“I don’t care how much money I spend tonight. It’s worth it because when else would you get to see Matt Damon shirtless on a screen this huge?”

Journey to The Odyssey

Scenes from the first 2:00 A.M. screening of Christopher Nolan’s 70-mm. epic at New York’s movie mecca: the IMAX at AMC Lincoln Square 13

By Jo Rosenthal

It’s 1:37 A.M. on Friday, July 17, and the line to get into the two A.M. showing of The Odyssey, at New York’s AMC Lincoln Square 13, is so long it’s beginning to look like an epic poem. Tickets for this 70-mm. IMAX screening were purchased weeks, months, and, in some cases, a year in advance.

With the city blanketed in smoke from Canada’s wildfires, those shuffling in to catch Christopher Nolan’s two-hour-52-minute film look less like moviegoers than they do soldiers emerging from the fog after a Homeric battle, armor swapped out for pajama pants. The crowd is mixed: old, young, dating-app date, mother and newborn child.