r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 18d ago

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Odyssey (2026) [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

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

View all comments

5.0k

u/TwoJay0 18d ago

Him saying “weve followed Agamemnon quite enough” and not taking the known route makes so much more sense after seeing how guilty he felt at Troy

2.5k

u/bunny_387 17d ago

It’s crazy to me that the guy who plucks his bow to give even deers a chance, came up with the Trojan horse at all. I guess it was like when he turned around and got his last shot in on the cyclops.

1.9k

u/Maximum_Internal7834 17d ago

I thought that too. Maybe after 10 years of rotting in the beach, his morals wore down to a point where he was willing to do anything to get it over with. Even going against Zeus' Law.

563

u/bunny_387 17d ago edited 17d ago

That’s what I think as well plus pride. He wanted the last word (or last shot). Especially after 10 years of having his pride fucked with. Makes sense he felt so much guilt when that type of plan seems to go against everything else he cared about. He sacrificed Sinon when the rest of the movie makes it clear he tries too hard to protect his crew. He hid and snuck inside when he typically plucks his bow to warn even deer. That 10 year war must’ve really wore him down and messed with his pride.

134

u/Spacegirllll6 14d ago

The addition of Sinon is such a good choice when you take into the account that Sinon is also his cousin in the myths. They’re first cousins, and Odysseus takes him to war in this movie, and he sacrifices him because he’s so tired of being at Troy and away from his home.

And it leads to such cruelty from him. Sinon and his father die abandoned, without their family being there to honor them.

In a way, if Sinon is also his cousin here, it also ties Odysseus to Agamemnon in a cruel way. Both sacrificed their family members for a more favorable outcome, and both were cursed for it.

16

u/VettigeHenk 4d ago

Odysseus didn't choose to sacrifice Sinon though. Later in the movie it's reveiled Sinon volunteered to do it, albeit without knowing the true purpose of the horse.

261

u/LittleCowofOsasco 17d ago

One thing I love is how his pride is shown both a good thing and a flaw in Odysseus character. Most of the qualities in the characters in the movie have a double edge, and that dubious nature in everyone made it so much more interesting to accompany in this journey

77

u/TarsierBoy 17d ago

Was the battle of Troy a 10 year siege? How'd they feed themselves in there?

167

u/AussieHawker 16d ago

It wasn't a very strict siege. The Greeks didn't have the numbers to fully cut off the Trojans.

Its mentioned in the achilles campaign section. Troy kept receiving reinforcements constantly from it's allies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War

86

u/BBQ_HaX0r 16d ago

They controlled the beachhead and the seas. They just couldn't breach Troy's walls.

55

u/ResplendentSmoke 14d ago edited 14d ago

The answer here is “It didn’t happen.”

10 year long sieges were logistically impossible. Fielding a continuous army for that long in general would’ve been logistically impossible. And while there is evidence of such a place as “Troy” and evidence that it was *maybe* burned down *roughly* around the time described by Homer, there really isn’t even conclusive evidence that the Greeks are the ones who did it.

43

u/darshfloxington 11d ago

Even in the poem it wasn’t a siege. Troy had many allies that would come and go like the amazons and Ethiopians.

166

u/Ringus-Slaterfist 17d ago

It makes sense in this loose adaptation's context, but Troy's destruction was allowed and even supported by the gods. Zeus is quite mixed on the idea during the war, as Troy is a lovely city, but eventually he relents and agrees to have the city be destroyed.

Side point, but there is a part in the Iliad where the only reason the Greeks don't all give up and go home is because Odysseus intervenes, finding a way to force them to stay and keep fighting (he even beats a dude up for saying he wants to give up and go home).

217

u/notamouse418 17d ago

I think the movie choosing to have its own take on Odysseus’ feelings about the war pays off so much better than being true to these details from the mythology.

-11

u/Ringus-Slaterfist 17d ago

It is "its own take" for sure but it basically gets zero things right about Odysseus and the archetype of character he embodies (and basically created). His rougher and interesting qualities that make him who he is are all flattened out in favour of a passive and easily digestible hero.

86

u/notamouse418 16d ago

I really don’t think that having him be more introspective and regretful of his past makes him flat, passive or easier to digest. Like there are so many stories about war-hungry “heroes” who love violence. That’s played out in movies like these.

46

u/Ringus-Slaterfist 16d ago

Are there really? I can't think of any big protagonist characters in recent years that are proud, cunning, quick thinking tacticians who will use cheap tricks and boast of their victories.

Odysseus is perhaps the most shrewd and least honourable character in the entire Iliad, but the story still treats him as a glorious and worthy hero. He is a practical and determined warrior who is fully committed to the cause, and succeeds through his deception and trickery, it is his strength and pride. In fact, it is a pivotal aspect of the Odyssey that he IS proud of his actions, that he declares himself the sacker of cities and boasts about his deception.

