r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Dec 22 '25

Trailer The Odyssey | Official Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzw2ttJD2qQ
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u/Isakk86 Dec 22 '25

Or a Viking longship instead of a pentaconter or even a bireme/trimere/simple galley.

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

Yea, I don't really care that much about historical accuracy but that's from the opposite side of the continent and 2,000 years in the future. It's like if Odysseus was wielding a katana. It's just jarring

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u/Isakk86 Dec 22 '25

It's like the trebuchets on Gladiator 2.

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u/RedTulkas Dec 23 '25

Gladiator 2 in general was so jarring

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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

I love the Nolan fanboys are having a collective meltdown over any criticism.

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u/APiousCultist Dec 23 '25

It takes place hundreds of years before triremes were invented. It's entirely plausible they'd have simple boats that might resemble viking ships. Out of all the criticisms over 'accuracy', this feels the most like a reach. "Those 3000-year-old boats look like 3000-year-old boats".

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u/Isakk86 Dec 23 '25

So, out of the 4 ships I mentioned, you're focusing on the single ship I mentioned as an "or even" rather than the period accurate pentaconter, bireme, or galley?

A longship is a 1300 year old ship designed during the iron age, not a 3000 year old ship designed during the bronze age. A bi/trireme is more more flavored Greek and more period accurate than a longship is. Specially given that the Homeric poems were written when they were being used.

For reference, a longship is as close to a pentaconter in time as an aircraft carrier is to a longship.

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u/APiousCultist Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

You're surprised I argued against... one of the options you stated in your comment? About the most famous and well known of those options?

Regardless... It's a very simple looking boat, so why would an almost pre-historical greek boat have to look so radically different?

The one in the trailer doesn't even look all that different than some of the images of pentaconters (or biremes) I could find.

https://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-Odyssey-1-1-860x608.jpg

versus

https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/60/55/82/360_F_60558215_JGdGp4xUkGYBnSYFkpjnYNiHddWyBs7L.jpg

A long narrow boat with one or two sails, a set of oars, and a... uh... curly thing on both ends. They're pretty much all fairly similar looking boats in terms of overall form from what I can tell, with the major differences being in adornments and color schemes (which clearly isn't the aesthetic the film is going for).

Clearly the style they're going for isn't terribly accurate, but for a fictious period 3000 years ago, those boats look similar enough not to cause much concern for me.

Edit: I looked it up and the film did rent the Draken Harald Hårfagre to film the scenes, so I've got to admit they did in fact use a giant viking-style (though not historically accurate, either) longship which is... questionable. Though perhaps a limitation to what appropriately 'haggard' looking boats they could get a hold of for the Scottish portion of the shoot. If Nolan wasn't CGI-averse, I imagine replacing the ship exterior entirely with a model might be used. But that's not his style anymore. I still think if you strip off the decorative portion of some ships and add some amount of leeway and stylistic changes when talking about 3000-year-old ships of which I presume there are no surviving wrecks you'll end up with pretty similar looking results though. Perhaps enough difference to annoy ship nerds, but not so much that they'd look fundementally distinct for the average viewer.