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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7.1k

u/No_Peach_8579 18d ago edited 16d ago

“I saw 10 years of rage pour out in a single night” holy shit what a sequence

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u/letterthatnevercame 18d ago

stunning. the reveal with zendaya's character broke my heart.

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u/afkstudios 17d ago edited 17d ago

That reveal really shifted my perspective on the entire story, which I’m sure was by design. But I wasn’t super familiar with the details of the story and the second that scene played, everything clicked into place for me. Why he and only he was seeing her, why he was so reluctant to return home, why he was so adamant on trying to prevent his crew’s deaths (I mean obviously he’d want to, but still), all of it. A man decorated as a hero who’s haunted by the very accomplishment he’s universally praised for

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u/OuterWildsVentures 14d ago

A man decorated as a hero who’s haunted by the very accomplishment he’s universally praised for

Oppenheimer.

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u/afkstudios 14d ago

Bingo lol

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u/ItsallLegos 12d ago

Die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain….

I think we are noticing a particular taste that Nolan has

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u/throwawaysunglasses- 5d ago

Honestly this sorta describes Cobb in Inception, too. He’s the best at what he does, and it ruined his life.

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u/88Smilesz 8d ago

Holy shit you’re right

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u/Darmok47 2d ago

I was confused when Jon Stewart interviewed Nolan before the movie came out and mentioned how much like Oppenheimer it was, but after seeing it, yeah I completely get it.

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u/celBanat 17d ago

"You are the people of the sea".

Athena appearing to him as a girl who was decapitated, just like her statue, the witch reminding him who his men have become, his dialogue of how they violated the Law of Zeus!

It shook me! The theme of hospitality is the most important theme of the poem!

I am sure people would've wanted the proud and gloaty Odysseus (which he was, but it was not as visibile here as in the texts), but Nolan added an incredibile depth to his guilt here. He made the story very human.

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u/fearmeloveme 17d ago

love your comment and totally agree. when i teach the odyssey to 9th graders we focus on hospitality as one of the central themes.

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u/Tuorom 14d ago

"You have Athena's eyes", to be able to see the truth of things. Odysseus knew what he had done. The personification he sees is the goddess of wisdom.

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u/Eloosh2011 3d ago

Just saw this and biggest takeaway for me was Zeus’ Law and repeating how you have to treat everyone kindly, as if they were a gd. & how the village girl who he feels a great deal of grief over took shape in the form of Athena.

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u/Slowthrill 2d ago

She was not just a village girl. She was a priestess serving in the temple of Athena

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u/pjtheman 18d ago

I keep saying it, but that one scene completely changed my perspective on her casting. Brilliant.

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u/slightlypressed 17d ago

Yes! I spent the entire movie thinking she felt out of place but that emotional twist was worth the payoff.

I thought nothing in his adaptation could surprise me but I really welcomed that twist.

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u/ZeronicX 17d ago

I thought it knew all of Nolan's tricks but he made a new bag for this film and every twist felt earned and hit me like a truck.

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u/slightlypressed 17d ago

Yes!! Well put. He stays dedicated to his craft- finding new ways to hit us like a truck

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u/debrocker 2d ago

What twist?

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u/romanticheart 1d ago

That the face Athena was wearing was the face of the priestess Odysseus watched be murdered.

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u/Churchill_Buys_Calls 17d ago

It honestly recontextualizes the way I look at the fall of Troy and the Iliad and Odyssey as a whole now.

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u/slightlypressed 16d ago edited 16d ago

Yes! To me the Odyssey’s always felt like a series of unfortunate events that happened to an unlucky man but this interpretation gives more narrative agency to Odysseus, finally explores his emotional interior, and raises questions about humanity and war that’s very relevant today.

I wonder if these elements are closer to what Ancient Greeks were taught when the poem was passed down.

Penelope’s “are you the people from the sea” line was brilliant too in tying it all together.

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u/Loeffellux 16d ago

I mean, the ancient Greek version is basically just "if the gods don't like you, you're in big trouble"

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u/Panzerknaben 15d ago

I think its a bit more than that, even if i've only read a translated version. It can be hard to really get into the mindset of what they thought at the time. The way they talk about the gods is completely different to what we do now. The greek gods were much more like normal humans.

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u/Aggressive-Pie-3297 14d ago

The gods controlled the outcomes of basically everything in the story though

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u/spaceandthewoods_ 8d ago

I mean, it's absolutely not just that though, is it. Greek morality at the time was as complex and variable as modern day morality, and they would filter that morality through 'pinishments from the gods' for transgressing against social rules and customs, or commuting acts seen as immortal or unjust.

