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The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026
Scene 17 of 199 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one
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.
Flashback: Odysseus is stitched up after the boar gored him and jokes with Eumaeus about testing his bow's tension.
Present: Eumaeus coaches Telemachus to fight through hesitation rather than a perfect defense, and Telemachus finally lands a disarming strike on Mentor.
Flashback: Eumaeus recalls Agamemnon conscripting Ithaca's young men for Troy by lottery, and Odysseus's grief at the cost to their fathers.
This scene
Telemachus looks at Eumaeus, INCREDULOUS.
TELEMACHUS
He wanted Antinous to look after me?
Eumaeus spits into the dust.
EUMAEUS
No. But Odysseus was sensitive to a father’s shame. He felt for these fathers... he knew it was an unwinnable war...
Telemachus listens to the story.
EUMAEUS (CONT’D)
Then, somehow, he won it.
Telemachus nods with pride.
TELEMACHUS
So he knew it would be years. Did he tell my mother?
Eumaeus shifts, UNCOMFORTABLE...
EUMAEUS
That’s a question for her.
He gets to his feet.
TELEMACHUS
Eumaeus? Is he ever coming back?
Eumaeus FROWNS.
EUMAEUS
Argus thinks so. I’ve never known a dog reach twenty...
Eumaeus wipes a quiet TEAR...
EUMAEUS (CONT’D)
But he’s long outlived his master.