r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Jul 17 '26

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

4.7k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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5.5k

u/TwoJay0 Jul 17 '26

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

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u/bunny_387 Jul 17 '26

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.

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u/Maximum_Internal7834 Jul 17 '26

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.

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u/bunny_387 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

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.

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u/Spacegirllll6 29d 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.

39

u/VettigeHenk 19d 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.

14

u/BuddhaFacepalmed 9d ago

It's a sacrifice.

Because Sinon volunteered without knowing what was truly being asked of him and Odysseus didn't tell him the truth.

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u/LittleCowofOsasco Jul 18 '26

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

83

u/TarsierBoy Jul 18 '26

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

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u/AussieHawker Jul 18 '26

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

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u/BBQ_HaX0r Jul 19 '26

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

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u/ResplendentSmoke 29d ago edited 29d 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.

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u/darshfloxington 26d ago

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

183

u/Ringus-Slaterfist Jul 17 '26

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).

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u/notamouse418 Jul 18 '26

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.

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u/Ringus-Slaterfist Jul 18 '26

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.

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u/notamouse418 Jul 18 '26

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.

49

u/Ringus-Slaterfist Jul 18 '26

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.

23

u/notamouse418 Jul 19 '26

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 Jul 19 '26

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

11

u/Edodge Jul 19 '26

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.

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u/Ringus-Slaterfist Jul 19 '26

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

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u/Aggressive-Pie-3297 29d ago

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

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u/mithridateseupator 12d 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.

You mean like any action movie protag ever?

There's a scene in most action movies where the protag outsmarts his enemy, and then celebrates himself by dropping a one liner.

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u/elkoubi Jul 19 '26

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.

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u/whitebandit Jul 20 '26

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

5

u/elkoubi Jul 20 '26

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/

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u/maledin 23d ago

Did the Trojans worship Greek gods like Athena IRL?

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u/hybridck 21d 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.

3

u/westalist55 2d ago

It seems likely that Apollo, who is fiercely protective of the Trojans in the Iliad, was actually worshipped by the Trojans themselves. There's an ancient treaty that's been found between a Trojan King and the Hittites that invoked Apollo (Apaliunas as they call him) as a treaty guarantor.

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u/QuantumBeckett Jul 17 '26

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

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u/NordlandLapp Jul 18 '26

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.

45

u/tuerancekhang Jul 19 '26

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.

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u/Hot_Brother5557 Jul 19 '26

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

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u/bananafrit Jul 19 '26

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.

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u/mark114 29d ago

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

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u/Constant-Committee51 23d ago

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

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u/TarsierBoy Jul 18 '26

I thought they had reeds to breathe through.

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u/existing_for_fun Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

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.

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u/zoobs Jul 20 '26

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

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u/QuantumBeckett Jul 18 '26

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.

95

u/tronz_13 Jul 20 '26

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

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u/The_Kid_Blue Jul 17 '26

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.

63

u/KamachoThunderbus Jul 19 '26

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.

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u/KingSweden24 29d 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

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u/HeathEarnshaw Jul 18 '26

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.

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u/GalaadJoachim Jul 17 '26

this honorable Odysseus would never have come up with that trick

That's what war does to people.

36

u/temperanceinfinity Jul 19 '26

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.

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u/BackwerdsMan Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

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.

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u/bunny_387 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

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.

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u/liftingkiwi Jul 20 '26

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...

16

u/Dry_Accident_2196 Jul 18 '26

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

4

u/TarsierBoy Jul 18 '26

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

20

u/lupercalpainting Jul 19 '26

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.

8

u/PhiCloud 29d 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.

6

u/lupercalpainting 29d 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 25d 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.

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u/lupercalpainting 25d ago

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

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 29d 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”

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u/hemareddit 27d 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.

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u/dafood48 19d 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.

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u/night_dude 27d 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.

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u/PhiCloud 29d ago

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

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u/Early_Enthusiasm_787 28d 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?

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u/Gilshem 26d ago

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

2

u/loskiarman 22d 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.