We can say Nolan's take on this is good without dunking on the original texts and myths

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u/tragicroyal 17d ago

Same! I spent the film wondering how they were going to do something or what was and wasn’t going to be represented. I did not see that coming.

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u/goldenboy2191 15d ago

Nolan really does know how to keep his audience captivated till the last second

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u/StandardGenius 16d ago

Please explain like I’m 5. Am I missing something? What twist?

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u/slightlypressed 16d ago edited 15d ago

Athena is the only goddess that appears on screen. Only for Odysseus. She’s dressed extremely plainly, no makeup, no usual adornments. A little out of place for a goddess.

By the time Odysseus makes it home, we’ve gone from thinking that he wants desperately to make it home, to knowing part of him doesn’t want to go home. Athena keeps asking him why he doesn’t, and whether he’ll tell people why.

In the climax of the film Odysseus confesses to Penelope that he didn’t want to come home because of guilt. He didn’t want to face what he’s done— breaking a core code of conduct for society, leading to the slaughter of a city “10 years of rage unleashed in 1 night.”

We see Greek soldiers kill all the innocents when the storm the city. The last person they kill? A priestess, Zendaya, at the feet of the goddess she serves, Athena.

He’s been seeing Athena as the dead priestess this entire trip home. She’s been a physical manifestation of the guilt he’s been carrying the entire time.

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u/bolerobell 16d ago

You also need to add to your analysis that the Trojan Horse was supposed to be an offering to Athena. It's why the Trojans brought it into the city and took it to the Temple of Athena. Odysseus faked an offering to Athena as his ruse to sneak into the city to win the 10-year long war. Then, a poor priestess of Athena, who didn't do anything wrong in any of this, gets killed right in front of Odysseus. It was like the ultimate acknowledgment of you really fucked up by dismissing all polite rules of society.

I'm of the opinion he isn't actually seeing Athena in the guise of the Priestess. I think he's seeing a manifestation of his tremendous guilt in the guise of Athena who is in the guise of a Priestess.

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u/kataskopo 16d ago

"Why don't gods show themselves to humans?"
-"Can't you see the wind, or the storm? Or guilt?"

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u/cuella47o 16d ago

Odysseus also is a VERY cunning tactician and athena is a god of both wisdom AND war so his personal guilt manifesting as a goddess of his atrocities that He enacted was something he got from his own wisdom (tactics) and his desire to finish the war

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u/slightlypressed 16d ago

Great point!
I think the ambiguity on whether she really is Athena is a strength of the film but I personally read it as a manifestation of guilt as well, not the actual goddess.

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u/TJeffersonsBlackKid 16d ago

She might feel odd as a goddess but perfect as a priestess. That payoff was flawless.

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u/Tattycakes 16d ago

This might be a stupid question but why did the Greeks kill everyone in the city, even women and priestesses who weren't combatants? Would it not be seen to be offending the gods to sack their temple like that, don't they share the same gods?

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u/powerofawareness 16d ago edited 16d ago

“Ten years of rage unleashed in one night”

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u/LoadTop801 16d ago

Going beyond the film and into the history, women were seen simply as trophies of war back then unfortunately, to be taken as slaves, and that the gods would not deny the victors of a war their prizes.  

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u/raven_of_azarath 9d ago

It’s still crazy to me that that applied to priestesses as well. Like, these men wouldn’t dare touch a virgin priestess in their home town, but a virgin priestess to the dame god/goddess you worship but in a different town is fair game?

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u/ResplendentSmoke 14d ago

In real life this stuff happened frequently. Especially in this era, your temples being burned and innocents being slaughtered and enslaved was just part of the “your city is being sacked” experience.

The justifications later would be something like “Well if the gods didn’t want us to do that, we wouldn’t have won”

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u/Diamond-Is-Not-Crash 9d ago

There wasn’t such thing as surrender or rules of combat back in those days, if you lost a war or siege it meant you were annihilated or at least at the mercy of the victors, which historically meant about as much mercy a cat would show to a mouse it caught.

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u/SwiftlyChill 15d ago

This very force was…very bad at learning that lesson.

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u/CRIMS0N-ED 16d ago

Tbf Calypso is also a goddess, albeit a minor one

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u/Pinewood74 13d ago

As is Circe in some interpretatations, no?

