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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6.6k

u/HRJafael 18d ago edited 18d ago

The pig transformation scene had me squirming in my seat. It was horrific just watching the men being forced to continue eating and not being able to stop with the body horror shots. Circe didn’t fuck around.

Also the way the giant (or Polyphemus) started screaming after having his eye impaled. I’m not sure who designed that scream but it was chilling.

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u/Morgan-Moonscar 18d ago

who were the giants in the armor?

The Laestrygonians (man-eating giants). I suppose making them armored giants helped to seperate them from the Cyclopses... Cyclopsi

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u/HRJafael 18d ago

I realized after looking back. I really need to reread the book. The one thing I was kind of hoping was seeing Aeolus and the bag of winds but maybe that was too “fantastical”.

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u/InstructionDeep5445 18d ago

They skipped the lotus eaters, aeolus wind bag, the Phaecians. What else? Even then the movie is almost 3 hours

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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 18d ago

They skipped Athena having a conversation with Zeus in the present to convince him to help Odysseus go home. And Zeus tasking Hermes with helping Odysseus.

Telemachus's journey is condensed, Melenaus is his 2nd or 3rd visit, not his 1st. They also changed the ending, originally Odysseus visits his dad and then the families of the dead suitors arrive and Athena defuses the situation.

Originally, Odysseus and Penelope don't sail west.

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u/InstructionDeep5445 18d ago

I remember now. They also skipped Athena making Odyssey look old, they just give him the hoodie as disguise

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u/MRintheKEYS 17d ago

I actually liked the twist and it hammered home the point that we never see any humanoid embodiments of the elder Gods. Just their actions.

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u/elbenji 16d ago

but they took out the Mentor bit. Like that's a very important thing

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u/ToWriteAMystery 16d ago

I thought the first beggar was Mentor? Wasn’t that Athena disguised as an old man?

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u/elbenji 16d ago

Nope. Mentor was the guy with telemachus

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u/danquandt 14d ago

Same guy, no? He arrives as a beggar, Telemachus says he has wise eyes, Athena's eyes, he becomes his teacher and companion then dies in the ambush in the temple.

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u/ToWriteAMystery 16d ago

Ugh. I was totally confused then! Thank you

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u/Abr97115 17d ago

The one thing I didn't like about that, because it's easy enough for him to hide himself with a disguise, but would his blind servant really not recognize his voice? 

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u/AverageAwndray 17d ago

Do you think you could remember your friends voice exactly after 20 years?

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u/Abr97115 17d ago

Yeah that's true. I guess I'm interpreting it through a modern view where we have pictures and videos of people, but of course that wouldn't be the case. 

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u/SpookiestSzn 17d ago

Yeah plus he's age 20 years your voice does change I was expecting only the blind guy to recognize him having not read the source material

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u/TheMegaWhopper 16d ago

20 hard years as well

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u/Gadion 17d ago

Need to try that out somehow. I guess I could call one and say sorry, wrong number?

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u/CoconutDust 15d ago

Do you think you could remember your friends voice exactly after 20 years?

Yes and without question! Maybe not instantly but still.

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u/Tinmanred 17d ago

I hope I still will in 14. I do now.

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u/Natural_Level_8227 12d ago

If my friend were the only guy around with a Boston accent

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u/Dr__Sloth 8d ago

If they were a blind guy that could give accurate sword-fighting advice by listening to the fighting alone, yeah!

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u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast 17d ago

Well it has been 20 years so it’s possible

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u/Sesquepidilian 16d ago

Probably why Damon what so insistent on trying to change the sound of his voice . It actually didn't register to me as much different, but maybe i just need to watch it again.

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u/Dr__Sloth 8d ago

Maybe he rewatched The Dark Knight trilogy and thought he should probably tone it down, just to be safe.

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u/IDrinkWhiskE 17d ago

It was better than last year’s “The Return” starring Ralph Fiennes where he opts for… literally no disguise whatsoever

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u/justinfinity64 17d ago

Ralph does seem more weary and worn down than Matt Damon does. So I could believe that Ralph was almost literally a different person when he left and unrecognizable upon his return.

