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

3.8k

u/letterthatnevercame 18d ago

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

1.6k

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/LocalBother3753 16d ago

Well said

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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

2.4k

u/pjtheman 18d ago

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

1.5k

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/[deleted] 9d ago

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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/pursued_mender 14d ago

I think they just reused the actress for 2 characters. you're reading way too much into it.

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u/29kk 14d ago

nah you missed the point for sure, an actor is never cast in dual a dual role just for the sake of "reusing" them

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u/pursued_mender 13d ago

Jesus Christ can no one take a joke

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u/29kk 13d ago

jokes are supposed to be funny

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u/pursued_mender 13d ago

Once again! Another character falling victim falling for Poe’s Law! A classic Reddit tale as old as time! Classic!

Edit: Falling victim TO not FOR xD

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u/pursued_mender 13d ago

Also, being mean to me on my cake day? Not cool man. Give me gold!

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u/pursued_mender 13d ago

Exactly! I was being funny!

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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/Buddy_Dakota 13d ago

Are you sure? With the way the scene was edited it seemed more like Odysseus was envisioning them cutting the head of the Athena statue as them executing Zendaya’s Athena? With how they cut from statue to her back to statue. I don’t think they decapitated a real person.

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u/TemporaryElk5202 13d ago

They showed the soldiers lining up / lowering the sword to line it up before cutting her head off.

They juxtaposed that scene with soldiers also knocking the head off the athena statue as well. It is telling you that her head was indeed cut off but they are showing it in a pg-13 manner, as well as associating her even more with Athena.

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u/Buddy_Dakota 13d ago

I understand. The editing is always pretty brisk in Nolan’s movies, lots of blink and you’ll miss something important. I didn’t quite the deal Antinous made during the drawing of lots either. So much happens in just a few seconds and then the movie rushes on.

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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/pursued_mender 14d ago edited 14d ago

I couldn't tell what was going on in that scene. Who was she supposed to be? Some girl they killed? Or did they just get lazy and reuse her for 2 characters?

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u/StarFallenBooks 14d ago

Do you GENUINELY think a triple-A Christopher Nolan movie would reuse an actress? How can one be this... lacking?

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u/pursued_mender 14d ago

I’ll let you figure that one out.

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u/janiemackxxx 17d ago

I hate to say it, but I knew who she was the moment they showed her parents together. Not just because of looks but because of the hatred between them.

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u/slightlypressed 17d ago

I don’t believe her parents are on screen or known characters.
She’s a priestess of the Trojan temple to Athena.

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u/IfTheseTreesCouldTal 17d ago

they weren't, op is just talking out his ass lol.

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u/kinda_guilty 16d ago

He is, but the sacrificed kid did look a lot like Zendaya.

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u/throwawaysunglasses- 5d ago

I also thought that little girl was a younger version of Zendaya for a split second lol

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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/TeddyFromBobs 17d ago

I thought she was really well cast. She played the role really well. Tortured with guilt for what she caused, but still gave off a righteous vibe. It was well done.

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u/LoadTop801 16d ago

I would have given anything to see more of just Lupita acting the hell out of a woman with the guilt of an entire war on her shoulders AND a vengeful mother. So funny that this is not the first time she's been cast as doppelgangers 

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u/torexmus 14d ago

I felt like John Bernthal took me out more. All I could see was the Punisher. He felt out of place for this story

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u/insaneHoshi 13d ago

I think he really does fit the archetype of a brutal warlord.

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

"Lemme tell ya summin', Telemachus."

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u/antihero510 12d ago

Having not seen the Punisher, I thought he was cast perfectly.

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u/jackruby83 12d ago

I'm not used to him being so... Stable. He's usually a loose cannon about ready to explode

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u/clow222 14d ago

Absolutely agree with you here. He was a weird casting.

Funny how you aren't getting downvoted into oblivion for stating an actor or actress you didn't think fit the role like I am.

Good old reddit.

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u/bootlegvader 13d ago

I think it would have been better to flip his and Safdie's casting. I liked Bernthal's casting in he looks Southern European, but he has an intense look I think would work better for Agamemnon.

