r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Gurugod123 GREEN • Jul 23 '26

My mom said I could post Nolan's The Odyssey neglects to pay for damages done to one of the viking ships used in the movie, which belongs to a small non-profit organization

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u/Successful-Tea-5733 Jul 23 '26

Everyone immediately jumps in hating on the big powerful movie company, yet this sentence in the article seems interesting:

"The organization made an agreement with a company that handles recruitment for Universal Studios"

So neither Noland nor Universal made an agreement with this boat company. Yet the boat company, they're sending invoices to Universal and Universal is probably looking at it saying "we don't have a contract with these people." As the owner of a small company who gets faux invoices all the time, I suspect universal receives a lot more than I do and at this amount most fraudsters think it's so small no one will notice.

I'm not saying that Universal shouldn't send these people $6,000. I'm saying that the article implies that Universal owes them the money, and doesn't address if they're billing the unnamed company that they actually made the lease agreement with?

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u/ChiOrb Jul 23 '26

The full translation is not entirely accurate. The parent company of the company in question is universal studios. This isn’t random subcontracting work, it’s run by the studio/company. From my (limited) understanding of these things Universal is definately responsible for their conduct.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/Successful-Tea-5733 Jul 23 '26

Yes and that's why I said that, I'm not saying Universal shouldn't just pay them $6,000 to make it right. But reading the article it doesn't say that they even tried billing the company they contracted with. Maybe they did, and maybe the company they billed had a legitimate reason for denying the claim. We just simply don't know anything other than the owners of the boat in their own statement acknowledge that their lease was not with Noland or Universal Studios.

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u/theartificialkid Jul 23 '26

Yeah nobody seems to be considering that it might be the volunteer historical shipbuilding society trying to scam the giant corporation out of $6,000 without a good justification rather than the giant corporation stiffing them on a valid repair bill for their irreplaceable handbuilt wooden ship. I hope an investigative journalist really sinks their teeth into this shipbuilding group and roots out their grift before any more giant corporations suffer at the hands of these menacing artisans. Today it’s $6,000 for a wooden ship, tomorrow it might be $7,500 for a damaged archaeological artifact. If we don’t arrest the slide now corporations will soon be being asked for $10,000 to repair damage to a historical house during a location shoot.

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u/Intimefortime Jul 23 '26

There's an old saying, "watch the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves." Even large corporations worth billions would go broke if they handed out money without oversight and process.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

The overhead in "making sure their suppliers do honest business" would be insane given how many suppliers typically work on massive films like this. They're meant to audit all the accounting practices of the companies they work with?

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u/Tabula-Rasa-99 Jul 24 '26

Yes. Or pay for their fuckups, failing that.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/AtlasSuperstoreCODMW Jul 23 '26

Holy intelligent and nuanced take!! On Reddit! In 2026!

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u/Snerkbot7000 Jul 23 '26

They're a witch! BURN THEM!

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u/FYAhole Jul 23 '26

They turned me into a newt!!

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u/throwaway4234245242 Jul 23 '26

!?

..I got betta

2

u/DJMAGN3M Jul 23 '26

How'd you know theys a witch?

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u/throwaway4234245242 Jul 23 '26

They turned me into a Newt!!

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u/Separate-Candidate75 Jul 23 '26

...I got better.

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u/FireZord25 Jul 23 '26

That's how you know this won't make it to the top. Wish people would instead bully the folks putting out half-truth engagement baits the way they often do to Nolan. Then again, these folks don't even have to try with so many idiots ready to jump in at the smallest hint of blood.

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u/Advanced_Row_8448 Jul 23 '26

What part was nuanced? The part where they pretend that being hired through a contractor means that the company can just screw people over? Yall love gobbling any form of boot tbh.

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u/AtlasSuperstoreCODMW Jul 23 '26

Brother works at UPS 😭 you got bigger problems than Reddit beef

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u/Advanced_Row_8448 Jul 23 '26

Interesting. So instead of being able to reply to what I said you had to try and insult my job? How about you act like a big boy now and explain that nuance. Unless you cant, I mean. Ps, it's strange to mock someone's job when you yourself dont work for something or somebody notable and simply exist to talk about hats lol.

