The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026

Every suitor fails to string the bow; Antinous refuses his turn and concedes defeat to fate, just as Odysseus reveals he intends to try.

Scene 183 of 199 · ≈ 4 min on screen · Act three

Telemachus
Antinous
Odysseus
Eumaeus
Leodes
Elatus
Agelus
Polybus
Various
Penelope
Melanthius

Act oneAct two

Begins 2:15 into a 2:26 film

The story so farBefore scene 183

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.
Scenes 146–180
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.
Just before
Scene 180
Present: Penelope realizes, with dawning horror, that Odysseus's own trick made the Greeks themselves the monstrous "people from the sea."
Scene 181
A storm breaks over the palace at dawn as the suitors gather for the day of the contest, the doors bolted shut behind them.
Scene 182
Penelope descends with Odysseus's bow and formally announces the trial of the axes to end the suitors' long siege of her home.
Scene 183
This scene

183INT. SAME - LATER

Polybus spins the bow in front of the fire, rubbing it with TALLOW.

Placing it against the floor, he puts HIS WEIGHT ON THE END, USING ALL HIS STRENGTH TO BEND IT... But CAN'T.

The Suitors step up in turn, TRYING and FAILING. Telemachus watches them, ENJOYING EACH FAILURE... HE TAKES THE BOW, WALKS OVER TO ANTINOUS, THRUSTING IT AT HIM...

TELEMACHUS

Your turn.

Antinous DOES NOT take the bow.

ANTINOUS

No need. My Queen's made her point.

He turns to Penelope, SINCERE...

ANTINOUS (CONT'D)

We can't replace Odysseus. Some of us have always known that. Some of us would've followed that great man to Troy, if he'd let us. But he never came back, so choose the best of us here. Who've all failed your test.

ODYSSEUS (O.S.)

I haven't.

The Suitors turn to notice Odysseus sitting to the side, HEAD DOWN.

ANTINOUS

Get this beggar out of here.

EUMAEUS

The doors are locked until the trial's over.

ANTINOUS

The trial's over.

ODYSSEUS

I want to try.

The Suitors LAUGH...

LEODES

Give it a rest, old man.

ANTINOUS

I told you to get him out of here.

EUMAEUS

He has the right to try.

Odysseus GETS UP, SHUFFLES OVER TO TELEMACHUS, who looks at Antinous.

TELEMACHUS

If you won't, he may as well.

Antinous looks at Telemachus with utter CONTEMPT.

ANTINOUS

You're making a mockery of your mother's wishes.

Telemachus hands the bow to Odysseus, and LEANS IN TO ANTINOUS...

TELEMACHUS

(whispers)

My mother's wishes are for you all to burn.

Odysseus TAKES THE BOW, sits on the stool at the end of the long table. He TURNS IT in his hands, FEELING ITS WEIGHT.

ELATUS

He's an old archer!