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The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026
Scene 180 of 199 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Last scene of 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.
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.
Present: Odysseus wonders aloud whether he knew, that very night, what the trick of the horse would truly cost.
Flashback: Odysseus walks stunned through the burning, collapsing ruins of Troy.
Flashback: Odysseus stands apart, numb, amid his army's drunken victory celebrations in the ashes of Troy.
This scene
Penelope RESTS HER HEAD GENTLY against the screen.
PENELOPE
What all of you had done.
Odysseus BREATHES...
ODYSSEUS
One man's idea. One man's trick to break Zeus's law forever.
He looks up at the stones and beams of the megaron, LOOMING IN THE FIRELIGHT...
ODYSSEUS (CONT'D)
We lived in a world of palaces and trade and language... blind to its beauty until we broke it.
Penelope REALIZES something...
PENELOPE
You are the people from the sea...
ODYSSEUS
The breaking of Zeus's law is spreading like cancer. Our age of bronze is collapsing. And maybe he couldn't bear to see the ruins of what he'd done, anywhere. Least of all his home.
Odysseus RUBS HIS FACE. Turns to the screen, GLIMPSING PENELOPE IN THE LAMPLIGHT...
ODYSSEUS (CONT'D)
But Odysseus is alive. And he'll be here when you need him most.
Penelope lifts her head, WIPES A TEAR...
PENELOPE
Well, I've been living in his ruins long enough. Tomorrow I choose a husband.
Penelope rises. SLIDES OPEN THE SCREEN to address the megaron. Odysseus TURNS AWAY, her beauty too bright... Telemachus and the servants LOOK UP at Penelope, EXPECTANT...
PENELOPE (CONT'D)
Bring the suitors at dawn.
Telemachus nods. Antinous and Polybus look at each other, NODDING.
Antinous PUTS HIS DAGGER AWAY.
PENELOPE (CONT'D)
Remove the arms from the hall.
Penelope GESTURES to the ARMS MOUNTED ALL OVER THE WALLS...
PENELOPE (CONT'D)
In a few hours, one suitor will be happy and the rest angry, vengeful men. Bronze draws a man on, we'll have no weapons during the challenge and the doors will be locked. I'll marry whoever completes my trial.
Penelope DISAPPEARS through the screen, SHUTTING IT BEHIND HER and continuing up to her bedchamber.
Telemachus watches Antinous and Polybus leave, then comes to Odysseus.
TELEMACHUS
ODYSSEUS
Not we. Their blood has to be on my hands. Or you'd face exile.
TELEMACHUS
Won't you?
ODYSSEUS
Just make sure they can't get those weapons.
Telemachus nods, HAILS Eumaeus.
TELEMACHUS
Gather servants you trust. Lock the arms in the upper storage room.
Eumaeus moves across the hall. WATCHED FROM THE SHADOWS by Melanthius...
TELEMACHUS (CONT'D)
Even unarmed, there's so many of them. And you won't have a weapon.
ODYSSEUS
Oh, I'll have a weapon. Your mother's seen to that.
Telemachus looks at Odysseus, CONFUSED...
Servants PULL BRONZE WEAPONS FROM THE WALLS...