Méliès plays Odysseus in the film, which is based on two completely separate scenes from the Odyssey, combining Calypso's island in the Ionian Sea with Polyphemus's cave near Mount Etna in Sicily. The film's special effects are worked with stage machinery, multiple exposures, substitution splices, and dissolves. Polyphemus's eye is puppeteered with two strings, while the giant arm is probably Méliès's own.