All the ways Christopher Nolan boldly adapted Homer

When the first footage of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey dropped, some of Al Gore’s worst people on the internet lost their minds (including Elon Musk). They denounced the inaccuracies of Homer’s epics, even though they are not only mythical but also part of an oral tradition that has been expanded and reshaped over the centuries. To deny artistic license with The Odyssey is to deny its very essence.

It’s no surprise that Nolan, the Oscar-winning director of “Oppenheimer” and “Inception,” would take creative liberties with Homer’s story to trim the 600-page story into a three-hour movie and put his own stamp on it. His Odysseus (Matt Damon), a man haunted and scarred by visions of the Trojan War, is guided by Athena (Zendaya) on a 10-year journey back to Ithaca, where he clashes with gods, sirens, giants, Scylla, and Cyclops, but his faithful wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and ruthless son Telemachus (Tom Holland) fight off dozens of enemies. Suitors, led by the brutal Antinous (Robert Pattinson), vie for her hand and Odysseus’ throne.

Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey deviates from Homer’s story in many ways. Here are all the differences between the movie and the book.

(Warning: Contains spoilers…)

Penelope and Telemachus

One of Nolan’s major changes to Homer’s epic concerns two of its central characters: Odysseus’ wife and son. In this book, Telemachus repeatedly reprimands his mother, requests a song from the bard that is “less painful,” orders her to resume weaving in her room, and commands, “Speech is a man’s work, the work of all of them, and above all my work, for I am the power in this house.” His contempt for his mother certainly represents the patriarchal attitudes of the time. Director Nolan reversed their roles in the film, with Penelope frequently criticizing Telemachus’s immaturity and even professing that she would watch her suitors “burn to death” if she had her way. This is the most self-possessed Penelope we’ve ever seen.

Sinon & Antinous

The character of Sinon, a double-crossed Greek soldier (cousin to Odysseus) who tricks the Trojans into bringing the Trojan Horse into the city of Troy, is mentioned in Virgil’s Aeneid, not in the Iliad or Odyssey. Director Nolan reused the character, played by Elliott Page, in the film, making him a shepherd boy from Ithaca who is drafted into the war in Antinous’s place, and is led astray by Odysseus into sacrificing his life to bring the Trojan Horse to Troy. Later, when Odysseus encounters Chinon’s dead soul in Hades, the fallen soldier orders Antinous to return the totem and remind him of his vileness. This is an interesting narrative choice by Nolan to cast Antinous, the most notorious of Penelope’s suitors, as yet another spineless donkey.

Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra

Both are minor characters in Homer’s poems, but Nolan’s works make some changes to the characters. The twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra are half-sisters in the film, and Helen of Troy has a large scar on her face as a sign of her shame for launching a thousand ships.

Lastrygonian

If you’re one of those people wondering if the heavily armored, sword-wielding giants that Odysseus and his crew clash with in the Odyssey trailer will be in the book, of course not. Nolan took considerable creative liberties with the Laestrigonians, a tribe of man-eating giants descended from Poseidon. In Homer’s story, they devour many of Odysseus’ men and destroy 11 of his 12 ships by hurling giant rocks at them. In this film, the Laistrygonians are reimagined as giant armored knights who manipulate the forest to trap Odysseus’ men in a cage formed, destroying two of his three ships in the process.

Pyashian and Lotus Eater

Naturally, director Nolan had to make some cuts to condense the 600-page book into a three-hour film, so he decided to omit the time Odysseus and his crew spent on the island of Sheria, known for their impressive ship Phaeacian. In Scheria, Princess Nausicaa guides Odysseus to King Alcinous and Queen Arete, who, after Odysseus entertains them with stories of the Trojan War, agree to transport him to Ithaca in their powerful ship. Odysseus and his men also land on a lotus-eating island. There the soldiers eat the lotus and then do not care to go home, but Odysseus forces them back to the ship. This episode is also missing from Nolan’s films. Instead, the film director had Calypso (Charlize Theron) make Odysseus eat a lotus to make him forget about wanting to go home.

Cyclops

Odysseus’ most resourceful ploy in Homer’s stories involves him and his men escaping the clutches of the giant cyclops (Poseidon’s son) Polyphemus. First, Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is “No One,” and when they give him wine and blind him with a sharp stake, Odysseus cries out to his worried neighbors, who hear his cries of pain, “No one has hurt me!” Then, Odysseus and his fellow soldiers sneak out of the Cyclops’ cave by securing themselves to the sheep’s haunches, as the Cyclops scrapes the tops of the flock as they exit the cave. Nolan’s films lack jokes about “nobody”, as do wine-drinking stories and tethering sheep schemes. Rather, Odysseus and his men escape from the cave after blinding the Cyclops by wearing shrubbery on their backs.

