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This article contains major spoilers for Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey."
Christopher Nolan is at the highest of high points for a director working in Hollywood. Coming off the massive success that was "Oppenheimer," he had the opportunity to pretty much do anything he wanted. So, Nolan decided he had to finally make "The Odyssey" (an adaptation of Homer's epic tale), and as part of this epic journey, he reunited with many collaborators from the past, including Elliot Page.
Nolan previously collaborated with Page on his original 2010 box office smash hit "Inception." This time around, though, Nolan assembled a who's who of Hollywood's A list to bring this epic tale to life, meaning even some huge name actors only had relatively minor roles in the proceedings. As for Page, even though his role wasn't very large, it was pivotal. Speculation ran rampant ahead of the movie's release suggesting that he was playing Achilles, the brave, handsome, and great warrior who fights for Agamemnon's army in the Trojan War. But that's not the case.
Rather, Page plays the Greek warrior Sinon, who is actually the very first person we see on screen in Nolan's latest film. Though the role is relatively minor, Sinon proves to be a hugely important character to the overall story. The controversy surrounding Nolan's "The Odyssey" was just hot air, with certain people online expressing irritation over certain casting choices, including Page, before they even knew who he was playing for sure.
In the end, that hot air amounted to nothing at all. Nevertheless, Page's role in one of the biggest blockbusters of the year is nothing shy of pivotal.
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In the context of Christopher Nolan's retelling of "The Odyssey," Elliot Page's Sinon is hugely important to the story. He is used as a pawn of sorts to convince the Trojans that the Trojan Horse is a true gift, which leads them to taking it inside the walls of Troy. This, in turn, allows Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his men to open the gates of Troy, leading the rest of the Greek army into the city en route to victory.
This all comes around again during the ending of "The Odyssey," which features a big change from Homer's epic. In the original story, Odysseus' return to Ithaca is more of a celebratory climax, putting a button on the hero's journey. In Nolan's movie, though, it's something more somber, as Odysseus was deceitful and broke Zeus' Law in order to end the Trojan War, using Sinon as an unknowing pawn to get the job done.
The betrayal hits Odysseus head-on when he and his men visit Hades and speak to the blind prophet Tiresias (James Remar). This meeting allows Odysseus to confront some of his soldiers who died along the way, including Sinon. He was a boy who grew up in Ithaca and was essentially talked into joining Odysseus on his journey to Troy. A loyal soldier, his trust was violated, which is why Sinon confronts his former leader in Hades over his lies, crushing Odysseus.
The movie's big pay off in the third act, which paints Odysseus as less of an overt hero and more of a complicated figure reckoning with what he'd done, all flows through Sinon. He's the lynchpin of the main idea that Nolan is getting at in his version of the tale.
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Throughout the movie, we hear tales of the so-called People of the Sea, this terrible force that has been making its way across the oceans and the land. It turns out, Odysseus and his men are the real People of the Sea, the idea being that once they violated Zeus' Law, in no small part thanks to what they'd done to Sinon, there was no turning back for them. They blurred the lines between "good" and "bad" pretty heavily.
What's particularly interesting about Sinon, though, is that he doesn't actually appear in Homer's "The Odyssey" or "The Iliad." Rather, Sinon appears in Virgil's "The Aeneid," which is essentially the ancient Roman equivalent of the story. In that version of the tale, Sinon pretends he was abandoned by Odysseus and Greeks and convinces the Trojans that the horse is a gift to Athena. He was a willing participant in the scheme, as opposed to an unwitting pawn who was deceived by his trusted leader.
For all of the online "controversy" ahead of the movie's release, it all amounted to nothing. "The Odyssey" has been ruling the box office and currently ranks as Nolan's best-reviewed film ever. That's in no small part thanks to his unique take on the story, which extends to his inclusion of Sinon. As for Page, he's now standing side-by-side with some of the best actors working today in one of the biggest hits of 2026.
"The "Odyssey" is currently in theaters.
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