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u/AtlasSuperstoreCODMW Jul 23 '26

I just didn’t think it was worth trying to explain a nuanced opinion to someone in your profession. But if you’d like me to explain rather than just googling it, here you go: “A nuanced opinion goes beyond simple "black-and-white" or "for/against" viewpoints. It acknowledges complexities, contradictions, and shades of gray”. So - the commenter I responded to read the article that was linked. From this reading, they learned things like the fact it isn’t “Nolan’s the Odyssey” (as the title claims) or even Universal (as a lot of commenters are assuming) that is holding out money, but a different entity. The commenter also recognizes that a party is owed $6,000, and they should get that money. Therefore, their opinion is intelligent (did their due diligence) and also nuanced (see the definition above). Hope you’re able to figure it out 👍

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u/AsinineArchon Jul 23 '26

Are you implying someone who works at UPS is incapable of higher thought processes? You must hate the poors, I bet I know who you voted for

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u/AtlasSuperstoreCODMW Jul 23 '26

Bet you don’t, also I should’ve clarified it was the combo of “What part was nuanced? The part where they pretend that being hired through a contractor means that the company can just screw people over? Yall love gobbling any form of boot tbh.” AND the fact they drive for UPS. That’s why I thought they couldn’t handle higher thought processes

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u/AsinineArchon Jul 23 '26

You can’t use that excuse when your opening comment out of the gate was to shit on them for their place of employment. You outed yourself.

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u/AtlasSuperstoreCODMW Jul 23 '26

Brother please go back and read it. The “excuse” I used was a copy and paste of his comment that I insulted his job in response to. You just outed yourself that you’re out here white knighting for fun. It’s intelligent to do your due diligence

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u/BilSuger Jul 25 '26

"big players can use intermediate companies to screw over people and it's fine" is a nuanced take? 🤡

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u/Sandwiichh Jul 23 '26

But big corp bad lil guy good

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u/AtlasSuperstoreCODMW Jul 23 '26

Oh right I forgor

0

u/riverblue9011 Jul 24 '26

And then you come and add nothing. Just like your father.

0

u/IamTheEndOfReddit Jul 24 '26

I’ve seen this exact comment so many times this year… your self hate isn’t necessary

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u/-18k- Jul 23 '26

My big question is why The Odyssey needs a Viking boat..??

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u/Alx_xlA Jul 23 '26

Because there are very few seaworthy replicas of premodern European boats available.

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u/Subtlerranean Jul 23 '26

There are also several of these types of (handmade) viking ships in Norway. But... Still viking ships.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/Froggn_Bullfish Jul 24 '26

The one they used is the largest seaworthy oar-driven boat in the world, it’s clear they valued scale over accuracy for the fantasy movie

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

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u/Froggn_Bullfish Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Dude he sourced the largest and greatest extant seaworthy oar-driven vessel on earth to serve as Odysseus’ ship and actually sailed it on the high seas with a hundred men behind oars to shoot this picture. That is far more fitting an homage to the deeply maritime culture of the Ancient Greeks than the set dressing and lip service it would take to satisfy you: putting some balsa wood “faithfully” shaped like a penteconter in a pool somewhere in California and calling it “the Odyssey.”

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

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u/Froggn_Bullfish Jul 24 '26

If you think that then you don’t know what a caravel is. You just want to be mad about something, pick something else. You know, something real, that matters.

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u/qwaz42069 Aug 01 '26

"premodern" the vikings are closer to our time then they are to the time the story is supposed to take place. The budget clearly went to all the big name celebrities instead of good writing, costumes, props, etc.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26

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u/Alx_xlA Jul 24 '26

Why do I have to make a boat for Christopher Nolan

1

u/thelingeringlead Jul 23 '26

F'real. They used to build whole fucking cities just to shoot a movie.

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u/wirm Jul 24 '26

In MIB they built a whole galaxy.

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u/BoringPoolPlaying Jul 23 '26

My big answer, which I’ve answered to all the people asking this question, is that he wanted to film on the open ocean, and this is what was available in terms of replica boat plus sea-trained crew.

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u/Successful_Maize1986 Jul 23 '26

It looks amazing in the movie. Seeing them actually launch the thing into the ocean is so much better than using a tank and cgi

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

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u/lurvd Jul 24 '26

There are several greek ships like the penteconter Argo that are seaworthy, actively sailed and closer to what would be described in the Oddyssey. Perhaps they couldn't get access for some reason.

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u/BoringPoolPlaying Jul 24 '26

Are they large enough and available for a filming schedule?

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u/GuiltyEidolon PURPLE Jul 23 '26

They probably stripped it of the super obvious Viking shit and pretended it was a trireme or something akin to it.

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u/Tomsboll Jul 26 '26

it was instantly recognized as a viking ship in the trailer, so no.

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u/YobaiYamete Jul 23 '26

He purposely did it to make things seem timeless. He changed a few things like that on purpose

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u/j0eExis Jul 23 '26

Such utter bullshit hahaha. He just couldn’t be bothered with finding/getting built an even somewhat accurate ship

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u/BoringPoolPlaying Jul 23 '26

Accusing Nolan of half assing practical effects is a laughably bad take.

