“Tell me what you remember,” says a voice at the start of the new trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey. For some watching, that’s a loaded question. The Odyssey is obviously one of the most important works of Western literature, a foundational epic that has influenced centuries of myths and stories.
The Odyssey is also really old, and for those who come to Christopher Nolan movies for towering visuals and complex story structures, the demand to remember a work of ancient literature might feel daunting. You may be watching the trailer feeling less excited and more confused.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered, ready to break down the trailer and have you fully prepared when The Odyssey arrives this July.
Why Can’t Odysseus Just Go Home?
The trailer begins with the hero Odysseus (Matt Damon) telling Calypso (Charlize Theron) that he wants to go home, specifically to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland). Why can’t he go? The answer is slightly more complicated than, “It’s a Christopher Nolan movie, so the male hero must always be separated from his wife and family.”
Odysseus helped win the Trojan War, but was waylaid on his way home to Ithaca, where he serves as king and has been held captive by Calypso, a nymph who had fallen for him when his ship crashes on her island. The shipwreck is just one of several mishaps that waylays Odysseus, including Poseidon wrecking his raft (the first thing we see in the trailer), cannibal giants (more on those soon!) and an ill-timed windbag (you’ll have to wait for the movie for that one).
Did Nolan Just Sneak a Trojan Horse Into The Odyssey?
The Trojan Horse appears in the trailer for the simple reason that The Odyssey picks up after the Iliad, Homer’s story of the Trojan War. Throughout the Trojan War, the 10-year siege of Troy by various other Greek city states, Odysseus proved his resourcefulness time and again, especially compared to the anger of King Agamemnon, portrayed by Benny Safdie in the movie.
The trailer gives us bits of Odysseus’ time in the Trojan War, where he fought alongside Agamemnon’s brother Menelaus, played by Jon Bernthal. The trailer also shows off the most famous example of Odysseus’s brilliance, when he constructed a gift to give to the Trojans and then hid himself and his fellow soldiers inside of it, allowing them to breach the city’s walls. That gift was, of course, the Trojan Horse.
Why is Robert Pattinson Being Such a Jerk?
A husband separated from his wife isn’t the only thing that makes The Odyssey such an urtext for Christopher Nolan. The story also cross cuts between Odysseus’s journeys and the turmoil at Ithaca, giving the director plenty of excuse to use his favorite editing techniques.
With Odysseus missing long after the end of the Trojan War, 108 other men see their opportunity to move up the social ladder and throw a gigantic party in his home. Those 108 suitors try to win over Odysseus’s wife Penelope, whose marriage was itself an extension of the Trojan War. Chief among the suitors is Robert Pattinson’s character Antinous, who seems to spend the entire movie ensuring Penelope that he’s moving in and that Telemachus should just start calling him “Dad.” Which is, according to the trailer, a word that Telemachus would use, apparently.
The suitor plot might be the hardest element of The Odyssey for modern viewers to understand. Why don’t Penelope and Telemachus just kick these guys out? How could Antinous and the other suitors be so bold?
One has to remember two things: first of all, hospitality plays a central part in Greek culture, and so one risks angering Zeus when rejecting a guest (remember that for when we talk about the cyclops). Second, Ithacans believe that they need a king, and someone needs to fill that role for the good of the people.
The motives of the suitors and Penelope’s inability to remove them goes beyond mere personal preference, requiring her to be as clever as her husband if she wants to hold his place for him. We won’t spoil how she pulls it off, but the shot of Hathaway holding a bow gives a little hint to her ultimate plan.
Why Is Tom Holland So Sad?
Judging by a cursory glance at the trailer, Tom Holland will spend most of the movie saying Robert Pattinson’s not his real dad and he hates him. But those who recognize some of the other characters realize that Telemachus has much more to do.
We see Telemachus talking to John Leguizamo in heavy make-up as Eumaeus, Odysseus’s faithful servant who aids in the resolution of the story. Later, Telemachus goes on his own sea-voyage and even takes the fight to Antinous. What we don’t see is any of Telemachus’ encounters with the gods, who ensure him that his father lives and give him the resolve to keep the faith.
Nor does the trailer give us much of any interactions between Odysseus’s family and his beloved dog Argos, who appears in one shot as a cute Krypto-level puppy and then later as… well, a much less happy dog. Let’s not talk about it. We’re getting as sad as Tom Holland the more we think about it.
Forget the Humans. Who Are Those Giants and Monsters in the Odyssey?!?
Because The Odyssey follows Odysseus as he travels from one place to another on his way home to Ithaca, he runs into a lot of weird stuff, some of which shows up in the trailer.
Most obviously, there’s Polyphemus the Cyclops. Remember how we said that hospitality is important to the Greeks? One of the clearest signs of Polyphemus’ evil is the fact that he eats two of Odysseus’ men, not so much because of the cannibalism, but because he mistreated his guests. As always Odysseyus will use his smarts to get himself out of there, but we’re most interested in Nolan’s cleverness in portraying the creature. Unfortunately, we get just a shadowy shot here, meaning we’ll have to wait for the full reveal.
While cannibalism isn’t the greatest of Polyphemus’s sins, it is still a sin, which comes up with another group of monsters we see in the trailer. Those giant warriors in silver armor are likely the Laestrygonians, who completely wreck Odysseyus’ ships and eat a bunch more of his men.
And then there’s the issue of the giant whirlpool and the things we don’t see around it, the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, which Odysseus must navigate around.
We obviously don’t see Scylla and Charybdis in their full glory, and that’s not the only stuff still missing from the trailer. We still haven’t seen major characters such as the Sirens, Circe, and Athena (the last of these played by Zendaya), nor do we know who Lupita Nyong’o, Elliott Page, James Remar, and Corey Hawkins are playing. Surely, some of these questions will be answered in later marketing, which gives you plenty of time to go back and read Homer’s epic for yourself.
The Odyssey arrives in theaters on July 17, 2026.
