Parijat Ghosh 
Christopher Nolan has recently revealed that with his upcoming epic The Odyssey, he and his team shot over 2 million feet of film reel. Yep, you read that right. As if we couldn’t get over Oppenheimer’s cinematic storm in Hollywood, here’s Nolan back to pushing Sci-Fi past any limitations. Let’s talk about this.
What Is Nolan Claiming with The Odyssey?
In an interview published by Empire Magazine, Nolan said:
“We shot over 2 million ft of film.”
He went on to explain that the cast (including the crew playing Odysseus’s ship-mates) were out on real waves, in real places, capturing the raw, brutal beauty of those mythological seas.
So, What Is Really This “2 Million Ft Of The Film”?
Here is some context for you guys:
- The 2 million ft number comes directly from Nolan’s statement in the Empire interview.
- That footage was shot using full-scale IMAX film cameras (65mm / 70mm format) rather than standard 35mm film. The reason this matters: one minute of IMAX film uses a lot more feet of film than minute of 35mm.
- For example: an estimate suggests IMAX ~65mm film might use ~337 ft per minute versus ~90 ft for 35mm. That gives a ballpark of “around 100 hours of raw footage” for 2 million ft.
- Other huge productions have shot more raw footage in digital or other formats, though (e.g., 480–500 hours for some recent big films). So 100 hours is massive — but not entirely off-the-charts.
Why Is This A Big Deal In Cinema?
Because Nolan isn’t just saying “we shot a lot” — he’s committed to using real film, real locations, and big scale cameras.
He told the team to go out onto the sea, deal with natural elements, and use the physical world as an obstacle. That kind of authenticity means more footage, more takes, more “stuff that happens for real”.
Also: This is reportedly the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX film (rather than digital) — meaning the format demands more film footage for the same runtime.
What Do We Need To Keep In Mind?
-Nolan’s number is what he said — we don’t have independently verified “raw footage logs” yet. -“2 million feet of film” doesn’t directly tell us the final running length of the movie; much of that footage will be cut, edited, and truncated.
-Because IMAX film uses more physical feet per minute than regular formats, “2 million feet” is not as absurd as it sounds once you understand the format. -Comparing to digital workflows is tricky: raw footage hours don’t always translate to “bigger movie”, they translate to “more options in the edit”.
So, yep — Nolan’s claim that his team shot over 2 million ft of film for The Odyssey stands up. It reflects his ambition to make a grand, physical, large-format epic. Whether that translates into “the movie of the year” is another story. But, as a fan of film and spectacle, this definitely has my attention.
If you have any questions or need more updates on The Odyssey, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe, and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
