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The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026
Scene 197 of 199 · ≈ 4 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.
Telemachus confronts and duels Melanthius over the smuggled weapons.
Odysseus, wounded and disarmed, is forced back over the bodies of the fallen.
Telemachus and Melanthius continue their duel.
This scene
Odysseus, UNARMED, steps back over the bodies, Antinous and the LAST SIX FIGHTING SUITORS threatening with SPEARS AND SWORDS, Odysseus DESPERATELY looks for a weapon, YANKS AN ARROW FROM A DEAD SUITOR, HOLDS IT UP LIKE A DAGGER. Antinous LAUGHS...
ANTINOUS
Did you think you could kill all of us?
ODYSSEUS
Long as I kill you.
They move CLOSER and CLOSER, PRODDING HIM WITH SPEARS, DRAWING BLOOD... like the end of a bear hunt... Odysseus looks around, DESPERATE --
TELEMACHUS (O.S.)
DAD!
Odysseus looks up -- Telemachus DROPS A BRONZE SWORD to Odysseus -- HE CATCHES IT, CHOPS SPEARS IN HALF -- charges Antinous -- WHO TRIES TO EXCHANGE BLOWS with him, but is forced back, even as BROKEN SPEARS ARE THRUST AT ODYSSEUS’S SIDE AND BACK --
Antinous GOES DOWN -- the savage ODYSSEUS ON TOP OF HIM, BROKEN SPEARS STICKING OUT OF HIM like a bull at its end in the ring... Odysseus HAS HIS SWORD AT ANTINOUS’S THROAT --
ODYSSEUS
(breathless rasp)
When you see Sinon in Hades... Tell him I’ll head west to honour my men...
He pulls out THE WOODEN LOT and, with bloody fingers, STUFFS IT INTO ANTINOUS’S MOUTH...
ODYSSEUS (CONT’D)
And that I gave you back your shame.
He RUNS THE SWORD THROUGH ANTINOUS. ROLLS OFF HIM, SPEARS DISLODGING. Stands, PULLING the remaining rags from his back, BLOODY IN HIS LEATHER ARMOUR. He surveys the carnage in the hall... the remaining Suitors ARE ON THEIR KNEES...
The THUNDER of Zeus rolls around the MEGARON...
Odysseus DROPS his bronze sword with a CLATTER... STUMBLES BREATHLESSLY through the hall, STEPPING OVER DEAD SUITORS...
Telemachus comes into the hall. Sees his father walk. STARTS BANGING HIS SWORD AGAINST THE GROUND IN TIME WITH ODYSSEUS’S STEPS...
ODYSSEUS (V.O.)
We broke the fragile bonds between men...
BANG! BANG! BANG! The surviving suitors and servants SMACK THE GROUND, taking up the RHYTHM of Odysseus’s painful walk...
BANG! INSERT CUT: GREEK SOLDIERS BEATING TIME WITH THEIR SPEARS AGAINST WOOD AS THEY LINE THE DOCK AT ITHACA...
As Odysseus walks HE LOOKS AT HIS SON... NODS... FORCES HIMSELF up the stairs, his BLOODY HANDS FUMBLE in his belt...
ODYSSEUS (V.O.)
And for centuries of darkness to follow, the stories of Troy will only be sung...
BANG! INSERT CUT: TELEMACHUS, DRESSED AS A KING, LEADS PENELOPE DOWN THE DOCK AS THE SOLDIERS BEAT TIME...
The HEAVY DOORS OPEN... Penelope is there... Odysseus STUMBLES towards her...
Eumaeus beats his stick against the floor...
B A N G ! INSERT CUT: TELEMACHUS, AS KING, LEADS PENELOPE TO A SHIP, APPROACHING A FIGURE FROM BEHIND WHO IS CHECKING THE RIGGING. SHE TURNS TO TELEMACHUS, TEARS STREAMING, EMBRACES HER SON...
BANG!
Odysseus steps towards Penelope, RAISING A BLOODY HAND HOLDING A GOLDEN PIN...
The banging STOPS. Silence.
Penelope TAKES the PIN and looks down to see the GOLD ATHENA ENCIRCLED BY VINES... she looks up at Odysseus, MELTING...
He COLLAPSES, slumped at the TOP OF THE STEPS...
Penelope TAKES HIM IN HER ARMS, WIPING BLOOD from his eyes...
PENELOPE
Odysseus. My love, you came back.
ODYSSEUS
At last. At the end... to see my beloved Ithaca one last time...
Penelope runs her hands across him, DESPERATE...
PENELOPE
No, no, no... you can’t, not now, I’ve waited so long...
She holds his face, looks into his face, TEARS streaming...
PENELOPE (CONT’D)
You can’t die...
ODYSSEUS
Not death. Exile...
And he SMILES at her...
BANG! INSERT CUT: AS PENELOPE BOARDS THE SHIP, THE FIGURE TURNS FROM THE RIGGING -- IT IS ODYSSEUS, BANDAGED, BEARD TRIMMED. TELEMACHUS IS ON THE DOCK, WAVING...
Penelope looks down at BLOODY Odysseus...
ODYSSEUS (CONT’D)
Telemachus will be king. And we’ll head into the unknown west to honour my men. Together...
BANG! INSERT CUT: PUSHING LOW THROUGH WAVES AT SUNSET...
She SMILES at him...
PENELOPE
Take your fastest ship and brightest
crew and head for the horizon... ?
Odysseus NODS.
ODYSSEUS
Chasing the escaping sun...