# Nolan’s Odyssey reveals how faithfully it follows Homer’s ending

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/christopher-nolans-the-odyssey-ending-explained/
- Published: 2026-07-17T06:32:06+00:00
- Updated: 2026-07-17T12:47:32+00:00
- Original publisher: Collider
- Original article: https://collider.com/the-odyssey-ending-explained-christopher-nolan/
- Topics: Americas, Celebrity, Entertainment, World

## Key points

- Nolan's Odyssey film has begun screening in cinemas.
- Ending closely follows Homer's poem, with small changes.
- Bed test swapped for an arrow-through-axes challenge scene.

## Summary

Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey has begun screening, three years after his previous release, Oppenheimer. Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, the film follows the mythological hero's decade-long journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, and its ending has drawn interest both from newcomers to the story and from those familiar with Homer's original poem curious how closely Nolan's version follows it.

The film largely mirrors the source material's conclusion: Odysseus returns home in disguise as a beggar, tests the suitors pursuing his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) by observing how they treat him, and wins a contest only he can complete before killing the suitors with his son Telemachus's (Tom Holland) help. Nolan makes some changes, notably swapping the poem's bed-based identity test for a challenge involving firing an arrow through a line of axes. The film reveals Odysseus survives his injuries from the killings and goes into a self-arranged exile as "punishment", before he and Penelope sail off together in the closing moments.

## Coverage

- [Collider: Nolan’s Odyssey reveals how faithfully it follows Homer’s ending](https://collider.com/the-odyssey-ending-explained-christopher-nolan/)
- [IGN: The Odyssey: Explaining the Last Scene of Christopher Nolan’s New Epic](https://www.ign.com/articles/the-odyssey-explaining-the-last-scene-of-christopher-nolans-new-epic)

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