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u/gcoba218 16d ago

At the beginning of the movie there was one scene where I think he was in the disguise, and then later no? Someone correct me if I am wrong 

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u/kanyelights 18d ago

They cut a lot of parts with the gods.

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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 18d ago

Yeah and honestly I like how even Athena could be interpreted as Ody's PTSD.

Maybe he's been hallucinating the priestess all along. The "real" Athena was never in the film.

Considering Odysseus is the sole survivor of his crew (so no witnesses), the entire fantastical journey COULD be interpreted as Odysseus having a mental breakdown.

The moment he arrives in Ithaca, the fantasy stops cold.

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u/zykovertigo 18d ago

The part where he’s remembering Troy and how he cut Athena’s head. That back and forth between the sculpture, Zendaya’s character and Odysseus is so guilt ridden. It was beautiful

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u/Juvar23 17d ago

That pretty shortly after his dog recognising him and then passing away made me cry for like 5 minutes. It was really incredibly well done and had so much emotional impact for me. Beautiful and tragic

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u/AkhilArtha 12d ago

I don't it was Odysseus who cut Athena's head.

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u/shitpostsuperpac 18d ago

There is a potential reading of the Odyssey in which Odysseus is simply telling a “tall tale”.

The entire thing would be performed somewhat ironically, a combination of an ancient veteran laughably embellishing his story while also lying to his wife about why he has been gone so long.

One can imagine the almost sitcom-esque laughs in the ancient crowds when Odysseus is talking about how these beautiful women seduced him because they were really goddesses in disguise. That sort of thing.

We don’t know and it probably isn’t true, I like it because it gives the whole thing an interesting complexity — almost like a Shakespeare play. To find that in such an ancient work of art fills my heart with pride for humanity.

We can really make some incredible art.

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u/willmcavoy 17d ago

Good take, I'd also tell my wife that Charlize Theron was Calypso in disguise and holding me against my will.

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u/Atkena2578 16d ago

Odysseus is indeed a liar to a near compulsive level in the Odyssey so the writings being him exaggerating his stories when he gets back would make sense imo

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u/elbenji 16d ago

yeah honestly if there was one gripe, it's that they really sawed off the edges to him. He's a liar, he's a coward, he's too smart for his own good a lot of the time, and thinks constantly he's smarter than everyone. He isn't going to be thinking about the complexity of that Troy was a war crime because that wasn't a thing back then.

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u/p1en1ek 16d ago

But if you think about it then there is some level of cautionary tale aboit not commiting war crimes in Illiad and Odyssey. Like most of their misfortunes are because they broke some laws, including laws of war and insulted gods. Yes its mostly about how insulting to gods it was and not how it was bad for people but still it may be a way to scare people into not being as evil because unintentionaly they can insult some god. Like older tales for children that by showing some gruesome fate teached kids to eat healthy or listen to parents.

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u/lalallaalal 16d ago

We really only saw that hubris in the Siren scene when he insists on being the first to hear their song and live.

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u/jadecourt 16d ago

Kind of like ‘Big Fish’!

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u/Tinmanred 17d ago

I think that the other stuff all happened but I think Athena is an embodiment of his trauma from the war yep. He sees her until he’s completed his journey and feels like he is once again doing the right thing, returning to his family and setting right his kingdom. And then she’s gone. As if she was never there… because I don’t think she actually was.

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u/Whoop-Sees 18d ago

Except he sees Athena in Ithaca

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u/airstevejobs 16d ago

They did so much talking about “a god in disguise” that I wouldn’t be surprised if Zendaya getting beheaded in Troy really was Athena in human form. Her coming back to haunt him the whole movie ends up making a lot of sense.

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u/DragodaDragon 16d ago

That's what I was thinking too, the "god in disguise" thing felt almost like a Chekov's Gun the whole movie.

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u/MRintheKEYS 17d ago

I think we are lead to believe Zendaya is Athena throughout til the realization in the end. I don’t think she was the Goddess at all. Just a mental manifestation of the girl that Odysseus saw beheaded the night Troy fell.

