Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey stormed into theaters on July 17, 2026, and is heading towards becoming a box office giant while earning some of the best reviews of Nolan’s career. For his take on Homer’s ancient Greek poem, the director did something bold. He shot the entire film on IMAX cameras, a first for any feature, and told the story in his signature nonlinear style.
Instead of a straight line, the movie unfolds as a series of flashbacks, with a weary Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, recounting his journey while trapped on Calypso’s island. Homer’s epic follows Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, as he tries to sail home after the ten-year Trojan War.
The Odyssey (2026)DetailsDirected & Written ByChristopher NolanBased onOdyssey by HomerCastMatt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, and Charlize TheronDistributed byUniversal PicturesRT Score (As of July 19, 2026)95% | 97%Release DateJuly 17, 2026
His voyage drags on for another decade as angry gods and terrifying monsters block his path at every turn, while back home his wife Penelope and son Telemachus fend off greedy suitors. Here are all 7 of Odysseus’ adventures from Christopher Nolan‘s movie, explained.
1. Odysseus Encounters the One-Eyed Monster Polyphemus
Odysseus splits off from the other Greek kings, Menelaus and Agamemnon, and takes the long way home. He plans to restock supplies along the coast, and his men raid a town. But rough seas blow them off course to the island of the Cyclopes.
There, they run into Polyphemus, a towering one-eyed giant who traps them in his cave and starts eating Odysseus’ men one by one. Thinking fast, Odysseus and his surviving soldiers blind the monster’s single eye with a sharpened stake. However, the movie drops the part where they offer him wine and the ‘Nobody’ joke from Homer’s epic.
In the movie, they slip out of the cave by covering their backs with shrubbery so the blind giant can’t feel them leaving. But it comes at a cost. Polyphemus is Poseidon’s son, and blinding him earns Odysseus the fury of the sea god.
2. Poseidon’s Storms Drive Odysseus to the Laestrygonian Giants
A still poster of The Odyssey featuring the Laestrygonian Giants | Credits: Universal Pictures
Blinding Polyphemus comes back to haunt Odysseus almost immediately. Furious that his son has been tricked, Poseidon turns the wind and sea against the fleet, hammering them with storms that blow them far off course. Desperate for food, the survivors find themselves ashore and come across a Laestrygonian child.
He is as big as a grown man and screams at the sight of them, summoning the rest of the tribe. In Christopher Nolan’s movie, these giants appear as towering armored warriors who look like medieval knights. They brutally attack the crew after trapping them, even smashing two of their three ships.
Only a few survive this attack, including Odysseus and his second-in-command, Eurylochus, played by Himesh Patel. It’s a one-sided slaughter that deepens the crew’s growing fear that following Damon’s character will get them killed.
3. Odysseus’s Crew Walks Into Circe’s Sorcery
Samantha Morton as Circe in The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures
The survivors from the Laestrygonian ambush are battered and starving, and they land on another coast, Aeaea, in search of food. Odysseus heads off alone to hunt with his bow, while his men wander toward a grand house belonging to the witch Circe, played by Samantha Morton.
She welcomes them inside and lays out a feast, but it’s a trap. With her magic, Circe transforms the entire crew into pigs. When Odysseus discovers what happened, he doesn’t fall for her charms the way he does in the poem.
In the poem, he gets her to swear an oath to not harm him, which leads him to her bed and her freeing his men, but Nolan portrays him as a loyal husband. He holds a blade to Circe’s sister, who has been turned into a crow, to force her to release his men. Circe changes the men back, but she also delivers a chilling warning. Odysseus will never reach Ithaca unless he first makes a terrifying detour to the land of the dead.
4. Odysseus Sails to the Underworld
Elliot Page as Sinon in The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures
Following Circe’s instructions, Odysseus travels to the shores of the Underworld to seek guidance. Here he comes across the ghosts of people from his past. He encounters Sinon, played by Elliot Page, the Greek soldier who helped trick the Trojans into wheeling the wooden horse inside their walls.
He confronts Odysseus for the lies about the Trojan plan. He also reveals how he was manipulated by the suitor Antinous during the drawing of lots before the war, and he wants Odysseus to seek vengeance against Robert Pattinson‘s cowardly character. He also instructs Odysseus to sail west to honor the fallen Ithaca soldiers with proper Greek warrior funeral rites.
Damon’s character also meets Agamemnon, the Greek commander who was murdered by his own wife, Clytemnestra, after returning from Troy. He urges Odysseus to come home in secret and in disguise to find his true allies.
Most important of all, the blind prophet Tiresias appears with a grim prophecy. He warns him of the Sirens and the dilemma between choosing Scylla or Charybdis. He also prophesies that Odysseus’s men will all die after they kill the sun god’s cattle on the sun god’s island. It’s a devastating warning, and it hangs over every choice he makes for the rest of the voyage. The Underworld trip gives the film some of its most haunting moments.
5. Odysseus Has to Safely Pass the Sirens
Matt Damon as Odysseus in The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures
Back at sea, Odysseus faces one of the most famous dangers from the epic. The Sirens are bird-woman hybrids who lure sailors to their deaths with a hypnotic song, steering them toward the rocks as if in a trance. Warned by Tiresias, Odysseus comes up with a careful plan to survive their deadly music without losing his men or his ship.
Odysseus has his men put wax into their ears to avoid danger, but even with this brilliant plan, the Sirens still claim a victim. Damon’s character insists on hearing the Sirens’ song and ties himself to a mast. He weeps at the song that showed everything he ever wanted but never could have.
6. Odysseus Chooses Scylla Over Charybdis
A still from The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures
Not long after the Sirens, Odysseus reaches a narrow passage guarded by two nightmares, one on each side. On one side lurks Charybdis, a massive whirlpool that can swallow their entire ship whole. On the other side waits Scylla, a monster that snatches sailors straight off the deck. According to Tiresias, one would claim them all while the other would claim six of them.
Odysseus is forced to make an agonizing choice, deciding to steer past Scylla, accepting that he will lose a few men rather than risk losing everyone. Scylla strikes, and six more of his crew are dragged away and devoured. It adds to the trauma of the central protagonist, who is forced to make such heartbreaking choices. After this choice, he is forced to reveal to his soldiers Tiresias’s prophecy.
7. Calypso Entraps Odysseus on Ogygia
Charlize Theron as Calypso in The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures
Odysseus makes his men promise not to eat the forbidden cattle of the sun god. However, they grew increasingly frustrated and angry after being stranded on the sun god’s island. They ultimately broke their promise and killed one of the sun god’s cattle. It results in a massive storm destroying Odysseus’s last ship and killing the rest of his crew.
He washes ashore on Ogygia, the island of the lonely nymph Calypso, played by Charlize Theron. Nolan makes considerable changes to this adventure from the poem. In the poem, Calypso detains him against his will for seven years and offers him immortality to stay with her. But he prefers to return home, and she is forced to let him go after the intervention from other gods.
In Nolan’s movie, Calypso feeds Odysseus lotus flowers that erase his memories, keeping him trapped and content for seven long years so he forgets his home and family. Calypso finally stops giving him the lotus, and Odysseus slowly remembers and recounts his entire journey, which is exactly what the audience has been watching.
Once he fully recalls who he is and how badly he wants to return, Calypso takes pity and frees him, sending him off on a raft toward Ithaca at last.
Which of Odysseus’ adventures gripped you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
The Odyssey is playing in theaters now.
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