· · ·
turning to page one
turning to page one
The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026
Scene 20 of 199 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one
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.
Present: Eumaeus explains Odysseus drew Antinous into the war effort out of sympathy for the fathers, knowing it would be a long war.
Telemachus climbs the stairs to the screen to see his mother.
Penelope tells Telemachus the elders have set her wedding to a suitor once she finishes weaving her father-in-law's burial shroud.
This scene
They walk out onto the terrace.
PENELOPE
Ithaca’s been without a king for too long. They want security.
TELEMACHUS
From what?
PENELOPE
The people from the sea.
Telemachus scoffs at this.
TELEMACHUS
Travellers’ tales.
PENELOPE
All we know of the world is travellers’ tales! That’s how we heard Troy had fallen. Now they all tell stories of attacks by people from the sea.
TELEMACHUS
Who are?
PENELOPE
Nobody knows. But the Elders want Ithaca to be prepared.
TELEMACHUS
Prepared? We’re part of the greatest civilization ever known.
PENELOPE
Look at this great house --
Penelope places a gentle hand on the STONE OF THE BATTLEMENTS.
PENELOPE (CONT’D)
Stones as old as knowledge. At the mercy of some greedy unwanted guests. Half the servants answer to them now. The structure’s nothing without people’s respect for its meaning.
TELEMACHUS
Zeus’s law.
PENELOPE
Treat others as you’d be treated. When they abuse it, they destroy everything.
TELEMACHUS
So how could you think of marrying one of them?
Penelope considers how to answer.
PENELOPE
Because, a long time ago, your father asked me to...