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Go behind the scenes and on location with director Christopher Nolan and the cast of The Odyssey.
Featurette: Universal Pictures

The Odyssey
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Rated R
Returned 16 July 2026
#TheOdysseyMovie • #IMAX • #70mm • #ShotOnFilm

Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey is a colossal work of cinematic art.

War Horse

There’s only one opening title card and it simply states, “In an age of apparent magic.” It’s so appropriate, as this movie is made with “apparent magic.”

Scattered throughout The Odyssey are scenes depicting the invasion of Troy and the infamous Trojan horse. As the movie progresses, these scenes gain intensity and the scale grows to jaw-dropping levels. The action is real. The people are real. The locations are real. This isn’t an epic laden with the digitized fakery of CGI artifice. This is human spectacle.

Possibly the biggest surprise here has nothing to do with the casting controversies circulating among neophobes (ludicrous), historical costume design criticisms thrown around since the first promotional still image was released (ridiculous) or any narrative fiddling (to be expected). It’s the approach to the visual effects. There was enough of a tease early on as the movie went into production to suggest some of the fantastical creatures encountered might be done using stop-motion technology made famous by Ray Harryhausen in his superb effects for movies centered around Greek mythology. How else? If not with CGI, then by puppetry? But no. If anything, Nolan takes an even more old-school approach, very much in the mindset of “less is more.” It’s cinematic sleight-of-hand at its finest. Some of it even calls to mind the practical horror effects of Tom Savini. Much like the story itself, what was old is new again in so many varied ways when it comes to this Odyssey. And it still feels so fresh.

Watching those scenes of the Trojan horse, its construction and its implementation bring one name to the fore: Cecil B. DeMille. This is grand filmmaking that brings back the humanity to the process of filmmaking and storytelling on a massive scale and it’s truly breathtaking (especially in full-screen IMAX 70mm film).

Much is being made of the movie having been filmed entirely on IMAX film stock. That’s a first for a feature film and it is a major technical milestone in the history of filmmaking and cinematography that can’t be oversold. But more on that in a bit.

Songs of Odysseus

Like Shakespeare and his works, questions abound about the provenance of The Odyssey and Homer’s identity. It’s a story that dates back in written form nearly three millennia. For those unfamiliar with the story “Homer” finally wrote down after prior centuries of the tales being shared and passed down orally – in song – from generation to generation, the central character is Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his actions that challenge Zeus’ Law, bringing the wrath of the gods on him, his army and his loved ones as Odysseus’ return to his home, Ithaca, from Troy becomes an extended voyage – an odyssey – of decades.

Back home, his beloved wife, Queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway), must contend with an array of woefully unqualified suitors (counting as many as 108, according to Homer, by way of Stephen Fry) to ascend to the throne while their son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), holds out hope for the return of the father he never really got to know as a child. Amidst all this, Penelope and Telemachus must also contend with betrayals and criminal conduct as Ithaca’s civilization falls into decline without its king. While Odysseus used the wooden horse as a vessel to invade and conquer Troy, Ithaca was rotting from the inside out by its own homegrown malicious forces and a dramatic decline in basic civility.

Nolan begins near the end of Homer’s tale and skillfully balances a non-linear structure that uses flashbacks across story threads until all the lead characters are brought together for a strong finale. It’s a smart approach that helps bring the dramatic impact of ongoing events back home into a sharper focus and giving more weight to the characters’ challenges at home and abroad, rather than presenting a strictly straight, linear telling. The Odyssey is (fittingly) a long story (12,109 lines of poetry, as counted by Daniel Mendelsohn) and adapting it into a 170-minute feature film is no small task. This narrative aspect is in itself a significant artistic feat.

That beginning – the event that sets the gears of Odysseus’ trials in motion – is the invasion of Troy, which served as a push to end a cataclysmic 10-year war. The famous gift horse (no longer the typical giant toy horse on enormous wooden wheels) is a major facet of a recurring flashback; its power and impact grow as the pieces of the invasion are put together and revisited throughout the course of the movie.

Gods, Monsters and Heroes

The cast and crew have joked about how they were making six or seven movies while traveling the world (the real world!) filming the adventures in exotic locations. In some respects, the movie feels like several different movies, but merely by the range of situations and monsters Odysseus and his crew encounter.

