The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026

Late that night, the disguised Odysseus finally speaks with Penelope through the screen, who, unaware of his identity, invokes her missing husband's rule of hospitality.

Scene 172 of 199 · ≈ 3 min on screen · Act two

Penelope
Odysseus
Old Nursemaid

Act oneAct two

Begins 2:05 into a 2:26 film

The story so farBefore scene 172

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.

Scenes 1–9
Ithaca frozen in a decade of waiting: Penelope weaving, the suitors feasting, Telemachus unheard.
Scenes 9–27
Telemachus needs proof of his father's fate; Penelope needs the throne secured before the suitors force her hand.
Scenes 28–29
Telemachus sails from Ithaca in secret, crossing into the unfamiliar world beyond his mother's house.
Scenes 30–144
Odysseus's remembered ordeal — Troy, the Cyclops, Circe, Hades, Charybdis — paid for in men, ships, and years, while Telemachus searches the courts of Sparta.
Scene 145
Odysseus makes landfall on Ithaca at last, alone but alive — what he wanted, stripped of everything else.
Scene 151
At Eumaeus's hut, disguised as a beggar, Odysseus begins quietly assembling the plan to reclaim his house.
Scene 167
Penelope announces the trial of the axes and the bow — whichever suitor can string Odysseus's bow and thread the axes wins her hand, forcing the endgame.
Just before
Scene 169
The suitors listen to the bard's continuing song as Antinous notices Telemachus slip outside.
Scene 170
Telemachus watches the disguised Odysseus and Eumaeus approach the palace, and sees his father recognize the dying Argus on the dung heap.
Scene 171
Telemachus offers the disguised Odysseus a seat and food among the beggars in the hall; Antinous mocks the gesture.
Scene 172
This scene

172INT. MEGARON, PALACE OF ITHACA - LATER

The megaron is QUIET and EMPTY. The feast has been cleared. Eumaeus tends the fires. Odysseus SITS IN THE SHADOWS, WAITING...

Melantho WAVES HIM OVER. Telemachus WATCHES HIS FATHER shuffle across the great hall to climb the steps to Penelope's silhouette...

Odysseus SITS on the steps by the screen. Penelope is right there, on the other side.

PENELOPE

Hello, traveller.

ODYSSEUS

My Queen.

PENELOPE

Melantho, have Eurycleia wash this stranger's feet.

ODYSSEUS

That's not necessary --

PENELOPE

My husband insisted we honour guests as family. You know of Odysseus, my husband?

ODYSSEUS

Of course.

PENELOPE

From the songs?

ODYSSEUS

I was at Troy, ma'am.

PENELOPE

Then the songs probably seem silly.

ODYSSEUS

They make me cry.

On the other side of the screen, Penelope LEANS CLOSER.

PENELOPE

Why?

ODYSSEUS

For what was lost.

PENELOPE

The lives?

ODYSSEUS

And the years. Everything.

Penelope nods at this. Her voice is BARELY A WHISPER...

PENELOPE

Did you know Odysseus at Troy?

ODYSSEUS

I did.

Eurycleia arrives with a BOWL -- SHE IS THE OLD NURSEMAID... Odysseus watches her place the bowl at his feet...

Penelope leans towards the screen, BREATHLESSLY HOPEFUL...

PENELOPE

Was there some detail of how he dressed... something he wore?

ODYSSEUS

He wore a strange brooch.

PENELOPE

Strange?

Odysseus SMILES TO HIMSELF...

ODYSSEUS

Beautiful. But out of place...