Christopher Nolan is pulling back the curtain on how Jaws, Alien, and a polarizing Martin Scorsese movie influenced The Odyssey. With The Odyssey has barely stopped making headlines, from selling out IMAX screenings a year in advance to earning “masterpiece” reactions before its release. But while audiences have been busy dissecting the film’s scale, the legendary filmmaker has now pulled back the curtain on the stories that quietly shaped his most ambitious epic yet. Turns out, the road to Odysseus began long before Nolan ever stepped behind the camera.

Turns out, the road to The Odyssey did not begin with Homer. It began with a handful of movies that completely changed Christopher Nolan’s way of storytelling.

Speaking to USA TODAY, Christopher Nolan revealed that The Odyssey drew inspiration from some of cinema’s most celebrated classics, including Jaws, Alien, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, and even his own The Dark Knight trilogy. Rather than reinvent Homer’s ancient poem, the filmmaker explained that he wanted to recreate the version that had stayed with him since childhood after watching a school play based on the Greek epic. That early memory eventually became the foundation for what is now his biggest filmmaking ambition.

“I just scribbled down, ‘What are the things I remember from it?’ I didn’t want to do a revisionist version; I wanted to be true to my expectations of it,” Nolan told USA TODAY.

Adding further to USA Today, Nolan also admitted that Oppenheimer quietly shaped the emotional core of The Odyssey in ways he never expected. After spending years immersed in the disturbing realities of n******* warfare, he hoped to leave that darkness behind, only to realize that traces of despair had naturally found their way into Odysseus’ emotional journey. At the same time, he borrowed suspense techniques from Jaws and Alien to build mythical creatures through mystery rather than constant visibility, while Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ inspired him to embrace the flaws and emotional complexity of his legendary hero.

And while the inspirations may come from the past, Nolan’s latest epic is already rewriting the future before audiences have even watched it.

Leading an ensemble that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong’o, and Benny Safdie, The Odyssey arrives in theaters on July 17, 2026, as the first major studio film shot entirely with IMAX cameras. Produced on a reported $250 million budget, the mythological epic follows Odysseus’ decade-long journey home after the Trojan War while blending large-scale fantasy with Christopher Nolan’s signature emotional storytelling.

The excitement has already translated into unprecedented demand. Premium IMAX screenings famously sold out nearly a year before release, with early projections placing the film’s domestic opening between $80 million and $100 million, while first reactions have hailed it as a “masterpiece” and praised Ludwig Göransson’s score alongside career-best performances from Matt Damon and the star-studded ensemble. Fresh off Oppenheimer's seven Oscar victories, Nolan appears to have transformed another long-held dream into one of 2026’s biggest cinematic events.

After borrowing lessons from cinema’s greatest masterpieces, Christopher Nolan now appears ready to send The Odyssey on a journey toward becoming one itself.

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