Those episodes include a run-in with a hideous cyclops (which harkens in content but not style to Ray Harryhausen). There’s also a truly creepy episode that takes on the tone of a body horror movie involving the witch Circe (Samantha Morton); it’s almost as if Hitchcock’s shadow is cast on the walls of her cabin.

As those flashbacks to Troy reveal the construction of the horse, there’s even a sense of Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and those incredible scenes recreating with unprecedented historical accuracy the Normandy invasion as a group of Odysseus’ soldiers endure some harrowing conditions.

There are also eerie sirens – enchantresses beckoning unsuspecting sailors to their doom – singing out to Odysseus’ crew. They also face giant armored knights and a bodysnatching tentacled sea creature. Not to mention a massive, ship-wrecking whirlpool, a trip to Hades and a whole bunch of angry gods, mostly unseen.

The gods (or god adjacent) on view include Athena, Calypso and Circe. Plus, there’s the infamous daughter of Zeus who has for millennia captivated men and imaginations with her beauty, Helen of Troy (Lupita Nyongo’o), who had a face that launched a thousand ships. But there’s a twist here. Maybe, her husband, King Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), posits, it’s more like the face that launched 500 ships as her face turns to reveal a severe scar.

The overall vibe is a “cast of thousands” epic from the golden days of Hollywood, when directors like DeMille and David Lean brought magnificent images to the silver screen by physically recreating events. As told by Homer, it’s a cast list of more than 120 characters. And some of Nolan’s casting choices are marvelously appropriate even as they at first glance might raise eyebrows. Travis Scott, for one, plays a character identified only as the Bard, but narratively would fit in as Phemius, albeit with a twist toward the end. A bard, “back in the day,” was a singer, a performer. Scott’s casting (don’t forget his Tenet collaboration with Nolan) is so very fitting. As a bit of future trivia, Scott’s voice is the first one heard in The Odyssey as the Bard – following that oral tradition – performs one of the “songs” of Odysseus.

Maybe one outcome of all this will be inspiring people to drop off social media for a minute and read Homer’s books. Well, a guy can dream, anyway. Reading is most certainly on the decline these days, as is modern civilization. The parallels are all right there, even as Odysseus makes a quip about the small pool of people with the ability to write songs.

Ludwig Göransson discusses the music of The Odyssey.
Featurette: Universal Pictures

Narrative Chops

As with any adaptation, narrative compromises are a practical requirement. Some go to extreme lengths to completely reimagine a work, such as Robert Zemeckis’ magnificent overhaul of Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump and Anthony Minghella’s masterful version of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. Here, Homer’s sprawling source material transforms into a briskly paced experience for audiences removed by millennia from Homer’s day.

To make that happen, some elements are missing and some of those missing pieces are missed. One is the cyclops encounter in full; Nolan keeps it to the basics and skips the cleverness of Odysseus identifying himself as “Nobody.” This is a tough choice and one that slightly undercuts the build-out of Odysseus as a cunning, clever leader of people. Instead, the gist is there through conversations far afield and at home, particular among those who love the man. Indeed, at one point a comment is made, “His cleverness is going to get him in trouble.” Still, it would’ve been helpful to assert and reassert more of Odysseus’ leadership style and qualities.

Homer’s work also includes a surprising amount of sex; one can only imagine it as of the more raucous variety as it is enjoyed between puny mortals and licentious goddesses. On the one hand, the offspring are bypassed altogether. On the other hand, it opens casting possibilities that help create a theatrical shorthand. Not every female encounter needs to be filled with sexual tensions involving a hot goddess to make the story work and keep the movie moving.

With that, the seven-year relationship between Odysseus and Calypso (Charlize Theron) takes on a different, more grounded tone while the encounter with Circe is allowed to go all-out creepy. The change to Circe is a big one, but it works in service to this particular Odyssey experience, one that ends with an entertainingly intense climax.

As an R-rated feature, the violence is a key consideration. But even it is kept to a relatively modest level even when compared to some recent PG-13 ventures. That said, it’s still helpful as an indication this isn’t a children’s movie. The subject matter, the dialogue and the themes require more concentration than those mythological classics of the 1960s-1980s.

Anarchy & Pain

In typical Nolan fashion, there’s more to unpack watching The Odyssey than can be reasonably digested in one viewing. There’s the narrative, the technical execution. But then there’s so much beneath the surface that needs to settle into the mind. It’s densely, richly packed with ideas.

