Unleash Your Inner Warrior: 10 Historical Action Epics That Pack the Power of The Odyssey and Will Ignite Your Soul!
Ever wonder what happens when a legendary filmmaker takes on one of literature’s oldest and most epic tales? Christopher Nolan’s latest cinematic voyage, The Odyssey, isn’t just another blockbuster—it’s a $250 million extravaganza that catapults Homer’s ancient poem into Hollywood’s prestige spotlight. In a world saturated with superhero franchises and safe bets, this bold venture feels like a risky yet thrilling return to grand epic storytelling. But beyond the spectacle, Nolan brings his signature depth and complexity to the tale of Ithaca’s wandering king, reminding us why the journey home is often the hardest path to take. So, if you’ve ever found yourself lost in the labyrinth of Netflix queues, craving something monumental and mind-bending, this might just be your next cinematic obsession. Ready to unsheath your metaphorical sword and dive into the world of undoable quests and epic battles? Let’s explore some historical action films that set the gold standard and pair perfectly with Nolan’s masterpiece. LEARN MORE
8 min readCHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S THE Odyssey is upon us, in all its prestige format rollout glory. The significance of a $250 million adaptation of Homer’s epic poem cannot be overstated: this is the first Odyssey blockbuster, and while the story of Ithaca’s king wandering across high seas and strange lands for ten years has influenced plenty of canonized works of literature and beloved media (like Joel and Ethan Coen’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? and, if you squint, Star Trek: Voyager). But ancient historical films of this size and seriousness—basically the definition of the “epic film” genre—have become a rarity in a Hollywood landscape driven by nonoffensive four-quadrant blockbusters, superhero spectacle, and hopeful franchise-starters.
But this is The Odyssey by way of Nolan, a filmmaker so venerated by young cinephiles that he makes Homer look like a guy flogging self-published novels on Amazon. His films—nearly always grand and structurally ambitious—frequently feature difficult journeys back home, great sacrifices made for others, and protagonists conflicted about the path they’re following, making The Odyssey a fitting next chapter after his Oppenheimer Oscar glory.
But while Nolan is correct that “the genre of Greek mythology doesn’t really exist in movies,” there are plenty of historical action films that meet the standard set by the epic genre. We’re recommending ten to follow up The Odyssey, with modern classics sitting alongside underrated bangers. To complement the modern edge that Nolan is bringing to The Odyssey, we’ve chosen films from after the boom of Hollywood studio epics ended in the mid-1960s. So saddle your horse, unsheath your sword, and get ready to make a courageous speech to your loyal warriors—things are about to get epic.
Excalibur (1981)
The best Arthurian legend film is a dazzling spectacle of noble knights, wicked sorcery, and heroes cursed with pride and ambition, an origin myth for Britain that doesn’t skimp on wizards and stenches of death. When Arthur (Nicol Williamson) pulls the sword from its stone, he is instantly launched from squire to prophesied king, and director John Boorman rebounds from a disastrous Exorcist sequel by hurtling through a series of Arthurian myths—Lancelot’s betrayal, the Grailquest, the conspiracies of Morgana (Helen Mirren) and her son Mordred—with the confidence of a filmmaker who just drank from the Holy Grail. Excalibur feels like a turning point for mythic films, combining classic hallmarks (massive sets, tons of armor-wearing extras, heady heroic themes) with a hunger for surreal effects and real darkness. The story of King Arthur is told through the dynamic between decay and vitality, with characters realizing their own mythical significance in real time.
Ran (1985)
Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is frequently named the greatest filmmaker of all time, and this late masterpiece from the man who made Rashomon and Seven Samurai is one of the most spectacular takes on war and madness committed to film. Inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear and legends of daimyo Mōri Motonari, Ran depicts the downfall of warlord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai) after he abdicates, turning his three sons against him in the process. Filled with jaw-dropping sequences and exaggerated emotions, with vibrant costumes juxtaposed with the dark greys of stone and smoke, Ran is a total visual treat, and its striking style compliments the escalating feuds and destructive ambitions that drive the story to tragic ends. Don’t take our word for it—Christopher Nolan named it as a key influence on The Odyssey, taking inspiration from its masterful use of landscapes and elemental forces.
Gladiator (2000)
The success of this Oscar-winning Roman Empire epic, combined with The Lord of the Rings hot on its heels, led to an uptick of historical epics in the 2000s, a couple of which were good enough to earn a space on this list. Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is visceral and tactile, but it finds a spiritual vein in its protagonist, Maximus (Russell Crowe), whose virtuous nature and unyielding faith guide him through his quest to avenge his murdered wife and son (you’ve heard the speech!) from the sand of the Colosseum. Crowe felt unworthy of his Best Actor Oscar, but he is truly terrific here, a controlled leading man who sells the script’s stakes and emotions. If Gladiator plays it fast and loose with Roman history, it does so in order to create the most venerable and idealistic hero for modern audiences—Maximus’ creed of “strength and honor” is strong enough to topple an empire.
Troy (2004)
It was inevitable that there’d be some revived interest in Troy in the run-up to The Odyssey—it’s the only other big-budget adaptation of Homer this century. (Christopher Nolan was actually offered the project, but when director Wolfgang Petersen dropped out of a planned Batman vs. Superman movie for Troy, Nolan jumped to Batman Begins.) Troy drastically changes much of The Iliad, adding in the sacking of Troy, removing all evidence of the gods, and condensing the Trojan War to a single month, but the film delivers its epic ambitions with incredible sets and battles—not to mention an incredible cast of A-listers and thespians, including Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Brian Cox, and Sean Bean as Odysseus. The script by future Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff makes sure to humanize every person in the Greek vs Trojan showdown, especially the kidnapped Helen (Diane Kruger) and the diplomatic Prince Hector (Bana). The vengeful duel between Achilles and Hector is the highlight in a film that demonstrated how much antiquity poetry you could squeeze into a studio blockbuster in 2004 (not very much).