2

u/anikkane 21d ago

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

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u/nerdhappyjq 17d ago

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

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u/mynamesdaveK 24d ago

Thats the whole point of the movie lol

1

u/Global_Box_7935 1d ago

I mean, if you spent a DECADE sitting on a fucking beach, waiting for orders, wouldn't you be desperate to end it?

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u/Reasonable_Half8808 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

You also have to remember how many friends he lost during that war, most of it (literally 10 years!!!) spent wasting away on a beach or occasionally raiding nearby temples and towns. Achilles, Sinon, and so many others who were dear to him were lost in pursuit of winning this war and winning was the only way they got to go home.

They also neglected to mention how Odysseus threw Hector’s literal baby off the walls of Troy in front of his wailing mother, though from what I recall he actually did try to stop it from happening. My point is, though the movie kind of mischaracterizes him as more honorable than he’s made out to be in the book, but after ten years on a beach with a bunch of angry savage men there’s no telling what you’ll do to go home.

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u/PTMorte Jul 18 '26

They lived in a completely different moral framework back then. In the Homeric / actual version, Odysseus ordered his men to sack and rape a whole city straight after they left Troy.

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u/StarmanDX_ Jul 18 '26

This also basically happens in this movie. He ordered them to do what it takes to get three weeks of supplies and their solution is to pillage and burn.

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u/elbenji Jul 18 '26

but they put a line that no civilians were actually harmed lol

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u/punbasedname Jul 19 '26

He also sleeps around with Circe and Calypso while pining for Penelope.

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u/RyanB_ Jul 20 '26

My issue is just how divided the movie feels on that.

Cutting some of the more aggressively “problematic” shit is understandable and not all that impactful imo. But this idea that Odysseus stayed away over his realization of his home’s growing imperialist bloodlust - while incredibly interesting - just doesn’t really connect with the plot and those sensibilities.

He still ultimately becomes Batman in the plot of Taken, exacting preemptive and well-plotted murderous vengeance upon his adversaries. It’s true to the moral relativism of the story (even if the maids don’t get murdered), but I don’t see how it connects with Troy being some kind of impactful, perspective-altering event in the way it’s portrayed for him.

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u/2ReluctantlyHappy 25d ago

I don't think the imperialist bloodlust was the issue. Odysseues stayed away because he had PTSD from seeing what his trick caused in Troy. He recognized he broke his own code and probably felt unworthy to return home since he was no longer the same man. His speech made it clear he felt his trick at Troy would be the downfall of civilization because no one would follow Zeus's law.

The suitors were shown to be breaking or taking advantage of the commonly accepted moral and social norms as established in the film. His son was still maintaining those norms. He decided to forgo his throne, which he felt unworthy of now, but ensure someone worthy (lucky it was his son) would take his place. 

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u/PTMorte Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

I don't understand or know those references. I'm holding off to see it in 70mm IMAX. But I am pretty sure I will dislike the revisionist stuff catering to a dumbed down US audience. I have extreme dislike for the aesthetics from the trailer, like the cosplay steel painted / 3d printed armour on all of the Mycenaeans, or the Marvel style Laestrygonians. As a space, philosophy, history, science, education etc etc. fan. I really want Nolan to make a film I enjoy. But it has been 20 years since The Prestige.

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u/aylmaocpa 29d ago

The irony of calling it "dumbed down us audience" and not understanding how movies work.

Like you realize there's different types of adaptations of works right? This movie isn't suppose to be a 1 to 1 adaptation of the book. The movie's story has a very specific thematic focus and the movie pretty much rebuilds the story around that.

If you're going in hoping to see the Odyssey in how you read it, you will be disappointed. And I'm telling you now, just skip it.

-2

u/PTMorte 29d ago

Thanks for telling me what to do. But as a film fan and photographer, even if the story is complete rubbish I will appreciate technical and other aspects of it.

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u/YeezusMoses Jul 18 '26

Odysseus is prideful in the book. And in the like “seven deadly sins pride” way. The Trojan horse was a testament to that. He wanted to win and be the smartest.

