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The Odyssey · written by Christopher Nolan · 2026
Scene 51 of 199 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two
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 captivity with Calypso opens the parallel strand — a man who has forgotten his own family, slowly remembering his way home.
At dawn, the men cling beneath the Cyclops's flock to slip past his groping hands as he frees the sheep from the cave.
Once clear of the cave, a furious Odysseus can't resist shooting a taunting arrow at the blinded Cyclops's eye before the men flee to the ship.
The Cyclops chases the fleeing crew into the surf and hurls a boulder that flips several oarsmen off the ship.
This scene
Odysseus and Eurylochus watch the crew tend their wounds.
EURYLOCHUS
Why did you have to shoot that arrow?
ODYSSEUS
We lost good soldiers to that beast.
A soldier whose eyes are fixed on the deck, PERIMEDES, speaks.
PERIMEDES
That beast was Poseidon's son.
EURYLOCHUS
What?
PERIMEDES
When we put its eye out... I heard it cry his name.
ODYSSEUS
That thing was a monster.
POLITES
(quiet)
I heard it, too.
Everyone considers the implications.
EURYLOCHUS
Now the sea's against us.
POLITES
And the wind.
EURYLOCHUS
How do we get home with Poseidon against us?
ODYSSEUS
You can't live by omens and sacrifices.
EURYLOCHUS
You know how many times I've heard you weep, praying to Athena since Troy? Couldn't you have shown mercy?
ODYSSEUS
Take this. Wear it to remember those we couldn't bury.
Odysseus GRABS Eurylochus's HAND. Puts Elpenor's RING IN IT.
ODYSSEUS (CONT'D)
The Gods help those who help themselves.
Odysseus looks at the ominous horizon...
ODYSSEUS (V.O.)
From that moment, every rough sea or headwind told the crew we were cursed...
He notices suspicion on the faces of his crew. Sees grumbling amongst them...