Every major death in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, explained
Who actually makes it back to Ithaca — and who doesn’t? Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey throws Matt Damon’s Odysseus into ten years of monsters, vengeful gods, and cutthroat suitors, and across 172 minutes a star-packed roster doesn’t all survive. Here’s the full body count and the few who live to tell it.
Christopher Nolan seems to have looked at Homer’s Odyssey and decided, 'You know what this needs? Even more carnage, and a cast list straight out of awards season.' His latest epic, obviously called 'The Odyssey', is 172 minutes of mythological creatures, cranky gods, and enough bloodletting to make you question whether you’re actually watching Odysseus or some sort of ancient Greek horror flick.
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid the basic plot of the Odyssey—and the film’s marketing campaign—here’s the gist: Matt Damon is Odysseus, stuck wandering the Mediterranean for ten years because the gods are, frankly, a bit vindictive. Pretty much everyone he knows dies. Nolan has not toned down that particular aspect one bit.
Who bites the dust? Here’s the full rundown
- Odysseus’s entire crew – Yes, all of them. The journey from Troy to Ithaca is rough on staffing numbers. At first, several unlucky sailors meet a messy end in the cave of Polyphemus the Cyclops (played by Bill Irwin, if you were wondering how that role was going to get cast). The others are picked off in various sea scrapes and disasters.
- Eurylochus (Himesh Patel) – He makes the questionable call to kill the sacred cattle of Helios, which is exactly the sort of decision the gods notice. This does not end well: Poseidon brings the storms, and the last ship goes under, drowning literally everyone left except Odysseus.
- Sinon (Elliot Page) – This one’s a twist from the original myth. Sinon is the poor sap Odysseus tricks into staying behind at Troy as bait, to persuade the Trojans to wheel in that famous wooden horse. Once the Greeks (led by Benny Safdie as Agamemnon) sack the place, let’s just say his odds weren’t exactly great and leave it at that.
- Mentor (Ryan Hurst) and Elpenor (Jovan Adepo) – Also don’t make it to the finish line, dying at points before Odysseus finally washes up solo in Ithaca.
- The Suitors – Once Odysseus is back on home turf, things get very Game of Thrones inside his palace. Damon’s Odysseus slaughters his way through a crowd of unwelcome guests, taking out Robert Pattinson’s Antinous and Corey Hawkins’s Polybus, among others. Apparently, Nolan wanted a proper massacre, not a polite swordfight.
- Melanthius and Melantho (Logan Marshall-Green and Mia Goth) – Telemachus (Tom Holland) gets his moment to shine by bringing down Melanthius, while Melantho is executed soon after.
Odysseus: Dead or Not?
In a typical Nolan move, things get a bit ambiguous. During the palace chaos, Odysseus is hit with multiple arrows in the back, and you’re left wondering if he’d survived the sequel setup. He ends up passing the kingdom to Telemachus and sailing off with Anne Hathaway’s Penelope in a very picturesque, final sunset shot.
'The Odyssey' is in cinemas now, if you’re in the mood for Greek tragedies and a large chunk of this year’s Oscar hopefuls meeting unfortunate ends.