After the 10-year Trojan War ends, the hero Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, tries to sail home to Ithaca. But the journey home takes almost as long as the war itself. Nolan’s nearly three-hour film uses the old Greek tradition of storytelling out loud. A bard, played by Travis Scott, tells tales about the great warrior, while Odysseus also looks back on his own long, dangerous voyage home.
The War
Before the war, Odysseus and his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) ruled Ithaca in peace. They welcomed everyone to their palace, even beggars, because Zeus’s law said every guest should be treated well — you never knew if a god was hiding among them. Odysseus was also proud of his strength. He was the only man who could string his bow, and he’d shoot arrows through 12 axes to show off at parties.
But trouble was brewing across the sea. Helen (Lupita Nyong’o), queen of Sparta, was known as the most beautiful woman alive. When Prince Paris of Troy fell for her, Helen left her husband and went to Troy with him. Her husband, King Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), was furious. He asked his brother Agamemnon (Benny Safdie), the most powerful king in Greece, for help. Agamemnon was married to Helen’s twin sister, Clytemnestra (also Nyong’o), but he chose to back his brother. He gathered an army — and the Trojan War began.
Before leaving for war, Odysseus told Penelope she should remarry if their son Telemachus, played by Tom Holland, grew up before he returned. Then Odysseus held a lottery to pick soldiers for Ithaca’s army. When Antinous (Robert Pattinson) tried to make Sinon (Elliot Page) take his spot, Odysseus stepped in and chose Sinon instead, letting Antinous stay home with his family.
The war lasted 10 brutal years. Finally, Odysseus came up with a plan: build a giant wooden horse to hide soldiers inside. The rest of the army would sail away to trick the enemy, while one man stayed behind to offer the horse as a “gift.” That man was Sinon — kept in the dark about the real plan so his fear would seem real.
Days later, the enemy found the horse and thought Sinon was dangerous, so they killed him. Till his last breath, Sinon swore the horse was a gift for the goddess Athena, played by Zendaya. The enemy believed him and brought the horse inside their gates.
That night, Odysseus and his hidden soldiers snuck out and threw open the gates. Agamemnon and the rest of the Greek army rushed in, and together they finally took the city of Troy. The war was over.
The Jounrey
After the war, the three kings — Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus — split up and headed home.
Helen went back to Sparta with Menelaus, though not by choice. To stop another war from starting over her, Menelaus scarred her face, ruining her famous beauty.
Agamemnon expected a warm welcome home. But before the war, he had sacrificed his own daughter for good luck — and his wife Clytemnestra never forgave him. While he was gone, she plotted her revenge with her new lover. Soon after King returned, she killed him.
Odysseus and his men had bad luck too. Destroying Troy had also broken Zeus’s sacred law, angering the gods — especially the god of the sky. As punishment, the winds blew the Ithacans off course, straight to the island of the one-eyed cyclops, Polyphemus (Bill Irwin).
While looking for food, the men got trapped in Polyphemus’s cave with his sheep. To escape, they stabbed the cyclops in his one eye, blinding him. But Polyphemus was Poseidon’s son, and this made the sea god furious. Now the wind and sea were against them. Next, they ran into the Laestrygonian giants, who attacked them so badly that only one ship and its crew survived.
They sailed next to the island of Aeaea, where the witch Circe (Samantha Morton) turned Odysseus’s men into pigs. Odysseus convinced her to change them back — but before they could leave, Circe warned him they had to visit the underworld first and talk to the prophet Tiresias (James Remar) if they ever wanted to get home.
In the underworld, they summoned an army of dead spirits. One was Sinon, still angry that Odysseus never told him about the horse plan. Sinon said the dead Ithacan soldiers couldn’t rest because they’d never gotten proper funerals. He told Odysseus to get revenge on Antinous for him, and to sail west to honor the fallen. Next came Agamemnon’s ghost, who warned Odysseus about his own death — killed by his wife after trusting he’d get a hero’s welcome. He told Odysseus to sneak home in disguise and figure out who he could really trust. Finally, Tiresias explained how to get home. First, they had to sail past the deadly sirens. Then they’d face a choice: sail through the whirlpool Charybdis, which would kill everyone on board, or past the monster Scylla, who would only kill six men.
In the end, Odysseus’s choice wouldn’t even matter. Tiresias said all his men would die anyway, after they reached Apollo’s island and killed the sun god’s cattle. Odysseus thought he could beat the prophecy. So he kept it secret — along with the choice between Charybdis and Scylla. He did warn his men about the sirens, though. He told them to plug their ears with wax. But Odysseus wanted to hear the song himself, out of deep intellectual curiosity and a desire for hidden wisdom. So he had his men tie him to the mast. After they passed, he told them the song made him weep. It showed him everything he wanted — and why he could never have it.
Next came the choice: Charybdis or Scylla. Odysseus, sure he could dodge the prophecy, told his men to cross through the whirlpool. But his men didn’t trust him. They steered toward Scylla instead. Just as foretold, six men died.
The soldiers realized Odysseus was hiding things. His second-in-command, Eurylochus (Himesh Patel), demanded the truth. So Odysseus told them about the prophecy and begged them not to touch the cattle on Apollo’s island, which was now close by. They agreed. But not for long.
Once they landed, the wind trapped them on the island. Days passed. The men grew hungry, tired, and angry at Odysseus for hiding the truth. Some wanted to leave him behind. Starving, they finally broke their promise and killed one of Apollo’s cattle.
The wind picked back up. They sailed on, saying they’d rather drown than starve. Soon after, Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo sent a storm that killed every man except Odysseus.
He washed up on Calypso’s island and stayed there seven years. Calypso played by Charlize Theron had been banished there long ago, after the gods defeated the Titans. She fed him lotus flowers that made him forget Penelope and Telemachus, keeping his mind calm and numb. Eventually, Odysseus faced his pain and admitted the real reason he’d stayed away. Only then did Calypso help him head home.
She told him he had to accept the will of the gods — something he’d always resisted. He built a raft and let the ocean carry him to land. There, Athena appeared and told him he was finally home: Ithaca.
Homecoming
Odysseus finally reached Ithaca 20 years after leaving, disguised as a beggar. He met Telemachus, who didn’t recognize him until they saw Odysseus’s old dog, Argus. The dog had waited years for his owner — he wagged his tail one last time, then died. Odysseus told Telemachus to keep his return secret, but to tell Penelope she should choose a new husband.
Back home, dozens of suitors had been pressuring Penelope to remarry and take over Ithaca. She kept turning them down, still hoping Odysseus would return. Still in disguise, Odysseus begged for food at dinner. The suitors mocked and beat him until Telemachus stepped in. Later, Penelope talked to the mysterious beggar, not knowing it was her husband. He told her stories about Odysseus, gently encouraging her to move on. A servant recognized an old scar on his leg — Odysseus swore her to secrecy.
The next day, Penelope announced a challenge: whoever could string Odysseus’s old bow and shoot an arrow through 12 axes, just like the king once did, could marry her. One by one, the suitors failed. Then Odysseus stepped forward, threw off his disguise, and completed the challenge with ease.
A fight broke out. Odysseus battled the suitors and won, killing Antinous last, in honor of Sinon. Finally, Odysseus and Penelope reunited. Telemachus became the new king, while Odysseus set sail once more — this time west, to honor the men who died on their long journey home.