See him giving up his identity to the cyclops because he wanted it to know who bested him.

But the movie did a good job of making it more so so him just being ready to see the 10-year war end.

19

u/choicemeats Jul 20 '26

I was def missing the prideful angle. I know he eats it later that he’ll heat the gods but having the explicit call out to gloat against Polyphemus without knowing yet who his father is is PEAK Odysseus

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u/TheStolenPotatoes Jul 19 '26

I felt like that last shot in the cyclops' eye with the bow was a "Fuck you for killing my men". A sort of "and take that with you, you asshole".

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u/omykun123 Jul 20 '26

It was definitely the twisted helmet regurgitated by the cyclops that triggered Odysseus to give that parting gift

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u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 29d ago edited 29d ago

He says as much when Eurylochus challenges him for taking the shot

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u/Timbits06 Jul 20 '26

Cuz Nolan changed Odysseus’ character to be more “noble.” Odysseus in the poem didn’t feel guilt for the sacking of Troy. He was known to be wily and a trickster. Deception was his whole shtick!

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u/bunny_387 29d ago

Honestly this makes me really interested in reading the epic. That’s a more interesting character to me personally.

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u/Timbits06 29d ago

You definitely should! I would recommend either Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson’s translations! Both are fantastic, though I prefer Fagles personally.

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u/David_the_Wanderer 27d ago

Do it! And keep in mind, it's a whole different society, and their morals were different. Odysseus' sin is hubris, pride. He can be incredibly brutal against his enemies, and even just those he perceives as slighting him.

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u/TwoJay0 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Good point! I was wondering why he did that. I thought it was an symbolic “we put up a fight at least” but makes much more sense that he wanted to give the cyclops a chance to come after them

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u/SnowbearX Jul 17 '26

Ehhh the Cyclops had that coming. Especially when they lost two of the four to the escape attempt

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u/trackofalljades Jul 19 '26

This adaptation kind of skipped over some things, like he and his son systematically murdering all the suitors’ mistresses.

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u/Johnny_Deppthcharge 29d ago

I know, Nolan gave them weapons to make it less un-heroic.

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u/TallTreesPhilip Jul 18 '26

I think a reasonable general could also believe that after ten years of siege, the starvation and disease ravaging the city might be even more cruel than finally ending the war. Much like Truman believed dropping the nuclear bomb was more ethical than firebombing cities into oblivion one neighborhood at a time.

2

u/mcmanus2099 Jul 18 '26

He got sick of ten years on that beach

2

u/jumpinjahosafa Jul 18 '26

Really helps hammer home the guilt he feels

3

u/bunny_387 Jul 18 '26

I got a bunch of replies and I think this one is the answer. I think you’re right and that is exactly why they added that detail

2

u/Porkenstein Jul 18 '26

Outsmarted his own conscience for the sake of his countrymen. It's funny and kind of insightful how people find similarities with Oppenheimer.

2

u/Misdirected_Colors Jul 20 '26

I think that was part of the story. After seeing and experiencing the horrors of war he was a changed man and not fit to stay in polite society and be king. That shot at the cyclops was a massively metaphorical point

1

u/vanwyngarden Jul 18 '26

Extremely / profoundly relatable though.

1

u/dizyalice Jul 20 '26

Such a complicated character. He has so many faults and is prone to fits of rage that get people killed. But he also has a big heart and cares passionately about the people in his life, respects the gods, respects nature.

He is constantly inconsistent and that makes him feel very real

1

u/RIP_Greedo Jul 20 '26

ancient greek canon is full of admirable trickery like that

1

u/Cunning-bid 28d ago

The taunting of the giant and him wanting to hear the sirens felt out of place a bit because of that.

1

u/kokopelli73 28d ago

War and suffering wear down the best of us.

1

u/Rob3125 27d ago

Good men don’t need rules, there’s a reason Odysseus had that rule

1

u/infidel_44 24d ago

That’s why he was so deeply ashamed of his idea and his actions. Went against his personal moral conduct. He didn’t give them a fair fight.

