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Three years after Oppenheimer soared to almost $1 billion at the box office, Christopher Nolan has finally returned to theaters with a sprawling and action-packed adaptation of one of history's most iconic stories. The Odyssey, based on Homer's work of the same name, stars Matt Damon as the mythological hero Odysseus, who endures a 10-year journey back to Ithaca after the conclusion of the Trojan War. Like all Nolan films, The Odyssey is massive in scope, filled to the brim with stars, and playing on all of the most prestigious theatrical formats around.
The first official showings of The Odysseybegan on Thursday night, giving audiences the chance to dive deep into the gigantic world of Greek mythology that Nolan has brought to life. While Nolan is a singular voice in the world of film, this is a tale that is truly almost as old as time, so a lot of folks are familiar with it. Those who aren't will obviously be curious to see how the journey of Odysseus ends, while those who have read The Odyssey will want to know just how close the filmmaker sticks to the seemingly unadaptable source material. With that in mind, we're going to break down the new movie's ending, and discuss exactly what transpires at the end of Odysseus' adventure. WARNING: There are spoilers ahead of the ending of The Odyssey...
How Does 'The Odyssey' End?
Between encounters with a cyclops, hearing the Siren's Song, speaking with a horde of the dead, and quite literally seeing a crew of men molded into farm animals, it's safe to say Odysseus (Damon) had a rough decade as he attempted to sail from Troy to Ithaca. Death awaited him around every corner, but the gods wanted him specifically to make it back home — it was his own doubts about the evil world he'd helped build that actually kept him wondering if he'd complete the journey.
If you don't already know, Homer's Odyssey concludes with Odysseus returning home in disguise, slaying a horde of his wife's suitors, and proving his identity to her through a seemingly impossible challenge. Nolan's adaptation ends in a pretty similar fashion, though with a couple of small changes.
Odysseus returns home and disguises himself as a beggar, hoping to see if any of Penelope's (Anne Hathaway) suitors are actually worthy of her hand, based on the way they might treat him. The only kindness he encounters comes from his Son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), which shows him that maybe all hope for the future isn't lost after all. He devises a plot with Telemachus and sets a trap for all of the devious suitors. They will participate in a challenge that Penelope knows only Odysseus can win — stringing his bow and firing an arrow through a line of axes, as opposed to the whole "move our immovable bed" situation from the original poem. Odysseus completes the challenge and kills the suitors, but endures some seemingly fatal injuries in the process.
The end of the movie reveals that Odysseus didn't die, but that he is going into exile as "punishment" for killing all the suitors —all part of his plan. He and Penelope sail off into the sunset in the movie's final moments, as she suggested they do way back when he was set to leave for the Trojan War, and Telemachus stays behind to take over as King of Ithaca.
The Big Athena "Twist"
While The Odyssey is about one man's perilous adventure, this version is also about Odysseus struggling to accept the dark future of a world that he believes he helped destroy. The reason he struggles to want to get back home is because of what he saw during the Fall of Troy, and he thinks that so much of the evil that transpired there was because of his plan to sneak into the city in the Trojan Horse. As his world teeters on the brink of war, Odysseus carries the burden all the potential impending doom on his own shoulders.
That plotline delivers a gut-punch in the film's final act, courtesy of Zendaya, who appears as the goddess Athena throughout the movie. She often shows up next to Odysseus, talking to him through his struggles and difficulties. What we learn when we finally see the events of the Fall of Troy at the end of the movie, is that the woman who he has envisioned the entire time as Athena is actually just a representation of her. The face belonged to an innocent young woman who was slaughtered in front of him back in Troy.
Her face doesn't leave Odysseus, and her appearance as Athena represents the deep pain and regret he feels for what happened in the impenetrable city. It's a powerful reveal that drives home Odysseus' point and paints the entire journey in a new light.
