Why would YOU go watch the Odyssey? Ask yourself this question because, every person, and I mean EVERY person who watches the film, seems to walk out with a different version of the same movie in their head. That is the power of the original – Homer’s Odyssey – that it does not own the interpretation. And even the one you see onscreen is yours to believe – although, I have to say, ahem… as Greek heroes go, Matt Damon, (albeit he can’t shed the ‘good guy’ image even when he’s armored in combat garb ) – is a pretty good reason to go watch!
Spoiler Alert: Read at your own discretion
Greek heroes are really not a dime a dozen in 2026, so if you can watch the onscreen version, full IMAX size, if he lives to tell the tale, if Greek mythology was the lesson you skipped because reading was just not your thing, this 2026 Christopher Nolan adaptation of the Greek classic, The Odyssey is all you need to pull you back into the land of Agamemnon, Troy, Athena, Penelope, Odysseus, the mythical goddess-witch Circe and more. Oh yes, Circe had quite the moment, not to mention the multiple others who cannot be written off as mere side characters, catch yourself covering your ears when The Cyclops shrieks in pain – it’s all happening onscreen and what a great crash course it is in ancient Greek mythology!
And with all that and more to dwell on, I give you 9 Absolutely Necessary Thoughts on my mind as I watched and then contemplated a rewatch of The Odyssey.
1. Why didn’t I pay more attention to the Greek classics gathering dust on my bookshelf?
Or, at least dive into an overnight crashcourse by watching 50 Instagram reels on Homer’s Odyssey. Not after the movie, but before! I mean, I would have missed the entire point of it if I hadn’t dialed in with a student who had actually READ the book. Imagine me thinking this was a story about a woman who turned men into pigs… okay, we won’t go there.
2. When The Cyclops shrieked, (without warning), it was as close to breaking the sound barrier as I’ll ever get, I hope!
So remember those queues at the rollercoaster, where they say pregnant women, heart patients are advised to exercise caution? Why would they not say that outside the cinema for the Cyclops’ blood curdling scream(s)? A quick AI search tells me the jagged audio peak hit extreme theater decibels near 125 dB. But how high is that in the real world, you ask? Another quick search, my AI fingers doing the tough work – The Cyclops screaming in a theatre near you is equivalent to a pneumatic jackhammer at close range or a police siren heard from 1 meter away.
Now you know why the memes are doing the rounds on TikTok!
3. If Cristopher Nolan had taught the Odyssey in High School, boy there’d be so many more Literature majors…
It’s the poetry of it; the charm, the tragedy, the trauma, the coming of age, the lotus-induced disorientation, the beauty of the hubris, guilt, trauma and the reckoning of it all, that came together onscreen to make me want to go back to school or at least, pick up The Odyssey, from that forgotten bookshelf and read about the hero and his journey.
Really? A movie can do all that? A storyteller in 2026 (over 2000 years after it was originally penned) just did exactly that with B epic Greek classic and wow, it made me want to read more.
4. Speaking of hubris – the word that needs reminder advertising in 2026!
Hubris as we know it today – a trait Odysseus was guilty of – arrogance, overconfidence, defiance, cruelty seems to be making a comeback. If Gen Z doesnt have it in their dictionary perhaps this is the time, perhaps The Odyssey will headline the term – the present world order demands a defining word and hubris seems to fit right in.
Psst: Letting you in on a little secret – almost every Greek hero was guilty of hubris and I guess Greek Mythology knew something we didn’t. It all comes round!
5. We get not one, not two but three heroines – Homer knew all about women-centric storytelling
Odysseus had Penelope, Athena and then Calypso. It is rare that a story can field characters and actors with so much presence that every time they appeared onscreen, they threw perfect heroine feels – and that’s what you call a woman-centric story. This, for all of you who thought the movie is about Odysseus. Penelope kept the suitors at bay, Athena guided Odysseus in his years of anguish and misery and Calypso healed him.
Odysseus wouldn’t be without the women in his life, (but of course, the story has his title) – but one day we’ll live to watch Athena’s, Penelope’s or even Calypso’s story. Let’s not forget Circe who could have let the pigs be pigs – pun intended? Not really, she changed them back and that might carry a deeper meaning in Greek mythology – just saying!
6. Why would Odysseus want to hear the sirens?
Is this the ‘me first’ dilemma Odysseus suffered from? Or, in modern times, “I want to have my cake and eat it too.” The sound of the sirens is supposed to be beautiful, but listening to it means you give in to temptation that will untimately destroy you. Our Greek hero was smart enough to taste both worlds – live on and listen in. But for me, that was also the turning point of the story… yes, a deeper meaning, yet again. Read on…
7. The first time I realized Odysseus did not want to return home
The sirens told him he did not want to return to Ithaca. The trauma, guilt, sadness of Troy had stayed deep inside him. And this was for me, the first sign of a hero being humanized – not all glory and victory but something deeper, with a conscience. Because remember, I hadn’t read the book. And from there, started my journey – because Odysseus just became a real life hero for me, who felt pain, guilt and questioned his actions despite being a star Greek warrior – with hubris once being his prime motivation, to now wanting to desperately fight the dark memories of Troy.
8. The moment I realized the Odyssey is genius
When Odysseus relived the memory he had walked through a million times, but this time, he saw the brutal beheading of Zendaya’s character in Troy matched by the desecration of the temple of Athena – it was cinematic brilliance at its best. That’s when it all came togther – Athena, Troy, Odysseus, Zeus’s Law and the tragedy of it all.
You will feel it deep inside you and that’s when you know, you’re witnessing an epic story roll out onscreen.
9. The conversation over the RIGHT adaptation
Is there even supposed to be the ONE adaptation, or intepretation of Homer’s Odyssey? Will you walk out of the cinema, taking away exactly what I did?
Will it be The Cyclops screaming its lungs out or Athena’s sad yet reassuring presence throughout the film, Penelope’s silent weave or Circe’s apparent harmless demeanour marked by the horrific and sudden shift? The Odyssey is not owned by any one of these moments, yet all of them.
And that is precisely why moments in The Odyssey like Telemachus coming face-to-face with his father, and recognizing him as Argos (his dying dog) wags his tail in welcome, the vessel clearing Scylla the whirlpool, Odysseus returning to Ithaca as a beggar, telling Penelope of his ordeal, the final combat when he wins over Ithaca once more will all have your heart, any one more than the other – you decide.
That is precisely why Odysseus sailing into self-exile with his beloved wife Penelope by his side, seemed to be an end he deemed fitting after breaking Zeus’s Law, and that is precisely why an endearing, human, flawed version of a hero – a Greek hero, who struggled through trauma, finally breaking his hubris, his arrogance, after coming face-to-face with the truth of his actions, made so much sense to cinema audiences today.
If Troy was won through deception, through a violation of the very rights the civilization swore to preserve, it mirrors a greater, deeper message to mankind today – and if a Greek hero, dressed as a beggar – the humility factor cannot be dismissed here, could sentence himself to exile for breaking one of the most sacred laws of the time – the message that humanity must re-emerge as the decider of fates every time a wrong, many wrongs, have been committed by those in power, rings loud and clear.
That the gods or fate will deal with the hubris of each and every one of us in the times we live in, in one way or another, is another message we take away. Dark? Yes. Enlightening? Yes. Humanizing? Certainly!
Perhaps, just perhaps, those who hold the reins of power today need a lesson in The Odyssey, on Odysseus’ life journey, and I’d say, Cristopher Nolan’s version would make for an insightful, humbling read.
Just because humanity in 2026 needs a crash course in the journey from hubris to humility! I’d say that’s the adaptation we’d all agree on.