Anything and everything about The Odyssey (2026)

[No Spoilers]

The Odyssey Edited Poster

In 2023, Academy Award®-winning director Christopher Nolan delivered a film to audiences with the tagline, "The world forever changes." This year, Christopher Nolan has released a film that owns the phrase with much more gusto and breadth. Taking theatres, fans, and the internet by storm is the cinematic sensation The Odyssey.

This article will guide everyone from the average fan to the film buffs abound to everything that has made The Odyssey so popular, controversial, and unique among the other films of 2026.

The Story

The Odyssey Book Cover | TV Tropes

The Odyssey is based on the ancient epic poem Odyssey by the blind poet Homer. Originally performed orally, it was written down some time around 900 B.C. - 600 B.C. It details the warrior-king of Ithaca, Odysseus, on his voyage home from the Trojan War. However, his actions angered the gods, causing his journey to be significantly… harder. He and his crew face monsters and magic as they struggle to survive in the wild Aegean Sea.

But at home, Odysseys faces more trouble. The Trojan War lasted ten long years, causing his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, to be put into conflict with the men of Ithaca. Believing Odysseys to be dead, Ithaca's men try to marry Penelope to rule the city. She tries to hold out as long as she can, but public pressure strains her willpower, and Telemachus seeks any proof of life that he can find of Odysseus.

The memorable action of the Trojan War, featuring the characters like Ajax, Patroclus, and the famed Achilles, is previously recorded in part by Homer's other epic poem, Iliad. The film Troy, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, is based on the events of Iliad and other moments of the Greek Epic Cycle.

The Movie

Christopher Nolan has expressed interest in adapting Odyssey for decades, being one of the directors initially circled to direct Troy. Universal announced Nolan's intent to adapt in December of 2024 with Matt Damon attached to star.

The film runs at 2 hours and 52 minutes long - a hefty but necessary runtime to adapt Homer's story. It stands as Christopher Nolan's second-longest feature film behind Oppenheimer. It holds an R-rating for language, violence, and some graphic scenes of sheer horror.

The film boasts an impressive cast from Hollywood's finest.

Odysseus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Matt Damon

Penelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne Hathaway

Telemachus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tom Holland

Antonius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Pattinson Eumaeus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Leguizamo

Himesh Patel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eurylochus

Calypso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlize Theron

Athena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zendaya

Menelaus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jon Bernthal

Helen of Troy & Clytemnestra . . . . . . . . . . . Lupita Nyong'o

Elliot Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sinon

Agamemnon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benny Safdie

Mia Goth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mélantho

The Bard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Travis Scott

The Odyssey Ensemble Cast | Switching Codes w/Eric Deggans

The Making Of

Filming On Location | Vulture

The Odyssey was filmed over the course of 97 days (originally scheduled to be 100 days). Nolan wanted to make the movie seem as real and authentic as possible. Thusly, he opted for limited use of CGI and digital effects. Nearly all locations in the film are real, no green screens at all. Production occurred in castles and on shores across Italy, Greece, Morocco, Iceland, Scotland, Malta, and a few scenes in Los Angeles.

One of the monsters Odysseus and his crew face could very easily have been done with CGI, but Nolan opted for a 60-foot tall puppet and an actor in a bodysuit. The armored warriors on the poster above are actually 7-foot tall actors on stilts and Odysseus's is played by 4.5-foot-tall stand-in Devyn Dalton. Nolan's commitment to practical effects and limited CGI has garnered a lot of attention for commitment to an immersive film experience.

The IMAX Innovation

All of Hollywood's big action movies have used IMAX cameras at one point or another, but The Odyssey is the first film to be recorded entirely with IMAX cameras. They are not used more frequently because the cameras are incredibly loud, making it nearly impossible to record dialogue. Nolan and Academy Award®-winning cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema challenged IMAX to design a special case called 'the blimp' to place the camera in so that the sound is muted in the shell. It requires five people to carry and the bulk required the crew to rig a special mirror system so that actors could see each other during their scenes.