Some of these thoughts involve the casting. It’s already been mentioned Travis Scott has proven himself to be a credible actor. But what about Athena? Why Zendaya?

It’s genius as a cinematic interpretive element.

A goddess (or god) doesn’t necessarily have to appear the same to all people at all times. In this case, Athena, Odysseus’ war strategist, appears to Odysseus as (and this isn’t a spoiler) one of the young women he sees executed during the Troy invasion. From there, the intensity of those scenes, along with Odysseus’ thoughts on war, the downfall of civilization and the gods hit home harder and harder. And Athena seemingly starts to appreciate her complicity in the figurative wheels that have been set in motion.

Consider also the recurring idea that strangers might be a god in disguise, so they should be welcomed and treated with respect. As Odysseus observes, the clearest view of a man is from below.

In so many respects, this one holds a mirror to modern civilization. What is a civilization and how does it hold itself together? It’s in part through checks and balances that keep destructive forces at bay (in this case, it’s the “people from the sea”). It’s also about understanding the structures – not just those stunning buildings that have stood for centuries, but also the processes, ideas and ideals – that can so easily lose their meaning. It’s about respecting the law (most especially Zeus’ Law), the gods and fellow citizens.

There’s a hardcore feminist theme screaming out from Penelope and Circe as they rail against the societal norms they must follow. The latter, a witch who transforms men into various wildlife: tigers, panthers, cougars, lions, deer. But with Odysseus’ crew of soldiers, pigs are the creature of choice. Gluttonous. Disgusting.

And those elements are the more obvious ones.

There are deeper, darker thoughts about the downfall of civilization – including challenges with literacy rates – while still holding out hope that civilization will be able to rise again.

Odysseus comes to a brutal realization: “To burn the walls of Troy is to burn the world entire.” It’s a dark thought, but it’s complementary to the Talmud’s “To save one life is to save the world entire.”

Talking Nerdy

The Odyssey IMAX 70mm film ticket stub

So. The Odyssey is the first movie shot entirely with IMAX cameras. Great. But what does that mean?

Its significance can’t be overstated and it represents the culmination of Nolan working with IMAX for more than two decades – starting with the reformatting of Batman Begins for IMAX screens – to overcome the format’s technical challenges, the noise of the cameras being the primary obstacle. Additionally, a wholly new black-and-white IMAX film stock was created for Nolan’s use on Oppenheimer, released in 2023.

It means now when you go to a “full-size” IMAX theatre, the kind equipped with the huge IMAX screen originally found exclusively in natural science museums showing documentaries like Everest, you’ll view the entire movie in the almost square 1.43:1 aspect ratio that fills the screen from floor to ceiling.

Note: Not all IMAX theatres are created equal; many multiplexes have an “IMAX Lite” or (more bitterly) “LIEmax” variant that is a smaller screen while still adhering to certain other IMAX presentation standards. At last count, there are only 25 theatres in the United States and 41 locations in total around the world showing The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm film, Nolan’s preferred presentation format. (Find locations on IMAX.com.)

Praise be to Zeus! Denver is on the map with the Regal Colorado Center. But, of course, there’s a price for admission: tickets are $32 each. (Hey, there’s actually a human being in the projector room keeping an eye on things and ensuring the movie stays in focus.) As a slight tangent, when The Dark Knight screened ahead of its opening at the Colorado Center IMAX, the projector overheated once. But the movie resumed. Then it overheated again. It was an extended stoppage that ultimately became an unrecoverable situation. Ultimately, the screening was canceled somewhere around the third act. Passes were given out for future screenings and this writer went back in the wee hours of opening day (perhaps as early as a 6:00 AM showtime) to see how it all ended before heading out to the day job. The projection booth went digital after that. It’s such a welcome relief to have beautiful film back in the house.

But there’s more. With IMAX cameras used for the entire production, that means the movie can be a full theatrical experience without shifting aspect ratios (typically between expansive set pieces in IMAX and dramatic scenes in scope). There are the grand landscapes and action sequences in the huge format, of course. But now there are also close-ups. Scenes of two people talking and it’s their faces that fill the entire frame, the camera shifting focus from one face to the other.

That – as a purely technical concept – is mighty exciting in and of itself.

Go behind the scenes with Christopher Nolan, cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and the cast as they film The Odyssey exclusively with IMAX cameras.
Featurette: Universal Pictures

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.