Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY Footage at CinemaCon Teases Epic Trojan Horse Sequence and IMAX Ambitions

If there was any doubt that The Odyssey is going to be Christopher Nolan’s next massive cinematic swing, CinemaCon just erased it. The filmmaker took the stage in Las Vegas to show off new footage from his upcoming epic, giving us a closer look at the scale, emotion, and ambition driving this long-anticipated project.

Nolan didn’t just preview visuals. He made it clear this is a story he’s been waiting to tell for a long time, and from the footage we saw, he put everything on the table for this movie.

The newly revealed scenes drop us right into the psychological and emotional aftermath of the Trojan War. Matt Damon’s Odysseus is stranded on an island, speaking with Calypso, played by Charlize Theron, who has kept him there for years. He’s disoriented, unsure of how long he’s been there, and even unsure of his own past:

The moment leans into memory and loss as Odysseus struggles to piece together who he was before the war: “How long have I been here, Calypso?” He asks. “I don’t remember anything before Troy. Did I have a wife, children, maybe a son? If I had a son, how old would he be now?”

That question echoes into a series of flashbacks that expand the scope of the story. We’re taken into the perspective of his son, Telemachus, played by Tom Holland, who is being told the truth about his father by Jon Bernthal’s Menelaus.

At one point, Menelaus has him sit next to him to recount the Trojan Horse story “from the inside,” shifting the perspective in a way that makes the legendary moment feel immediate and dangerous.

The Trojan Horse sequence itself is insanely intense. The massive structure is dragged from the sea and hauled into Troy, where suspicious soldiers stab into it to make sure nothing is hidden inside.

At one point, a Greek soldier concealed within is struck, and the others have to cover his mouth to stop him from crying out and exposing them all. After nightfall, Odysseus quietly removes the wounded man as the plan begins to unfold.

Once the attack starts, things escalate quickly. A Trojan guard sounds the alarm as Greek warriors slip through the gates. Menelaus readies his bow while Odysseus begins taking out soldiers one by one in the shadows. Then the gates swing open, revealing a full army waiting outside to storm the city, including Agamemnon, played by Benny Safdie.

The sequence eventually returns to Menelaus and Telemachus, grounding the chaos back in storytelling. “I think you know the rest,” he tells him.

When Nolan addressed the crowd, he talked about why this story matters to him, calling it one “that has fascinated generation after generation for 3,000 years. It’s not a story, it’s the story.”

He added that he’s been driven by the idea of bringing it to modern audiences in a way that fully captures its scale and emotional core, describing it as “the exciting opportunity of being able to bring this to a modern cinema audience.”

At its center, though, Nolan emphasized that the film isn’t just about war or spectacle. He pointed to Holland, Damon, and Anne Hathaway’s Penelope as the emotional anchor, explaining the story is about “family” and “homecoming.”

Of course, this is Nolan, so the technical side is just as ambitious. He revealed that the production pushed toward something he’s wanted to achieve for years.

“The long-held dream,” he said, was to figure out a way to film an entire project on IMAX for the first time, capturing even dialogue scenes with the same visual intensity as action sequences instead of shifting formats.

That approach came with its challenges. Nolan talked about the experience, saying the film was “an absolute nightmare to film,” albeit “in all the right ways,” adding, “we had an amazing time doing it.” He also confirmed that the movie is “almost finished.”

The Odyssey follows Odysseus as he attempts to return home after the Trojan War, facing a long and dangerous journey driven by his desire to reunite with his family. The cast includes Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Benny Safdie, Cosmo Jarvis, Michael Vlamis, and Iddo Goldberg rounding out the ensemble.

With its mythic roots, emotional focus, and full-IMAX execution, The Odyssey is going to be a massive cinematic event built for the big screen. The journey begins when it hits IMAX theaters on July 17.