# 放課後PODCAST#380 ネタバレ注意！映画『オデュッセイア』評延長戦！ - Show: アフター6ジャンクション 2 - Published: 2026-09-24 - Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/1505337177_7135da9386b5.html - Audio: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TBS5318743388.mp3 - Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary. Immediately after the on-air discussion of Christopher Nolan's Odysseia wrapped on After 6 Junction 2 (アフター6ジャンクション2), script writers Furukawa (古川) and Tamura (田村)—later joined by Katayama (片山)—dove into a full spoiler-laden overtime session. Over roughly 30 minutes they broke down the film's specific departures from Homer's original epic, from the invented 'civilisation will fall—head west' ending to Nolan's radical reimagining of the Trojan Horse, the deliberately ambiguous moment Penelope recognises Odysseus, and gruelling behind-the-scenes stories from the shoot. ## What this episode answers ### How does the film's ending—'civilisation will fall, so head west'—differ from the conclusion of Homer's original? In the film, Odysseus declares that civilisation is doomed and heads west toward the birth of the next European civilisation, whereas in Homer, after the slaughter of the suitors, the gods including Athena intervene to broker a truce between Odysseus and the suitors' families, and the epic ends there with no such departure. ### Why did Nolan depict the Trojan Horse without wheels, half-buried in the sand? Nolan started from the conviction that 'a horse on wheels makes no sense,' so he had it left behind on the beach half-buried in sand as if abandoned in a retreat, making it look discarded so no one would suspect men hiding inside, which was seen as boosting the film's credibility. ### How does the original epic portray the moment Penelope becomes certain she is speaking with Odysseus? In the original, Penelope does not believe Odysseus even after he has subdued the suitors, since she knows gods can take human form to deceive her, so she tests him by asking about a secret known only to the two of them—the secret of their bedroom—and only accepts the truth once he answers correctly. ### Where do the film and the original differ in how the massacre of the suitors is staged? The film has Odysseus pick off the suitors one by one by throwing them from a balcony, using a gradually accelerating musical tempo to build dread (a Nolan technique dating back to Dunkirk), whereas in Homer, Odysseus begins the massacre by shooting an arrow through Antinous's throat. ### What is the story behind the restaurant encounter between Matt Damon and Nolan? Matt Damon, who had grown a beard through the long shoot, ran into Nolan at a restaurant while dining with his family and said, 'You've been editing me with this beard for months—doesn't that seem weird to you?', to which Nolan reportedly looked embarrassed and made himself scarce. ## Article ## The Post-Broadcast 'Overtime': Furukawa Cross-References the Source The moment the Odysseia special segment of the September 20, 2026 broadcast of After 6 Junction 2 (アフター6ジャンクション2) ended, script writers Furukawa (古川) and Tamura (田村) launched straight into an unofficial overtime discussion—Katayama (片山) joined them partway through. Furukawa came in having read a condensed Iwanami Shonen Bunko edition of Homer's Odyssey for the broad strokes, and having cross-checked a few passages in the full Iwanami Bunko translation, though he noted he had enjoyed the film thoroughly regardless. ## The Biggest Departure: 'Civilisation Will Fall—Head West' In the film, Odysseus declares that civilisation is doomed and sets out westward, a gesture toward the birth of the next European civilisation. Nothing like this exists in the source. In Homer, after Odysseus slaughters every suitor, the victims' families arrive seeking revenge—but gods including Athena intervene and tell both sides that enough is enough, and both sides gratefully accept the truce. That is how the epic ends. Furukawa's reading was that the film reframes Odysseus's excess as self-inflicted consequence: by going too far, he inadvertently invites the Sea Peoples in, and so must seek a new land. He also let slip a quiet 'haaaah' reaction—the response of someone who is not European watching a story about the founding of European civilisation. ## The Massacre of the Suitors and the Bow Trial: Differences in Staging In Homer, Odysseus opens the slaughter by driving an arrow through Antinous's throat. The film's version—picking suitors off one by one by hurling them from a balcony—has no equivalent in the text. Furukawa pointed out that Nolan's technique of gradually accelerating the musical tempo to ratchet up dread is a signature move running back to Dunkirk. 'It's a bit of a cheap trick, honestly,' he said, 'but it genuinely works every time.' On the bow trial—the scene where Odysseus shoots an arrow through the rings of sixteen axes—Nolan has said in making-of footage that he wrestled at length with how to visualise Homer's actual description of shooting through the rings. He ultimately settled on an interpretation grounded in one strand of scholarship, distinct from earlier adaptations such as the 2024 film The Return starring Ralph Fiennes. ## Where Exactly Does Penelope Recognise Him? The film keeps the precise moment of Penelope's recognition deliberately vague. In Homer, even after Odysseus has subdued the suitors, Penelope refuses to believe him immediately—years of experience have taught her that gods sometimes assume human form to play tricks. She devises a test: she probes him about a secret known only to the two of them, the secret of their bedroom. When Odysseus answers correctly, she finally accepts the truth. Furukawa noted with some amusement that Homer then records, fairly explicitly, that the reunited couple proceeded to enjoy themselves. The reunion with his son Telemachus also unfolds differently. In the original there is no expedition to the palace at Pylos and no father travelling to fetch his son—they simply meet on Ithaca. The detail that Odysseus is still disguised in the form of an old man, so that no one recognises him at first, is shared between the film and the text. ## Behind the Scenes: Cave Locations and the Reinvented Horse The Cyclops's cave was shot on location in a real cave. The crew and cast hauled IMAX cameras up a genuine cliff face, and the local government's rule prohibiting any permanent fixtures in the rock face meant they could not drive in scaffolding. They scraped through by discovering a natural hollow tucked behind a rock formation. The detail that drew the most praise was Nolan's treatment of the Trojan Horse. Starting from the conviction that 'a horse on wheels makes no sense,' Nolan has the horse left behind on the beach and half-swallowed by sand, as if the Greek forces simply abandoned it in their apparent retreat. Because it looks like something discarded, no one thinks to wonder whether men could be hiding inside—a solution described as raising the film's credibility by a full order of magnitude. The horse is also built tall and narrow, allowing Nolan to exploit the full 1.43:1 aspect ratio of IMAX to maximum effect. There was also the anecdote of Matt Damon running into Nolan at a restaurant while dining with his family. Having grown a beard throughout the long shoot, Damon reportedly said, 'You've been editing me with this beard for months—doesn't that seem weird to you?' Nolan apparently looked embarrassed and made himself scarce. Nolan himself has described Odysseia as the most gruelling shoot of his career. ## Nolan's Authorship and Themes Furukawa assessed the film as a continuation of the clarity of theme and packaging that distinguished Oppenheimer, calling it Nolan's most distinctive quality since those days. All three participants shared a sense of wonder that the director who has spent his career—from the Batman trilogy onward—obsessing over how to stop outlandish premises from looking ridiculous had managed to turn a myth where 'a peach comes bobbing down the river' into something cinematically persuasive. ## Takeaways - The film's 'civilisation will fall—head west' ending is entirely Nolan's invention; Homer's original closes with the gods mediating a peaceful settlement between Odysseus and the families of the slain suitors. - Nolan's decision to depict the Trojan Horse as wheelless and half-buried in sand—left behind like abandoned wreckage—was singled out as the film's greatest single stroke of ingenuity, simultaneously boosting realism and delivering a striking IMAX image. - The shoot—including hauling IMAX cameras up a real cliff for the Cyclops cave and the story of Damon teasing Nolan at a restaurant—confirmed Nolan's own description of Odysseia as the most demanding production he has ever undertaken.