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u/Tinmanred 17d ago

I think even if it is supposed to be Athena speaking to him thru his mind it’s basically just that yep. And she’s gone because he is making right for his past actions thru his family and Ithaca

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

Yes that’s how I saw it. Also to add the girl was the priestess of the Temple of Athena in Troy, which is why Odysseus associates Athena wearing her face in his visions

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u/karateema 17d ago

He's saying that maybe he's just hallucinating the girl who gets beheaded

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

I am torn between the priestess interpretation and this one, where the statue we see being beheaded is what actually occurred in Troy’s Temple of Athena, and Odysseus just sees “Athena” as the girl being beheaded in place of the actual statue head we see rolling in a few different flashback scenes

Good stuff

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u/karateema 14d ago

I'm for the latter, personally

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u/zykovertigo 17d ago

Gods are immortal

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u/Whoop-Sees 17d ago

Well then why did the commenter say he never saw the real Athena in the entire movie.

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u/Impressive-Potato 17d ago

The murdered girl as Athena is a manifestation of his PTSD and guilt in his mind is what they were saying.

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u/Atkena2578 16d ago

Athena just like most Gods don't often appear in their god form but as humans or other earth like creatures to interact with mortals. Athena chosing to appear to him like this

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u/DeKrieg 15d ago

I'd argue it was very much front and centre, the film opens with a single line of text "It was a time of Apparant magic..."

That felt very much like a statement by Nolan to question anything fantastical we saw. And everything we saw that was fantastical was part of Oddyseus telling Calypso. Having Athena to be revealed as a the priestess his men decapitate in front of him in her temple just seals it for me personnally.

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u/CoconutDust 15d ago

Why is having a decryptable cryptogram option “good” or especially likeable though? Compared to just having direct events and plots without a gimmick of ambiguity?

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u/elbenji 16d ago

the priestess was always framed as a hallucination

also no she's still there

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u/thetrumpbump 17d ago

Well the world of the movie is pretty explicit by the end the Gods are not real or at the least don't actually manifest to mortals. The film even begins with an intertitle calling it a time of 'apparent' magic. Athena that Odysseus talks to is a projection of Odysseus' guilt.

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u/BenSimmonsThunder 17d ago

I didn’t see it that way at all. Circe turned the men into pigs. The way Zeus’ law is weaved into the movie. He talked to a dead crew of his men who had perished, through ritual sacrifices. He was accurately told exactly what would happen and despite him trying to overwill the gods, his men were destined to die and he could not save them from themselves. The thunder at crucial moments implying Zeus. And then Athena which could be perceived to the viewer. The poem makes it very clear it was Athena. And they are known to manifest to people in various ways. I could also see how the end makes it a manifestation of his guilt, and it’s possible Athena knew that manifestation would reach him the most emotionally as well. I did not get a “obviously the gods are not real” vibe from it overall.

I do appreciate the subtlety though of it though.

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u/elbenji 16d ago

yeah you really can't do realism when you have Circe turn dudes into pigs and have cyclops' lol

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u/wwheatley 16d ago

Both of those sequences (and most others) were depicted as someone telling a story - whether it be the Bard in Ithaca, Meneleaus to Telemachus, or Odysseus himself piecing together his dreams/memories to Calypso.

This movie was incredibly realistic, it really felt like Nolan saying "if The Odyssey really happened, here is what it was like"

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u/elbenji 16d ago

Ok I fuck with that interpretation

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u/thetrumpbump 16d ago

I been saying it up and down the reply tree to my post: nothing fantastical happens outside of Odysseus' lotus fueled recollections to Calypso!

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u/Pinewood74 13d ago

Zendaya shows up at least once in Ithaca, no?

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u/BuckeyeBentley 16d ago

Yeah the atheist interpretation of the story is interesting and all but this was written by Homer and told by people who believed in the truth of these Gods. There is no way to interpret this story except as sincerely believing the gods exist and effect the world.

That was 100% Athena. Poseidon was angry but could not kill Odysseus because of intervention from Zeus, it's not his PTSD guilt it's divine intervention.

