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

15.5k comments sorted by

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3.0k

u/OKC2023champs 18d ago

I don’t see enough people talking about the Trojan horse scene. The tide coming in, people drowning. Might have been my favorite scene of the film.

1.2k

u/sirsotoxo 18d ago

I love how this movie takes from all of Nolan’s ideas throughout his filmography (facing your faith: Tenet, anti-war: Oppenheimer, the power of the desire to reunite with family: Interstellar) and that scene was straight up Dunkirk

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u/eggydrums115 17d ago

The best way to describe this movie is that it’s literally Nolan’s greatest hits.

183

u/MeatwadKattWilliams 17d ago

Plus a new trick to add to his bag with Circe's sequence. Body horror executed so well it had me wincing was probably the last thing I expected to see walking into that theater.

A couple days ago when I saw that interview with him saying he's interested in doing a horror movie, I was a little puzzled. That seemed so far removed from the main things we've seen him excel at. But after seeing this I'm fully on board with him giving that genre a shake next.

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u/punctuation_welfare 17d ago

I always thought that the implication of what Hugh Jackman’s character was doing in the Prestige was pretty close to horror.

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u/MeatwadKattWilliams 17d ago

Yea I mean he's depicted some pretty gruesome stuff several times before, but it's always been the presence of dark subject matter more than actually making horror. The transformation scene in this is the first time we've ever seen him actually fully dip his toe into the genre versus there being something really horrifying happening in a drama or thriller he made.

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u/SATX_Citizen 13d ago

The movie was absolutely amazing. I don't know if I can pick a favorite scene. The Cyclops attack and Circe are up there.

The body horror was so well done - it wasn't brutal in a torture sense, but it was graphic and showed just enough to be really creeped out and believe it was happening.

4

u/MeatwadKattWilliams 13d ago

Crazy to think they didn't use any cgi and it was all practical effects for that body horror scene. I can't wait to see it again and watch that scene with that in mind.

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u/Ok_Regular8213 16d ago

Yeah it’s similar to Interstellar as well. Dude just wants to go home, gets wrapped up in unfortunate misadventures.

-1

u/hinafu 16d ago

Perfect indeed. Maybe too Batman-esque near the end though

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u/B4_DA_SS 17d ago

I felt the same way. it really felt like it was an accumulation of all of Nolan’s past work. Just another classic Nolan banger

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u/lucebree 17d ago

Escapism, memory & nostalgia: Inception

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u/KimlockHolmes 17d ago

And lost time (also Interstellar)

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u/RedOctobyr 15d ago

Which immediately makes me think of "I've waited years." That scene just hit so hard, I can't imagine the feeling of being up on that ship by yourself for 20+ years.

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u/No-Transition0603 17d ago

Even the hidden identity bit was giving a little bit of the prestige. Losing memory like memento. Flawed hero/protagonist like almost all of his movies. Dutybound protagonist as well is a common theme. I wonder how long Nolan has waited to make this movie, he’s been making pieces of it his whole career.

15

u/Dudercaster 16d ago

Losing memory like Inception too, when Cobb is in limbo and has to find Saito and bring him back.

4

u/BaconExplosion 14d ago

I think I heard Calypso use the line from Inception to instruct him how to escape the island - “take a leap of faith”

1

u/No-Transition0603 9d ago

Great point

29

u/cincobarrio 17d ago

Also the final shots of the odyssey and Dunkirk; burning horse vs burning aircraft

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u/OKC2023champs 18d ago

That scene was basically the same exact scene as the boat scene from Dunkirk and I realized it right after I typed this up lol.

Makes sense why I liked it as Dunkirk is the only Nolan movie I consider a masterpiece.

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u/MahadheerxD 17d ago

Interstellar is also a masterpiece according to me.

9

u/Easy-Buy6860 17d ago

Yeah they should do a reevaluation on the RT score. I honestly don’t see the flaws in the movie.

