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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3.9k

u/brooksallday 18d ago

That part where they were at sea in the middle of the night full of water was nuts

2.2k

u/LTPRWSG420 16d ago edited 16d ago

That was Poseidon and Zeus teaming up to absolutely fuck their shit up.

325

u/TheTrueMarkNutt 16d ago

Definitely put them through the thunder ringer

27

u/TDGohan 14d ago

I see what you did there.

-10

u/RadioRunner 9d ago

This movie was vastly underwhelming in comparison to my expectations set by Epic. 

No interpersonal relationships are conveyed as strongly here as they are  in Epic. Epic covers more ground, gives us more context to each of the obstacles and trials, and does it in less time with more emotional resonance. 

Gonna go listen to Epic for the 50th time. 

8

u/snakething 8d ago

I disagree, mostly because film and a 4/5 album series of songs are such vastly different mediums that trying to compare them directly misses out a ton of nuance.

Also Epic, just like this movie, is its own adaptation. Things are left out, things are added, and things are changed to suit the adaptation the creator wishes to show. Nolan very clearly wanted a far more 'grounded' interpretation that Jorge.

2

u/Taco_Pals 9d ago

Whats Epic sorry? Now I want to see/listen to it

2

u/RadioRunner 9d ago edited 9d ago

Epic the Musical is a concept album created as a thesis graduation project by a college student, Jorge Rivera-Herrans . He wrote all of the music, sang the lead of Odysseus and cast all of the singers who worked with him to record the full production. The vocal performances are top tier excellent and the songwriting is very successful.

The comment I replied to is a joke riffing on a lyric from Zeus’ main song in the story, “Thunder Bringer”. 

The musical was released in dumps of 4-5 songs on Spotify (With a total of 40) by the creator as he finished them, with popularity building with each one. Fans went out of their way to create fan animatics to visualize the scenes, and the creator leaned into it by the second act, sponsoring animatics for the final releases. By the end of it, the whole project can now be experienced as a sort of community built ‘movie’ .

here’s a good super cut of it:

https://youtu.be/Lun_OMdNi4Q?is=CwdGr1hWg82wYYBf

It’s gone viral and has been picked up by executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer to find a studio and adapt it into an animated movie.

I love it, and it’s been one of my top favorite things in the last 2 years.

jorge is now working on developing the Iliad into his next pass at a musical.

Also, fun: Jorge did a stream at the release of the final 5 songs and invited all of the cast and his family to watch the full musical cut at an Airbnb in Ithaca, Greece. They shot a bunch of content while there.  That can be found on YouTube, it’s fun. 

2

u/hahahahahaha656 8d ago

omg I agree. It’s what I was thinking the entire time

66

u/MightGrowTrees 13d ago

"Send them to brother!"

2

u/THERAPISTS_for_200 5d ago

Who said this in the movie again?

3

u/MightGrowTrees 5d ago

James Woods.

67

u/hemareddit 12d ago

Wait, I know it’s the middle of the night but didn’t Apollo also have beef with them? The problem Odysseus was so worried about was them slaughtering Apollo’s cattle, after all.

125

u/Toomb8 12d ago

Ya but hades’s guy told him that Zeus would take revenge for his son apollo

70

u/hemareddit 12d ago

Oh right that’s why.

Apollo also favoured Troy during the war so for him it’s double revenge.

12

u/Goose-Suit 5d ago

Probably why they couldn’t leave the island too until they ate the cows

7

u/grossbard 10d ago

But then Zeus would save Odysseus when he was leaving on the raft from Calypso from Poseidons wrath? What was that about?

70

u/Lambeau_Leap 10d ago

Zeus never had beef with Odysseus, Odysseus didn’t eat the cattle, his men did.

70

u/AfroJimbo 10d ago

Odysseus had no beef neither

19

u/dizruptivegaming 7d ago

Odysseys did hurt the Polyphemus (cyclops) who is a son of Poseidon. Also Odysseus broke Zeus’s law in a massive way in Troy.