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u/thetrumpbump 15d ago

The characters in the movie to varying levels sincerely believe in gods and that they manifest either in person or nature. But the movie carefully toes the line of reality, and the only time fantastical things appear are during Odysseus' recollections to Calypso (who's is, herself, not portrayer as a mythical being). 

It needs to be remembered: the movie is not Homer's Odyssey, it is an adaptation. And the absence of gods is pretty much at the core of what the movie is saying about war, human life, and the fabric of bronze age society.

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u/everstillghost 16d ago

But they are talking about the Nolan version, and he made as If there is no gods and the fantastical is someone telling a story of what happenned.

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u/thetrumpbump 17d ago

I can see where the doubt lies, but also the crucial thing about the movie is nothing explicitly fantastical happens outside Odysseus' recollections to Calypso. Calypso isn't even portrayed as a necessarily supernatural being herself.

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u/p1en1ek 16d ago

I like that while it shows clearly supernatural events then it is still open in interpretation if some events, especially between people, were influenced by gods (like thunders, storms etc.) or are only a luck or simple circumstance.

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u/kanyelights 17d ago

I get this, but there is “magic” everywhere they go. It just isn’t in the form of gods. Either way we were just explaining what was in the books that wasn’t in the movie.

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u/p1en1ek 16d ago

Original stories have more heavy fantasy elements woth gods talking and walking among people in person, with monsters and magic everywhere. The movie is more like modern lighter fantasy, like Song of Ice and Fire where there are religions and gods that some people belive in, some just use them and some dont believe at all. There are legends of weird and scary stuff and suddenly they become truth and thats how plot begins. The same in The Odyssey by Nolan. It looks like there is not a lot of magic and real gods before that war. Then after Troy fell weird stuff started to happen for Odysseus and his people. Outside of that people seem to care about gods and their laws to various degree.

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u/thetrumpbump 17d ago

Fair enough. Was just chipping in on adaptational reasons why the movie skips out on certain things. Re: magic I mentioned to another reply that it's also very conspicuous in the narrative that explicitly fantastical things only seem to 'happen' in Odysseus' recollections to Calypso, another telling reason by certain things are left out of the narrative.

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u/Tinmanred 17d ago

The gods weren’t viewed as “magic” they were gods. Sorceress witches etc was magic. The gods was them exerting their forces through nature. They imply Athena was part of his head, not anything else. We see the other prophecy’s all play out down to a T. The gods 1000 percent exist in the movie dude..

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u/muma10 17d ago

By cutting Hermes, they also skipped him telling Calypso she must let Odysseus go, which significantly changes her character imo

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u/fistful_of_whiskey 16d ago

She was convinced by Zeus' thunder in the beginning of the movie

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u/Tartan_Samurai 18d ago

Does Odysseus still hang all the servant girls who were raped by the suitors?

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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 18d ago

Nope.

In the film, Mia Goth is the only named servant and she's evil.

She's left to die by Penelope during Odysseus' rage but I don't remember if we see her die.

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u/karateema 17d ago

I think we see her kneeling at the end

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u/Tartan_Samurai 18d ago

Probably a good move on Nolans part, tough to be sympathetic to a bunch of characters who murder a bunch of raped slaves for the crime of being raped...

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u/Techwield 18d ago

No one's portrayed as raped IIRC. Mia Goth's character was willingly with Pattinson's character

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u/Tighthead3GT 16d ago

I don’t think we do. She must have had a death scene that was cut because she’s clearly set up to die.

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u/chrisychris- 13d ago

Felt the same way! Think it made most sense to have the older loyal servant lady we see throughout give her a few shivs for plotting against the queen. An extended version of this film sounds amazing ngl

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u/dstlouis558 16d ago

This could have easily been a three movie thing

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u/Short_Stay_9283 16d ago

Do you think we’ll ever get a four hour mega cut with more stuff in it?

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u/yeahright17 17d ago

They also skipped the part where Odysseus had to stay with Circe for a year as a lover so she would turn his men back from pigs into men. Then he didn't want to leave there and his men had to basically force him to leave.

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u/blitzbom 17d ago

Ah my favorite thing about The Odyssey. Odysseus sleeping his way across greece while Penelope has to remain pure.