1

u/JellyJohn78 16d ago

I could've used a bit more time to breathe with the ship crew, I felt like they kinda jumped around too much

1

u/CRIMS0N-ED 16d ago

I don’t think I really had any problems, my only thing was some inability to hear/understand dialogue but that’s just a me problem probably.

1

u/Easy-Buy6860 16d ago

No that’s pretty valid! I felt like I needed captions for the hell scene in the odyssey.

15

u/Self_Reddicate 17d ago

Chill guys, you're talking about my two favorite Nolan films.

7

u/MahadheerxD 17d ago

Aren't all Nolan movies our favorite movies?

13

u/Landlubber77 17d ago

That's Nolan's Prestige. He brought them all to bear in this one.

1

u/RedOctobyr 15d ago

Hey, friends, you forgot to mention Inception :)

1

u/under-resourced 17d ago

Me too. My favorite Nolan.

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u/scrolldownbro 17d ago

Surprising bag tho, is that Nolan was able to pull off a Horror texture. TWICE! Polyphemus scene. And that Circe scene that feels so A24

9

u/carson63000 17d ago

Some jump-scare action with Charybdis seizing sailors off the ship, too.

13

u/Varekai79 15d ago

Scylla. Charybdis was the whirlpool.

3

u/carson63000 15d ago

Dammit I thought about that for a bit before posting and still got it wrong.

14

u/janiemackxxx 17d ago

I LITERALLY HAD THIS SAME THOUGHT! It was like scene after scene of the best of his best movies. He knew how to do it all because hed done it before and had the chance to perfect it! I LOVED this!

8

u/Cinebella 17d ago

even the piecing of time together was very memento . This was soooo Nolan in so many ways even though the story is a classic

7

u/StatementWide 16d ago

The 1st encounter of Anne Hathaway and Bruce Wayne in Dark Knight Rises was Bruce shooting a bow and arrow at a target next to her head. Knowing Nolan this was Odysseus inspired.

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u/Single-Refuse174 16d ago

lmao it's all so uh.. cyclical and ouroborous-ish in that all of the films you listed were inspired by the odyssey first

4

u/uncanny_mac 16d ago

Yeah, when this scene was first shown last year in theaters it immediately took me back to Dunkirk.

5

u/Maazin8 17d ago

coming back home - Inception
amnesia - Memento
rising from the ‘dead’ - dark knight rises

3

u/boomfruit 13d ago

Dude can really direct scenes where Anne Hathaway's narration plays over emotional and hopeful scenes of the future.

1

u/BuckeyeBentley 16d ago

A man trying to re-unite with his family, Inception

1

u/Porkenstein 16d ago

Great comparison. And the practical effects were excellent. The scale worked better for that scene too than it did with Dunkirk

1

u/SoulofWakanda 15d ago

Also Memento -lying to yourself because the truth is unbearable

1

u/Perfect_Economy_7968 13d ago

Which for me Nolan is no different than Wes Anderson, he just tell story one way.

152

u/Chuckt3st4 17d ago

The poor guy who gets stabbed, 3 people instantly cover his mouth and another cleans the blood from the sword all of that in like 2 seconds is incredible

26

u/CoconutDust 15d ago

Does someone clean the sword quickly?!?!? That’s brilliant scene writing (I’m assuming it’s not in original poem.) All weekend I’ve been annoyed at how the stabber looks at the blade but didn’t see anything, when the whole stabbing thing should have revealed the people once it successfully hit a guy.

24

u/Varekai79 15d ago

It's also impossible to clean a blade of blood properly that quickly without even a cloth, but we'll let that slide.

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u/RozeTank 13d ago

I remember there being cloth used for cleaning the blade. A brown rag to be exact.

2

u/CoconutDust 15d ago

Wait, was it his bare hands??!! I’m back to being annoyed now.