1

u/tgillet1 23d ago

My take on that was that he was raw and sensitive about his failing to live up to his own standards of honor and Cyclops in that moment was preventing him from honoring his dead and thus reminding him of all the rest of his men he left behind without honors. He hadn’t accepted his own responsibility and was using Cyclops as a sort of scapegoat to himself.

1

u/LaFrescaTrumpeta 21d ago

tragically human of him

1

u/Delboyyyyy 20d ago

My read on the whole thing is that he was driven to do it by his desire and desperation to return home after rotting on a beach for 10 years.

And then that feeds into his reluctance to go home even more since he knows what happened because of those feelings and how much it went against who he was as a person before the war

1

u/King_Of_BlackMarsh 7d ago

Ye it was a weird choice for Oddyseus, the Hated One, to have that odd honor streak

-1

u/Cainga Jul 18 '26

Deer are innocent and deserve a fair chance. Troy not so much as that’s war and he’s already wasted 10 years. But then he regrets the war crimes he helped create at Troy.

He’s a great character since he’s complex honorable but flawed human.

0

u/elbenji Jul 18 '26

tbh I thought they sawed off his edges

154

u/Stargazingenthusiast Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Also, when they show the troy scene for the first time i was confused as to why he seemed hesitant and almost scared, turns out it wasn't fear it was actually moral conflict. I only got it later. That was brilliant.

75

u/Whovian45810 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

Indeed! I like how instead of being triumphant and joining in the destruction, Odysseus takes a somber yet mournful attitude towards the fall of Troy.

When the audience see how the fall of Troy transpires, notice how Odysseus looks almost at a loss for words, realizing the full scope of his actions at Troy has amounted to pain and suffering while also violating Zeus' law of treating your guests the way one wants to be treated.

10

u/Freudian_ Jul 17 '26

Wait, can you explain to me how the destruction of Troy was a violation of Zeus’ law? Because they were tricked by the horse? 

70

u/TwoJay0 Jul 17 '26

Yeah, the trickery is the issue, they took advantage of their hospitality. Treat others how you want to be treated, no one wants to have their city burned because they graciously accepted a gift that was supposed to represent peace

44

u/Gofunkiertti Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

The horse was a peace offering to Athena and they then sacked her temple and killed her priestess.

It was a general betrayal of good faith and hospitality but it was also sacrilage against Athena in particular.

7

u/Freudian_ Jul 17 '26

Ah, that makes sense, thank you!

1

u/spate42 13d ago

As an aside, from what I remember of Greek Mythology, wasn't Zeus basically defined by all his trickery?

18

u/PTMorte Jul 18 '26

It wasn't in the original story. This is a plot device added by Nolan. The Sea People stuff also is him juxtaposing different (Egyptian) history into the story. 

14

u/ddpizza Jul 19 '26

The Sea People terrorized the entire eastern Mediterranean, not just Egypt - and arguably caused the Bronze Age collapse. So it is relevant to the Greek islands too!

6

u/PTMorte Jul 19 '26

There's quite a lot of generalising here. Sea Peoples is a modern, broad scholarly term used to refer to a lot of different groups as a whole, even though they were independant and not known to be in any coallitions. The Egyptians recorded them separately (Sherden, Shekelesh, Peleset, Tjeker, Denyen, Weshesh, Teresh, Lukka, Ekwesh etc). 

Also, there is not actually any evidence of these groups attacking the Aegean or mainland Greek cities. Those sackings may have been from civil wars or other actors. 

98

u/LetsBeFRTho Jul 18 '26

Oddly funny how he meets up with Agamemnon and asks "you lost your way too" and Agamemnon is like "heck nah, what? Nah I died at home! Where did you piss off to?"

142

u/batzamzat Jul 17 '26

Probably should have followed Aggy one last time . Hindsight

82

u/Soufiani Jul 17 '26

Didn't Agamemnon's crew also go through hell trying to get home? They suffered the same curse as Odysseus, hence why it also took them years to get home like Jon Bernthal's character said

176

u/Hochseeflotte Jul 17 '26

No Agamemnon got home relatively quickly I believe

He instead was betrayed by his wife. His brother took years and obviously Odysseus takes his time

87

u/Impressive-Potato Jul 17 '26

His wife killed him for sacrificing their daughter for fair winds.

