By George & Josh Bate
Academy Award winner Christopher Nolan was the first filmmaker to take the spotlight during Universal Pictures and Focus Features’ star-studded presentation at CinemaCon 2026.
“I’m really glad I’m not following Steven Spielberg,” the ever-humble filmmaker said as he began talking to the CinemaCon crowd.
Nolan revealed exactly why he wanted to make The Odyssey during the presentation. “The Odyssey is a story that has fascinated generation after generation for centuries,” he described. “It is not a story. It is the story.”
Nolan went on to recount early days watching IMAX movies in Chicago at the Science and Industry Museum and in Gurnee at Six Flags Great America as influencing him to want to shoot an entire film on IMAX, a feat previously unachieved by any filmmaker in cinema history.
Approaching IMAX engineers with a daunting task, Nolan pushed to make a movie filmed entirely in IMAX, with dialogue filmed on set, and no changing of aspect ratios. With incredible work and innovation behind the scenes, the technical team was able to achieve this impressive feat.
Beyond the technical novelty of The Odyssey, Nolan’s newest film bolsters a “story about family…about homecoming.” Nolan remarked regarding this central theme, “At the heart is Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland.”
Reteaming after his collaboration on Interstellar and Oppenheimer, Matt Damon stars as Odysseus in The Odyssey. Nolan described the film as “an absolute nightmare” for Damon to film “in the best possible ways.” He elaborated that the difficult production paralleled Odysseus’ difficult journey in the film.
“You’ll be pleased to see how difficult it was to make, because it should be,” Nolan said.
Nolan then introduced exclusive footage of The Odyssey to the CinemaCon crowd.
Backed to a decidedly different score than anything we’ve heard from Ludwig Göransson before, the footage begins as Damon’s Odysseus washes up on the island of Ogygia occupied by Calypso, the nymph played by Charlize Theron. Odysseus implores with Calypso about his difficulty remembering anything before the Trojan War.
The footage then cuts to a dimly lit banquet hall. At the head of the event is Jon Bernthal’s King Menelaus. Tom Holland’s Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, trepidatiously enters the hall and makes his way slowly to Menelaus. Bernthal’s character stoically tells Telemachus to sit. A person nearby hears Menelaus’ command and mistakes it as being directed toward him. Menelaus is quick to dismiss the man and clarify that he wishes Telemachus to sit next to him.
Menelaus then goes to tell an anxious Telemachus about his father’s efforts in the Trojan War, of which Menelaus played a key role.
This triggers an extended flashback to the Trojan War. The iconic Trojan Horse rests in a body of water as the soldiers of Troy circulate around on nearby sand. Inside the horse, Odysseus, Menelaus, and numerous other soldiers are cramped tightly in. The framing inside the horror harkens back to similar imagery from Nolan’s 2017 war film Dunkirk.
The soldiers of Troy wrap ropes around the massive horse and slowly pull it into the heart of their city. There, one soldier jumps on top of the horse and thrusts a sword through. Inside, the sword pierces the back of one of Odysseus’ men. Before he can howl in pain, the Achaeans put their hands over his mouth to muffle his cries.
Night then falls. Odysseus kicks out the bottom of the horse and silently drops down. He swiftly approaches a soldier of Troy from behind and puts him in a chokehold. At the same time, other soldiers, including Menelaus, descend from the horse and start to stealthily eliminate enemies. At this point, the score has ramped up considerably in volume and pacing, imbuing the scene with an almost unbearable intensity akin to the prologue of Tenet.
Odysseus makes his way up a tower and looks over a wall to see many of his soldiers waiting. At this point, the soldiers of Troy become aware of the enemy’s presence and start to attack. Odysseus finds a bow and starts shooting arrows at soldiers running at them. Menelaus and others follow suit.
While this is going on, Odysseus oversees the opening of the city gates. Just as it seems the soldiers of Troy will emerge victorious, Odysseus’ men manage to crack the gate open. From there, Achaean soldiers flood into the interior of the city. Amongst the men is an ominous dark figure covered in Darth Vader-esque black armor. This is Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus and king of Mycenae played by Benny Safdie.
The scene then concluded and transitioned back to Menelaus and Telemachus’ conversation at the banquet hall.
Then, a briskly paced compilation of moments from the movie ensued. We catch a glimpse of Robert Pattinson throwing something in anger. The footage concludes in the dark as we hear the low growling of the Cyclops, followed by a look at his massive hand emerging from the blackness of his cave.
The footage was meticulously engineered and endlessly epic, to say the least. Not enough people talk about how masterful Nolan is at cultivating tension and choreographing action. He flexes these muscles intensely in the footage shown at CinemaCon, previewing a game-changing cinematic experience arriving this summer.
The Odyssey is in theaters July 17, 2026.