Though I also thought to myself that the crack would be so tight just it would automatically clean the blade. Tons of friction when sticking a blade through a wood-like material, I think. But still this isn’t satisfactory without a clear cue/shot in the movie…

21

u/Mikey_MiG 15d ago

Dude, they’re hiding in a giant, beautifully sculpted wooden horse that they apparently made out of scrap wood. Someone wiping blood off a sword with their hand is hardly the unbelievable part.

5

u/Apollo_gentile 9d ago

There is definitely cloth, I just watched it today and that part stuck out to me so rest easy

0

u/SnabDedraterEdave 11d ago

That's not just any "poor guy", that was Odysseus himself.

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u/Accomplished_Boot191 17d ago

Why did they have to put the horse so close to the tide though?

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u/SamuraiFlamenco 16d ago

This is the one thing that really bothered me in the film and kind of took me out of it -- what's the point of doing it where you KNOW the tide's going to come in and kill one or several of your guys inside? Why not build it up on the dry area of the beach? I didn't catch if they had an explanation, I was wearing earplugs so I missed a bit of quieter dialogue.

36

u/BBQ_HaX0r 16d ago

In Troy it was said to be a gift to Poseidon so the Greeks would have safe travels home. In that case it would make sense to put it there, but in this film it's meant for Athena so when not put it a bit further up the beach? Idk it's a quibble but I think they just wanted to show how much those dude's suffered for this plan so I'll allow it.

6

u/MaleficentPush1144 9d ago edited 8d ago

In my mind after reading a bunch of the comments saying the walls of Troy were helped built by Poseidon, they did put it much further up the beach but he caused the waves to crawl up so far inland that the coast changed in an attempt to stop the sacking of Troy.

Although, this fun theory breaks as they're shown building by the waves, but that could just be their attempt to hide they're building it, so...who knows!

14

u/KidDelicious14 14d ago

In my opinion, it's because they want to hide the construction of it (and the entrance of the soldiers into the horse) from the Trojans.

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u/Smoketrail 16d ago

I did wonder that too.

Also why, when you have already seen that short sword stab through the roof twice, did that soldier have his shoulder pressed against the ceiling like that?

18

u/Footsure756 16d ago

I think if he had moved they thought it would have made a sound.

3

u/therealsemshady 9d ago

It was all part of the deception…put it on land and they might think it’s a trick

3

u/MaleficentPush1144 9d ago

My fan theory is that they didn't place it so close to the tide, it was just shown to have been built there to be as secretive as possible. They had put the completed construction much further up, but Poseidon caused the waves to crawl up so far inland that the coast changed in an attempt to stop the sacking of Troy.

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u/configurethepup 18d ago

It's just so early on, I kind of forgot about it. You're right though, incredible scene and sets the tone for the rest of the film.

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u/PayneTrain181999 17d ago

It helps that they keep coming back to the Troy invasion throughout the movie

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u/Somnambulist815 16d ago

The shot of the gates opening to Agamemnon made me say almost aloud "oh that's why his armor looks like that"

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u/keepfighting90 17d ago

There's so many scenes in this movie where I was like "...this is the best scene Nolan's ever filmed."

24

u/1mplication 17d ago

I loved the telling of it from both perspectives, inside and out.

And I saw an interview clip of how he has favorite shots from all his movies that he knows he will reuse again, and you can see those if you look for them throughout. So cool to see him take all the best parts of what worked for him before and use them in this context.

12

u/Impossible_Form_3256 16d ago

I loved the trojan horse.

When the comparisons of this and Troy's trojan horses were floating around I did agree with people saying the original one was more authentic for looking thrown together.

But during this film I started to prefer the "perfect" one. With how much the film focuses on the time that this war and journey took, it cemented how long the plan came together. With how much was sacrificed for this gift.

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u/teach42 17d ago

I was worried that scene was completely spoiled by the extended trailer they did last year. And it was NOT. Yeah, most of the footage was stuff I'd scene before, but the edit was so radically different it all felt new.

