Nolan’s The Odyssey turns Homer into a three-hour myth maze

Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” sends Matt Damon’s Odysseus through a brutal homecoming: 10 years of war, nearly 10 more years at sea, and a trail of angry gods, dead soldiers and hungry monsters.

According to Variety’s account of the film, Nolan’s nearly three-hour adaptation draws on Homer’s epic and the Greek oral tradition, framing the story through a bard played by Travis Scott and Odysseus’ own memories. The result is a myth-heavy timeline that begins before the voyage home even starts.

How the war starts

Odysseus is introduced as the king of Ithaca, married to Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway. In peacetime, their palace is open to guests, in keeping with Zeus’ law of hospitality, which warns that any stranger might be a god in disguise.

The trouble begins abroad. Variety reports that Helen of Sparta, played by Lupita Nyong’o, leaves with Paris of Troy, prompting her husband Menelaus, played by Jon Bernthal, to seek help from his brother Agamemnon, played by Benny Safdie. Agamemnon raises an army, launching the Trojan War.

Odysseus joins the fight after telling Penelope she must remarry if their son Telemachus, played by Tom Holland, reaches adulthood before his return. The war lasts 10 years, until Odysseus devises the Trojan Horse plan. Sinon, played by Elliot Page, is left to sell the horse as an offering to Athena, played by Zendaya, without knowing the full trick.

The monsters arrive

After Troy falls, Odysseus heads home with his men, but the gods are furious over the ruin and sacrilege of the war. The Ithacans land first with Polyphemus, the cyclops played by Bill Irwin. After the men blind him to escape, they anger his father, Poseidon.

The voyage gets worse. Laestrygonian giants attack, leaving Odysseus with one ship. On Aeaea, Circe, played by Samantha Morton, turns his men into pigs before telling him he must visit the underworld and speak to the prophet Tiresias, played by James Remar.

In the underworld, Sinon accuses Odysseus of betrayal over the Trojan Horse. Agamemnon, now dead after being murdered by Clytemnestra, warns Odysseus not to assume he will be welcomed at home. Tiresias lays out the nightmare ahead: sirens, then a choice between the whirlpool Charybdis and the monster Scylla, and finally Apollo’s cattle, whose killing will doom the crew.

Odysseus withholds key parts of the prophecy. His men survive the sirens with wax in their ears while he listens tied to the mast. They later steer toward Scylla, where six die, then break their promise on Apollo’s island and slaughter the sun god’s cattle. A storm from Zeus, Poseidon and Apollo kills everyone except Odysseus.

Ithaca is no easy homecoming

Odysseus washes up on Calypso’s island, where Variety says Charlize Theron’s character keeps him for seven years and feeds him lotus flowers that make him forget Penelope and Telemachus. After he confronts why he has avoided home, Calypso helps him leave, and Athena reveals he has reached Ithaca.

Twenty years after departing, Odysseus returns disguised as a beggar. He reunites with Telemachus after their old dog Argus recognizes him and dies. Penelope, meanwhile, is surrounded by suitors trying to marry her and control Ithaca.

The final test is pure Odysseus: string his bow and shoot through 12 axes. After the suitors fail, Odysseus drops the disguise, completes the feat and fights them. Variety reports that he kills Antinous, played by Robert Pattinson, in Sinon’s name.

The film’s ending restores the family but does not leave Odysseus settled. Telemachus is crowned king, while Odysseus vows to sail west to honor the men who died, a direction Variety notes is tied in mythology to death and Elysium, the resting place of Greek heroes.

This story draws on original reporting from Variety.