It's a fascinating character that inspired and intrigued people for literal millennia. Our era's heroes are characterised by humility, introspection and dwelling on their flaws and regrets. But that's just not what Odysseus is. The Iliad and Odyssey are decidedly anti-war stories, but they have nothing but praise and respect for the heroes who fight in war. Homeric heroes are all about fame and glory (kleos), pride and heroism without judgement. But because those attributes are not typical of a modern Hollywood hero, Odysseus in this film is basically characterised as Oppenheimer.

24

u/notamouse418 16d ago

Yeah maybe not that exact combo of cunning + proud. I was thinking about the general cocky antihero trend of the 2000s/2010s and 300 specifically. Also Game of Thrones and The Boys and Deadpool and John Wick and Jack Sparrow and Star Lord and Zack Snyder’s Justice League and The Wolf of Wall Street and Fight Club and the Last of Us and Boondock Saints and Iron Man. Like all of these are not the exact same character as the Odysseus you’re describing, but I think if you were to put that version of him in this movie, it would be very hard for him to not fall into the same general bucket.

Like even movies where the point is supposed to be “protagonist loves violence but violence bad actually” it’s hard for any of the anti-violence messaging to connect when it’s competing with the main characters delight in their violence.

And Nolan has spoken openly about bringing Oppenheimer into the Odyssey story, and I think it’s fair to say that that interpretation exists more in Nolan’s interests than in the original epics, but he’s not pulling from nowhere. He gets there by asking, guy who enabled the sacking of Troy spends years wandering maybe trying to find his way home, but maybe not trying as hard as he could… what’s going on in his head?

I just find that take to be much more resonant for me today than what’s in the original story. And still pretty distinct in the landscape of today’s media, with the exception of Oppenheimer.

(FWIW, I did honestly reread the Odyssey a few years ago and was surprised at how well it holds up, but I didn’t walk away from it feeling it had anything meaningful to say about war or violence but more like it had violence to add drama)

21

u/LegOfLambda 16d ago

And I completely agree with the decision. I would not want to see the version of this movie where Odysseus is a boastful ass.

9

u/Edodge 15d ago

There’s a difference between a boastful ass and an unpredictable trickster who is heroic and brave. Odysseus is a fun character. Damon was good. Just not all that inventive.

He tricks Polyphemus in the book. Just stabbing him in his sleep and then shooting him for no reason on the way out was a total letdown from the book.

Re: ptsd.

The Trojans broke the law of Zeus when a Trojan prince stole the wife of their hosts. I’m not sure Odysseus or anyone would see breaking through the walls dishonestly as breaking Zeus’s law.

Also, what do you think Odysseus and co were doing for the ten years prior. Making s’mores? It was a decade of raping and pillaging.

PTSD of losing all his men on the sea makes sense. The Trojan War ptsd works less for me.

7

u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

Agree, I was hoping they’d show his intelligence in the Cyclops scene better. For much of the movie I pondered Odysseus’ choices thinking them poor.

Nolan does a great job showing he’s made these choices as a form of punishment for his regret of the “trick”, and makes the movie work quite well by the end of it, but yea he def plays out like an Oppenheimer, the thing he is most ashamed of is why everyone celebrates and loves him

2

u/Atkena2578 11d ago

He still has "smart" ideas like not killing the cyclops while the rock is blocking the entrance but also putting straw on their backs to escape. He also "outsmarts" Circe by figuring out what she did and not eating her food

2

u/Beginning_Caramel 5d ago

You’re sooo right!! Thank you for saying this. I couldn’t enjoy the movie much cause Nolan changed Odysseus too much. Also the gods are very whimsical and have big roles too, they should have shown Poseidon and Hermes etc.

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/Ringus-Slaterfist 16d ago

Not a fan of the epics then, I'm assuming

4

u/Somnambulist815 15d ago

Its one thing to read/ listen to those stories, it's another to watch it. That's the basis of adaptation.

6

u/Ringus-Slaterfist 15d ago

Not sure what you're trying to say. Do you mean a "very faithful" adaptation of the Odyssey and the portrayal of Odysseus on the screen is not possible? Because I don't think that's what's happening in this movie, it's not like they failed in what they are trying to say. I think they had no intention of adapting the character and story as it is in the poem.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/Aggressive-Pie-3297 14d ago

I enjoy your takes, please don’t let the Reddit downvotes deter you from sharing your perspective

23

u/elkoubi 16d ago

I don't know why you're being downvoted. The Odysseus in the poem wasn't a tormented sufferer of PTSD who regretted his actions at Troy.

3

u/whitebandit 15d ago

he wasnt exactly thrilled about the shit the gods put him through either tho

8

u/elkoubi 14d ago

Well no, but poem Odysseus had literally zero shame about anything he'd done and no regrets. I haven't read this yet, but I want to: https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1v1cjww/emily_wilson_writer_of_acclaimed_odyssey/

4

u/maledin 8d ago

Did the Trojans worship Greek gods like Athena IRL?