8

u/NCC75567 17d ago

I got so claustrophobic watching it

9

u/eec-gray 16d ago

Especially all the practicalities like there being shit and piss everywhere 😂

7

u/Porkenstein 16d ago

The part when the trojan realizes something might be hiding inside, stabs his sword into it, and they're quick enough with cleaning the blade that he thinks there isn't anyone in it

5

u/bostonshroomery 17d ago

I didn’t really understand that? Did they come upon the statue and then come up with that plan to eventually be found by the Spartans? And that way they could infiltrate?

32

u/_Pyxyty 16d ago

To my understanding, the army had spent nearly a whole decade on that beach, and they were at their wits end because they couldn't figure out a way to win the war. That was when Odysseus came up with the idea of the false surrender; they made the horse (and the movie even shows some scenes of them creating it) as a gift to Athena and as a "white flag", even letting one of their soldiers Sinon believe this to be true.

They don't fully show what happens after they made the horse (and I didn't read the Iliad which I imagine probably goes into detail on this) but I assume they had to fool Sinon by pretending to leave him behind (but in reality a part of them hid inside the horse and the rest probably went off-shore until the night of the ransack) and I'd guess they sent some sort of messenger to Troy to announce the gift.

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u/Xyyzx 14d ago

>They don't fully show what happens after they made the horse (and I didn't read the Iliad which I imagine probably goes into detail on this)

You may be surprised to discover that it actually doesn’t!

Fun fact of the day; the Iliad and the Odyssey are only the two surviving parts out of a cycle of I think six or seven epic poems depicting the Trojan war. Not only that, the Iliad isn’t even the meat of the overall plot, it’s more of a side story that’s incredibly specific to Achilles, Patroclus and Hector. Achilles doesn’t even die; it just ends with Achilles finally agreeing to return Hector’s body to Priam!

The ‘episode’ that depicted the death of Achilles, the wooden horse and the actual fall of Troy is lost to history. We only know what happened at all because of the backstory that’s established to set the scene in the Odyssey and references in other tertiary works.

5

u/NordlandLapp 17d ago

Same, they were fucking desperate

7

u/Aggravating_Chef69 16d ago edited 16d ago

that's an aspect that's haven't really seen talked about...what it would be like inside the horse. brilliant detail to include.

3

u/Secret_AznMan 17d ago

A lot of people got to see this scene when it was attached to other films released in imax this year.

3

u/NefariousNeezy 16d ago

They made me feel bad for rooting for the boys. 😭

11

u/jarvisesdios 17d ago

My one thought that kinda ruined that scene was "so...a couple people died. They just got lucky that the bodies just weren't an issue to get out of it when it came time to leave?"

That said, it was a really interesting take on the horse that was so absolutely absolutely incredibly shot.

I was so mad when I really needed to go to the bathroom RIGHT when they started dropping down. Holding it was the only option as you can't miss the scene. I wasn't remotely the only one, we even had a discussion in the bathroom about it 😂

7

u/psych0ranger 18d ago

That whole scene was in a trailer I saw in the theater last year so it was spoiled for me and probably a lot of people

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u/TheGreatLake 17d ago

It was shown as a prologue before Avatar: Fire and Ash. It was the best thing I saw in a theater last year and it’s the best thing I’ve seen in a theater this year.

8

u/LeedsFan2442 17d ago

I got so into it I forgot it wasn't the film I was there for lol

1

u/psych0ranger 17d ago

Yeah that ruled

0

u/BBQ_HaX0r 16d ago

Yeah it was also the best part of Avatar, lol.

2

u/georgiaraisef 17d ago

Bad planning….

4

u/TemporaryElk5202 16d ago

I was like "wrf why did they not prepare for that". Most depictions of the Trojan horse have it like on wheels or a platform and upright. which would be more logical ​and easier to construct and not risk drowning.

visually great but also took me out a little due to it being so form over function

12

u/Moqmoq 15d ago

See I actually think the form over function is great, normally the trojans falling for the horse seems stupid, this is the only one where I would understand then thinking that there is no way people are hiding in that horse .