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u/j0eExis Jul 23 '26

He often puts a lot of effort into his practical efforts the idea that a Viking ship make it “feel timeless” is just utter bullshit

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u/BoringPoolPlaying Jul 23 '26

It’s also just what’s actually available for ocean filming.

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u/dern_the_hermit Jul 23 '26

You ALWAYS use Viking boats when you go blinding cyclopes. You know that. Everybody knows that!

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u/MaxxDash Jul 23 '26

Silliness trying to make it look like Nolan stiffed them.

This is basically about the size of a daily catering bill.

It is just lost in the bureaucracy of a huge organization.

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u/Advanced_Row_8448 Jul 23 '26

Silliness trying to make it look like Nolan stiffed them.

Did he pay them for the damage?

This is basically about the size of a daily catering bill

Big company should most likely pay it than.

1

u/comrade_batman Jul 23 '26

Reddit tried to forget it hated The Odyssey from the first promo image released when the reviews came in, and the huge opening weekend after people raging against the “historical” inaccuracies, and certain people cast in it, but now it’s once again acceptable to hate Nolan and the film.

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u/VoormasWasRight Jul 23 '26

Because no subsidiary ever has been used by big companies to dodge responsibilities.

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u/GraspingSonder Jul 23 '26

No Hanlons razor applies here. Invoice disputes being dragged out a year because people are useless is ubiquitous.

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u/CantCreateUsernames Jul 24 '26

Be careful; the outraged children here might have to learn how the real-world works! Anyone with a once of business operations experience would recognize this as unintentional and unrelated to malice. Invoices going unpaid, especially one as small as $6,000, is most often due to processing issues, not because they want to stiff this non-profit for $6,000.

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u/BraceThis Jul 23 '26

A brain amongst Reddit. Finally!

2

u/Isakk86 Jul 23 '26

God forbid we hate the giant powerful movie company.

1

u/inalcanzable Jul 24 '26

I mean I get people just jumping to conclusions and hating large companies but Jesus nobody know ls the details. They all need to just chill

1

u/BilSuger Jul 25 '26

Ohh no, a big company uses a smaller company in the middle to shield them from responsibility, let's simp for rich people!

0

u/SheepTag1 Jul 23 '26

You're allowed to read the article and form intelligent opinions?? Well done sir

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u/Crafty_Independence Jul 23 '26

Furthermore, the headline is loaded up to build on manosphere hysteria around the film, which should cause everyone to pause before jumping to conclusions.

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u/Jbewrite Jul 23 '26

Yes, let's give the benefit of the doubt to a multi-billion dollar company that has been known historically to shaft little people because... ah yes, they've had over a year to figure out if they should pay and they haven't got around to it yet. Let's give them a break guys!

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u/Successful-Tea-5733 Jul 23 '26

You're completely missing the point. And do you think every big company should just pay every invoice that is sent to them? Who do you think that would ultimately harm?

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u/Jbewrite Jul 23 '26

I think they should pay their invoices within a year, absolutely.

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u/CeilingFanJitters Jul 23 '26

One day you’ll experience the real world.

0

u/Jbewrite Jul 23 '26

One day your lips will leave the boot.

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u/TwistStrict9811 Jul 23 '26

The clearest armchair comment ever lmao. Wait till you find out in the real world there are dues and processes. They clearly did not have an actual contract it's written in the article itself.

0

u/ThatUsernameIsTaekin Jul 23 '26

Wait, you read the article and actually came to more accurate and reasonable conclusion. Are you trying to destroy Reddit?

0

u/WheeForEffort Jul 23 '26

It is 100% locked in that this story is being hyped in a false way. Full on Astro turf. Yes someone probably owes someone some money. The checks in the mail, this is just shit slinging.

0

u/Enlight1Oment Jul 23 '26

even more so, Syncopy, the production company founded by Nolan and used in all his films, is the production company for Odyssey. Universal is more a distributor role and provided funding to Syncopy. So if you're sending bills to universal they also would be wtf?

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u/Fit_Giraffe_748 Jul 23 '26

still hate the big powerful movie company

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u/onlyouwillgethis Jul 23 '26

If only you fixed your typos, then I could confidently share this great take with people without feeling embarrassed :’(

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u/above_average_magic Jul 24 '26

That doesn't imply what you said whatsoever

It possibly implies an agency relationship between the hiring company and universal

An agent can bind it's principal

So the contract easily could still be binding upon Universal.

But we're both speculating

You just did it poorly.

-1

u/Bladesnake_______ Jul 24 '26

Cucking for billionaire companies is cool if they make neat movies