Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has only just reached cinemas, but the iconic filmmaker’s latest has already become a streaming smash, too. After years of anticipation for the release, IMAX hype and a small military operation in terms of just shooting the thing, audiences are gobbling it up at home like Polyphemus in his cave.
The Odyssey: The Making of an Epic has climbed to No. 4 on Peacock’s most-popular movies chart. The behind-the-scenes documentary was released earlier this week, perfectly timed to coincide with the theatrical arrival of Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s legendary tale. The documentary also explores the sheer scale of the production, which filmed across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, and Scotland, and details the lengths Nolan and producer Emma Thomas went to in order to prioritize real locations, practical crowds, and physical sets over using things like a Volume screen.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
‘The Odyssey’ Was Like “Seven Different Ambitious Movies”
“This is such an ambitious film,” Thomas says in the documentary. “It’s sort of like seven different ambitious movies all rolled up into one.” Matt Damon, who stars as Odysseus, recalled Nolan warning him that the production would be much more demanding than he expected. “This is gonna be a hard movie,” Nolan told him.
“Yeah, I know,” Damon replied.
“No, this is gonna be a really hard movie,” Nolan insisted. And Nolan was right, because one of the production base camps actually required a 45-minute hike just to reach the set, while the camera and grip equipment sometimes had to be moved using helicopters or a funicular cableway. Production designer Ruth De Jong said the difficulties were justified by what they added to the finished film.
“As hard as this is to work like this up here, it’s worth it,” De Jong said. “There was no location that was straightforward and easy, but all of those locations made sense for the story. It wouldn’t be the film that it is without going there and doing it for real.”
Tom Holland also recalled walking for roughly 20 minutes through extras, boats, fires, and buildings before even encountering a crew member, admitting that he had “never seen anything on that scale before.”
The documentary also examines Nolan’s decision to shoot the entire movie using IMAX film cameras, something he described as a dream he had held since he was 16, while developing new soundproofing technology to make close-up dialogue scenes possible despite the cameras’ famously loud operation. Safe to say, that decision paid off.
The Odyssey: The Making of an Epic is streaming now on Peacock. The Odyssey is now in theaters.