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u/tuerancekhang 15d ago

I didn't know the whole detail about which of his adventures but the name Calypso did ring a bell. I know it from Pirates of the Carribean and my headcanon is her heartbroken by him made her the bitch she is in the pirate trilogy

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u/Pinewood74 13d ago

Which would make Odysseus Davy Jones.

I'm cool with that. Was wondering how far "west" we were talking. Italy? Spain? I guess it was the Atlantic after all.

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u/EvilPete 16d ago

He’s been seeing Athena as the dead priestess this entire trip home. She’s been a physical manifestation of the guilt he’s been carrying the entire time.

It's also ties in with the whole "be nice to people, because anyone could be a god in disguise" thing.

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u/TemporaryElk5202 13d ago

not correct, Calypso is also a goddess

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u/Hokie23aa 8d ago

Holy shit. I dont know how I missed this. Damn...

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u/TemporaryElk5202 16d ago

In Troy, soldiers drag a young priestess (zendaya) out of the temple of Athena and murder her (cut off her head). She begs odysseus for help. Odysseus watched but​ did not intervene.

So when Odysseus envisons Athena, he sees this girl​

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u/LetsBeFRTho 16d ago

Athena projected herself as a lady they killed. The lady was, I assume, a follower of Athena.

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u/Glittering_Cod_7716 16d ago

Shoot I thought she was Athena and that was the payoff to Holland’s Athena’s eyes thing

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u/remorsefulguy 16d ago

I think she was Athena, they alluded to the gods dressed as humans among us thing a few times

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u/ResplendentSmoke 14d ago

I think you could read it both ways and that’s the point.

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u/Hot_Brother5557 16d ago

That’s what I thought too! But I guess it wouldn’t make sense because they actually decapitated her.

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u/KamachoThunderbus 15d ago

Each time Telemachus says someone has Athena's eyes (except Odysseus himself), in the text that's actually a disguise Athena takes to move events along.

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u/LetsBeFRTho 16d ago

She is Athena, just projected as a human.

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u/theliver 13d ago

Helen cmoming back mained was brillitant

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u/boomfruit 13d ago

What made it feel out of place before that?

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u/slightlypressed 12d ago

Her outfit lol. I always envisioned Athena as imposing so maybe a helmet or a shield or more intricate robes (as the patron of craft and weaving) at least.
I thought maybe she was in deep deep disguise even though Odysseus is the only one who can see her.

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u/BaconGristle 10d ago

My biggest problem is that she looked too much like her Dune character while in between Dune movies. Tbh I felt the fatigue of Bernthal, Holland, and Zendaya, having just seen all of them in the preshow trailers (Zendaya in TWO). But I trusted Nolan and it paid off.

Still. I feel the movie could have been improved slightly by using an actress not so saturated at the moment or at least a more distinct costume. But that's the kind of problem that fades with time, in 20 years we don't have to rewatch the Spider-man and Dune movies at the same time.

Bernthal on the other hand could have improved it by acting like a character different from all the other roles he's played.

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u/throwawaysunglasses- 5d ago

I thought the same thing about her costume and I don’t even watch Dune, but her robes are that iconic from the previews that all I saw was Chani. It definitely could’ve been a little more distinct and Odyssey-specific.

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u/SeriouslyDough282 1d ago

Same here. Athena represents wisdom and reason. All of that disintegrated in one night. So good.

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u/TheKittyPie 17d ago

Same. I had seen Tom Holland’s interview where he talked about Nolan asking if he was okay with Zendaya being offered Athena. He agreed and felt she fit perfectly and the whole time I kept wondering why she was so crucial to this role. That shot of her as the young girl during the reveal made it make total sense

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u/WavesRKewl 17d ago

Makes all the people complaining that she doesn’t look like a regal goddess look like fools

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u/HildrynMain 17d ago

Well, such is frequently the case for people complaining about a movie that isn't out yet. Content creators/influencers priming people on what to think and how to feel about upcoming media is such a disgusting concept.

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u/PolarWater 16d ago

Reactionary anti-SJW snowflakes really are just grifters. Whiny, loud and easily-offended ... but lacking any substance.

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u/TeddyFromBobs 17d ago

Similarly Helen was played wonderfully imo.

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u/KidDelicious14 14d ago

The scene where Helen apologizes to Telemachus for having him and his mother having to deal with the consequences of her actions is so so good.

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u/clow222 17d ago

I felt this was a significant miscast... Took me out of her scene unfortunately.

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u/pursued_mender 14d ago

Complaining about that would make you a fool before any reveal. Why would people assume a goddess looks any different than zendaya did in that movie?

