When the first images of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” surfaced, some of Al Gore’s worst Internet people lost their minds (Elon Musk’s boss among them). They denounced its inaccuracies, even though Homer’s epic poem is not only mythological but also part of an oral tradition in which it was expanded and remodeled over the centuries. Not allowing artistic license when it comes to “The Odyssey” is denying its very essence.

It’s only fitting that Nolan, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “Oppenheimer” and “Inception,” took creative liberties with Homer’s story to trim a 600-page story into a three-hour film and put his own stamp on it. His Odysseus (Matt Damon) is a broken man haunted by visions of the Trojan War who, aided by the guidance of Athena (Zendaya), faces gods, sirens, giants, Scylla and a Cyclops on his 10-year journey home to Ithaca, where his loyal wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and inexperienced son Telemachus (Tom Holland) fend off dozens of suitors, led by the cruel Antinous (Robert Pattinson), vying for her hand and Odysseus’ throne.

Nolan’s adaptation of “The Odyssey” deviates from Homer’s tale in several ways. Here are all the differences between the movie and the book.

[Warning: Spoilers ahead…]

Penelope and Telemachus

One of Nolan’s main changes to Homer’s epic poem has to do with two of its central characters: Odysseus’s wife and son. In the book, Telemachus rebukes his mother on several occasions, even ordering her to go to her chambers to continue weaving after she asks the bard for a “less painful” song, ordering her: “Speech will be the business of men, of all of them, and of me above all; for mine is the power in this house.” His condescension toward his mother surely represents patriarchal attitudes of the time. Nolan reversed their roles in the film, with Penelope frequently berating Telemachus for his immaturity and even proclaiming that, if it was up to her, she would watch suitors “burn” to death. This is a more self-possessed Penelope than we’ve ever seen.

Sinon and Antinous

The character of Sinon, a treacherous Greek soldier (and cousin of Odysseus) who tricks the Trojans into bringing the Trojan horse inside the walls of Troy, is not mentioned in “The Iliad” or “The Odyssey,” but rather in Virgil’s “Aeneid.” Nolan reused the character, played by Elliot Page, in his film, making him a shepherd from Ithaca who took Antinous’s place when he was drafted into the war, and Odysseus tricks him into sacrificing his life so that the Trojan Horse can be brought into Troy. Later, when Odysseus encounters Sinon’s dead soul in Hades, the fallen soldier tasks him with returning a totem to Antinous to remind him of his cowardice. It’s an interesting narrative choice by Nolan that presents Antinous, the most famous of Penelope’s suitors, as even further of a cowardly ass.

Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra

While they are both minor characters in Homer’s poem, Nolan made some changes to the characters. Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra are twin sisters in the movie when they are half-sisters in the book, and it left Helen of Troy with a giant scar on her face as a sign of shame for having launched a thousand ships.

The Laestrygonians

If you’re one of the many people curious whether those heavily armed, sword-wielding giants that Odysseus and his crew face in the “Odyssey” trailer were in the book, well, they’re not. Nolan took considerable creative liberties with the Laestrygonians, a tribe of man-eating giants descended from Poseidon. In Homer’s tale, they devour many of Odysseus’s men and lay waste to 11 of his 12 ships by throwing giant rocks at them. The film sees the Laestrygonians reimagined as gigantic armored knights who trap Odysseus’s men in cages formed by manipulating the forests, destroying two of their three ships in the process.

Phaeacians and Lotus Eaters

Naturally, Nolan had to make some cuts to turn a 600-page book into a 3-hour movie and therefore decided to impede Odysseus and his crew’s time in Scheria with the Phaeacians, known for their impressive ships. In Scheria, Princess Nausicaa guides Odysseus to King Alcinous and Queen Arete, who agree to transport him to Ithaca on one of their powerful ships after he regales them with stories of the Trojan War. Odysseus and his men also land on an island of lotus eaters, where his soldiers consume the lotus and subsequently stop caring about returning home, before Odysseus forces them to return to their ships. This episode is also missing from Nolan’s film. Instead, the filmmaker has Calypso (Charlize Theron) feed Odysseus the lotus flower to make him forget about wanting to return home.

Cyclops

Odysseus’s most ingenious ploy in Homer’s tale involves him and his men escaping the clutches of Polyphemus, the giant Cyclops (and son of Poseidon). First, Odysseus tells the Cyclops that his name is “Nobody,” so when they fill him with wine and then blind him with a sharp stake, he shouts to his worried neighbors who hear his moans of pain: “Nobody is hurting me!” Odysseus and his fellow soldiers then escape from the Cyclops’ cave by holding on to the bottom of the sheep, as the Cyclops rubs the top of his flock as they leave the cave. The “nobody” joke is missing from Nolan’s film, as is the wine game and the sheep-tying tactic; rather, Odysseus and his men escape from the cave after blinding the Cyclops by carrying bushes on their backs.

