The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026

At dawn the Cyclops wakes, seals the cave, and crushes fleeing men underfoot as Odysseus orders a retreat back into the dark to save the trapped survivors.

Scene 43 of 199 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Odysseus

Act oneAct two

Begins 34 min into a 2:26 film

The story so farBefore scene 43

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.
Scene 31
Odysseus's captivity with Calypso opens the parallel strand — a man who has forgotten his own family, slowly remembering his way home.
Just before
Scene 40
Following a stray sheep through darkening woods, Odysseus's men are led to the mouth of a huge cave.
Scene 41
Inside the cave, the men find a hoard of cheese and a giant's fire — Eurylochus urges leaving, but Odysseus insists on honoring the stranger's hospitality rights.
Scene 42
At night, Odysseus talks Eurylochus out of killing the sleeping Cyclops, since only it can move the boulder sealing them in.
Scene 43
This scene

43INT. SAME - MORNING

Odysseus is WOKEN BY A GRINDING NOISE as light floods into the cave. The SILHOUETTE of the Cyclops has ROLLED BACK THE GIANT BOULDER. The sheep BLEAT as they start gathering near the entrance... Odysseus looks around at his men, all around the cave, preparing to rush the door...

The Cyclops steps into the cave towards them TO PICK UP ITS TREE TRUNK CLUB....

Odysseus starts to RUN... HIS MEN DO THE SAME, racing towards the dazzling light of the cave entrance --

BOOM! A GIANT FOOT comes down as the Cyclops steps over them once... BOOM! The OTHER FOOT COMES DOWN ON A SOLDIER, CRUSHING HIM... as fast as they sprint, the Cyclops is already back in front of them, CROUCHING, FEELING THE TOPS OF THE SHEEP AS THEY PASS BY... it grabs the SOLDIER next to Odysseus, giving Odysseus a chance to RACE BENEATH IT... he is in the light now, home free, but HE TURNS AND SEES THE CYCLOPS TOSSING and PUSHING HALF HIS MEN BACK into the dark. Eurylochus is beside him... the Cyclops grabs the BOULDER, starting to close up the cave...

ODYSSEUS

It's shutting them in! Go! Get them down to the ships!

Odysseus races back, past the Cyclops's foot, into the dark just as the Cyclops SHUTS THEM IN.