Christopher Nolan's Trojan Horse Change Creates a Glaring Odyssey Plot Hole

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey faced plenty of scrutiny (albeit misguided) surrounding “historical inaccuracy” and casting choices leading up to its release, to the point of an online contingent calling for a boycott. That did absolutely nothing to curb the movie’s momentum, as it has already blasted past $1.1 billion at the box office in a theatrical run that is far from over. With that said, as with any other mega-popular blockbuster, discerning eyes have found several plot holes or inconsistencies.

To be clear, Christopher Nolan’s precision filmmaking and complete control of a narrative calls into question whether a theoretical plot hole is in fact a plot hole, as opposed to a conscious choice that the legendary director made. In the case of the movie’s anachronistic choices in elements like costume and dialogue, virtually every one serves a thematic or symbolic purpose. One oft-discussed plot hole may seem like a misfire on Nolan’s part, but a closer look indicates that it was almost certainly something he considered and chose to execute anyway.

The Soldiers inside the Horse Show Minimal Ill Effects from Their Lengthy Ordeal

Homer’s Odyssey never provides any detail about the experience inside the Trojan Horse, and in reality it’s a glossed-over element of the Iliad and Odyssey duology compared to the event’s modern-day pop culture significance. Christopher Nolan opted to provide a brief but in-depth look at how harrowing the experience was for the men huddled inside the massive wooden horse for up to five days. They are shown freezing in the rising tide, with some of the lower men even drowning in the feces-filled water that built up inside the horse. With limited room for food and certainly water, it’s depicted as a grueling ordeal.

The plot hole arises when Odysseus and his men finally emerge from the horse, seemingly fit and ready to fight their way to the gates of Troy. The first few men out of the horse are shown hunched over initially, but they quickly reveal they have the energy to tackle and kill the nearby guards before holding off advancing Trojan soldiers so the gate can be opened. Men who suffered in horrific conditions for multiple days in a cramped space literally on top of each other would have been starving, dehydrated, and heavily fatigued, making their immediate engagement in warfare with no ill effects seem like an oversight on Nolan’s part.

The Trojan Horse Plot Hole Is Easy to Overlook For Multiple Reasons

Benny Safdie as Agamemnon in The Odyssey

The fact that Odysseus and his men appear unaffected by their time in the horse is easy to ignore in the face of the power of the next scene. After literally years of waiting and suffering on the beaches of Troy, spurring the end of the siege would be enough for even the most exhausted soldier to summon their courage and adrenaline for one final push. Nolan builds the score and the battle through Troy to the moment when Agamemnon breaches the gate, providing a literal emotional and mental release for the audience. It’s easy to imagine how soldiers would be able to push to the end of their strength to get there.

In the now-iconic scene in The Odyssey, Nolan also makes sure to keep the focus on Odysseus and Menelaus as the key cogs of the crew inside the horse, both of whom are considered superior warriors and heroes in Greek mythology. They are indeed seen as better men in their significance to the world at large, and importance to the Greek gods, so their imperviousness to fatigue, dehydration, or hunger can be viewed as a sign of their status in the world order in what Nolan labels “a time of apparent magic.”