Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey, is already breaking multiple records.
The Odyssey is the Greek myth about Odysseus’s life after the Trojan War, and the film follows Nolan’s last project, Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was extremely successful, and as a historical drama centered around the lead scientist behind the atomic bomb, it was a massive project, thus placing greater expectations on The Odyssey.
ScreenRant‘s Alex Harrison called The Odyssey, “a stunning achievement,” and the film is already breaking Rotten Tomatoes scores, as well as rising up the streaming rankings in the form of a behind the scenes documentary on Peacock (currently at number 4 in most popular movies on Peacock). The documentary, The Odyssey: The Making of an Epic was released earlier this week with perfect timing, just days before the release of the full film.
The Odyssey: The Making of an Epic documentary highlights the massive scale of the movie in terms of locations, the ways in which actors were transported to those locations, and how the crew took great lengths to ensure authenticity. Nolan wanted to focus on things like having real-life crowds and shooting on location. As Emma Thomas (producer) said in the documentary, “This is such an ambitious film. It’s sort of like seven different ambitious movies all rolled up into one.”
Matt Damon (Odysseus) recalled a moment when talking to Nolan, where Nolan told him, “This is gonna be a hard movie.” Damon said, “yeah, I know.” To which Nolan responded, “No, this is gonna be a really hard movie.” It’s quotes like these that highlight how grueling filming was for the cast and crew, with locations for the film including Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, and Scotland.
Beyond the documentary highlighting shooting on different locations, and as Nolan said, the “incredible momentum” that can follow from doing so, the documentary supports why The Odyssey‘s early Rotten Tomatoes score is already so strong. At the time of this article, The Odyssey currently has 234 reviews and a score of 96%. This score makes it Nolan’s highest rated movie thus far, surpassing his other films such as Memento (94%), The Dark Knight (94%), and Oppenheimer (93%).
The documentary, The Odyssey: The Making of an Epic, detailed how one base camp was a 45-minute hike from set. Camera and grip equipment at times were either transported using a funicular cableway or helicoptered to the top of a mountain. Ruth De Jong (production designer) described the process as, “As hard as this is to work like this up here in this… It’s worth it.” She added, “There was no location that was straightforward and easy, but all of those locations made sense for the story. It wouldn’t be the film that it is without going there and doing it for real.”
Actors shared similar sentiments, with Tom Holland recalling a 20-minute walk to set through extras, boats, fires, and buildings, before he saw a crew member. It confirmed that he had, “never seen anything on that scale before,” which, for someone who played Spider-Man, a giant blockbuster character, reinforces the staggering magnitude of Nolan’s sets.
The documentary highlights how the film, for the first time ever, was entirely shot with IMAX film cameras. Nolan said, “It’s been [his] long-held dream, really, since [he] was about 16 years old to do an entire film on IMAX.” He said the issue was always the sound and how loud the cameras can be. For the film, engineers created a box surrounding the camera so recording close-up scenes could still be possible.
The Odyssey: The Making of an Epic serves as much more than just a promotional piece; it is a testament to the dedication of the cast and crew, and it contextualizes why The Odyssey is already scoring so highly on Rotten Tomatoes. The finished product is poised to be one of the best films of the year, and The Odyssey releases in theaters on July 17, 2026.
- Release Date
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July 17, 2026
- Runtime
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172 Minutes