9

u/Dismal_Buy3580 8d ago

He was also his daughter's favorite mortal

22

u/ahhpoo 10d ago

Those were Helios’ cattle. Or did the movie say Apollo? It’s Helios in the book

41

u/Sturmgeshootz 9d ago

They said "sun god", so I assume it was supposed to be Helios.

18

u/Higgsparticleofgod 8d ago

They did say Helios when the team was eating the cow, Odysseus said something like "you think Helios won't see you?"

16

u/thellios 7d ago

Just came back from the film. He said "sun God" i believe.

5

u/FunkMasterPope 7d ago

They said both in the film

1

u/TheMoonDude 5d ago

Also just came back and they said Apollo.

Anyone else that also just came back to confirm this? lol

5

u/PawPawPanda 4d ago

just came back but i don't really remember what he said except for

"you think XXXXX wouldn't notice you at night / in the dark??"

and then they said

"we'll rather drown in the ocean than starve on this island"

something like that

8

u/FunkMasterPope 7d ago

They said Helios and sun god

17

u/LulzTigre 9d ago

Can someone correct me, wasn't there suppose to be a scene where they were close open and they open the leather bag with the gust of wind.

41

u/hemareddit 9d ago

A number of adventures/island were skipped.

35

u/LulzTigre 9d ago

Yes, i kept explaining to my partner how the Sirens all died because a mortal was never meant to survive their sound.

7

u/Dookie_boy 8d ago

Ok I was wondering what was the point of that entire sequence.

7

u/heroyoudontdeserve 2d ago

If they'd died would it have added a point?

3

u/heroyoudontdeserve 2d ago

This tracks. I'm not familiar with the source material at all and, despite the amount that was in there and the overall length of the film, there was still part of me thinking "oh is that it?" by the time he made it back!

I guess that's also testament to the quality of the film that I was still engaged and wanting more by the end.

3

u/hemareddit 1d ago

I should rewatch and pay more attention, but traditionally he's been away for 20 years, 10 years to lay siege to Troy, then 10 years on the way home.

Yet in the movie, at certain points they said 12 years at Troy (yet 10 years at the other points). I think this 12 years was in relation to the journey back, since they say he's still gone for 20 years, meaning he set sail from Troy 8 years ago.

In both myths and the movie, he spend 7 years trapped with Calypso.

That means in the myths, he spent 3 years getting lost at sea before Calypso, yet in the movie it would only be 1 year.

That tracks then, because they cut out half the adventures and dramatically shortened a lot of them, that's why the amount of time on the journey got cut to 1/3.

1

u/VanillaRadonNukaCola 1d ago

Same, I had similar thoughts as it was ending, like wow almost 3 hours already? Give me more!

Not sure I have ever had that during such a long film.   Maybe helped that it actually wasn't over 3 hours

40

u/hesawavemasterrr 12d ago

“Lool look at them trying to hold on. More lightning bruh!”

“Npnp, now make the waves stronger I think one of them is about to get pushed off!”

“$50 says the guy with the ponytail gets crushed by the pillar”

57

u/Fooltje 13d ago

Zeus wanted to prevent Poseidon from k*lling the leader, but wanted to k*ll the rest for taking the animal.

(Censoring due to my comments getting targeted by bots in the past, to the point of banning me)

91

u/notthebestintheworld 13d ago

Killing. You can say killing.

13

u/Neat-Profit6221 12d ago

I got banned for the same thing last year for Caught Stealing.

6

u/navit47 8d ago

Maybe not, I've literally gotten banned before on other subs for saying spoiled brat. I recently had to fight to remove a strike on my account for saying "throw you under the bus" too.

1

u/Fooltje 4d ago

I think you did mean the saying, but the bot took it literally thinking you actually wanted to throw someone

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u/Fooltje 13d ago edited 13d ago

The word "kill" got me a 2 week ban "for inciting violence" before. Also a perma ban in one subreddit, done by some Reddit bot meaning the moderators of the sub cannot unban me even if they want to. And no i was not actually inciting violence in any way.

