As Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey is dominating the box office, many are comparing it to the director's previous film, Oppenheimer. Because they were made back-to-back, it’s a natural comparison, and there certainly is a thematic connection. Oppenheimer, like The Odyssey, is the story of a man grappling with the choices he made during the fog of war that led to devastating consequences. However, at least in terms of the way Nolan tells The Odyssey, his most similar film is one of the most overlooked entries in his filmography, and one which also tells the tale of a legendary hero.

While this early Nolan movie is often overshadowed by what came after it, in hindsight, the Oscar-winning filmmaker developed some of his most potent and unique storytelling techniques while working on the project. It just took a couple of decades for those skills to fully crystallize into what we see in The Odyssey.

Released in 2005, Batman Begins tells the origin story of Batman (Christian Bale). It covers the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents when he’s a young boy, his return to Gotham City after college, his years abroad learning different fighting styles, and his training with the League of Shadows, a mysterious army of warriors that sees itself as a check on societal excess.

The League of Shadows, however, is a lethal organization, while Batman's whole thing is that he doesn't kill. So Bruce rebels against the organization and returns to Gotham to implement real change by ridding the city of the same criminal element that claimed his parents. Eventually, he decides the best means to accomplish that goal is to strike fear into the hearts of Gotham’s criminals, so he adopts the persona of Batman.

All of that is conveyed in the film’s first hour. After that, Nolan chronicles Batman’s first major challenge, a plot by the League of Shadows to take down Gotham.

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