1960s Sci-Fi Classic ‘L’Odyssée’ Inspired Iconic Nolan Film Scene!

Amid discussions of the Cyclops, the horrifying encounter with Circe, or the journey to the Underworld shot under the midnight sun in Iceland, it’s easy to overlook the image of the Trojan Horse emerging from the sea in “The Odyssey”—a strategic reminder of its role as a deadly gift from Poseidon. It’s one of the first and most compelling images from Christopher Nolan’s new film, lingering in the mind long after the movie ends, thanks to the director’s ability to turn the symbol of Ulysses’ deadly stratagem into an iconic visual.

If this image is to be remembered and immediately bring “The Odyssey” to mind in five or ten years, it would be a fitting tribute. Nolan has revealed that he drew inspiration from a scene in a 1960s sci-fi classic now regarded as one of the most famous in cinema history—the Statue of Liberty partially buried in sand at the end of “Planet of the Apes.”

This unforgettable scene, accompanied by a shocking revelation—that the planet dominated by apes, where astronaut Charlton Heston crash-lands, was actually Earth, devastated by humans centuries earlier—serves as a memorable twist. It symbolizes the fear of nuclear war and a potential Third World War, reflecting global anxieties just six years after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Born in 1970, Nolan didn’t catch this film upon its initial release, but it profoundly influenced him, even almost leading him to direct… twenty-two years ago: “I was briefly attached to the direction of ‘Troy,’ produced by Warner based on a screenplay by David Benioff,” the filmmaker recalls to Stepping Through Film. He notes that had this project gone through with him rather than Wolfgang Petersen—who had just seen his “Batman v Superman” project fall through—we might have missed out on his “The Dark Knight” trilogy or films like “Inception.”

We’re fortunate things turned out the way they did, but that’s not the main point here: “In the context of [the Troy project], I had to think about how I wanted to portray the Trojan Horse, and several images came to mind, including the Horse partially buried in sand, about to be swept away by the sea. This specific idea stemmed from being heavily influenced by ‘Planet of the Apes’ as a child, with the half-destroyed Statue of Liberty. My approach was centered around this symbol of the downfall of a monument, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.”

“My approach was centered around this symbol of the downfall of a monument”

“I also had the image of a soldier decapitating a statue. This was very important to me, and I had a very clear idea of how I wanted to film the scene, which is not often the case with me. Usually, what I try to do is create a reality—or a sense of reality—to immerse the actors in, relying on their performances rather than on images… But when an image has lived in your head for so long, you need to find a very specific way to bring it to life.”

“When an image has lived in your head for so long, you need to find a very specific way to bring it to life”

Moreover, its visual qualities and the way it imprints on the retina further anchor “The Odyssey” as a mirror film to “Oppenheimer.” Knowing Nolan’s primary influence, just as the father of the atomic bomb, Ulysses is portrayed as a man whose genius causes chaos and ends the world as he knew it, with the Trojan Horse equating to the massive weapon dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

This theme is also embodied in the finale of “Planet of the Apes,” where the ruins of the Statue of Liberty represent humanity’s destruction by its own hands. This fear seems to permeate Nolan’s recent works, as seen in “Interstellar” with its end-of-the-world vibe and “Tenet” with its nuclear conflict narrative, before “Oppenheimer” and “The Odyssey” drive the point home, using two distinct films and genres (biopic and epic respectively) to discuss the consequences of war and human violence, unafraid to cross points of no return.