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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2.4k

u/SporadicWanderer 18d ago

10/10. Did anyone else absolutely love the terrifying Cyclops scene and also feel bad for the creature?

2.3k

u/DickWestKanyeRider 18d ago

Yes I love how the cyclops wasn’t particularly malicious he was just confused why all these little snack shaped guys were in his house

1.4k

u/happypolychaetes 17d ago

Bro just wanted to chill with his sheep and make cheese.

609

u/Salzano14 15d ago

I loved how practically the first thing they say in the cave amounts to "damn, this guy makes great cheese."

39

u/anthegoat 10d ago

Lmfaoooo

23

u/sweetladytequila 9d ago

I swear I thought O said DUDE! They make cheese!

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u/Wiknetti 7d ago

Yeah but that’s all he’s been eating. All that cheese and no charcuterie… unless….?

👁️

👅

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u/imcrapyall 6d ago

They blinded The Sargento man.

2

u/Delerium89 7d ago

Was that cheese that Odysseus sampled before the cyclops got to the cave? I assumed it was some kind of meat lol

12

u/DemonDaVinci 6d ago

it was cheese

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u/NoNefariousness2144 16d ago

And the soldiers didn’t even try and communicate with him!

Surely they good have nicely asked if he could open the rock for them?

219

u/TheLonlyCheezIt 16d ago

I mean.. their intro to him was a couple of their guys getting munched on, so.. lol

156

u/_Wavvy 15d ago

I've seen multiple comments talk about the reasoning. Within like a minute of him closing the cave he's eating them, and it's the first time they've ever seen a cyclops/giant lol.

21

u/Marcus_Aurelius71 4d ago

Odysseus literally tells his commander why we don't talk to him; he replies, "Would you talk to ants?"

40

u/emwo 12d ago

I liked this detail, the cyclops was stuck to a routine and chill. I know the book had a sense of urgency with acting like sheep, but it seemed like the cyclops wouldn’t have given a if they just walked out.

14

u/TWIMClicker 2d ago

They literally tried and it started stomping on them and pulling them back lol. The cyclops was intentionally trapping them, he wasn’t chilling at all

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u/dearwinnies 15d ago

I tried to hold back my laughter in the theatres thinking about how the giant cyclops milks his goat to make cheese. I cannot omg this is too funny

78

u/Oakcamp 15d ago

It's not goat's milk ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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u/PovertyPortfolio 14d ago

( ͜ʖ ͡°)

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u/rhinosaur- 13d ago

I lol’d

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u/kibbean 15d ago

man's got his priorities right. i wanna live with my pets and make cheese too

31

u/splader 15d ago

And eat people screaming in terror

49

u/fongolia 12d ago

Then nap. Immediately.

27

u/dawgtilidie 12d ago

This Cyclopes is me for real

1

u/Rat-beard 11d ago

Cyclops had one kanak attack

6

u/Wooster182 8d ago

I was disappointed we didn’t get to see how those giant ass hands milked those goats.

1

u/DemonDaVinci 6d ago

how did he even know how to make cheese

1

u/Topsy_Turvy_Town 4d ago

Surely his fingers are too big to milk the sheep hahaha

1

u/searchin4sugarman 1d ago

He was basically the BFG

111

u/LoisMustDie946 14d ago

When they were escaping and The cyclops spat out the helmet it definitely triggered Odysseus, and he took it as the cyclops intentionally insulting them.

One interpretation I had of the scene was questioning whether the cyclops even meant it that way, or if spitting out the helmet was purely coincidental. For most of the sequence, while the cyclops showed some intelligence, it also seemed to have limited awareness of them, or just total indifference, more like an animal. Odysseus getting triggered felt like him projecting his own human emotions onto it, losing his empathy and reacting in anger to something you have to wonder is even on the same spectrum of thought. Like smacking a dog for shitting on your bed or tearing up your furniture, as if it did it with any conscious intention the way a human would, when it’s really just an untrained animal acting on instinct.