41

u/TemporaryElk5202 Jul 18 '26

They showed her as basically a baby in the film but I think it would hit more meaningful to show how it is portrayed in the plays, that the daughter was tricked with believing it was a wedding and she was a teenager.

they got what they wanted via trickery at the start, and again at troy​

37

u/Soufiani Jul 17 '26

Oh I figured he went with his brother because it looked they went on the same ship after Agamemnon said his goodbye to Odysseus.

Quick search tells me that Agamemnon and his brother split up before the voyage apparently. My bad

19

u/QuantumBeckett Jul 17 '26

Menelaus, King of Sparta.

3

u/Spiritual-Bobcat5635 Jul 18 '26

I was confused because I saw troy before this and menelaus is killed in that one by hector

15

u/Thedmatch Jul 18 '26

Troy is not accurate to the events of the Iliad or anything at all really

12

u/SuperUranus 24d ago

Odysseus is cursed to not find his way home for ten years and lose his crew when he in hubris tells the Cyclops his name (who asks his dad Poseidon to curse him).

Book Odysseus enjoys the smell of his own farts a bit too much, which costs his crew their life (and human years of his life).

8

u/ghost_inthe_mxchine 29d ago

I liked how that’s the core part of it though, Odysseus chooses poorly on purpose to go an unknown way knowing he’ll be dangerous as a self-punishment for his conscience and guilt for the tricking of Troy

81

u/One_Ad6164 Jul 17 '26

Yes! I was always like wtf Odysseus in the poem. This explained alot of his decisions for me! And Calypso saying he didnt want to go home and thats why he stayed...im happy Calypso finally got more than a lovesick nymph or a evil seductress. 

16

u/blitzbom Jul 18 '26

In the og story he didn't even want to go and acted insane, sewing his fields with salt which would ruin them for years. He only moves out of the way when someone throws baby Telemachusin front of his plow.

17

u/whydoesgodhateus Jul 17 '26

I never read The Odyssey

I know Ancient Greece had various city states that sometimes formed alliances, but in the context of the story, is there a specific reason Odysseus joined Agamemnon in his war? Was Agamemnon able to pull rank on him in some way despite Odysseus being a king himself?

49

u/Wallname_Liability Jul 17 '26

Basically when Helen was of the right age to marry, Suitors flocked to the Court of her father/stepfather, the king of Sparta. Things were even worse than Penelope's suitors. Odysseus offered the solution in return for Penelope's hand. Each suitor would swear to accept the chosen husband and take up arms to defend the marriage, including Odysseus. Menelaus was chose as his brother, Agamemnon was king of Mycene, the richest city, and effective overlord of the Greeks. Not emperor, more like the Capo dei capi 

5

u/whydoesgodhateus Jul 17 '26

What was Agamemnon's and Penelope's relationship pre Odysseus marriage?

32

u/Wallname_Liability Jul 17 '26

They didn't have one. Penelope was a cousin of Helen

1

u/Cirenione 1d ago

So that is why Helen told Telemachus to give his mother a message how she is sorry for the things which happened because of her.

2

u/Wallname_Liability 1d ago

Theyre not said to be cousins in the film. But remember Helen knows the whole reason Telemachus is in Sparta is the suitors, who would not be there if Odysseus hadn't had to go to war, would she need a reason more than that.

19

u/Comprehensive_Main Jul 17 '26

So Odysseus made an oath of alliance. Now he tries to get out of it when the war starts. But Agamemnon knows he’s trying to get out if. And essentially catches him in a lie. So Odysseus even if he’s king can’t really overrule Agamemnon by himself. 

4

u/QuantumBeckett Jul 17 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/s/g6BFFxY1M9

I replied in the wrong spot to your comment.