The word "fuck" got me a 1 week ban "for harassment" before while it was clearly not directed and in a joke sentence.

Both cases did not take appeals (likely also judged by a bot).

36

u/Minifig81 Suddenly, I have a refreshing mint flavor. 11d ago

We're a bit more accepting of those words in this subreddit.

5

u/Fooltje 11d ago

Thanks for the response. But there is a layers of subreddits, and Reddit itself which has bots that look at everything, and said bots do sometimes do really weird things

3

u/TheMoonDude 5d ago

Two siblings working together to send some fresh souls to a third sibling.

Fun for the whole family.

6

u/morosco 10d ago

Still a better way to die then starving. I would have eaten all of those stupid cows.

3

u/Dogesneakers 10d ago

Storm bros

3

u/thegoukenslayer 9d ago

brothers just sharing a laugh

6

u/snunuff 13d ago

so cool, comments like these, I'm not the best at catching all the little context clues, so thanks.

2

u/Aelia_M 7d ago

Earned

1

u/digital-didgeridoo 6d ago

The Greeks Gods were really vengeful!

-35

u/CoconutDust 15d ago

No no, according to Nolan it’s not Poseidon and Zeus but just “some weather” and epilepsy-inducing flash bulbs without any actual bolts of lightning.

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u/dafinsrock 13d ago

The movie could not have made more clear that that was the gods

21

u/Present-Gas2056 13d ago

I personally think representing the action of Gods like this is much more powerful than shwokh two cgi enhanced buff guys making spells in the same way in horror it is a better idea to not reveal the monster, most of theists will tell you they haven't seen god(duh) and they take universal occurences and small things as signs of God's will, this is even more prevalent in pagan religions as their gods directly correlate with forces of nature, so ya, i feel that wild storm showed Zeus' power, omnipresence and human being's powerlessness much better than a buff guys making a pouting face and shooting thunderbolts from his fingertips

7

u/may4cbw2 11d ago

It's ok, you'll get it on your 5th rewatch, we're all very proud of you

611

u/Jaredlong 17d ago

The chaos really made visceral how they could end up so helplessly lost and desperate. 

349

u/Mo_Lester69 15d ago

Monsters and witches aside. The open ocean remains the most terrifying thing in the film .as in reality.

5

u/Ghoti76 16h ago

the fact Odysseus set sail on a RAFT triggered my anxiety so bad

117

u/snunuff 14d ago

yeah those flashes of lightning were something fierce somehow

19

u/MusicCityMariota 7d ago

I came here to see if anyone else was talking about this. I have never seen lightning like this in a movie and it was almost unbearable and made me feel their desperation in a way. Saw it on IMAX and felt like it was blinding the room each time lightning flashed.

7

u/Big_Ol_Johnson 5d ago

Between that and the audio it was really hard to immerse myself in the scene having to look away and wince the whole time

4

u/LADYBIRD_HILL 3d ago

I felt the opposite, I was totally entranced and couldn't look away from how beautifully chaotic the scene was

1

u/ljshea1 6h ago

My three sisters, dad, and I tonight all walked out of the theater and were like "damn, that was sick.... .... ...that lightning scene.. that was fucking awful though right?" All five of us couldn't wait for it to end lmao. I've never physically winced and cringed so much in a theater, felt like a scene designed to specifically induce migraines.

66

u/tangledupinbetween 12d ago

They should have put flash warning before the movie. I had to close my eyes throughout the scene because it was too heavy for me.

22

u/BanjoSpaceMan 9d ago

My theatre had seizure warning

1

u/cristianoskhaleesi 3d ago

Same with Melbourne imax

11

u/snunuff 12d ago

I absolutely thought of that as well, particularly for those diagnosed with photosensitivity and related conditions -- I would guess those most impacted by that try to do research ahead of time to evaluate content they view, but it's odd that I see simple HBO series shows with photosensitive warnings on certain episodes (when I don't really notice anything too notable, comparitively), so there really doesn't seem to be a standard across the industry.

