Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey Crossed A Line He Never Should Have Touched

Stop playing with that puppy if you haven't watched all of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" — spoilers ahead!

As I write this, my 12-year-old, 12-pound Australian shepherd Lux is asleep on the couch next to me, and if anyone ever so much as looked at her funny, I would go full "John Wick." It's important that you know that my dog isn't just important to me; she is the light of my life. That's why I, like many other pet owners, try to avoid movies and TV shows where I have to watch anything bad happen to a dog. Why would I want to see that? Who would?!? 

Anyway, there's a scene in "The Odyssey" where someone throws a puppy off a cliff.

With the utmost due respect to Christopher Nolan, an Oscar-winning director whose work I immensely admire, why did you do this?! During the scene in question, we're treated to a flashback as Eumaeus (John Leguizamo), loyal swineherd and longtime friend to our hero Odysseus (Matt Damon), tells Odysseus' son Telemachus (Tom Holland) about his long-lost dad and explains how he met his loyal hunting hound Argos. (At this point in the story, Argos, much older, sits at Eumaeus' feet, growling at anyone who's not Odysseus.) I don't really know why this flashback involves a straight-up puppy murder, but it does, and guess what? I don't like it!

As Eumaeus explains to Telemachus how Argos met Odysseus, we see that fateful flashback — and for a reason that is genuinely never explained, Eumaeus takes a puppy from a litter and tosses one off a cliff before Odysseus stops him from doing it again. Thankfully, we don't see ... anything specific here, though we do hear a little "yelp" from the falling puppy. It was my job to see this movie. I really enjoyed this movie, in the grand scheme of things. When this happened, I straight-up almost walked out of the theater and into the night.

We are then, however, treated to a scene where Odysseus holds a tiny puppy in his arm that immediately starts licking his face in a show of affection, and then we see Argos in what I'd estimate his middle age, hunting a boar alongside his master. (The boar ends up attacking them, but to be fair, it's Odysseus' fault; he has a habit of plucking the string of his hunting bow so that the animal hears the noise and it's a "fair" fight, which he explains to Eumaeus as someone stitches up his ankle.) That's how we get to the older version of Argos, who is waiting for his owner to return from war, because he's a very good boy.

We get some more animal cruelty after that, because while Argos begs for scraps in the Ithacan palace led by Odysseus' wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway), two of her odious and slovenly suitors — Corey Hawkins' Polybus and Robert Pattinson's Antinous — kick him! Antinous then carries the poor injured pup outside, plops him on a manure heap, and tells everyone to leave him there. I was, quite honestly, ready to throw hands.

There's one good thing about how Christopher Nolan uses Argos in "The Odyssey" — two, I suppose, if you count the close-up shots of that unbelievably cute puppy. As Eumaeus tells Telemachus, Argos will only truly obey Odysseus, so when the hero returns to Ithaca disguised as a beggar, as he prepares to take his kingdom back and reunite with his family, it's easy to figure out that Argos will probably respond to his lost master.

That's precisely what happens. Because Telemachus was so young when his father went to war, he doesn't recognize this apparent beggar who says he's in cahoots with Odysseus and is there to help him regain his throne. As they approach the palace of Ithaca during the film's third and final act, they see Argos, and in a sequence that did bring tears to my eyes, the dog wags its tail at the mere sight of its owner. (Anyone who's ever loved a dog knows that Nolan absolutely nailed this interaction.) As Odysseus whispers to his dog, Telemachus realizes he's been speaking to the father he never knew this whole time, and he's even more inspired to free his mother of her dog-kicking suitors.

Still, tossing a puppy off a cliff and abusing a senior dog? Those moments are a no from me, Nolan. Please reconsider animal cruelty in the future! Despite this, you should still go and see "The Odyssey," which is in theaters now and earned a glowing review from /Film's chief critic Chris Evangelista.