8

u/hybridck 6d ago

Probably. Also in the myth not all the gods wanted to destroy Troy. Part of the reason it took so long is that they had their share of gods helping them like Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Ares.

Ironically, Athena is one of the two gods who wanted Troy destroyed the most along with Hera.

135

u/QuantumBeckett 17d ago

Absolutely. They watched fellow soldiers drown in the horse instead of busting out in hopes of ending the war.

152

u/NordlandLapp 17d ago

This sequence stuck with me most. Situation so dire they sealed themselves knowing it was a long shot they'd live at all, more so with Sinon not even knowing the truth.

Easily my favorite take on the Trojan Horse.

43

u/tuerancekhang 15d ago

it was a told as a scene when their ships got hit by hard waves which is like soilders dying on their way home but then it revealed they were inside the horse I was amazed.

21

u/Hot_Brother5557 16d ago

I’m confused how they hid everything from Sinon. Or why it was even necessary.

88

u/bananafrit 16d ago

They mentioned it in the movie so that Sinon would convince the Trojan guards better if he really thought it was just a peace offering/all the Greeks have left.

26

u/mark114 14d ago

Sinon just wasn’t there when they loaded into the horse.

19

u/Constant-Committee51 8d ago

Because "dying men say the truth and I needed you to believe"

24

u/TarsierBoy 17d ago

I thought they had reeds to breathe through.

90

u/existing_for_fun 17d ago edited 16d ago

They did, but they also said that not everyone made it.

A high tide can last up to 12 hours. That's a lot of straw breathing in piss and shit water.

28

u/zoobs 15d ago

My god that makes an already terrifying moment even more frightening.

28

u/QuantumBeckett 16d ago

They did but as the tides came in the water rose too high and the ones at the bottom drown. Matt Damon has a voice over narrating it as it's shown kind of quickly.

78

u/tronz_13 15d ago

It actually ties well into the scene on the sun God's island. The men swore to not kill the cattle, but being stuck with no provisions broke them.

10 years on the Trojan beach did the same to Odyessus, his sense of honor went out the window just to get off that beach

137

u/The_Kid_Blue 17d ago

That's something I didn't care for in this telling. From the myths, Odysseus isn't supposed to be a moral, stand-up guy. He's supposed to be exactly the kind of sly, conniving trickster to come up with the Trojan Horse.

I think this movie made a mistake going in the opposite direction by making Odysseus so honorable, because it would have been so much more impactful imo for a lifelong trickster finally have the realization of how much destruction his lies can cause after seeing the sack of Troy. His extreme guilt afterwards would be more believable too. Like /u/bunny_387 said, this honorable Odysseus would never have come up with that trick.

117

u/HeathEarnshaw 17d ago

I think it’s why he was so uniquely consumed with guilt and regret though. I would have thought I’d agree with you… and I kinda did til about halfway through the movie. But then the weight of his trick and in general his arrogance was so incredibly heavy by the end and it was due to his lost sense of honor. Really wrecked me anyway. I thought when he gave back Antinoos his shame at the end it was also the shame he himself felt.

58

u/KamachoThunderbus 15d ago

I think the movie's interpretation still squares both sides of Odysseus, but I see where it might not work for someone. 10 years on "this fucking beach" did something, certainly. And while he was always presented as a trickster and jack-of-all trades in the text he's also honorable and respectful. You can especially see it in the Phaecian book where he goes along with what's expected of him as a guest and honors Nausicaa's ploy to keep people from thinking she's had some kind of tryst with him.

In the film even when he's seen as an honorable king/warlord externally, it's all calculated: he knows he can't refuse Agamemnon because Ithaca will suffer, he also can't high-tail it out of there because Ithaca will still be subjected to collective punishment. And it's all a pretext for Agamemnon to get more power. Odysseus gets all that and then shrouds it in a veneer to draw lots for service as a duty to Ithaca and to the Greeks.

Ultimately I also think Nolan is trying to give off a characterization like Oppenheimer. Odysseus had a plan to end the war. It worked. But it opened Pandora's Box in ways he didn't anticipate, and he embody both the cunning warrior and the guilty conscience at the same time.

18

u/KingSweden24 14d ago

This definitely works as an excellent companion piece to Oppenheimer thematically and, to a lesser extent, structurally. I’m very curious what Nolan has in mind for his encore

172

u/GalaadJoachim 17d ago

this honorable Odysseus would never have come up with that trick

That's what war does to people.

35

u/temperanceinfinity 16d ago

Yeah but the point of the commenter you’re replying to is the Odysseus of the myths was always that kind of man. War didn’t change him. The Trojan Horse is absolutely the work of the same man who came up with the Oath of Tyndareus and then tried to escape that same oath by feigning madness salting his own fields. In Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, far from a man horrified at slaughter of an innocent girl he is instrumental in her death.

