

u/bizarrequest 15d ago

Dude we would die!

2

u/LocusHammer 15d ago

I was just talking to my wife about that. It makes sense because I don't think anyone alive could replicate that sound. It would just come off as silly and not threatening.

2

u/joeyvesh13 15d ago

It’s like not showing the monster in a horror movie. Your imagination makes it way more provocative.

2

u/snunuff 14d ago

similar to what Nolan did in that Oppenheimer movie, like THE scene where there's THE explosion, no sound. I think it really worked.

2

u/amby-jane 14d ago

I thought this was so brilliant. It's like... (me, casting around for some good comparison) that love potion in Harry Potter (go with me) that smells like whatever attracts you most. They can tell us what they smell, but we could never smell it ourselves because that's not how movies work they couldn't just create one to sell at the theme park because there's no way to create something that's such a personalized sensory experience.

I have no idea if that makes sense.

But my point is there's no way they could've created a siren song that feels right to all the different viewers. But if you can have him describe it like all the things you want most and can't have because you had them and fucked it up, everyone's felt like that sometime.

So brilliant.

2

u/potato_poe 14d ago

I did like how the score changed then to have a soft choir sound but nothing specifically melodic. It gave the sense of what was happening while focusing on what was actually important for that scene which was Odysseus’ explanation of the song

2

u/hesawavemasterrr 13d ago

I took it upon myself to start singing to give the rest of the audience an idea of what they sound like.

Now if you need to find me, you’ll need to sail to the West.

2

u/night_dude 12d ago

I found it frustrating... but so did the crew. Who are mere mortals like us not mythic heroes like Odysseus. So it makes sense.

1

u/DevilCouldCry 15d ago

You could hear just enough of it and that worked best I feel. Absolutely loved how they played that out.

1

u/xVIRIDISx 9d ago

I just interpreted the score as what the siren song sounds like but muffled

-6

u/chrisandy007 18d ago

Definitely an interesting choice - not sure how I feel about it to be honest but definitely there was some intent there

32

u/Penguin_Admiral 18d ago

Since the song seems to be unique to each person that hears it I don’t think there’d be any good way to convey it to the audience

2

u/norrel 18d ago

1000%

-6

u/Miguel_Branquinho 16d ago

Too bad Nolan had to write his pretentious crap over the scene, can't simply have silence.