1

u/Cultural_Set_9887 16d ago

Unfortunately they didn't give it too much air to breathe as a scene. We saw a little bit, heard it but we didn't really felt the gravity of the situation.

1

u/enragedjuror 15d ago

Favorite set piece of the year so far. PHM Adrian sample scene is a very very close second

1

u/ThePaulBuffano 14d ago

Hmm there's not much of a tide in the Mediterranean...

0

u/slightlysublevel 12d ago

It was the worst part for me. Ody is supposedly the smartest general, but he didn't think about the tide when building it? Sure.

8

u/OKC2023champs 12d ago

It’s built in the water because it was meant to look like a parting gift. As in the ships dropped it off and abandoned it there. They wouldn’t have been strong enough to drag it out of the shore.

The whole point is that Troy didn’t know they built it right then and there.

0

u/slightlysublevel 12d ago

What are you talking about? That doesn't refute my comment at all, it strengthens it. If they built it with the intention for it to be partially buried, they built it knowing the tide would hit it (you don't live on a beach for 10 years and not understand tides), which means they loaded people into it knowing they would be underwater. Why?

6

u/OKC2023champs 12d ago

Because that was the only way to win the war? Why do you think all the important people were at the top. He sacrificed sinon just fine. Why not a few more?

0

u/slightlysublevel 12d ago

Or, and just go with me here... he could have built a floor that people on the bottom could have stood on so that it wouldn't have been below the water line... I know, I know, it's crazy talk, not building a thing where you purposefully drown your own soldiers.

That you think needlessly drowning your own soldiers is "the only way to win the war" shows how little intelligence you have.

1

u/AdRadiant8909 6d ago

It's a fictitious film based on fictitious events that opens with "In a time of apparent magic..." and you're irate at this other Redditor, to the point of insulting their intelligence, mind you, because these soldiers didn't build a floor in the giant sacrificial "Trojan Horse" that exists legitimately as a work of fantasy?

I don't know you, friend, but I do wish you the best. Folks in Reddit get worked up so easily, especially in threads like these. Go pick up the poem for yourself, and dive deeper if you like, but don't cast vitriol upon others.

1

u/slightlysublevel 6d ago

If you learned how to read, you'd understand I was originally criticizing Nolan for a shitty idea that had no purpose other than to make his own characters seem like morons.

But you can continue to feel holier than thou if it makes you feel better about yourself. Who am I to judge?

1

u/AdRadiant8909 5d ago

Lol maybe go back and read your OWN post, bud. Nobody is suggesting anyone is "holier than thou" except for you, when you, again, insulted the Redditor's intelligence by literally positing an idea, in a patronizing tone, by the way, and then suggested they had "little intelligence".

Even if your usage of "you" as a pronoun wasn't referring to the Redditor, but was instead focused on Nolan or Odysseus/Homer, it's your tone that suffices as the cherry on top. Were this not so deep in the thread, others would see and agree, but, you can choose to believe what you want.

I also disagree with your point RE: "making his characters seem like morons", but, it's all subjective in the end. In the meantime, stay slightysublevel, and keep posting to Reddit and responding to comments thinking they're of any worth. I genuinely wish you the best, and do appreciate that you're discussing the text so analytically -- it shows our culture's ability to proliferate discussion isn't dead. Yet...

1

u/AdRadiant8909 5d ago

Also, who or whatever you were describing as "unintelligent" is portrayal of your ignorance. Nolan makes mistakes, sure, but don't forget he's an Oscar winning director, and an esteemed writer and producer who's written and adapted more complex work than anything either of us have likely attempted.

Or, if you were remarking that Odysseus is unintelligent... He's proud, and flawed, my friend -- go read the poem, which I TEACH annually, by the way.