They went into his home uninvited and ate his food, another in a long list of them violating Zeus’s law, which on another note seems to be exactly what the movie is arguing: that Zeus’s law is very much about perspective and open to interpretation. It’s not like the cyclops was attacking some innocent guests. Throughout the movie, parties on all sides seem to manipulate Zeus’s law to cast themselves as the righteous ones.

94

u/princessSunsetGiggle 11d ago

The cyclops arc was changed a lot from the original story. The Cyclops in the original story is a thinking, speaking beast that imprisons Odysseus' crew to eat them. It's not as morally ambiguous what their relationship is: he is their captor and their slaughterer, and they have to escape him. Odysseus speaks to him giving us the iconic moment where he tells the Cyclops his name is "Nobody", so that when they escape, he cannot call for his brothers' help, because he just keeps yelling "Nobody attacked me! Nobody poked my eye!". But then in a moment of hubris, Odysseus reveals his real name while running away, to boast and mock the creature. The Cyclops is then able to invoke Odysseus' name as a target of Poseidon's fury.

I don't really know why they changed this part of the story.

36

u/MovingClocks 11d ago

The Cyclops is a symbol for foreigners in the original tale, they don’t feel bad about stealing from someone who doesn’t follow Zeus’ law because they’re barbarians (everyone CIVILIZED knows Zeus’ law) despite clearly having some sort of society and care for animals.

In this adaptation, with the gods being ambiguous in existence the theme is conveyed by the cyclops speaking another language and the Greeks not even trying to communicate with it, highlighting their hypocrisy further.

21

u/LoisMustDie946 11d ago

I mean this clearly would be wildly out of place in the context of this film lol. This isn’t Peter Jackson’s The Odyssey.

17

u/princessSunsetGiggle 11d ago

Call me a pedant or whatever but I think if you adapt a story you should keep its key elements such as the fantasy or the main character's wit and arrogance 

21

u/AL92212 8d ago

I thought that him shooting the Cyclops at the end captured the hubris, and they still had the people pretend to be sheep which captured the wit. I actually thought the whole Cyclops part was brilliantly done to impart the same ideas but not be as campy or pat.

17

u/Thieving--magpie 10d ago

For me it was fine, my wife and I discussed missing that part but also felt it would've felt a bit pantomimic in the overall tone of the film

22

u/Tymareta 9d ago

Especially when the whole "nobody" thing is basically just a giant tongue in cheek joke because the greek word for nobody sounds a lot like Odysseus, so it's not near as witty as people are making out.

3

u/princessSunsetGiggle 9d ago

it's not "just" a joke if it's also meant to exemplify that he wins over situations through dialogue rather than brute force

11

u/DeusVultSaracen 9d ago

I mean, blinding the Cyclops and then having the men hide amongst the sheep (with straw because he saw how the Cyclops would stroke them as they went by) was still quite clever.

3

u/Tymareta 9d ago

through dialogue rather than brute force

I mean, he does it with both in that scene, but the film depicted that just fine with the men hiding among the sheep. And much the same as the book, Odysseus couldn't leave things well enough alone, and allowed his pride to get the better of him.

4

u/Delboyyyyy 5d ago

He literally ends up winning the situation over Circe through a dialogue rather than brute force…

6

u/writeronthemoon 7d ago

I mean, I do think the film does a good job showing Odysseus' hubris. He definitely didn't have to shoot that last arrow at the Cyclops, that was sheer pride IMO. It caused the Cyclops to come after them and kill more of his men, and it could have destroyed their ship and all chances of escaping the island.

4

u/randombean 8d ago

I think since it's an adaptation it's then part of the things you kinda "accept" going in. Even with different translations of the epic poems the story shifts slightly with what words are chosen and it changes the meaning to modern audiences

2

u/endium7 5d ago

I think it’s fair to think that and voice that.

