45 silver worms in a trenchcoat

He basically made Oppenheimer again lol

Take a shot every time someone says "people from the sea" or "sea people." Your liver will give out during the first half of the movie. At one point, Penelope says it like five times in a single conversation

Nolan basically says that the sea people were the refugees/returning armies of Troy, who plundered the lands because they broke xenia by deceiving the Trojans with the horse and thus are no longer bound to any moral laws. This creates the Bronze Age collapse

During the scene with the Laestrygonians, you see ash constantly falling, which I think is also a reference to volcanic eruptions also being a contributing factor to the Bronze Age collapse

The Trojan war was Agamemnon wanting to control trade in the area, and Helen's kidnapping was an excuse to destroy Troy to do that.

It's never confirmed that Helen was kidnapped or went willingly. We we see that she was disfigured by Menelaus, and he mocks the "face that launched a thousand ships" line. Helen apologizes to Telemachus for the "things that were done in [her] name"

One day, Nolan will figure out how to write women who do things other than just state exposition at the camera.

You see Clytemnestra kill Agamemnon, and she doesn't use an axe :(

None of the Trojans are given names, and Cassandra is missing from Agamemnon's death. Thought it was a little strange, they just kind of ignore that Troy had royalty and stuff. Probably to drive home how war makes you dehumanize others, but they could have, like, mentioned Paris or Priam or someone.

Orestes is mentioned! Menelaus tells Telemachus that he killed Clytemnestra, Telemachus goes "He killed his own mother?!" and Menelaus is like yeah, lol.

Odysseus in the movie is pretty much nothing like Odysseus in the poems. The only thing they have in common is he goes on an Odyssey.

Odysseus breaks through the walls of Troy, and then spends the whole fall of Troy looking sad and traumatized because people are dying.

You never see any Olympians. Zendaya plays Athena, but then it's revealed that she was a Trojan woman who Odysseus saw killed in the temple of Athena in Troy as it was destroyed, and her appearances are a manifestation of his guilt and PTSD that he associates with Athena

Circe and Calypso do have magic powers, though.

Polyphemus is mute the entire time. We don't get the "nobody" scene. Odysseus assumes that he's just a brutish monster, pokes out his eye after he eats some of Odysseus' crew. Polyphemus starts talking to himself in a corner, and Odysseus' men say he said the name "Poseidon," which they take to mean that he is the son of Poseidon who has cursed them.

Odysseus doesn't do the "pretend to be mad to get out of the war" thing. He just tells Penelope that he has to go, and is like "If I don't go then Agamemnon will kill our son :("

Odysseus the least complicated man in the story. It's all very straightforward. He doesn't do any real trickery other than the Trojan horse (which he immediately regrets) and disguise himself when he gets to Ithaca

Nolan does that thing where the gods COULD be real, or it could be coincidental natural disasters. But, like, there is magic and monsters.

Odysseus pets Argus (I like this change) and there's only one maid who gets killed, and she's shown as actively helping the suitors to try and assassinate Telemachus. I liked this change as well.

The movie ends with Odysseus allowing Telemachus to become king of Ithaca, and him sailing west with Penelope, because he promised the shades in Hades that he would travel there to honor the men who died and could not receive proper burials

He talks about how their civilization will collapse, and that all that will remain are songs

I don't know if this is on purpose, but it kind of implies that Odysseus is gonna function as Aeneas? It is a bit of a stretch, but west is Italy, and he talks about a new civilization rising. I think this is very funny if on purpose, given how the ancient Romans felt about Odysseus lmao

Nolan does not deserve such good actors.

I mean full-on khaki-shorts-wearing, traversing-wilderness-with-nothin'-but-a-machete Adrian who yoinks snakes outta trees and pets swamp puppies and will unflinchingly dig around in elephant faeces for signs of a rare parasitic tapeworm if needed.

Oh, humans eat socially? No problem, Adrian has observed many many animals eat. Did you know that an obscure species of small underground dirt creature from the north side of Erid also eats socially? Adrian can give you a not-so-short presentation on them.

Oh, the human has no external carapace and so its internal sounds are absurdly loud, wet and off-putting? No problem, Adrian was just conducting an expedition last month researching the incredible eridian animal, the Wet Loud Worm from the south-east region of Wet Loud Wormland. They're desensitised, it's fine.

Oh, Grace leaks often from many orifices and it can be a bit of a learning curve to get used to? No problem for Adrian, see Wet Loud Worm paragraph again!