Tom Holland (left) and Jon Bernthal (right) filming their dialogue scene | CineD

Most impressively, the film's special IMAX achievement has driven fans to select theatres around the world that show the film in IMAX 70mm film. Only 25 theatres in the United States and 41 theatres worldwide are able to show the film in this format. As a result, tickets have become a hot commodity. This reporter recalls one instance where, for 2:00 PM on a Thursday, a theatre sold out in two days eight days before the screening.

The Odyssey Popcorn Bucket | AMC

To commemorate this impressive achievement, the official, specially-designed popcorn bucket for The Odyssey is an IMAX film camera.

The film has now grossed more movie from IMAX screens in theatres than any movie shown before, surpassing James Cameron's Avatar.

The Controversies

The film's trailers and expanded information have caused some stir from boisterous online communities. Many viewers think that there are too many Hollywood stars in the film, saying that they can't picture Matt Damon as a Greek warrior, or express their frustration with seeing Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson in so many movies. One. of the most prominent controversies is on the topic of race. Many communities believe that there needed to be more actors of Greek ancestry present. Most notably, Lupita Nyong'o received a lot of criticism for her portrayal as Helen of Troy, a role that has been played previously by white, blonde women.

Entertainment Weekly

Another casting controversy comes from Nolan deciding to reunite with Elliot Page, whom he hasn't worked with since Inception in 2010. The actor, formerly known as Ellen Page, came out as transgender in 2020. Less than a year later, he became the first openly-transgender man on the cover of Time magazine. Many socially conservative groups have voiced concerns that the casting is a 'woke push' from Hollywood, forcing great stories to be degraded for the sake of representation.

Some criticisms target the film's artistic merit, claiming that location-filming took precedent over other immersive elements. For example, the ship used by Odysseus in the film is a Viking ship borrowed from Sweden rather than a specially-constructed ship for the film. Additionally, the occasional internet nitpicker often targets the costume material, with some users commenting that the costumes are boring or lifeless compared to the historically-accurate armor Bronze Age Greeks would have worn.

Emily Wilson, Ph.D. | Omnia - University of Pennsylvania

Nothing stirs controversy more than social issues, but even academics have expressed their appreciation, disappointment, or frustration with the differences in Nolan's film from Homer's epic. Many academics have taken to the web or to news programs to voice their opinions of the film as an adaptation of the ancient epic poem. One critic whose opinion is more relevant than others has expressed a decidedly negative opinion, Emily Wilson. Wilson was the first woman to translate Odyssey into the English language, and her translation is the one Nolan cited as being his inspiration for his approach to adapting the poem. Wilson has authored two articles describing her reaction to the film, where she criticizes the film's changes in some characters and plotlines.

The Consensus

In spite of loud communities bashing the film online, and the announcement that Elon Musk's company, Grok, would release an AI-generated, "historically-accurate" version of The Odyssey by the end of the year, the average theatre goer and numerous film reviewers have praised this colossus of a movie.

The Odyssey has earned a 94% critic score and a 97% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, an 8.5 IMDb score, and a 4.34 Letterboxed score.

Financially, the film is Nolan's highest-grossing movie, surpassing The Dark Knight Rises, and his first movie to make more than one billion dollars since. As of this writing, it surpassed Deadpool & Wolverine to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time (earning $1.53 billion), becoming one of only three movies to cross the billion-dollar mark, the first being Joker. It is currently the second-highest grossing movie of the summer, quickly blown out of the Mediterranean waters by Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Though some of the film's moments have mixed opinions, the film as a whole stands as a crowd-pleasing blockbuster with plenty of action, reflection, and awe.

This Critic's Thoughts

One Sentence Review: "Warning: may cause blindness, deafness, and blown mind."

This movie affected me like no other movie has. In order to understand it better and experience it in multiple formats, I have seen it in theatres four times in total.