sex

Odysseus is by far the more conflicted character in Homer’s story, succumbing to seven years of sex with Calypso on her island and asking the sorcerer goddess Circe to free his men from her spell in exchange for bedclothes. Director Nolan turned Odysseus into a completely devoted wife man. Odysseus is imprisoned on Calypso’s island by consuming a memory-erasing lotus, turning the tables on Circe (Samantha Morton, extraordinary), who brings the blade to bear on his sister, who is turned into a raven.

accent

Not only do the characters in Nolan’s films all have American accents, but they rarely modulate their voices. The case of the ruthless warrior Agamemnon, played by Benny Safdie, is particularly jarring. That’s because Safdie doesn’t have a very memorable voice (even the movie takes great pains to not show his face), and Jon Bernthal’s Spartan King Menelaus looks exactly like a passing Jon Bernthal. Giving every actor a Greek accent would be a bit of a pain, so perhaps a British accent route like “I, Claudius” would be less distracting.

gods

While Zendaya’s Athena appears primarily to approve (smile) or disapprove (shake her head) of Odysseus’ actions, the gods of the underworld Hades, Calypso, and Circe all appear in Nolan’s Odyssey, but other gods are noticeably absent from Nolan’s films. Zeus, Poseidon, Ino, and Hercules have not been seen, and Hermes, the messenger who played a rather large role in Homer’s story (freeing Odysseus from Calypso and giving him magical herbs to protect him from Circe’s spell), is nowhere to be found.

disguise

The second half of Homer’s story depicts Odysseus spending much of his time wandering around Ithaca, disguising himself as a wizened old beggar courtesy of Athena, banding together with suitors and gathering information about who will remain faithful to him. In Nolan’s film, the wrinkly old man’s ruse is abolished, and instead Odysseus covers his scarred and battered face with the hood of his cloak.

ambush

In Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope’s suitors, led by Antinous, lie in wait for Telemachus on a ship on the island of Asteris as he sets sail to find out the whereabouts of his missing father, and set a trap ready to attack. Athena warns Telemachus of the assassination attempt, allowing Telemachus to bypass the strait and evade the suitors. In Nolan’s film, Telemachus and his trusted advisor Mentor (Ryan Hurst) are ambushed by suitors at a temple dedicated to Apollo. His mentor is killed, but Telemachus narrowly escapes death thanks to Odysseus, who slaughters his beggar-like suitors. Meanwhile, Antinous remained in Ithaca.

Laertes

The biggest character omitted from Nolan’s The Odyssey is Laertes, Odysseus’ elderly father and former king of Ithaca. Laertes, once a heroic warrior, is the one whose shroud Penelope weaves, which she unravels each night to deceive her suitors. Haunted by grief over his son’s twenty-year absence—the same grief that claimed the life of his wife (and Odysseus’ mother) Anticlea—he abandons his palace in Ithaca and retires to his farm, where he languishes as he awaits Odysseus’s return. The scene in which Odysseus reunites with Laertes on the farm is one of the most moving scenes in the book, and a troubling example of Odysseus’ gaslighting fetish, in which he torments his father by pretending to be a stranger before revealing his true identity. Thanks to the power of Athena, Laertes joins Odysseus in a fight against his family seeking revenge for the murdered suitor, and kills Antinous’s father Eupeitis.

defeat the suitors

In Nolan’s The Odyssey, Odysseus strings his bow, fires arrows at a series of axes, and then fights the suitors alone, defeating them one by one, sustaining near-fatal wounds in the process. Telemachus’ only contribution was to kill the traitorous Ithacan farmer Melantius and prevent him from continuing to arm his suitors. The slave women are saved, and many of the suitors, witnessing Odysseus’ courage, stop fighting and bow the knee to their rightful king. Homer’s version is more brutal and boasts a far more heroic Telemachus, who fights the suitors alongside his father, and the duo (and two loyal servants assisted by Athena) kill every bastard. Telemachus and Odysseus then force the slave women who slept with the suitors to wipe the blood off the floor before they are hanged. What about Melantius? His death is the most tragic of all. He is first tied up, then his ears, nose, hands, feet, and genitals are cut off. ah.

ending

Nolan’s film ends with Penelope embracing a gravely injured Odysseus after Telemachus is crowned king after a battle royale of the suitors. It ends with Odysseus and Penelope sailing off into the sunset, forced into exile because the vengeful war hero has sent so many Ithacan suitors to Hades. In Homer’s poem, the wise Penelope tests Odysseus by demanding that he move his bed. Odysseus tells her that the bed is carved from olive wood and cannot be moved (correct!), and the two embrace lovingly. The families of the slain suitors then gather together and swear revenge, and come into conflict with Odysseus, Telemachus, Laertes, and their loyal retainers, until Athena intervenes and abruptly stops the fighting.