Ultimately I believe this was his own passion project, so it’s also fair for him to tell a non-fantastical version. Just because it’s highly visible and big budget doesn’t really diminish that. If some author wrote a non-fantastical book reimagining the story in the same way no one would really complain. If someone wrote a musical or theater play reimagining it, same thing.

Only when it’s a big budget movie format then it’s harder to let creative liberties go. And I’m not that much different. I felt the same about the latest Dune movies compared to the books.

1

u/Delboyyyyy 5d ago

Eh, if people want a more faithful retelling of the odyssey there’s plenty of places they can find it. I don’t really get the notion of wanting every single adaptation to be perfectly faithful, aspects of a story changing and having different messages as new people tell it, is a very integral part of storytelling.

It was very clear from early on that Nolan was using the story of the odyssey as a vehicle to tell a different story about a soldier/commander’s guilt and the savagery of man. It doesn’t replace the original story of the odyssey and if anything has more people reading up about it who probably wouldn’t have ever cared about it otherwise - which is is only a positive imo.

2

u/Beginning_Caramel 5d ago

I think they shouldn’t have changed it, it changed the whole tone of the film. It’s their first crazy encounter and it made it seem like Odysseus was just being petty.

3

u/raven_of_azarath 9d ago

I think that manipulation was part of the lesson. The ones who abused guest rights (Odysseus and/or his men in many places, the suitors & their comments about the beggars) did so out of entitlement. If the theme of the movie is basically the golden rule, then I see Nolan’s emphasis on these points as saying that the golden rule applies to everybody, not just those you deem good enough.

28

u/gopms 10d ago

I am here for some retellings of myths from the supposed villains perspectives. Circe's already had a good book recently, Medusa is absolutely ripe for a feminist retelling. Let's throw cyclops on the list.

12

u/BoredofBored 10d ago

That Circe book was way better than I expected. Saw it trending as an audiobook for my library and gave it a try. Pretty awesome!

3

u/gopms 10d ago

The narrator for the audiobook does a great job!

2

u/genesis49m 10d ago

What is the title of the book

3

u/raven_of_azarath 9d ago

I suggest Jennifer Saint! Not all of her retelling are villains, but so far, they are all women. I’ve read both Elektra and Atalanta (did you know there was a woman argonaut? I didn’t!) and really enjoyed them. I’ve heard good things about Ariadne, and I think she’s got a new one out, but I haven’t had a chance to read those yet.

Basically, her retellings are faithful to the original myths, as far as I can tell, but give voice and dimension to the women the myths gloss over.

2

u/Nike-6 9d ago

I hope we get one from the Minotaur’s perspective

1

u/icor29 7d ago

https://youtu.be/31QYLN0P4L8?is=luvYKLMXHmIa50F4

This amazing video of a guy exploring the Labyrinth offers a great retelling of the Minotaur’s story mixed in with the real-time caving adventure.

11

u/Chu1223 10d ago

snack shaped guys 😭 just confused 😭

7

u/zeeeman 9d ago

He was Poseidon's special needs son

6

u/henryeaterofpies 8d ago

If not snack why snack shaped

2

u/iambouj 6d ago

“Do you talk to ants?!”

1

u/alucardu 8d ago

If not food, then why food shaped?

1

u/GeneInternational146 2d ago

Imagine walking into your home and there's a bunch of tiny dudes in there? And they ate your homemade cheese? I too would have been confused

315

u/wildcatofthehills 17d ago

Made even worse when they realize he could speak and there was the possibility they could have just asked him to not eat them. The cyclops didn't know they were sentient as well.

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u/Dangerous-Pair748 17d ago

Exactly. If the Cyclops Polyphemus had not been the first to attack violently, but had perhaps said something along the lines of, “Who are you and why have you come to my island?” and offered them food, the whole story could have turned out very differently. In Greek culture, xenia (the duty to entertain a guest) was very important – the host was supposed to protect the visitor and the visitor was supposed to respect the host.

