But Was Circe Wrong, Though?
On the most haunting scene in Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' (2026) + some RW! changes
TL;DR Plot: After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.
Starring: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
How to Watch It: Currently in theaters
Trailer:
*Trigger warning for discussions of sexual assault*
*Spoiler warning for The Odyssey, but it’s also based on a 3,000 year old poem so cool your jets*
There’s a scene toward the end of Christopher Nolan’s newest blockbuster, The Odyssey, that has played on a loop in my head. Full disclosure: I’ve now seen the film three times1, so it’s entirely possible I’ve oversaturated myself at this point.
Yet, the scene in question unfolds in the background and is easy to miss if you’re not looking closely. But I can’t help but think it’s a critical piece of the puzzle. Nolan is far too deliberate a director for me to believe he dropped it in by chance, especially when it confirms something the film has been telling us about Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his men all along. But before we get there, let’s take a step back.
The Scene We All Can’t Stop Talking About
After barely escaping the cyclops Polyphemus and watching much of his crew fall to the giant Laestrygonians, Odysseus and his remaining crewmen arrive on the island of Aeaea. Their faith in him has begun to waiver, and they elect to leave him behind to hunt as they search for food inland. Their journey leads them to the isolated hilltop home of Circe (Samantha Morton).
The sight of armed strangers immediately puts her on edge. She softens just enough to welcome them inside, but it’s a calculated performance. Stewed meat becomes the bait and switch for her true intentions, as the men gorge themselves on food and transform into literal pigs. It’s one of my favorite sequences of the movie, balancing escalating tension with practical effects body horror. I watched it clutching the arms of my seat while silently screaming in my head. If this is Nolan flirting with horror, I’d love to see what happens if he fully commits.
On the surface, Circe’s response feels like she’s doing way too much. The men don’t threaten her and Zeus’ law dictates that strangers be welcomed with hospitality. There isn’t an obvious reason to believe they intend to hurt her. After spending the first half of the film alongside Odysseus, we’re naturally inclined to trust the people who have survived the journey with him.
Circe doesn’t share that perspective. The gods have granted her truths, allowing her to see things the audience isn’t supposed to know. She isn’t welcoming the heroes of an epic into her home. She’s opening her door to a group of armed Greek soldiers fresh from a decade-long war. From her point of view, that’s all the information she needs.
The Scene I Can’t Stop Thinking About
Late in the film, after Odysseus returns to Ithaca disguised as a beggar, he recounts to an unaware Penelope (Anne Hathaway) what he witnessed the night Troy fell. Buildings burned. Men were slaughtered in the streets. The city collapsed into complete chaos. By morning, what Odysseus bitterly describes as the soldiers’ “sweaty celebrations” are well underway.
As he takes in the carnage, just out of view, a group of Greek soldiers can be seen dragging a woman into a nearby house. The camera never calls attention to it, and the moment passes almost as quickly as it appears, but the implication is unmistakable. Homer’s world never shied away from the reality of sexual violence during war. Women were treated as spoils of conquest, and sexual assault was one of the many atrocities inflicted on the conquered.
That background moment completely reframed the Circe scene for me. Earlier, she tears into Odysseus for harnessing the aggression inside his men to carry out his and Agamemnon’s ambitions. The first time she says it, it almost sounds unfair. These are just exhausted men asking for food. They haven’t done anything, right?
Except now we have clear evidence that they have. Not to Circe specifically, but does it matter? Nolan never needs to underline the point because the image does it for him. Those soldiers dragging a woman into a house aren’t anonymous background characters. They’re the same army that has just arrived on Circe’s island. She isn’t looking at innocent men who might become dangerous.
In the Ruins of the Bronze Age
I can’t say with certainty that Nolan intended for the Circe scene and that background moment at Troy to be read together. What I can say is that I haven’t been able to separate them since.
Odysseus eventually realizes that in their pursuit of victory, they became the People of the Sea that civilizations had long feared. The Trojan Horse wasn’t simply a clever military strategy, but a betrayal of the very foundation of Zeus’ law. Once that line was crossed, there was no going back.
The thing, though, is that good people don’t suddenly become capable of atrocities just because someone declared a war. But history has a long list of bad actors hiding behind war to justify acts that should otherwise be unthinkable. And so I keep coming back to Circe and her preemptive strike. She saw those soldiers clearly long before Odysseus understood who they were. Turning them into pigs wasn’t an act of cruelty or an overreaction. She just wanted them to finally shed their disguises.
Overall Rating: 5 Stars
A Little (Maybe Not…) Housekeeping Update
I have a deal with myself when it comes to Riot Wrrrd! that if it starts to feel like a chore, I need to reevaluate my relationship with it. Lately, you may have noticed some skipped letters or me toying around with some different formats for quicker content. The truth is, I’ve been struggling to keep pace a bit.
When I started RW!, I was taking care of my mother as she was battling terminal cancer. I desperately wanted 1.) a distraction and 2.) a way to reconnect with writing and, specifically, writing about film. In the year and a half since she’s passed, my life looks incredibly different. I’m a legal guardian now to a sibling with special needs and that takes a big chunk of my down time.
But RW! is a needed reprieve for me and I genuinely have fun with it. So all this is to say that I’m dropping down to once a week for the foreseeable future. Letters will now hit your inboxes on Sundays, with one additional bonus post coming on the last Wednesday of the month.
Another shift is that The Hold List will be taking a bit of breather. I like the basis of the idea of a banned book/companion film club, but it was starting to feel like a book report in a way I didn’t love so I’m reconsidering the format.
I needed to see it in all three of its premium formats – 70mm, IMAX, and Dolby… For science. Hey, don’t judge me. What’s the point of being an AMC A-Lister if I’m not seeing one film a ridiculous amount of times?