Hidden Details You Probably Missed in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey

Contains spoilers for “The Odyssey”

Christopher Nolan’s newest big-screen epic has arrived at last. Three years after his Oscar-winning historical drama “Oppenheimer” became a box office powerhouse and won over critics and audiences across the globe, the filmmaker has shifted his focus to a story every bit as vast in scale. “The Odyssey” marks Nolan’s long-anticipated adaptation of the ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer, following Odysseus, played here by Matt Damon, as he endures treacherous seas, punishing trials, and seemingly impossible obstacles on his desperate journey back to Ithaca — and to his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son, Telemachus (Tom Holland).

Nolan has assembled a staggering cast for “The Odyssey,” with Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, Lupita Nyong’o taking on dual roles as Helen of Troy and her twin sister Clytemnestra, John Leguizamo as Odysseus’ faithful swineherd Eumaeus, Himesh Patel as Odysseus’ trusted lieutenant Eurylochus, Charlize Theron as the nymph Calypso, and Robert Pattinson as Antinous, one of Penelope’s suitors, among many others. Behind the camera, Oscar-winning collaborators Hoyte van Hoytema and Ludwig Göransson return to handle the cinematography and score, respectively, helping give Nolan’s Homeric vision a sweeping, thunderous grandeur. But in a film drawn from one of literature’s richest texts, there is plenty tucked beneath the surface. So what might have slipped past you on a first watch? Here are some of the smaller details hidden throughout Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey.”

Calling the modernized dialogue in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” a minor detail may sound like an understatement, because it is arguably one of the film’s boldest choices. Telemachus, for instance, calls his parents “Mom” and “Dad,” and the script is sprinkled with other contemporary phrasing. To be clear, Nolan does not push the language into jarringly casual territory — nobody is tossing around words like “dude” — but the approach is still unexpected for a story rooted in one of the most famous epic poems ever written. Some viewers may see the choice as a simplification of Homer’s work, while others may read it as a fitting update for oral poetry that, in its own time, was meant to be performed aloud and understood by broad audiences.

Nolan has offered his own reasoning for the shift in language. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the director said he wanted the dialogue in “The Odyssey” to be “language that has emotional not intellectual meaning to people.” He also admitted he has some concern about how that decision will land. “I was maybe being naïve, it might bite me on the a**, but I wanted an earthy narrative. To me it was a no-brainer,” Nolan told the outlet. Whether audiences embrace it or argue over it, the finished film is undeniably shaped by those flashes of modern speech.

Anyone familiar with translations of “The Odyssey” may have wondered before seeing Christopher Nolan’s film whether Argos, Odysseus’ loyal hunting dog, would make the cut. He does — and his presence becomes one of the clearest windows into Odysseus’ decency and emotional core.

Early in the film, Eumaeus and Odysseus stand together on a hill in Ithaca, looking over a litter of puppies. In a moment guaranteed to horrify dog lovers, Eumaeus casually throws one of the pups off a cliff. Odysseus quickly intervenes, picking up another puppy that immediately showers him with affection. That dog grows into Argos, a devoted hunting companion who truly obeys only Odysseus — or, when necessary, Eumaeus. During Odysseus’ long absence, Argos grows old and suffers abuse at the hands of Penelope’s suitors at court. Then, in one of the movie’s most quietly devastating scenes, Odysseus is finally reunited with his beloved dog and tells him he can let go. Argos dies peacefully, and their bond underlines a crucial truth about Nolan’s version of the hero: for all his flaws and errors, Odysseus remains a fundamentally good-hearted man trying, whenever he can, to do the right thing.

The legendary Trojan horse comes up more than once in the film, which is fitting, since it has already become one of “The Odyssey’s” most striking images. The essentials remain familiar. After deceiving one of his most loyal soldiers, Sinon — played with sharp impact by Elliot Page, reuniting with Christopher Nolan after their work together on “Inception” — Odysseus hides a group of Greek warriors inside a massive wooden horse, including the Spartan king Menelaus (Jon Bernthal). The ruse is presented to the Trojans as an offering in honor of Athena. Once the horse is dragged inside the city walls, the outcome is as brutal as myth demands: Odysseus and his men launch their attack from within and open the gates, allowing Agamemnon and his army to complete the destruction of Troy.