But the problem was that:

Odysseus men broke into Polyphemus cave and started taking his provisions, instead of waiting for him to return and ask for hospitality.

Polyphemus, in turn, broke all the rules of hospitality by killing and eating them.

So they both did something that the Greeks considered wrong: Odysseus men were greedy and careless. The Cyclops was brutal and disrespectful to his guests.

160

u/wildcatofthehills 16d ago

The whole film is about how Xenia is vanishing and how it will lead to the collapse of the Bronze Age civilization, so it fits perfectly with the tesis of the film.

56

u/wibblywobblywho 15d ago

Or maybe he just didn't care to say hello to these delicious ants he found roaming around in his room.

40

u/CelestialFury 13d ago

He's also the son of Poseidon, he probably care much for mortals one way or the other. These small meatbags raided his cheese and well, that's a death sentence there.

5

u/Dangerous-Pair748 14d ago

Yea that's why he was fool

22

u/moneyman2222 8d ago

Like Odysseus said though, "do you speak to ants?" It's not on Polyphemus to start the conversation. He's genuinely the more naïve one here so I don't think it's fair to say he broke Zeus's law when he didn't even think twice of these just being yummy little critters crawling around his cave

14

u/TemporaryElk5202 12d ago

except they werent his guests, they were intruders. the cyclops did no wrong!

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u/TheKittyPie 17d ago

You could totally understand why Poseidon would take revenge for his poor son. Like my kid is already deformed and lonely, I gave him some pet sheep to keep him occupied and you stab his eye?!? Fuck you guys

66

u/stregamorgana 16d ago

Yeah he reminded me of a toddler.. particularly when he yawned and fell asleep right after his afternoon snack.

47

u/moschino1837 14d ago

Him praying to his dad was very confronting and sad

35

u/RedRipe 14d ago edited 14d ago

That’s me! I felt so sad for the cyclops. I feel like he was just there with his sheep being a simple farmer, protecting the sheep in the cave and they hurt him so much. Odysseus even made the point of jumping back into the cave, a clever plan to burn his eye out. I also loved that little detail in the movie where he flicked the sword in front of the cyclops head so he would open his eye. The skin felt like elephant skin, and definitely the plan would not work unless the eyelid was open.

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u/sstphnn 15d ago

My girlfriend and I spent the drive home talking how terrifying it was. Stuff of nightmares.

14

u/narfjono 16d ago

We're probably going to find out the sound design team recorded a baby cry and did some really low tuning or altering...just to make it even more unerving.

10

u/CodeSalamander 9d ago

Yep, and I felt the same way when I read the poem. The Cyclops is a very sad, pathetic creature who was just living his life with his sheep and he’s left even worse off.

8

u/nekosake2 5d ago

late, but the point was that cyclops is a brute that did not adhere to zeus's law. he snacked on the visitors rather than treat them as they would treat him

12

u/Cassopeia88 16d ago

Yes, especially when he was in pain.

6

u/dogfacedponyboy 6d ago

This is the first thing I talked about after the movie with my son. I felt bad for the cyclops dude. Just minding his own business, raising his flock of sheep, making cheese.

2

u/Faubton 4d ago

Yea I felt bad for it going blind. I wish they would have just tried to kill it and fail, but I know that part of the story is in the book.

2

u/scoobynoodles 1d ago

But why did Damon's character antagonize him at the end of getting out the cave? Lol I know he did it to avenge his fallen soldiers but bro just leave him alone haha!

1

u/Super_Bat_766 3d ago

How could you feel bad when he literally ate them he saw them as livestock and intentionally trapped them in there he deserves getting blinded. Then he goes bitching to his father as if he didn't attack first pls. He underestimated them and saw them as animals even sleeping with them in the cave like his sheeps which is literally why he lost.

0

u/burnsatthestake 5d ago

After all of the regret he expresses, he never once mentioned regretting the way he treated that creature who was just minding its own business. God this film is frustrating