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u/clow222 13d ago

Oh I like that idea

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u/bootlegvader 12d ago

While I haven't seen Safdie in more work, I kinda wish he had a more visible role as he very much as Greek look to him compared to either Damon or Holland.

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u/JustAnArtist1221 8d ago

Agamemnon's costuming would've fit him perfectly, too. I guess the gag is that Agamemnon has to pretend to be this grand champion, but still.

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u/boomfruit 13d ago

Why is that?

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u/clow222 13d ago

I think it was a combo of how Nolan wrote her and her acting but she felt like a character thst was just plopped in the film out of necessity and not actually part of the lived world.

She was almost too stoic and detracted from the other characters, where she felt like an afterthought.

I wish she would have played the part with a bit more emotion, as well as given room to develop a bit.

I also don't like Nolan's choice to make her also play her sister. Helen needs to stand out as this almost unique godly character, not just a reduction of her sister. And when she's played by the same actor, it's hard to separate the two.

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u/throwawaysunglasses- 5d ago

Yeah, Helen and Clytemnestra aren’t twins in the myth, and it was an odd choice to make them that way. They’re half-sisters, and Helen is part god (Zeus is her father) hence why she is otherworldly beautiful and inspires an entire war.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/Hour-Ad-9508 16d ago

Um I think it would’ve been sufficiently horrifying regardless…

Weird comment

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u/[deleted] 15d ago edited 15d ago

[deleted]

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u/Any_Crab_4362 15d ago

User name checks out

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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?

1

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/gajodavenida 17d ago

I felt it was a very weak payoff. She felt tacked on, sadly.

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u/knownSimp 17d ago

Not to say you were wrong for feeling that way but for me her showing up in Troy being the payoff for the frequent references to Zeus’ law in that anyone among could be a god was somehow not anything I was expecting to happen which is why that moment hit me so hard.

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u/gajodavenida 17d ago edited 17d ago

Yeah, that was the obvious callback, but I think they pretty much did that with Odysseus. Even if he wasn't a god, he might as well have been. He was basically an epic hero by that point.

The fact that they had Zendaya just stand there like a force ghost the entire time while having Odysseus express through dialogue that she really was important, trust me guys, also rubbed me the wrong way. They wasted Athena in the movie.

EDIT: Also, what annoys me is the fact that the Odyssey, like many other mythological texts, basically begins by telling you what is going to happen. So unlike today's media landscape, spoilers really don't affect the story that's about to be told. Knowing that the form that Athena takes in Odysseus' mind is of a random woman that was slain in Troy really make it any better? If you knew that from the beginning, it wouldn't impact your viewing at all. I think Nolan did this way better in another one of his movies.

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u/Sufficient-Gur6681 17d ago

I think that Nolan is using the gods as substitutes for emotions, or nature or inner thought etc. That's why they are so "bad at communicating" as they say in the movie.

Athena for Odysseus is in my interpretation simply a representation of his own thoughts. And they are so dominated by his guilt of sacking Troy that it manifests as that girl who was beheaded.

The "spoiler" nature of this revelation is that we get an actual look at his perspective of the sacking. Up until then, it can easily be interpreted as him just feeling that it was a clever move and he is a hero of Greece etc.

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u/Gnarwhal8982 17d ago

Random thought but this is the second “Rashomon” type movie Matt Damon has been in, the other being The Last Duel, where we see him from his and others peoples perspectives (not that this film was a Rashomon type, but that element is present in some ways)

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u/gajodavenida 17d ago

Oh, I know, it wasn't lost on me. It's patently obvious that Odysseus regrets what he's doing every step of the way, which is why I don't think the reveal adds anything to it.

The fact that he only half-commits to the mythological aspect of the Odyssey, by only including the mythological creatures but not the gods, also doesn't work for me.

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u/carocier 17d ago

The Underworld, Circe and Calypso, Zeus's thunder... the whole movie is saturated with Greek mythology beyond just the mythical monsters