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The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026
Scene 182 of 199 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act three
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.
The heavy price of return: hiding as a beggar in his own hall, enduring abuse from the suitors, watching his wife courted, before he can act.
Flashback: Odysseus stands apart, numb, amid his army's drunken victory celebrations in the ashes of Troy.
Present: Penelope realizes, with dawning horror, that Odysseus's own trick made the Greeks themselves the monstrous "people from the sea."
A storm breaks over the palace at dawn as the suitors gather for the day of the contest, the doors bolted shut behind them.
This scene
DOZENS OF SUITORS crowd the megaron, watching as SERVANTS LEVER FLAGSTONES UP AND DRIVE AXES INTO THE DIRT BENEATH, forming a line of SIX PAIRS OF AXES TIED TOGETHER LEADING TO AN UPTURNED TABLE.
A LOW RUMBLE OF THUNDER... PEISANDER, a Suitor, LEANS IN TO AGELUS, another Suitor...
PEISANDER
Zeus seems interested in the outcome.
Agelus looks at the AXE HEADS IN A LINE ON THE LONG TABLE... the servants put an UPENDED TABLE AT ONE END AND A STOOL AT THE OTHER...
AGELUS
But what's the trial?
Odysseus SITS IN A CORNER. Telemachus MOVES AMONGST THE SUITORS, gauging their nervous energy. Antinous LOOKS AT THE AXE HEADS, WONDERING...
The heavy door behind the screen opens with a CLANG, and Melantho throws open the screen... the hubbub of the Suitors QUIETS as Penelope enters, IN CEREMONIAL DRESS. POISED, beautiful as she DESCENDS THE STEPS CARRYING ODYSSEUS'S HUNTING BOW...
PENELOPE
For years, while my husband's been gone, you've commandeered this palace for your feasting. Your excuse was that you wanted to win my hand in marriage. As I've listened to you party and fight, corrupt my servants and disrespect my home, I've wanted nothing more than for Odysseus to return and see all this for himself.
She STOPS at the bottom step.
PENELOPE (CONT'D)
But last night I realized that if he's not here now... he never will be. So I stand ready to marry anyone here who can string this hunting bow and shoot an arrow through those twelve axes. Step up and show me who you are...
She hands the great bow to Eumaeus. Who lovingly feels the weight of the bow...
EUMAEUS
Who's first?!
SILENCE. Penelope smirks. LEODES, a Suitor, STEPS FORWARD.
LEODES
Give me the bow.
Leodes takes the bow, UNWINDS its STRING, places one end of the bow on the stone floor and TRIES TO BEND THE BOW... HE STRAINS and STRAINS.
PEISANDER
Alright, you've had your chance.
Leodes, BREATHLESS, gives the bow to Peisander, who TRIES TO STRING IT... and FAILS. He hands it back to Eumaeus, FRUSTRATED --
PEISANDER (CONT'D)
It can't be done.
ANTINOUS
By you. As a boy I watched Odysseus do it with ease.
PEISANDER
Then you do it.
ANTINOUS
I'll wait my turn.
Polybus HAILS Melanthius --
POLYBUS
Light a fire, we'll warm the bow and oil it. This bow hasn't been strung in years.