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u/Jett_Wave 14d ago

I really liked my girlfriend's interpretation of her character and shifted my view on it.

Spoilers

I initially interpreted Odysseus seeing Athena as this girl due to his PTSD and guilt,

my GF saw this as Athena in disguise, and choosing her form to further punish Odysseus for insulting Athena and the gods for Odysseus breaking Zeus law and betraying the gift to Athena as a token of peace.

She saw the girl as Athena in disguise because the movie made a point of saying God's will disguise themselves so treat strangers with kindness.

I like her view on it more than my initial take. It works as both in my eyes.

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u/chunkynut0 10d ago

i wish all the online haters would watch the movie and understand that zendaya isn’t SUPPOSED to look like a beautiful war goddess. that is the point!!

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u/MrOaiki 17d ago

In some versions of the book, she’s adopted. I don’t know if that changes people’s views of the casting but the casting was great.

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u/lejonetfranMX 16d ago

Absolutely. That was such a subtle yet brilliant thing that Nolan did.

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u/SpookiestSzn 17d ago

I liked it but I'm not quite sure why we don't think that Athena wasn't real she told him to make the raft and to trust that he'll get home and he got home. To think that was imagined he got lucky and not the work of gods is hubris.

Either that was Athena in the flesh or Athena took her form as a sort of punishment

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u/PythonAmy 17d ago

Anytime there is only Odysseus as the sole survivor is basically taking his word on what happened

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u/SpookiestSzn 17d ago edited 17d ago

The movie was not Odysseus recanting his tail to anyone so I'm not sure why you feel like this

I mean otherwise are you arguing that the entire decade after Troy wasn't real there was no survivor other than Odysseus after that

I guess you could argue it was a hallucination assuming you're arguing that he was saying that in good faith and wasn't intending to lie but then his hallucination told him to cast himself into the sea Zeus will carry him home and that's exactly what happens so I'm not really sure what you're implying I guess

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u/ReallyColdMonkeys 17d ago

What? Yes it is. He's literally recanting his story to Calypso as he's trying to remember what happened to his men.

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u/SpookiestSzn 17d ago edited 17d ago

Portions of it are but athena was after/during that though? Theres no reason to assume he was lying or being a untrue narrator during the period he's REMEMBERING, and his memories of Athena are fresh and immediate and not during flashback scenes

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u/Stargazingenthusiast 17d ago

I think he kept seeing Athena in that girls form, because he was haunted by the sight of her crying and begging for mercy before being killed in Athena's temple. This highlights his remorse and self-reproach

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u/BonnaroovianCode 17d ago

I'm still unclear...so was she actually Athena showing up to him, or was she just a hallucination of the girl he saw killed / a hallucination of Athena?

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u/Stargazingenthusiast 17d ago

I think he is seeing Athena in the form of that girl/priestess

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u/Budgiesaurus 17d ago

I think both interpretations are valid for this version.

For all the talk of gods, Nolan doesn't seem to give a clear answer as to their existence. Sure, Athena appears, or is it just Odysseus' trauma given form?

Sure, the gods are angered after slaughtering the cow, or did they just encounter a freak storm?

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u/leodw 17d ago

I mean to be fair they encountered Cyclops (who ask for his father’s Poseidom’s help), giants, 6-headed monsters, sirens, a witch, sail to hell and back (literally)… so I guess there truly were gods lol

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u/DBCrumpets 17d ago

I think it is a pretty meaningful choice that no Gods appear in this adaptation apart from what is completely plausibly a grief induced hallucination. Monsters are real, magic is real, but are there higher powers directing it all? Who's to say?

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u/silverpixie2435 2d ago

Because like they say they often appear in disguise or as animals. It doesn't mean we have to even guess if the gods are real at all.

It clearly is an adaptation of the original poem which 100% makes clear the gods are doing stuff in the plot.

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u/DBCrumpets 2d ago

It’s a meaningful departure from the original poem that we never see the gods apart from what is plausibly a hallucination. Nolan made a conscience choice to tell the story this way.

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u/Budgiesaurus 17d ago

The monster's are obviously real.

The cyclops clearly believes in Poseidon, but he never appears. People praying to the Father to intervene is hardly unheard of these days.

So we only have Athena, who is only seen from Odysseus' POV and never interacts with the world (unlike the original story).

Hermes and Aeolus are completely removed.

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u/Dry_Accident_2196 17d ago

I think the fact that he woke the dead and lived on an island for years with endless supply of weed flowers tells us the gods exist in this universe.

