Christopher Nolan is, famously, never one to discuss his movie's endings at length. So when he does talk, we invariably listen.
Speaking at a Q&A moderated by Robert Downey Jr. (and documented for posterity by The Nerd Wire), Nolan confirmed what many had suspected – The Odyssey's ending deliberately echoes his previous film Oppenheimer.
"I was finding Oppenheimer [and] I was finding a little bit of [my other films] in there," Nolan said.
"As I wrote the end, I suddenly found a bit of Oppenheimer in there – that sort of connection. I was looking at my notebooks the other day, somewhere I scribbled as I wrote the ending: this is the ending of all my films rolled into one."
The Odyssey's ending, lest we forget, features Odysseus sailing from Ithaca but left with the memory of his and his men's actions in Troy – at a tipping point in civilization where it appears the boundaries of society are beginning to collapse. By comparison, Oppenheimer also saw its lead wrestling with profound guilt and an immense change in the world we live in.
Downey Jr., who won Best Supporting Actor under Nolan's direction as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, also pointed out parallels between Oppenheimer's ending and that of Dunkirk, which features a burning plane in much the same way Nolan focuses on the Trojan Horse in flames in the Troy-set flashbacks.
"It's crazy, because it never feels like you're repeating anything but there's concentric circles of plumbing new depths along these themes," Downey Jr., commented.
The Odyssey, set for home release on November 17, because Nolan's most successful film at the box office – grossing over $1.8 billion. It stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, and Tom Holland, with plenty of early whispers that it will be among the Best Picture frontrunners at next year's Academy Awards.
For more, we have a complete breakdown of The Odyssey ending, plus a ranking of the best Christopher Nolan movies.