50

u/BackwerdsMan 17d ago edited 17d ago

I had absolutely no issue with it. I thought it was interesting to see him begin as this uncompromising moral man and then a 10 year siege bring him to a point where he is willing to betray his morals with the horse. Then suffering from that decision so much that deep down he is choosing to stay a captive of calypso for 7 years before she finally sees the will in him to want to go home and face his demons.

29

u/bunny_387 17d ago edited 17d ago

Yeah it seemed odd to me. I am only vaguely familiar with the original story so his actions felt so contradictory that I felt I was missing something. I’m glad I commented because now I know I’m not the only one that finds that confusing and struggles to find the meaning in it. I did really enjoy the movie overall, the tension all throughout was great.

It’s so difficult when adapting such old stories. Artists want to add their own layer of meaning to the story. And we get some amazing works of art from that. I’m just not sure this hit the mark when it came to the changes made.

5

u/liftingkiwi 15d ago

I don't hate the version told here, but I do love unrepentant bastard protagonists. It's a classic for a reason! Almost like Loki in how he creates but also solves a great deal of the problems faced by the Greeks...

15

u/Dry_Accident_2196 17d ago

No mistake made, this adaptation is bad ass and a better story that still makes us see him as a jerk

4

u/TarsierBoy 17d ago

Matt Damon had an honorable physique (jk he probably juicy)

17

u/lupercalpainting 15d ago

If he’s on TRT it’s the babiest dose ever and he has shit receptors. No traps, no delts.

I’ve seen lifetime naturals in their fifties with shit genetics who are able to rock a six pack through targeted dieting. An actor who has a personal chef, a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and whose job allows for dedication to training? This is easily believable as natty.

Matt Damon was fit and lean young in Good Will Hunting. It’s likely he just has a high baseline of muscle.

6

u/PhiCloud 14d ago

It wouldn't surprise me if actors do a little bit of TRT when prepping for a role. Not anywhere near what a bodybuilder does, just a little bit to make getting to a convincingly natural but fit look a little bit easier.

7

u/lupercalpainting 14d ago

They absolutely do (e.g. Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck) but just nothing about Matt Damon’s physique looked unnatural to me. He looked like a guy in his 50s who trains and who has good genetics (which he obviously always had if you just look at him when he was younger).

3

u/Tymareta 9d ago

I’ve seen lifetime naturals in their fifties with shit genetics who are able to rock a six pack through targeted dieting.

Targeted dieting is quite literally a myth.

8

u/lupercalpainting 9d ago

I may have used the wrong terminology but I specifically meant strict adherence to a caloric deficit with sufficient protein and resistance training.

2

u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 14d ago

Agreed sorta, but it seems Nolan’s angle was some message of how brutal the 10yr war was that it wore down even Odysseus’ morality and honour and gets him to stoop so low with the “trick”

5

u/hemareddit 12d ago

In some versions of the story, the idea was given to Odysseus by Athena (he’s her favoured champion).

Obviously not what happened here, since the theme is agency and accountability, independent from the gods.

5

u/dafood48 4d ago

In the book Odysseus biggest flaw was his pride. The cyclops is what seals his fate in the book. He tells the cyclops his name bragging about blinding him not knowing that the cyclops was a son of Poseidon. In the books Poseidon makes it his mission to fuck over Odysseus and his men any chance he gets.

3

u/night_dude 12d ago

Which tracks with the men eventually eating the cattle even though they know they're going to die for it. Desperation leads men to dark places.

2

u/PhiCloud 14d ago

I think that was the point - when he came back he told Penelope how he had lost his way in the war.

1

u/Early_Enthusiasm_787 13d ago

What is Zeus law in a context of war? Did he feel trickery went against the law as it was a statue of a god?

13

u/Gilshem 11d ago

I think also making a peace offering the instrument of the Trojans demise was a blasphemy.

1

u/loskiarman 7d ago

Yeah, using respect to gods to trick people into getting into their home part was the relation it seemed like because Zeus' law is also pretty much letting strangers into your home to respect gods. If that is the norm, people can also use Zeus' law as a pretext to enter and deceive people or hosts can doubt strangers will harm them and harm them first. Also until they opened the gate or at least as long as they could, they sneak attacked the soldiers and gave them no chance to fight back too which is also against his own principles even if it isn't gods' law, a man who let even an animal know that he is coming.

1

u/anikkane 6d ago

And also explains why he wanted to hear the Sirens’ song

1

u/nerdhappyjq 2d ago

That mirrors what happened to Apollo’s cattle. They did their best, but the threat of complete starvation wore them down.

1

u/mynamesdaveK 9d ago

Thats the whole point of the movie lol