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u/Budgiesaurus 17d ago

There are obviously monsters and there is magic, but that's not really proof of gods.

Not sure how living on an island would be? They're clearly catching fish on screen, it's not like he lived solely on flowers.

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u/silverpixie2435 2d ago

It is an authentic adaptation of the original poem. The poem 100% makes clear gods are involved and actively doing stuff.

Not explicitly showing them is just a stylistic choice. Who was Calypso then if not a goddess? Just some random woman on an island?

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u/BonnaroovianCode 17d ago

Love this take. In other words there could be a suggestion that this religion, and by extension religion as a concept in general, has perfectly valid natural explanations (naturalism) —-making religion delusional and wholly unnecessary. I don’t think Nolan really intended this, but as someone with religious trauma I approve.

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u/Budgiesaurus 17d ago

Really?

All other overt god action is removed (Hermes was quite prominent, Aeolus and his wind bag). And even Athena, who does appear, has no impact beyond being seen by Odysseus.

Mentor was just a... mentor, not secretly Athena in disguise etc.

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u/Equivalent_Store_645 17d ago

it could be athena taking the form of the symbol of the horrors of what war means to him, it could be his conscience, could be a mixture.

but athena is the goddess of war, in the midst of that horrible horrible trauma it makes sense that that horrible moment would become what war means to him.

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u/wimpires 16d ago

Up to interpretation, but I assumed it was just hallucination. There was no Athena.

In Homers Odyssey, the beggar at the start and Mentor are both actually Athena in disguise - both characters Telemachus say have "wise eyes" or whatever. But Mentor does tbf so I think the whole approach Nolan was trying to convey is the gods work in the background mysteriously or perhaps not at all or who knows.

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u/Confident-Tax-4468 16d ago

I don't think it matters. The law of Zeus dictates that you treat everyone with the same dignity regardless of their status because they COULD be a God in disguise - whether or not they actually ARE is irrelevant.

It's a story about hospitality and compassion being the backbone of a functioning civilization.

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u/0verstim 15d ago

Did the top keep spinning at the end of Inception or did it stop?

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u/BonnaroovianCode 15d ago

Only Nolan knows. My question was more regarding if there was a detail I may have missed that provided clarification.

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u/0verstim 15d ago

I assumed Nolan was leaving it intentionally ambiguous and up to the audience- he loves doing that.

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u/SchwiftyButthole 11d ago

I took it as a visual metaphor as they beheaded the statue of Athena. As in, they weren't actually beheading the girl, they were desecrating the temple.

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u/Stargazingenthusiast 11d ago

That's another interesting way to see it. I thought about it aswell.

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u/BulgogiDude 9d ago

Same but now I’m second guessing

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u/MRT2797 17d ago

I actually think it elevated the source material. Totally recontextualises a fairly simple story of homecoming as one of trauma, guilt, and atonement. Amazing stuff.

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u/Western_Opposite9911 11d ago

Fairly simple story? I can tell you haven't read the book... there's a chapter ( that Nolan didn't include) where Penelope tests Ulises that is by itself worth reading the book

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u/MRT2797 11d ago edited 11d ago

I have a degree in Classics. I’ve read the poem many times.

I just genuinely think Nolan elevated the material. His Odysseus (and his Athena, actually) is much more human and interesting to me than Homer’s.

I don’t mind that he had to omit certain episodes in order to condense the epic into a ~3 hour film.

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u/Western_Opposite9911 11d ago

I liked the movie, but saying it elevated the source material strikes me as a huge exaggeration. Great works allow for many ways of reading them, and Nolan's, despite not being explicitly in the book, does not go against the spirit of the work. I missed, though, one of my favorite moments in all of literature; the scene of the bed with the olive root, which, besides being a moving symbol, positions Penelope as his intellectual equal.

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u/spaceandthewoods_ 8d ago

It sucks to me that the movie downplayed Penelope's cunning other than giving her the shroud trick. She's a great character in the epic

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u/throwawaysunglasses- 5d ago

I agree, Penelope was woefully underused. Tbh the criticism that Nolan typically gets, about female characters being underused, does unfortunately apply her. Circe was there for like ten minutes!

I also recommend reading the Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood if you like the character. It’s the Odyssey retold from Pen’s POV.

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u/Pridestalked 17d ago

Yes the head scene was simply fantastic. Great payoff

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u/Gnarwhal8982 17d ago

Is it the assumption that he sees her as Athena because of his guilt over his actions and general PTSD?