In Nolan’s interpretation of this classic tale, pay special attention to where the men exit the horse. After it’s brought into Troy by cheering cityfolk, it’s left alone at night … and as he begins the battle, Odysseus drops out of the horse’s stomach silently and begins to slaughter guards with his men as backup. Ever heard the saying “in the belly of the beast?” Very clever, Mr. Nolan.

Now that we’ve covered the nice little ode to “being in the belly of the beast,” let’s talk about how Christopher Nolan and Hoyte de Hoytema shoot the disgusting, disturbing, and deadly conditions inside of the Trojan horse. Bodily fluids are, unfortunately, flowing, and when the water rises before the Trojans begin to move the structure, Menelaus, telling Telemachus about the gambit, recalls that they watched men drown before their very eyes. 

When they finally leave the horrifying horse, watch Odysseus specifically. As of this writing, we don’t know if Nolan instructed Matt Damon to do this or if Damon came up with the character flourish on his own, but Odysseus is obviously limping. He still fights bravely alongside of his men despite being clearly injured, but it shows exactly how harrowing it was inside of the horse for Odysseus and all of his men, some of whom didn’t even make it out alive.

There was a fuss, initially, when Oscar winner and modern scream queen Lupita Nyong’o was announced as Christopher Nolan’s Helen of Troy for “The Odyssey,” which unfortunately intensified when it was also revealed that she’d play dual roles as Helen and her twin sister Clytemnestra. Let’s set the record straight. Nyong’o is an incredibly talented actor who could probably play a sentient seashell if you asked her to, and she’s a great choice for these roles. Furthermore, Helen and Clytemnestra’s stories largely take place before the narrative of “The Odyssey” begins, so they don’t get a ton of screen time. So why, when we see both of them, are they angry at their respective husbands Menelaus (married to Helen) and Agamemnon, whose wife is Clytemnestra?

It’s easy enough to explain. Half of Helen’s famously beautiful face is heavily scarred, and Menelaus strongly indicates to Telemachus that it’s revenge for her relationship with Paris of Troy that caused the war in the first place. As for Clytemnestra, we learn, from Odysseus himself, that Agamemnon sacrified their young daughter for good fortunes in the war … so when he returns victorious, Clytemestra murders her husband in retribution.

Something that Telemachus, in particular, says to characters like Odysseus in “The Odyssey” is that they have Athena’s eyes … and no, that’s not Christopher Nolan adding some sort of cheeky reference to Tom Holland and Zendaya’s real-life relationship. Because this version of “The Odyssey” seriously tones down the outright magic performed by gods throughout the poem, Athena, portrayed beautifully by Zendaya, appears to Odysseus throughout the narrative, seemingly when he’s at an emotional impasse and needs her counsel the most. 

So what’s the reason for these appearances? Most likely, it’s twofold. Something that does get referenced by multiple characters in “The Odyssey” is that gods are capable of disguising themselves as mere mortals to walk through society undetected, and when Telemachus notes that someone has “Athena’s eyes,” he might be trying to suss out a secret god in his midst. The other facet here is that Athena is, famously, the Greek goddess of wisdom; the other meaning here, then, is that learned and experienced men like Odysseus possess wisdom from years of battle, politics, and intrigue.

One of the scariest sequences in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey” is, unquestionably, the interlude with Odysseus, his men, and Circe (outstanding pinch hitter Samantha Morton), a witch who lives on an isolated hilltop on a dangerous island. Angry at Odysseus for his repeated attempts to get them home, all of which have ended in abject disaster, his men go on to explore Circe’s small cabin by themselves. As they make their way up the hill, they’re shocked to discover apex predators like lions, tigers, panthers, and leopards, none of which attack them, which is … definitely strange. Once the men make their way inside, Circe feeds them her special stew and transforms them all into pigs, a process upon which Nolan really lingers for maximum horror.

