Christopher Nolan made his name immersing his audiences in such fantastical cinematic worlds that they came to believe everything is possible. His latest film – the highly-anticipated action epic The Odyssey – does the same on a scale that’s mind-blowing and with more creative genius than ever.
Widely seen as this summer’s blockbuster, The Odyssey tells the tale of Odysseus’s 10-year quest to return home to his wife and son, overcoming mythical monsters and tumultuous seas, and resisting enchanting but deadly sirens.
When families sit to watch, it’s likely that each generation will take away something different. The younger audience may revel in the heart-pounding adventures and the rebellious freedom of the open seas, but for their parents, the themes that resonate may well be quite different: the passing of time, grief and devotion, and what we’d sacrifice to get back to the people we love.
It’s these that film-maker Nolan is bringing to life in his adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, created in the eighth century BC. Because while it has all the requisite elements of a blockbuster – an A-list cast (Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron), thrills and reveals, bloody battle sequences and wild open oceans – at its centre is something deeply human and raw. Cinematographer and longtime Nolan collaborator Hoyte van Hoytema describes it best as “an intimate epic”. He goes on to say: “It is a personal story about a man trying to get back to his wife and son, and willing to do whatever it takes to get there, set in an extremely dramatic, eminently cinematic backdrop.”
It’s something Nolan’s audiences have come to expect when they sit down in a darkened cinema and strap in for 200 minutes: “What I’ve been doing in my films over the years, whether you look at The Dark Knight or Interstellar or Inception, is taking fanciful ideas and grounding them in reality,” says Nolan. “If the films have worked, I think some of their power and appeal comes from that they earned their worlds with an audience, so the audience could believe in exciting, outlandish things.”
The journey
The Odyssey begins at the end of the Trojan War, after Odysseus (Matt Damon) has led the Greeks to victory, and is longing to see his family in Ithaca again. “No one can stand between me and home. Not even the gods,” says Odysseus. Although they have a good go at it, with whirlpools, sirens, monsters and a one-eyed cyclops all part of his 10-year trip home. He’s also dealing with the growing suspicion that the home he left may no longer exist as he remembers it. And who doesn’t feel like a different person after leaving home? We’ve all experienced that feeling of returning to a familiar place and realising that things can never be the same as they once were.
The choice
By fighting in the Trojan War, the warriors are promised their names will be immortal. But after a heady seven years on the island of Ogygia, where he meets nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), when the flawed hero is offered the chance of immortality, he turns it down. And at this point, who wouldn’t do the same? He wants time now with his wife and the kid he missed growing up. At a certain point, you realise eternal youth is a terrible idea, that mortality gives life its meaning. The jackpot is a life that’s real and imperfect with the people who know the bones of you.
The people left behind
Despite the title, this isn’t a story about the ego of one man – what Odysseus’s family are going through back in Ithaca is just as, maybe even more, important. Telemachus (Tom Holland) is reckoning with masculinity – yes, this was happening 3,000 years ago, too – and how to be a man in the shadow of a revered but long-absent father, while also on his own journey of discovery. Meanwhile, Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is no saintly wife quietly weaving the decades away. She’s carrying the weight of Odysseus’s absence on her shoulders, outwitting the many suitors who want to possess her and refusing to give up on the man who might never return. She’s holding the kingdom together by sheer force of will, without any of the plaudits or promises of mythical status.
A galvanising viewing (and bonding) experience
The Odyssey is the first film shot entirely on IMAX®, and what that adds is conversely not what you’d expect. A new technology developed specifically for this film means the cameras can now sit a foot from an actor’s face and capture a whisper. It means you can be immersed in the middle of a wild storm at sea, but also witness the microexpressions of a man reckoning with the grief of what he’s given up. It is the type of film that insists you’re fully present throughout, not squinting at a laptop or scrolling through social media at the same time.
And while The Odyssey is not a family film in the conventional sense, it is built around multiple compelling hooks that resonate across generations, giving it a strong, universal appeal. Its mix of character, story and spectacle creates entry points for audiences of all ages, ensuring it connects just as powerfully with younger viewers as it does with older ones. A parent and adult child sitting next to each other won’t be watching quite the same film, and that’s sort of the point. It makes for the ultimate multigenerational cinema trip: a rare blockbuster with emotional heft, experienced on the big screen, and ideally followed by a deep conversation.