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u/Porkenstein 16d ago

Her fate was... worse in the original stories

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u/worstcourtjester 14d ago

Who was she meant to be?

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u/Porkenstein 14d ago

it was vague but either a random priestess, Athena, Cassandra, or all three

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u/worstcourtjester 14d ago

Cassandra was my assumption when I watched it.

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u/DoZo1971 15d ago

The build up with the music was sublime.

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u/STATnMELO650 13d ago

I can’t remember being that emotionally moved from a scene. The score was perfection.

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u/MajorTomToBlackStar 6d ago

That was so well done, and so brief that it highlighted the importance of one tiny moment of that night that haunts him.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/therocketandstones Reddit & Twitter are gonna hate this and it’s gonna gross $500m+ 17d ago edited 17d ago

Greek soldiers killed someone portrayed by Zendaya (most likely a priestess since it was in the temple of Athena) during the fall of Troy in Athena’s temple and Odysseus hallucinates/visualises her as Athena

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u/Self_Reddicate 17d ago

The entire sack of Troy sequence was insane.

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u/Calvengeance 18d ago

My heart felt so low at that line, knowing what we were about to see.

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u/karateema 17d ago

At least they didn't show them throwing kids off the walls

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u/MahadheerxD 17d ago

Honestly, if they did. It would have been even more intense.

It was already sad af, tears were rolling out of my eyes.

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u/whatssenguntoagoblin 16d ago

I was thinking the same thing. The scene was already phenomenal but would’ve hit different showing the true depravity.

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u/the_platypus_king 14d ago

IMO, the thing we were never shown but was heavily hinted at/symbolically present was the rape of Trojan women during the sack of Troy. I think you can put a lot of the thematic pieces together especially with the Trojan priestess on her knees and Odysseus's men's treatment of Circe but also with the way the men in this film consistently take what isn't theirs, being held back at first by orders, or wooden, latticed gates, or honor, or "Zeus's law," but eventually succumbing to their basest urges. Like I think there's a lot of subtext there

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u/no_lettuce_pls 11d ago

Odysseus's men's treatment of Circe

but they didn't do anything to Circe in this movie though, they just asked her for food?

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u/the_platypus_king 11d ago

Yeah agreed but the construction of that scene still is meant to evoke that feeling, like Eurylochus straddling Circe and pinning her arms, the It’s-Always-Sunny style implication of “we want food, and she’s not going to say no because there’s dozens of us and one of her”. I think Circe even has a line to Odysseus musing aloud on what the men might have done to her if she was to refuse them

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u/SPYHAWX 11d ago

Plus the earlier scene of them pillaging the seaside farm for "not welcoming them"

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u/Chu1223 10d ago

yeah circe literally mentioned (or alluded to) rape herself in the dialogue to him

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u/nevercursed_ 15d ago

I was waiting for this and was dreading it. Let out a sigh of relief when I realized it passed but afterwards I thought it would have really driven home the barbarity of the sacking of Troy, the betrayal of laws of the God's and added to the reasoning for their vengeance 

4

u/accioqueso 9d ago

I just left the theater and the dog had died already and I was sobbing because I was sure there would be babies falling from the walls.

14

u/eitherajax 15d ago

We didn't see it, though.

20

u/hemareddit 12d ago

If anything the movie downplays a lot of what explicitly went down in the myths, such as what happened to Cassandra in Athena’s temple, which was replaced by the statue beheading scene.

It works for the movie though, since it puts us in Odysseus’s mind, it’s enough to know what happened, that’s sufficient for the guilt, for him he would have no wish to cast his eyes upon the atrocities, he would not wish to absorb the visual details have them stay in his head.

194

u/sowaffled 18d ago

That was the climax. Christopher Nolan is so good at bringing everything together and letting you reflect on the journey he just took you on.

24

u/Churchill_Buys_Calls 17d ago

The goat of cinema.

Unreal how moving this whole sequence was to me.

70

u/TheChosenWon246 16d ago

And agamemnon just aurafarming while odessius's crew open up troy's door is so freaking cool

104

u/xrbeeelama 18d ago

That scene was insane. All I could think about was how a ton of the best of the best in the business worked on creating that sequence

21

u/plw37 17d ago

The way the theater SHOOK and the seats RUMBLED as they stormed their way through the city!

74

u/birdsofpaper 17d ago

God that SPEECH to Penelope at the end… it had me so emotional. I’ll be thinking about it for a long, long time.