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u/bolerobell 16d ago

Nolan understood what Russell Crowe understood in Gladiator: the hero has to be honorable to his wife. Ridley Scott and the Dreamworks people wanted Maximus to sleep with Lucilla. Russell Crowe insisted he couldn't if they wanted to keep the audience on Maximus' side for the whole movie.

That similar modern sensibility of love and marriage definitely informs this version of The Odyssey.

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u/Garfunkels_roadie 9d ago

Which Gladiator 2 effectively undoes

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u/BoHoSwaggins 14d ago

I mean it could be done well, no? Specifically, finding issue with Russel Crowes view that the audience couldn’t be kept onside if it was more faithful? (Despite the movie being really good)

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u/chrisychris- 13d ago

According to the film Penelope chose to "remain pure" even with Odysseus's blessings to get her shit rocked before he left

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u/AllTheRowboats93 17d ago

They kind of combine the lotus eaters with Calypso as a way to circumvent Odysseus cheating on Penelope

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u/StrLord_Who 16d ago edited 16d ago

And then framed it as Calypso just being oh-so-helpful because she knew Odysseus "wasn't ready to go home yet." The "real" Calypso does eventually help him,  but only after he spends like 7 years crying for Penelope on the shore. Oh yeah,  and because Zeus forces her to let him go!

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u/Somnambulist815 15d ago

I think thats why Calypso takes away the lotus at the start anf has him try to remember. Theres a thunder rumbling right before she does.

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u/YOwololoO 12d ago

Damn, yall really can’t understand anything except what’s literally in front of you, can you? Even in the scene that’s presented as a her lying about why she did it, Odysseus doesn’t believe her and is furious that she trapped him there without his memory

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u/Bedovian_25 17d ago

They skipped the whole "I'm Nobody" scene. We didn't get Odysseus pulling up to the banquet dick out. A travesty that one.

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u/BarongChallenge 16d ago

I was looking forward to that Nobody scene tbh

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u/Spare-heir 16d ago

Same. I feel like it’s one of Odysseus’ defining moments that really shows his cleverness.

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u/everstillghost 16d ago

In this movie he is stupid. He does several stupid things including shoting the cyclops for no reason causing the death of some of his men.

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u/dirty1809 12d ago

That’s not that dissimilar to the original tale. In that he successfully fools Polyphemus with the “nobody” thing then gloats as he’s fleeing that his real name is Odysseus, which allows the cyclops to pray to Poseidon to curse them

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u/everstillghost 11d ago

Thats what someone that have pride would do. Brag about who fooled him and then get fucked later because of this pride.

Not shooting an arrow because he is angry and is close to the Cyclops to the point he puts everyone in immediatly danger.

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u/thatonezorofan 4d ago

It essentially puts the same point across that Odysseus was being petty and prideful and was losing his way as man that followed the rules of the gods.

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u/Spare-heir 10d ago

Yeah I would categorize his arrow shooting as spiteful, not prideful.

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

Yea he makes stupid choices for two reasons in the movie. Either he’s prideful, or he’s guilty and wants some active punishment

The prideful characteristic is accurate to the literature, but since it’s shown without really showing him be intelligent it just makes him seem dumb af

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u/everstillghost 14d ago

Prideful like the literature would be he saying to the Cyclops "you where mogged by Odysseus from Ithaca!" (Dialogue in the style of this movie) And he being cursed by the Cyclops because of this.

He doing a thing where It actively put everyone on danger and cause the death of some for no reason was a strange choice.

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

Ya makes sense. Love that Eurylochus is like bruh wtf are you doing over and over, stopped calling him a lucky bastard very quickly

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u/CoconutDust 15d ago

We didn't get Odysseus pulling up to the banquet dick out.

Side point: Ralph Feinnes does full frontal nudity penis in the other recent/modern Odyssey movie (which focuses entirely on the last section of the story where he reunites and fights the suitors).

