The Odyssey (2026 | USA | 172 minutes | Christopher Nolan)
Last time Christopher Nolan had a new feature in theaters, he was helping save blockbusters, movies, and even summer itself with a three-hour drama about a nuclear scientist. It ruled.
Today, he is back in cinemas with his telling of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey and, frankly, epic is the only word that feels appropriate in my vocabulary.
The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus (Matt Damon), who rules over Ithaca with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland). At this point, Telemachus’s ambition outpaces his abilities. Then Odysseus is drawn away to fight in the Trojan War for ten years and spends another ten years taking the scenic route’s scenic route home.
Like any good story, it’s about the journey, not the destination. On the way home to Ithaca, Odysseus and his men encounter some of the most famous stories in Greek mythology while making some catastrophically bad decisions on empty stomachs.
After surviving the Cyclops, the ensuing wrath of Poseidon, Aeolus, and the Laestrygonians, the crew ends up on the island of Aeaea (where vowels are $250) and meets Circe. She happily feeds Odysseus’s weary, hungry men before turning them into pigs.
After Odysseus makes a deal with Circe to restore his men to human form, they are determined to learn absolutely nothing. They eventually ignore the Sun God’s warnings about sticking to a strict vegetarian diet, leaving Odysseus to make the rest of the journey home alone—following only a brief, seven-year detour on Ogygia, where Calypso (Charlize Theron) keeps him comfortably distracted by feeding him lotus flowers every day to cloud his memory. Among the trials and tribulations Odysseus faced, being cared for by Charlize Theron for seven years is one of the better traps to fall into.
Meanwhile, Penelope is left to hold down Ithaca herself as Telemachus presumably reads some Joseph Campbell and goes on his own hero’s journey to find, or at least learn more about, his father. Ithaca is overrun by a band of would-be usurpers led by Antinous (Robert Pattinson) and Melantho (Mia Goth), who are resolved to outlast Penelope and seize the kingdom for themselves.
It might be a spoiler to say this all builds toward a battle for Ithaca between Odysseus and Antinous, but it’s a spoiler that’s been floating around for almost 2,800 years. I won’t say how Nolan stages it, only that it’s one of the most exhilarating final half hours I’ve seen in a theater in years.
It’s also remarkable how Nolan gets a cast full of blockbuster leads—from Batman to Spider-Man to Mad Max—to disappear into Homer’s world. Everyone feels less like a celebrity cameo and more like a character actor who wandered into Greek mythology.
Yet, for everything Nolan does to bring this classic poem to life—and make it as larger-than-life as possible for the big screen—the movie never loses sight of the human story. At its heart, it’s still about a man trying to get home to his family. Among the many tricks Nolan pulls off is making one of history’s greatest epics feel both monumental and deeply personal.
I hope Christopher Nolan expands The Odyssey into a trilogy like he did with Batman. He could do The Iliad next, obviously, and, well, chapter one of Ulysses is called “Telemachus,” so let’s do that one too.
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The Odyssey opens in theaters today, Friday, July 17.