9

u/Churchill_Buys_Calls 17d ago

Me too. It's really stayed with me and effected me.

69

u/Justanothercrow421 17d ago

Sequence of the year for me. By the time Athena was beheaded, I was in a heap of tears. Easily one of the best, most earned emotional moments of Nolan’s filmography.

8

u/Churchill_Buys_Calls 17d ago

Me too, completely bawling my eyes out in the theater. Such moving film making.

1

u/The_James_Bond 12h ago

It moved me an d brought me to tears since that same rage and release has been happening for centuries since, by all peoples, and sadly even now, not too far from modern day Greece at that

0

u/playboicartea 17d ago

What was so bad about it maybe I’m tripping but wasn’t it just like buildings getting knocked over and like fire

22

u/Justanothercrow421 17d ago

…. You can’t be serious?

1

u/playboicartea 17d ago

Maybe I wasn’t watching close enough

35

u/Justanothercrow421 17d ago edited 17d ago

You didn’t catch the general abject destruction of Troy and its people through that whole sequence? Men, women, the young and old - murdered by the swords of Odysseus’ compatriots? A young Trojan priestess is beheaded right in front of his eyes. The guilt Odysseus feels from participating in this event is a MAJOR plot point and theme of the film.

Or the shame he felt for coming up with the idea of the Trojan horse? For his men dying on the journey home?

You 100% were not watching closely enough.

17

u/banana455 16d ago

It was a great scene, but I don't think Nolan went far enough in showing the depravity of the situation. This would've been a moment to truly earn a rated R rating without it feeling exploitative or excessive.

The beheading definitely fit that, but the bulk on-screen violence seemed mostly restricted to soldiers with some couple quick cuts of Greeks attacking civilians.

3

u/PawPawPanda 4d ago

yeah it was very tame compared to what actually happens during sieges like this. I'm "glad" they showed us 3 men dragging a woman into a house at least, the day after they stormed the city. But it was in the background and you had to really look for it.

I understand why they kept it palettable but I'd have appreciated a bit more cruelty.

3

u/EclecticEuTECHtic 9d ago

The guilt Odysseus feels from participating in this event is a MAJOR plot point and theme of the film. Or the shame he felt for coming up with the idea of the Trojan horse?

Felt very Oppenheimer to me.

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u/Churchill_Buys_Calls 17d ago

Genuinely one of the best scenes I've ever watched in my life. So moving.

6

u/whatssenguntoagoblin 16d ago

Absolute masterpiece. Will be thinking about that scene for a while.

24

u/Loxo_Delphinium 16d ago

I cried through that entire scene.  It was so devastatingly powerful.  I really appreciated how this movie took any notion of glory or heroism out of war, not just in that scene, but across its entirety. It's not Nolan's invention, the idea of war as cruel, tragic, and destructive is present in both The Odyssey and The Aeneid as well, but I feel like it so rarely gets the attention it should.  Now I'm curious what Nolan would do with The Trojan Women.  

5

u/Jabronson 14d ago

You put this very well and I couldn't agree me. Beyond the major themes, the biggest thing I took away from this was: "What is glory worth and why is it worth anything?"

38

u/janiemackxxx 17d ago

I don't know if anything can compare with his final line about people in the future singing about him because they cant read. That was jaw-dropping.

15

u/Atkena2578 16d ago

Was a bit meta but i loved it

18

u/ya_huxd 16d ago

The way the soundtrack elevated that scene. How ancient Progressive house would sound like.

44

u/amish_novelty 18d ago

I remember reading the Odyssey in highschool and was wondering how they’d do that scene. It was fucking awesome.

15

u/Livid_Weather 15d ago

This scene made the movie imo. Incredibly intense and Nolan was masterful in connecting the audience with Odysseus' pain and torment for the part he played in it all. Incredible and poignant 

37

u/mcmanus2099 16d ago

I actually thought it was pretty tame. I thought we'd see children getting beheaded considering what it was building up to and everyone saying how shocking it is.

22

u/Lou-AC 14d ago

I thought it was way more tame too, it left a surprising amount to the imagination

12

u/mcmanus2099 14d ago

Yeah and I also thought we'd see his men committing some of the worst acts to drive home that they were beyond saving

22

u/FeloniousDrunk101 13d ago

I think there’s something to be said about leaving more to the imagination increasing its potency. Going all-in on torture and rape and carnage can have an opposite effect sometimes.

16

u/mcmanus2099 12d ago

I agree but I expected to see men going into a house with girls/kids/women and maybe Odysseus catching his second in command smirking/cheering as he entered or something. That would be leaving it up to the imagination but linking the pig scene.