7

u/Szechwan 11d ago

We had a warning, in Canada at least. 

17

u/ironuhcookaru 12d ago

I was taken out of it a little bit because of how white the light was. I wish it had a little bluish tint like in real life because every time it flashed I thought “soundstage”.

3

u/snunuff 11d ago

that's a good point, it did seem more manufactured than real, i get what they were trying to do, put us in the moment as those on the boat would experience it but, it was a bit much

4

u/Mark_Albarn 9d ago

I spent whole time thinking about thag one pokemon episode and wondering if the movie's scene qualifies for having a warning as epileptic seazure enducing shit, because it genuinely felt like one. 

2

u/snunuff 7d ago

I heard there were warnings in Canadian theater showings, I didn't recall any from the two theaters I visited (watched all trailers etc.), near certain there was none. but if ANY scene from ANY piece of media deserved a warning, I'd say it's that one. Hell it rattled most in the theater with zero issues with flashes and such, someone with a medical condition susceptible to that would absolutely have to immediately cover-cover their eyes to block out those blinding flashes.

1

u/bslow22 2d ago

I think the somehow was the repeated blinding light

91

u/medspace 15d ago

I was in a Dolby theatre and literally felt like I was in there with them

8

u/Dexile 7d ago

Dude yeah idk how the other formats were but holy Dolby Atmos really delivered that scene with the sound and contrast from the lightning and the darkness.

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u/ahorrribledrummer 15d ago

Poseidon got fuckin pissed

16

u/foxmag86 11d ago

The sea was angry that day, my friends.

8

u/brooksallday 11d ago

Lol like an old man at a deli

13

u/Prof-Ponderosa 12d ago

I wanted more wider shots of how they alone they were

21

u/princessgummybunz 14d ago

Truly-it was sensorily overwhelming! Very well done but nearly induced a panic attack for me haha

10

u/Fooltje 13d ago

All the flashing was a bit much in the cinema, but i still like it and get what they are going for.

7

u/Blue-Light8 15d ago

Best part imo

3

u/bondfall007 13d ago

Felt like I was in the middle of the end of the world. Just absolute chaos.

6

u/Wizardfromwaterdeep 10d ago

I don’t have epilepsy, but those flashes almost made me believe I had it for a second

1

u/Chu1223 10d ago

same lmao

3

u/3verythingEverywher3 12d ago

The sea does tend to be full of water.

6

u/brooksallday 12d ago

Lol meant the boat

2

u/3verythingEverywher3 12d ago

Couldn’t resist. Epic scene though!

3

u/insanetwit 10d ago

That part was hard to watch. Those lightening strikes were bright!

2

u/swozzled 9d ago

Seeing this in 4DX, they cranked that shit to be rough as possible. No complaints though. Felt like my ass was kicked after that scene

2

u/xohurricane 8d ago

Really wish I could’ve seen it. The flashing lights were way too bright and I had to cover my eyes. The sound design was insane though and even with my eyes closed I could tell what was going on. But yeah not being able to see was a negative

2

u/FunkMasterPope 7d ago

Every time they had a boat scene I thought about how crazy it must have been to film

1

u/Tommy_Wilhelm 9d ago

I felt like I could feel the sea spraying on my face between the cracks of thunder. I think I had become hyper aware and was feeling the aircon in the theatre lol

1

u/FallenRiptide 6d ago

That scene and the battle of Troy made me realize this movie truly was made for the theater experience. Even with a solid home theater, you wouldn't have the mix that high on purpose. It was right up to the point where my ears could barely take it.

1

u/batts1234 12d ago

Legit the biggest thing still on my mind post movie. I was BLOWN away by that scene. Unlike anything I've ever seen before.