Odysseus, rightfully suspicious after shooting a deer that turns back into a man when the arrow strikes, makes his own way to Circe’s and declines an offer of her stew, pointing out that rings belonging to his soldiers are in her home. Begrudgingly, Circe tells the pigs to shed their “disguises” — her argument is that transforming them simply proved their true nature — and allows them to continue on. Those animals on the pathway, though? They were a big hint … because they’re other travelers or people that Circe has transformed, something we know because her sister is currently living her life as a caged bird in Circe’s hut.

One of the most famous obstacles faced by Odysseus and his men during “The Odyssey” is the lure of the sirens, who live on a rocky island and habitually lure sailors to their untimely deaths with a song so tempting that they can’t resist running their ships aground. To combat this, Odysseus orders his men to stuff their ears with wax and asks that he be tied to the boat’s mast, desperate to become the only man who survives the tantalizing song of the sirens. Here’s the really cool thing about this scene, though: Christopher Nolan puts you in the shoes of the soldiers whose ears remain blocked, and so you don’t hear the siren song; instead, you watch one soldier rip the wax from his ears and swim to his certain demise, and Odysseus struggle against the binds tying him to the mast.

What this brings to mind, for fans of Nolan’s body of work, is “Oppenheimer” — or, most specifically, the unbelievably stunning bomb test sequence in “Oppenheimer.” As Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer and his scientific colleagues perform a test in the desert, Nolan brilliantly cuts the sound, a touch that left entire movie theaters in staggering silence as they watched a depiction of a weapon that can destroy entire civilizations. Nolan has, obviously, picked up a number of amazing filmmaking flourishes throughout his storied career, and smartly playing with sound — or lack thereof — during moments like this is incredibly impactful.

While Eumaeus is telling Telemachus about his long-lost father, he explains that Odysseus never hunted without Argos by his side, and as we see this happen in flashback, we learn that Argos and Odysseus once had a small hunting accident involving a boar that results in a frankly enormous ankle wound. As a servant women carefully stitches up Odysseus’ ankle, he takes the pain bravely, even telling Eumaeus that he put himself at a disadvantage by plucking the string of his hunting bow to get the boar’s attention, hoping for a “fair” fight.

Years later, when Odysseus returns to Ithaca disguised as a simple beggar before he wages war against Penelope’s slovenly suitors and wins his throne back, Penelope kindly welcomes him into her palace and asks that same woman to wash his feet. Odysseus declines, but when Penelope says that her husband wanted to welcome all visitors fairly, he accepts … and the servant immediately realizes that her long-lost master has returned because she sees the obvious battle scar on his ankle. For the entire run time of “The Odyssey,” Odysseus carries around a pin gifted to him by his wife to prove that he’s truly who he says he is, but that gigantic ankle scar probably would have done the trick too.

A performance by a bard essentially bookends Christopher Nolan’s version of “The Odyssey” — he opens the entire film, and he also performs at the fateful banquet where Odysseus finally fights Penelope’s suitors and truly returns home — and to cast said unnamed bard, Nolan decided to bring Grammy nominee Travis Scott on board. “I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” Nolan told Time in a wide-ranging interview about the film. 

This is a genuinely interesting approach to a bard, who — as Nolan correctly points out — was responsible for spreading stories and mythology in ancient Greece. Scott, known for albums like “Astroworld,” is pretty new to acting, unlike contemporaries like Kid Cudi and Donald Glover, both of whom have proven themselves as double (or even triple) threats. Now? Maybe Scott will find his way into more feature films. Also, not for nothing? After Heath Ledger absolutely blew audiences away as the Joker in “The Dark Knight” and quieted naysayers, maybe we can give Nolan the benefit of the doubt regarding his casting decisions for the rest of time.

“The Odyssey” is in theaters now.