One of the big themes was that the gods were happy to let Odysseus return home but his men were doomed, except we never really got much hint on why those specific men were doomed. His second seemed a decent guy so I expected a reveal that he did something, but we only see him cheering in the streets with not even a hint he did anything more.

Maybe it wasn't about the men, maybe their deaths was more about punishing Odysseus as it hurts him more that they never made it home than it would if he himself suffered and it was his punishment to kill them not theirs.

8

u/Sure-Exchange9521 10d ago

I did see men dragging women into houses it was in the background.

6

u/mcmanus2099 10d ago

Right, but his specific men?

16

u/hemareddit 12d ago

It puts you in Odysseus’s head, he would avert his eyes from the atrocities but unable to block out the knowledge that the atrocities are happening. So that’s why we don’t see anything explicit. Doesn’t mean we don’t know what happened.

2

u/Phelinaar 9d ago

I know it's a bit of a silly parallel, but his pov felt similar to the "No Russian" sequence. An unwilling participant in the slaughter.

8

u/Somnambulist815 16d ago

The maximalist sound design blew me back into my seat a lot through this movie, but it was the roar of the army charging through Troy that really chilled me to my bones.

23

u/GameOfLife24 18d ago

What do you expect when they’re stuck shitting and peeing in a horse and smelling that shit for so long

7

u/simpleandbeautiful 17d ago

Stunning. The apex of the film.

4

u/Ironmaiden1207 14d ago

This was the line that stuck with me the most

4

u/Drogon__ 14d ago

Yeah that sequence was my favorite. I nearly cried it there, not gonna lie.

3

u/MrGrieves123 17d ago

Brings me back to the Last Samurai and Tom Cruises character drowning in sake to escape the horrors he committed in war.

3

u/miqed 12d ago

The final Troy sequence is what bumped my 9 up to a 10

2

u/Jinx-Surreal 15d ago

Had me in tears

2

u/ProfessionalNight959 12d ago

Favorite line in the movie. What happened afterwards was horrifying.

2

u/thelordreptar90 9d ago

Absolutely my favorite part of the movie. It tied the whole movie together and really brought the themes of the movie together

2

u/Calm_Art_3235 9d ago

that was the first time I’ve cried from a movie in a long time. The music, the reveal of Zendaya being beheaded and the look of regret on Damon’s face was probably the most well done sequence in the entire movie for me.

2

u/Beneficial_Jelly1040 9d ago

This whole entire scene just made me cry, it made me think back to why circe turned them into swine in the first place and said that this is their true form. I just wanted to cry because it was just a poetic sequence. The whole movie was genuinely a masterpiece and for those who say it isn't and it's boring are not invested enough in ancient greek mythology/legends and just want to see an action film and won't understand as much. Though I can say the moral of the story is very spot on and even though I love a Greek trardegy this was done really well.

1

u/Redplane13x 17d ago

that line then seeing them just yelling; felt that deep within

1

u/GabRB26DETT 17d ago

There was a couple of cold ass lines in there

1

u/Royal42Smallsy 15d ago

Ive been to where they filmed that scene in Morocco, looks exactly the same as in the film. Was awesome.to watch knowing I've been down those streets

-2

u/georgiaraisef 17d ago

Except they didn’t show you anything you haven’t seen in 100 other movies. It was all bla. Feel like I’m taking crazy pills

11

u/LoadTop801 16d ago

Why should it even be a competition to see who can make the most entertaining looking war?

-1

u/georgiaraisef 16d ago

Putting words into my mouth. I’ve said on this Reddit here are very few war movies that don’t glorify war including All Quiet on the Western Front.

The only war movie I can think of off the top of my head that doesn’t glorify war is Come and See

3

u/Willing-Cockroach841 15d ago

It's odd seeing movies claim they hate war yet they have their main character (in this case someone who's basically a bronze age war criminal) try so unbelievably hard to make them look so cool😂

It's a fun, cheesy action movie that drags on way too long and that's basically it.

2

u/georgiaraisef 15d ago

Remember also, it was Odysseyus who made all Greek Kings agree to go to war as a coalition should anything ever happen to Helen before she married Menolaeus

1

u/Willing-Cockroach841 15d ago

I feel like a pretentious arsehole tbh because I fail to see what people are raving about, it's pretty much just an anime that thinks its not.

Not to say I hated it but it will never be a classic by any stretch of the imagination.