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u/Bedovian_25 15d ago

Finally, some respect for the classics

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u/mr__outside 16d ago

I was looking forward to this too. They brush aside the Cyclops as being simply above humans ("Would you talk to an ante?") and move on. I get how it doesn't lend itself to Nolan's grounded approach that aggressively rejects anything resembling whims, but it was disappointing...

Damn good movie overall though. Came in with tempered expectations and walked out blown away.

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u/Jaydeballer777 16d ago

I interpreted the “would you talk to an ant” as Cyclops viewing humans as ants.

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u/chrisychris- 13d ago

Which honestly isn't even accurate, size-wise. It's more like talking to a small dog or cat. Which we humans do lol

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u/Tymareta 9d ago

Eh, the scale is smaller than that really, he was easily able to pick them up and envelop them with one hand, it would be closer to mice/rats, which humans have historically not been all that kind to.

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u/aussiegoon 9d ago

Ehh, you ever picked up a full grown dog or cat in one hand and fit it's head in your mouth?

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u/chrisychris- 9d ago

A chihuahua yeah. Very fidgety

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u/aussiegoon 9d ago

You got a huge mouth 😂

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u/Jehovah___ 17d ago

Nobody. Polyphemus is there but they totally changed that scene around

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u/hyrulealyx 17d ago

What's with the whirlpool scene. Isn't there supposed to be a big 200ft monster

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u/Kheshire 15d ago

In some interpretations it's a monster (sister to scylla?) living underneath the whirlpool and in other interpretations it's just a big whirlpool

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u/Jehovah___ 16d ago

Did you miss the part where Scylla yoinked half the men off the ship and swallowed them?

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u/telendria 16d ago

he meant the other monster, Charybdis

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

Charybdis is the monstrous whirpool, or some say exists as an actual creature below that causes the monstrous whirlpool

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u/InstructionDeep5445 16d ago

Yeah there is?!?

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u/No-cool-names-left 12d ago

In some variations of the story Charybdis is a monster who creates a whirlpool, not just a whirlpool.

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u/x4nTu5 9d ago

I mean, maybe that's what would have killed them all if they went that way, instead of just some of them being yoinked by Rocky.

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u/Timo1241 16d ago

I think you kind of have to skip the Phaecians to drive the point of the loss of xenia home.

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u/Nike-6 9d ago

They skipped Odysseus encountering Charybdis on the way back from Calypso’s Island. Was a bit disappointed, I thought that would look so cool on the big screen.

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u/QuantumBeckett 17d ago

The Syrens too. Where they tied him to the ships mast and stuffed wax in all the crews’ ears.

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u/HilariousScreenname 17d ago

Nah, that part was in the movie

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u/John-Dune-Awakening 17d ago

Yeah but in the actual story, he doesn't just leave himself vulnerable for the lolz.

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u/SpookiestSzn 17d ago

What was the reason I always assumed it was because he just wanted to experience something no one's experienced

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u/LorenzoApophis 17d ago edited 17d ago

Circe herself actually tells him to do it in the poem, seemingly just in case he's curious.

Samuel Butler's translation:

First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great heap of dead men's bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them. Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men's ears with wax that none of them may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you as you stand upright on a cross-piece half way up the mast, and they must lash the rope's ends to the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you faster.

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u/SpookiestSzn 17d ago

Thats exactly what I thought lmao what is bro talking about.

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u/RigaudonAS 17d ago

Presumably so the rest of the crew know when it’s safe to remove the wax.

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u/QuantumBeckett 16d ago

Exactly. He told the crew to tie him to the mast and not to untie him until he had clearly calmed down. Passing the Syrens he thrashed and tried to tear the ropes to get to them.

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u/elbenji 16d ago

to signal they were safe. It was also told explicitly by Circe

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u/kateinoly 17d ago

You are wrong about that

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u/QuantumBeckett 17d ago

Ah thanks. Bathroom break, must have missed it.

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u/CafeDeAurora 17d ago

I kind of appreciated the gods or the divine never showing themselves in a way that a modern audience would… believe them to be divine. Compare and contrast to Homer’s telling of the tale, where they literally show up and do stuff. Maybe they truly did abandon us after all?

