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The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026
Scene 158 of 199 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two
Twenty years after leaving for the Trojan War, Odysseus fights his way home across a hostile sea only to find his kingdom overrun — and must return in disguise to reclaim his wife, his son, and his throne from the suitors laying siege to his house.
Ithaca frozen in a decade of waiting: Penelope weaving, the suitors feasting, Telemachus unheard.
Telemachus needs proof of his father's fate; Penelope needs the throne secured before the suitors force her hand.
Telemachus sails from Ithaca in secret, crossing into the unfamiliar world beyond his mother's house.
Odysseus's remembered ordeal — Troy, the Cyclops, Circe, Hades, Charybdis — paid for in men, ships, and years, while Telemachus searches the courts of Sparta.
Odysseus makes landfall on Ithaca at last, alone but alive — what he wanted, stripped of everything else.
At Eumaeus's hut, disguised as a beggar, Odysseus begins quietly assembling the plan to reclaim his house.
Telemachus and Mentor are led into the temple's inner sanctum, forced to surrender their weapons at the door.
In the inner sanctum, the "head priest" greeting them is revealed to the audience as Irus in disguise, offering suspicious wine.
Outside the sanctum, the disguised priests turn and attack Telemachus's guards.
This scene
Odysseus GRABS A PRIEST from behind, SEIZES HIS DAGGER.
TELEMACHUS SPINS -- THREE PRIESTS in front of him, ALL ARMED...
ODYSSEUS
Here!
Odysseus TOSSES HIM A DAGGER -- then PILES INTO THE NEAREST PRIEST, making BRUTAL havoc -- Telemachus STABS THE NEAREST PRIEST, then turns to see Odysseus POUND THE REMAINING PRIESTS INTO THE FLOOR of Athena's temple... Telemachus looks at him, IMPRESSED.
Odysseus finishes, rises. BREATHING HARD.
TELEMACHUS
Pretty good for a beggar.
ODYSSEUS
(breathless)
I wasn't born a beggar.
Odysseus PULLS A ROBE OFF ONE OF THE DEAD PRIESTS. Telemachus checks Mentor's body. Odysseus turns -- sees Telemachus GRIEVING MENTOR.
ODYSSEUS (CONT'D)
Put on that priest's robes.
TELEMACHUS
We need help with the body.
Odysseus TOSSES Telemachus THE PRIEST'S ROBES.
ODYSSEUS
We have to leave him.
TELEMACHUS
No.
ODYSSEUS
We have to slip out --
TELEMACHUS
This isn't how you honour the dead --
ODYSSEUS
It's how you stay alive.
TELEMACHUS
He was my teacher. He may have been Athena in disguise. I'm not leaving him.
Odysseus looks at Telemachus, SYMPATHETIC.
ODYSSEUS
His name is Mentor. And when you're safe we'll head into the unknown west and honour him.
(gestures at dead priests)
These men were sent by the suitors. There'll be more, we have to get on the road.
TELEMACHUS
By night?
ODYSSEUS
Safer than staying here.
He POURS THE OIL FROM THE LAMP ON THE FLOOR --
ODYSSEUS (CONT'D)
Mentor's at the heart of Athena's oldest temple - for now, honour him in flame.
Telemachus RELUCTANTLY takes the lamp, looking down at Mentor's body. And DROPS IT, SPREADING FLAME...