The Odyssey Timeline, Explained

Christopher Nolan has always found unusual ways to tell his stories. This usually means either bending time and space for his pleasure or simply editing them in non-linear ways for added juice.

For his latest cinematic epic, The Odyssey, Nolan and his editor Jennifer Lame have applied that same technique to one of the oldest tales in Western literature and, as a result, have produced a movie that feels wonderfully exciting and new. 

If you’ve already seen the movie and are wondering where some of those pieces take place or fit together, we’ve got you covered. In the piece below, which I’ve arranged in a kind of chronological order, you’ll find info on where and when each part of Nolan’s Odyssey happens and how they link together. 

Before Troy (Past)

While Homer’s text only mentions Troy anecdotally, Nolan makes the siege, the horse and the lead-up to it all pivotal to the story arcs of most of his main characters. Of the earliest pre-Troy flashbacks, the first shows Eumaeus (John Leguizamo) dropping puppies off a cliff before Odysseus (Matt Damon with his back to us) steps in to save Argos, his hunting dog. 

We then get another flashback to the moment when Argos saves him from a charging boar. This scene also introduces Antinous and Sinon as boys, who both hold up an arrow for Odysseus — he chooses Sinon’s and smiles, showing his affection for the young man. 

This leads to the third flashback, which involves Odysseus and the two boys again. First we get the jump scare of Agamemnon’s black sail, then a scene showing the conscription lottery for his conquest of Troy. It’s here that Antinous trades with Sinon to go (having falsely promised money to his family, as we later find out). We also see Odysseus spare Antinous’ father’s shame by telling him his son volunteered to take Sinon’s place. He then turns with Sinon and says “he’s with me”, confirming his burgeoning respect for him.

The only other pre-Troy sequence we see shows Odysseus lying with Penelope in bed, with the baby Telemachus in a cot nearby. Penelope asks him to run away with her (to “chase the setting sun”) before accepting that he has to leave — although not before slapping him at the suggestion that she remarry when Telemachus comes of age. She then gives him the golden brooch of Athena, so that she’ll know when travellers are telling the truth about having met him. 

Troy (Past)

Many of the juiciest parts of Nolan’s The Odyssey are actually taken from the Aeneid. The first section we see (narrated by Travis Scott’s stick-thumping song) shows a grown-up Sinon (played by Elliot Page) on the beach, seemingly alone, just as the Trojans arrive to inspect Agamemnon's equine offering. Sinon is then unceremoniously pinned to the horse by a spear and, though we don’t quite see it, apparently dies. In another brief flashback later on, we also see the moment just after Sinon volunteers for this role, when he also gives Odysseus his conscription token to take back to his father — this later becomes Antinous’ “shame”.

The next time Nolan takes us to Troy comes during Telemachus’ (Tom Holland) visit to Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), where the king offers to tell the story from inside the horse. In this section, Nolan shows a few images of the horse being constructed before showing us the earlier scene again, but from the POV of the cramped and sweaty men inside. This time, Nolan continues the yarn into the city, where the men spring their trap and open the gates to let Agamemnon and his army in.

The story is then continued for a third time during the scene between Penelope and Odysseus late on, when Odysseus is still disguised as the beggar. This time, the story is told more as a tragedy, reflecting Odysseus’ shame for breaking Zeus' law so irrevocably. We get a sense of the chaos and see the killing of innocent Trojans, including a young woman played by Zendaya — suggesting that the Athena who has been visiting Odysseus throughout the movie might have been a metaphor for his shame all along. 

The final shot of the movie then takes us back to Troy one last time, this time revealing what Odysseus has been looking up at from the stairs in those quick flashbacks throughout: his wooden horse (and perhaps civilisation itself) on fire. 

The Odyssey (Past)

We can do this section in fast forward.

Odysseus’ attempts to return to Ithaca post-Troy (or in other words, Homer's Odyssey) basically take up the middle third of Nolan’s movie and happen in the correct order. Recounted to Calypso on Ogygia, these include a scene that hints at the raid on Ismarus; his encounter with the Cyclops, the Laestrygonians (the giant killing machines), and the sorceress Circe; his journey to the Underworld; navigating through the Sirens, Scylla (the whirlpool) and Charybdis (the cliff monster); getting trapped on Helios' island (where the men eat the forbidden cattle); and finally the great storm that decimates the last of his crew, leaving him alone and half dead on Calypso’s beach.

Ogygia and Ithaca (Present)

The present tense scenes in Nolan’s movie are the ones featuring Telemachus, Penelope, and the suitors on Ithaca (and Telemachus’ visit to Menelaus) as well as, more or less, Odysseus and Calypso's conversations on Ogygia. This section of the film, which is basically the first two hours, ends as Telemachus leaves Menelaus to return to Ithaca, just as Odysseus comes to his senses and heads out on his raft.

After that brief but stormy journey, pretty much everything up until the end credits — the reunion with Telemachus and Penelope, the bow stringing contest, the slaughter of the suitors, setting sail into the sunset — takes place in the present tense as well, aside from the two Troy flashbacks mentioned above.

For a more classical chronological telling, the 1997 TV adaptation pretty much goes by the book.

Now, will somebody please do something about all these beggars?