Went to the theater for The Odyssey and came out with a mystery.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It’s a star-studded project is on track to cross the $1 billion mark according to Variety. This is Greek classic is one of two surviving epics from the mostly missing Epic Cycle, with the others either completely lost to history or only having bits surviving.
The movie raised several discussions and memes, as many movies with high budgets and high audience expectations usually do. Namely discussions about how the movie was marketed to be heavily inspired by the first ever translation of the story by a woman but viewers and the translator herself rightfully felt like the movie fell completely short of historical accuracy and ignored the classicist’s intent in translating it. So much so that the translator’s New York Times review faced so much online traffic, it was virtually impossible to read her scathing review of the movie the first day it was published.
Social Media Responds
Aside from adaptation discussion, what would any media in this day and age be without memes that call back to some scene or gag modified for the “lolz” or to prompt further discussions. In this case, it was the part where an undercover Odysseus shows his expertise with his bow and in turn reveals himself to be the king of his kingdom. This scene was memefied by people using the audio and to the tune of the strumming, reveals something of import—similar to how Odysseus reveal himself. The fact that people can understand the scene well enough to translate it into a meme that doesn’t misconstrue the meaning, gives me some hope to the literacy crisis.
While many netizens interacted with the media through memes, there were those that came to the internet with a mystery. A scent mystery. For the few that had the privilege to watch the 4d version of the movie, they had experienced the movie with moving seats to match scenes with rough terrain and scents released into the air. All of this was done in a bid to immerse the audience into the story. More so than they usually would if they just watch it in a regular screening. So during the storm scene, their seats jostled around to mimic the rough seas. And a particular aroma was wafted into the air leaving viewers abuzz, asking the internet for help in identifying the scent that was released during the sea scene.
What Could It Be
Those in the perfume space were quick to throw candidates. A few that were thrown into the conversation included Sydney Rock Pool from Arquiste Parfumeur and even A Grove by the Sea from the same brand, and Wood Sage and Sea Salt from Jo Malone. The general vibes of the scents were those that leaned heavy on the salt note and were mostly aquatic in nature as to encompass the feel of being at sea.
An Investigation
A Tiktok video released by the company that does the 4d experience, 4DX, saw the interest and did their own investigation. In the video, the scents were in black containers that remind me of the scent cartridges by the Disney affiliated company ScentAir, just bigger so that it can fill a larger space. The canisters but didn’t exactly have any retail information to go on, so the representative took the aroma cartridge to their local Sephora and sniffed for a comparable scent. According to them—and the many others on social media, the most comparable scent was Sailing Day from Maison Margiela’s Replica collection. They also noted that they use the same cartridge for their Moana showings, if that’s of interest to anyone.
For those unfamiliar with the brand Maison Margiela, if you’ve seen the leather tabi shoes that many aspiring fashionable influencers have been raving about in the last five years, or saw the viral photos of Gwendoline Christie’s porcelain doll look, then you’ve seen some of their designs. Besides a luxury clothing brand, they also have a very popular perfume range called Replica, and is their way on interpreting memories into scent. Current popular scents include their leather and smoke heavy Jazz Club, clean girl favorite Lazy Sunday Morning, and much beloved but unfortunately discontinued gourmand Whispers in the Library.
Back to the scent in question—Sailing Day. This scent was released in 2017 alongside patchouli heavy “Music Festival” and gunmetal and rose “Wicked Love”, both discontinued. As the name of the fragrance suggests, the scent is heavily inspired by the sea. Specifically, the “memory of a day on a boat by the ocean” according to the official copy from the brand. Sounds like a good start. The top notes of aldehydes and sea notes really capture the feel of the sea air while the base notes of seaweed keeps the theme of sea travel all the way through. This scent isn’t solely aquatic however, the iris note in the middle in combination with the woods of the base makes it more wearable. The iris in this makes it blend well into skin and creates the allusion of brisk sea air hitting skin.
Sailing Day: Top: Sea notes, aldehyedes, coriander, red pepper. Middle: Juniper, iris, amul salicylate, rose. Base: Seaweed, ambergris, cedar, amberwood.
So that’s the mystery solved. It’s not the exact product, but with the investigation done by the social media team behind the brand in change, this is as close enough. They currently offer the scent in toilette and body product forms but perhaps with the newly found hype due to the movie, they might expand product offerings soon. Fingers crossed.