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Forgive us for including another Ridley Scott film on this list, but in our defense, there’s half-dozen other historical epics by Scott that qualify, so this is actually a sign of restraint. Depending on what cut of Kingdom of Heaven you watch, it’s better than Gladiator—the three-hour director’s cut is so superior that it makes the theatrical cut look like a rough draft. It tells the story of Balian (Orlando Bloom) joining his father (Liam Neeson) on his crusade to the Holy Land, where the Christian king (Edward Norton) holds a shaky peace with Ayyubid Sultan Saladin (Ghassan Massoud). Kingdom of Heaven is the closest a modern movie has come to emulating David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, an epic about the folly of religious war and colonial conquest. But the film is also notable for questioning the Islamophobic politics—and the urgent need for diplomatic tolerance—spurred by the War on Terror. Kingdom of Heaven combines the stirring scope of classic cinema with thorny historical skepticism, resulting in the most impressive and robust epic of the 2000s.
Beowulf (2007)
Behold, the PlayStation 3 era has begun! Director Robert Zemeckis’s motion-capture adaptation of the Old English poem is a genuinely bizarre object, combining a thousand-year-old epic about a giant-slaying hero with fluid, janky CG animation. If that weren’t weird enough, Beowulf (Ray Winstone) fights the demonic giant Grendel (Crispin Glover) completely naked—and he’s not the only naked character in the film. Originally written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary in the late ’90s, Zemeckis’s animated vision afforded the film grander action sequences—when he isn’t being tempted off the heroic course by Grendel’s mother (Angelina Jolie), Beowulf violently grapples with sea monsters and dragons. There’s something appealingly strange about Beowulf; it’s a serious revision of an iconic epic poem with distractingly modern technology, although 300 stole some of its thunder treading similar ground a few months earlier.
Red Cliff (2008-2009)
Hong Kong director John Woo took on his first Chinese-language film in 16 years with this two-part, four-and-a-half-hour epic that skimps on none of his trademark virtuosic, kinetic, and explosive action. Inspired by the 14th-century Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, both Red Cliff films focus on the alliance that formed against the powerful warlord Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) and the imperial army he commanded in the early 3rd century. At the center of the film is the relationship between Viceroy Zhuge Liang (Tony Leung) and military strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), two sharp leaders who bond over their mutual ability to outsmart Cao Cao—a sincere “Dudes rock” friendship capable of defeating an overwhelming imperial army. Two Red Cliff movies mean double the climactic battles, and Woo never disappoints—the extended maximalist fighting across land and sea is a guaranteed adrenaline boost, expertly conducted by one of the most formidable action filmmakers around.
Immortals (2011)
Tarsem Singh’s intensely stylized action film combines high and low culture in several ways: classical Greek myths with badass Hollywood violence; Renaissance-era visual composition (his words, not ours) with heavy CG effects. It comes together quite remarkably: Immortals reinvents the story of Theseus (Henry Cavill, pre-Man of Steel) as a peasant spearman chosen by Zeus (Luke Evans) to fight Hyperion (Mickey Rourke), a sadistic king hellbent on releasing imprisoned, monstrous titans. The costume and set design is bold and eye-catching across the board, and while the story of a determined warrior taking on ferocious forces is nothing new, Immortals’s visual style combines physical artistry with digital slickness to portray the sheer power of ancient myth in action. Refreshingly, the film also depicts the gods interacting with mortals—here, Mount Olympus is populated by chiseled, golden superheroes who, simply put, look terrific and kick ass.
The King (2019)
It’s hard to define The King—a gritty historical war film inspired by William Shakespeare’s Henry V, which also dramatized real English history, but with no Shakespearean dialogue and a partially original story. Timothée Chalamet is young Hal, a lazy prince who hates his sickly father (Ben Mendelsohn) and rejects his royal destiny, but when he unexpectedly ascends the throne and begins an inevitable war with France, it’s time for the boy to become a man. What follows is a heap of leadership tests, royal court intrigue, and a medieval battle that rivals Game of Thrones’s Battle of the Bastards in its thundering disorientation. Director David Michod relishes the opportunity to put the almost A-lister in chainmail on a muddy French battlefield, and Chalamet’s morose and arrogant portrayal of a royal heir feels like a dry run for playing Paul Atreides. But The King warrants a watch due to Robert Pattinson’s off-putting performance as the French Dauphin, which kicked off his villain era long before The Odyssey or Dune: Part Three.
The Northman (2022)
Robert Eggers loves when history is grimy and weird, and for his first big-budget film, he made a historical epic the only way he knew how—by adapting a medieval Scandinavian legend that would later inspire Hamlet. You won’t find any of the Bard’s poetry here—this Viking saga of betrayal and vengeance makes the journey to Valhalla as bone-crunching and debasing as possible, turning Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) from prince to berserker warrior to farm slave, all in order to kill Fjölnir (Claes Bang), who killed his father and married his mother (Nicole Kidman). The Northman made headlines for underperforming in theaters (although with Nosferatu and soon Werwulf, it certainly didn’t slow down Eggers’s career) but its earthy and grisly spectacle is a delicious action tangent in his growing filmography. It’s a searing and bleakly spiritual tale of destiny pursuing our hero until he confronts his nemesis—where else?—in an Icelandic volcano.
Rory Doherty is a critic and journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His work can be found at British GQ, Vulture, Inverse, AV Club, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter/X at @roryhasopinions
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