Sex

Odysseus is a much more conflicted character in Homer’s tale, succumbing to sex with Calypso on her island for seven years and getting the sorceress goddess Circe to free her men from her spell in exchange for him sleeping with her. Nolan has turned Odysseus into a completely loyal man-wife who is imprisoned on Calypso’s island by consuming memory-wiping lotus and turning the tables on Circe (Samantha Morton, extraordinary) when she pulls a sword on her sister, who has been transformed into a raven.

The accents

Every character in Nolan’s film not only has an American accent but does little to adjust their tone of voice. It’s especially jarring in the cases of Benny Safdie’s ruthless warrior Agamemnon, since Safdie doesn’t exactly have the most commanding voice (the film also goes to great lengths to avoid showing Safdie’s face), and Jon Bernthal’s Menelaus, king of Sparta, who sounds just like, well, the cunning Jon Bernthal. Having all the actors adopt a Greek accent would be too much, so perhaps the British accent route, a la “I, Claudius,” would be less distracting.

the gods

While Zendaya’s Athena, who appears primarily to approve (smiles) or disapprove (shakes head) of Odysseus’ actions, Hades, god of the underworld, Calypso, and Circe make appearances in Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” the other gods are notably absent from Nolan’s film. There are no sightings of Zeus, Poseidon, Ino or Heracles, and the herald Hermes, who has a rather important role in Homer’s tale: freeing Odysseus from Calypso. and give him a magical herb to protect him from Circe’s spells, it is nowhere to be found.

The costume

In the second half of Homer’s tale, Odysseus spends a lot of time wandering around Ithaca, engaging with suitors and gathering information on who remains loyal to him while disguised as a wrinkled old beggar, courtesy of Athena. Nolan’s film eliminates the shriveled old man gimmick and instead has Odysseus shield his battered and bruised face with the hood of his cloak.

Ambush

In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Penelope’s suitors, led by Antinous, set a trap for Telemachus, who has set sail to find news of his missing father, waiting on a ship on the island of Asteris and ready to attack. Athena warns Telemachus of the assassination attempt, allowing him to navigate the strait and evade the suitors. Nolan’s film shows Telemachus and his trusted advisor, Mentor (Ryan Hurst), ambushed by suitors at a temple dedicated to Apollo. Mentor dies, but Telemachus narrowly escapes with his life thanks to Odysseus, who lays waste to the suitors dressed as a beggar. Meanwhile, Antinous remained in Ithaca.

Laertes

The most important character omitted from Nolan’s version of “The Odyssey” is Laertes, Odysseus’ elderly father and former king of Ithaca. Laertes, a once-heroic warrior, is the one Penelope is weaving that shroud that she unravels every night, deceiving her suitors. Consumed with grief over his son’s 20-year absence, the same grief that claimed the life of his wife (and Odysseus’s mother), Anticlea, he abandoned the palace at Ithaca and retreated to his farm, withering away as he awaited Odysseus’s return. Odysseus’ reunion with Laertes at the farm is one of the most emotional scenes in the book, as well as a disturbing example of Odysseus’s fetish for gaslighting, as he torments his father by posing as a stranger before revealing his true identity. Thanks to Athena’s powers, Laertes joins Odysseus in battle against the families of the murdered suitors who seek revenge, killing Eupeithes, Antinous’s father.

Kill the suitors

In Nolan’s version of “The Odyssey,” after drawing his bow and shooting an arrow through a line of axes, Odysseus single-handedly confronts the suitors, defeating one after another and suffering near-fatal wounds in the process. Telemachus’s only contribution is to kill Melantius, the traitorous pawn of Ithaca, thus preventing him from continuing to arm the suitors. The slave girls are saved, and after witnessing Odysseus’ bravery, many of the suitors stop fighting and kneel before their rightful king. Homer’s version is a lot is more brutal and features a much more heroic Telemachus, who fights alongside his father against the suitors, and the duo (and two loyal servants, aided by Athena) kill every last one of the bastards. Telemachus and Odysseus then force the slave girls who had slept with the suitors to clean the blood from the floor before being hanged. As for Melantium? His death is the most gruesome of all: first they tie him up and then cut off his ears, nose, hands, feet and genitals. Oh.

The end

Nolan’s film ends with Penelope immediately embracing a gravely wounded Odysseus after his suitors’ battle royale, Telemachus crowned king, and Odysseus and Penelope sailing off into the sunset, having been forced into exile after the vengeful war hero sent so many of Ithaca’s suitors to Hades. Homer’s poem has the wise Penelope test Odysseus by asking him to move his bed. Odysseus tells him that he had carved the bed out of an olive tree and that it cannot move (correct answer!) and the two embrace lovingly. The families of the murdered suitors then gather and swear revenge, confronting Odysseus, Telemachus, Laertes, and the loyal servants, only for Athena to intervene and abruptly stop the fighting.