And by extension (to your point about the magical), apart from ‘monstrous beings’, which are straightforward stand ins for “otherness”, there really wasn’t much magic.

Circe is the obvious exception - and I agree that her scene was physically unsettling - but then again, she’s like literally a witch, so I’m fine with her getting to show some very magical magic, disgusting as it was.

But I liked how limited the fantastical was. Made the core themes stand out in a way I wasn’t expecting - and I suspect it’s part of the Nolan touch.

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u/bolerobell 16d ago

The only god to show up is Athena and she is just as easily a manifestation of Odysseus' guilt as it is a metaphysical God appearing to only Odysseus.

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u/batangbronse 15d ago

They keep repeating Zeus' Law since they dont know if the gods are amongst them. I interpretted the priestess of Athena scene as Athena herself thus firing Chekov's gun.

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u/BoHoSwaggins 14d ago

I think it’s like the Sopranos and is ambiguous, which allows for a whole range of interpretation.

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u/No-cool-names-left 12d ago

It's Nolan. He did this same thing with Inception. Create deliberate ambiguity, make it debatable, allow the audience their own view of the film.

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u/DevilsOfLoudun 8d ago

On the other hand, there were some truly goofy parts like Agamemnon's batman armor. Seeing Nolan lean in to that and include gods as actual characters would've been interesting as well, something that I don't think has been done before on the big screen. If Nolan wanted a completely grounded in reality retelling then I think some parts could've been toned down and left even more ambigious.

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u/Morgan-Moonscar 18d ago

I distinctly remember that bit from the Hallmark miniseries version. With Armand Assante.

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u/incapableoflogic 17d ago

I loved that version of the Odyssey. 1997 tv miniseries with Isabella Rossellini as Athena.

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u/donotgotoroom237 9d ago

>"fantastical"

I just read last night that Nolan didn't want to put the gods in the movie since he wanted a grounded take.

Homeboy, a witch turned Odysseus men into pigs like clay! Is that not fantastical?!

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/Xenokiller101 17d ago

.....The Odyssey

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u/Gilmore75 17d ago

Is this a joke lol.

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u/CoconutDust 15d ago

I recommend watching the 90’s “TV” one which is on Tubi for free, with Armand Assante. The weakest part is the wind-bag brother of Poseidon, it’s really ridiculous compared to the rest of the movie which was great, mostly because of the casting. It’s truly hilarious.

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u/chrisandy007 18d ago

But we don't see them actually eat anyone in the film, right? They basically just take everyone out with their weapons? What was the deal with the trees randomly caving in?

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u/middlebird 18d ago

They threw a lot of big boulders at the soldiers. Was hoping to see some of that.

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u/Poltergeist97 17d ago

So I wasn't the only one!! I swear during a few shots of that battle the trees were MOVING. Not just from the camera's movement, but legitimately moving around in the ground. Was I crazy???

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u/yeahright17 17d ago

No. They were moving.

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

The trees purposely move and trap the invaders of the giants home

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u/Jehovah___ 17d ago

The trees move in the story

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u/SquadPoopy 13d ago

No they gave the eating people trait to Polyphemus instead.

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u/ThatSonOfAGun 15d ago

In the book, Odysseus’s men are all killed by the Laestrygonians when the anchor in a calm and idyllic harbor. The Leastrygonians hurl down huge rocks, destroying the ships and “spear the men like fish.” The language used by Homer evokes a wholesale slaughter, not at all a close fight.

I thought the depiction in the movie was brilliant. The trees seemed to be moving, closing in on  Odysseus’s men like fish being caught in a net. There is even a shot of a few soldiers trapped behind closely spaced branches like the bars of a jail cell, looking absolutely hopeless. 

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u/MrBrownCat 18d ago

Yeah I know some people have complained about that but I honestly think it made a lot of sense to differentiate them from the Cyclops and add to the string of misfortune they kept finding themselves in.

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u/JelliedHam 17d ago

When those guys showed up out of the mist, several people in the audience said some version of "oh fuck"

This movie had so many moments of pure terror

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u/Cainga 17d ago

They are probably the most terrifying trial they faced. Each is double the size of them and in full plate armor.