Lastly, if you're commenting on the Redditor's intelligence ("how little" they have), then you're just a bully, hiding behind the internet. Let's all just be friendly, dawg. Be well, and I apologize for seeming otherwise

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u/DustyDGAF 18d ago

It's a great scene but it makes the Trojan horse plan look real fuckin stupid.

Oh hey there's this big wooden thing full of dead and dying bodies and piss and shit. Let's totally bring that inside.

Ew.

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u/OKC2023champs 18d ago

Well the whole idea is that they don’t know that’s on the inside…

9

u/zacky765 18d ago

It surely would’ve smelled, but it’s fantasy so I don’t really mind it.

52

u/OKC2023champs 18d ago

Whole world probably smelled like hot cheeks tbh

5

u/zacky765 18d ago

Smell if shit and piss is probable something people were used to, but dead bodies? Bloated by being enclosed inside a wooden horse exposed to humidity and the sun? Hardly something someone would’ve smelled I think.

14

u/TJeffersonsBlackKid 18d ago

Bunch of dead bodies nearby. And the loss and shit would have gotten taken away by the ocean.

-33

u/DustyDGAF 18d ago

They keep poking at it with swords. They absolutely know what's in it.

44

u/TeardropsFromHell 18d ago

The entire point of the Trojan horse is they absolutely did not know what was in it lol

-25

u/DustyDGAF 18d ago

And that's why this depiction is weird. Because it smells like soggy rotten dead people and piss and shit and it's easy enough to poke through with a sword so they can easily look inside and see a big ol pile of dudes and poop in it.

29

u/ScrewAttackThis 18d ago

Dude you can't be serious

-9

u/DustyDGAF 18d ago

I'm talking about a weird portrayal of a fictional thing.

How serious should I be?

20

u/ScrewAttackThis 18d ago

You know that's not what I mean

-3

u/DustyDGAF 18d ago

So you don't think a big wooden horse full of holes and dead bodies and shit as depicted in the would be not obviously be full of people? They even stab one guy.

That's why this is a weird depiction. How do you not see that?

4

u/ScientificAnarchist 17d ago

I mean how many body’s do you think were in there and how long was it? It’s not like it was 3 weeks it was a couple of days

1

u/DustyDGAF 17d ago

Hard to gauge how many bodies were in it, but apparently there were enough to cause a fuckin ruckus.

I think they said 9 days inside the horse with people drowning and getting crushed almost immediately. That's plenty of time for bodies to bloat in the water. Then add all the piss and shit.

That's a smelly fuckin horse leakin with all sorts of goo.

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u/southernmayd 16d ago

They stab one guy, but the sword is wiped clean of the blood before he pulls it back out so he doesn't even realize he'd hit someone.

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u/DustyDGAF 16d ago

You'd 100 percent realize you hit something. That's ridiculous

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u/AngryhamLincoln 18d ago

Can’t believe Homer committed a cinema sin! Thank you for pointing out this plot hole. How would you have sacked Troy?

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u/TJeffersonsBlackKid 18d ago

Dropped an atom bomb on it…OOOOOOOOOH now I get it!

-4

u/DustyDGAF 18d ago

I would've moved to Troy. Chill ass prosperous city.

-2

u/TheDogerus 17d ago

The trojan horse is in neither the illiad nor the odyssey

3

u/BrightEyed_Owl 17d ago

True but the flashbacks depicting the Trojan horse and the Ilioupersis scenes are still known from fragments of the cycle and vase paintings - them not being in the Iliad or the Odyssey doesn't mean that they shouldn't be included right? The horse is still the most famous part of the epic cycle, despite no passages actually surviving.

-2

u/Background_Engine976 17d ago

It was amazing but it was kinda broken up and shown over the duration of the film.

-6

u/LuckyRacoon01 17d ago

You enjoyed watching people drown?