1. IMAX (AMC - Skokie)

2. 70mm (Oriental Theatre - Milwaukee)

3. IMAX 70mm (Cinemark - Woodridge)

4. 70mm (Sun-Ray Cinema - Tampa)

These four trips mark The Odyssey as the film I have seen the most in theatres, overtaking The Batman (3 times). Each time, I kept my eye out for something new, which I managed to find every time.

There is no movie in this century that has ever been so dedicated immersion and assaulting your senses quite like The Odyssey. The film ranges from darks to brights in only the first ten minutes, giving a mild struggle for the eyes. Around the 1/3 mark (those who have seen it will know what I'm referring to), there was a sound so loud and so unique that I was not prepared for at any stage of my molecular being. The fight choreography was impressively visceral, with the actors clearly having put in the hours to appear as Greek warriors.

Performances are all standouts. Notable performances that I'd like to highlight as impressing me are John Leguizamo, Anne Hathaway, and even Tom Holland (who is having quite the summer himself). Leguizamo, most prominently known for comedy, delivers an heartfelt performance with sincerity and emotional sympathy. Hathaway fills a demanding role with vulnerability in some scenes and commanding confidence in others. Matt Damon described this as, "… the hardest movie I have ever done," also saying that he acted, "… as if it was the last movie I'd ever do." Many critics say they can't unsee Matt Damon as anything but a Hollywood star, but I put that on them for having a limited imagination.

One of the most unique features of the film is its original musical score. Written by three-time Academy Award®-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, the soundtrack relies on using only instruments that were used and available to the Ancient Greeks. The first couple times, I didn't really pay attention to it, and I actually think that there could have been more of it. But on that third watch, I started to appreciate the soundtrack.

Nolan's commitment to practical effects is admirable, though I think he has a very binary view of visual effects in cinema. He either uses them so wildly and amazingly that you can't ignore them (Inception, Interstellar), or he uses it so subtly that it looks like he is against it (Dunkirk, Oppenheimer). I think that the latter case is what cost Oppenheimer its nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards®. In this case, I think he could have given into the CGI machine a little more, it would have given him more freedom with his imagination and what the film could capture. But Nolan still blew everyone away with what he was able to achieve.

I have some qualms with the dialogue. Namely, I think Nolan mischaracterizes what he calls, "Zeus's Law," which serves as the film's explanation for the Greek custom to be kind to strangers. In Ancient Greece, there was a practice to welcome strangers as friends, for fear that they may be gods in disguise and exact their wrath on those that mistreat them. The film often equates it to the Christian phrase, "Treat others as you would be treated," which I find to be an unnecessary connection to later-established Western morality.

I had to fight with one of my friends when I hated hearing but defended Odysseus's use of the phrase, "Our age of bronze is…" It sounds terrible, but in Nolan's defense, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the exact same way. "The age of men is over." Overall, this isn't Nolan's best script, but it certainly drips with passion and dedicated work. My personal favorite Nolan script is still Oppenheimer.

The only casting qualm I have is with Benny Safdie as Agamemnon. It's just two little irks; I think his body is too small, he looks like he's getting crushed under the weight and size of his gargantuan armor, and his voice isn't deep enough to match his appearance.

Odyssey is the classic adventure from which all adventures trace their path. In that way, The Odyssey could have been like any other movie if it was handled differently. But Christopher Nolan and team have presented global audiences with a theatre experience unlike and unmatched by any other in the history of the world. The third time I saw the film was at the Cinemark in Woodridge, one of only 41 theatres globally that can present an IMAX 70mm film, and I was astounded by the five-story scale and the terror-inducing audio. it is definitely not necessary to see the film in any format other than IMAX, but I strongly encourage it. After it leaves theatres, you will never be able to see IMAX's biggest movie that way ever again.

My experience seeing the film have been so transformative that I plan to author a memoir detailing my travels about the first three visits. Tune in for more details.