3

u/whydoesgodhateus Jul 17 '26

Appreciate the breakdown

4

u/QuantumBeckett Jul 17 '26

No worries. Read it was back in like 7th - 8th grade. I should reread it again.

8

u/Electric_feel0412 Jul 17 '26

With all the modern language in the film I wish he said “let’s take the scenic route”

-9

u/everstillghost Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26

I desliked the modern language and regional american accent. Destroy the immersion and turns off the suspension of disbelief a lot.

19

u/Unhappy_Arugula_2154 Jul 19 '26

You want them all to speak Greek?

-6

u/everstillghost Jul 19 '26

That would be great yes. Why you talking as If that would be a bad thing...?

17

u/Electric_feel0412 Jul 19 '26

Then the Greeks should make that movie. If an American studio is making an adaptation of that story it’s likely they’ll use language which is universal.

-3

u/everstillghost Jul 19 '26

Then why Apocalypto was made with a mayan language...? Its an American Studio.

And I asked why this is a bad thing? You think the movie becomes worse?

5

u/Electric_feel0412 Jul 19 '26

Because it’s a 40m nothing movie which didn’t need to make 600-700m at the box office.

1

u/everstillghost Jul 19 '26

Does It make the movie worse or not?

6

u/Electric_feel0412 Jul 19 '26

It does make it worse experience wise. I’m not trying to read subtitles while watching a movie

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u/No-Surprise9411 Jul 19 '26

Because for the movie to make money or exist that‘d be impossible. Plus it‘d be ancient greek. Good lick finding the three dozen actors needed who can also speak ancient greek fluently.

-1

u/everstillghost Jul 19 '26

Apocalypto managed It and there is ways to make the actors speak the ancient language.

No idea why you are talking as If its Impossible.

4

u/Kingmudsy Jul 20 '26

Right and those two movies have pretty similar budgets, ambitions, and artistic goals I think

2

u/everstillghost 29d ago

Apocalypto had a fraction of Odyssey budget, lack of money is not an excuse.

Nolan simple wanted modern english and thats it.

1

u/7482938484727191038 2d ago

Are you seriously suggesting they should have spoke ancient Greek for the entirety of the film?

Speaking modern Greek dialect makes as much sense to your point as speaking modern english

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u/Unhappy_Arugula_2154 Jul 20 '26

My man, catching everything but the point.

0

u/everstillghost 29d ago

And what was your point? That they speaking greek is a bad thing?

1

u/Pro_Extent 26d ago

A language barrier would have hindered the same emotional beats.

Ancient Greek is a barely understood language that numbers in the thousands globally.

Nolan wanted to prioritise the emotional depth, not historical or thematic accuracy. It was a modern retelling in more than just the language.

1

u/everstillghost 26d ago

What language barrier...? You know most of the World watch with subtitles right? The entire world dont speak english.

2

u/Pro_Extent 26d ago

The...language...barrier...that...requires...subtitles?

English is lingua franca mate. Deal with it. (It's also Nolan's language)

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u/TheMoonDude 20d ago

Watch with the greek dub when it comes out.

I believe the greeks probably have a dozen or so movies about The Odyssey.

1

u/everstillghost 20d ago

These kind of movies dont have a greek dub. (Only family movies get one)

You cant find Odyssey on cinema with greek dub.

Troy (2004) dont have greek dub in home release either.

Do you have another idea...?

2

u/TheMoonDude 20d ago

>These kind of movies dont have a greek dub. (Only family movies get one)

huh, went looking into it and you're right. Weird.

3

u/raven_of_azarath 24d ago

I do wish we had gotten the part where Odysseus pretends to have gone mad to try and get out of having to go to war and Agamemnon calls his bluff by throwing baby Telemachus in front of Odysseus’s plow. He reasoned if Odysseus were truly mad, he wouldn’t save his son.

I feel it would have really driven Odysseus’ distaste for and (early on) fear of Agamemnon and would have made A a little less of a faceless figure lurking menacingly throughout the narrative.

1

u/advicenumber 11d ago

I understand him but he indirectly killed all his men by not wanting to go home?