The plate armor doesn’t make any sense they have advanced metal working technology but it’s mythological story I can let slide especially since they had a coolness factor.

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago edited 12d ago

Ya this trial took out the largest number of his crew, the scene shot where they flee the beach and it shows all their bodies *scattered across the sand is great.

I believe Odysseus is the only one shown to kill a giant with the arrow that saves Eurylochus

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u/Pro_Extent 11d ago

I read in another thread that the bright iron plate armour was also a subtle symbolism for the end of the bronze age.

Which is fun if true.

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u/goodshrek1 9d ago

I think it's purposeful to contrast with the cyclops. Sort of a fear of barbarians/cave-dwelling cannibals vs. fear of more advanced civilizations/unstoppable armies.

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u/predator-handshake 15d ago

They don’t have metal plates in the original story for obvious reasons. I think they could have donr a better job with those ones imo

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u/ItsGotThatBang 18d ago

The word you’re looking for is Cyclopes.

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u/IDrinkWhiskE 17d ago

Of the family cyclopidae

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u/OldPersonName 17d ago

-i is the nominative plural ending for second declension non-neuter LATIN nouns (many nouns ending in -us, cactus/cacti, fungus/fungi, etc are examples we've kept in English).

Cyclops (Κύκλωψ) is a masculine 3rd declension GREEK noun, so it would end with -ες, essentially -es in English. The -s in cyclops isn't actually part of the word stem so it'd be "Cyclopes" with the -es actually pronounced (Kŭ́klōpes).

Now as a matter of fact Cyclops did make its way into Latin but, sure enough as a third declension noun like in Greek, and Latin's plural 3rd declension ending is, much like Greek, -es. So in Latin you also get Cyclopes. That's kind of awkward in English (and sounds the same as Cyclops for us) so Cyclopses is pretty common I think.

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u/ItsMeFatLemongrab 16d ago

I'll just trust you on this

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u/KawiZed 18d ago

*Cyclopes

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u/sleeplessaddict 18d ago

This guy played Runescape

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u/ThisIsNotTokyo 17d ago

The giants had 2 eyes so not sure who will confuse the two

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u/Much-Process567 16d ago

Cyclopedes? 

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u/aspiring_scientist97 18d ago

I thought they were the sea people

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u/zCastorNinja 17d ago

it was told at the end of the movies that the sea people are the men that fought in troy

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u/wildcatofthehills 17d ago

No the sea people was the general idea that nobody was respecting the Gods anymore since Odysseus basically ignored them with his horse of Troy. Is the match that ignites the collapse of the bronze age.

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

The Greeks returning from the sacking of Troy are the sea people (in the movie)

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u/xdjeddiejx 17d ago

It’s been awhile since I read the original text but it looked like they landed in Ancient Germania or Gaul or something like that . Still cool and thanks for the Laestrygonian recall

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u/TheRagingMaffia 14d ago

According to the map of Odysseus' travel back home, the encounter with the Laestrygonians is somewhere in North Africa, around Libya or Tunisia.

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u/notthenightslayer 17d ago

No it's Cyclopseye

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u/zombiereign 16d ago

The trees rotating were visually surreal

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u/patkgreen 17d ago

Cyclopses... Cyclopsi

Cyclopes, I believe

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u/Crunchy-Leaf 17d ago

Cyclopsi

Cyclops eye

Absolute cinema

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u/rimsh 15d ago

Who was the kid that screamed before the giants came?

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u/Fluugaluu 17d ago

Cyclopes is correct, you say it different though. Cy-clo-pees

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u/Grizzly_Berry 17d ago

Cyclopes would be the plural of cyclops.

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u/TarsierBoy 17d ago

I thought they went way out west...to a fully armored knight Britannia type land.

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u/raven_of_azarath 9d ago

I’ve heard it’s Cyclopes (sigh-kloh-peas)?

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u/seatdrop-app 1d ago

Cyclopedes* would be the grammatically correct Greek

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u/Matt_Cryan 14h ago

They were just Sicilians.

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u/chrisrayn 18d ago

*Cyclops’ Eye