Sorry, 'Avengers: Endgame' Has No Downtime For Bathroom Breaks

If you were hoping the lengthy Avengers: Endgame would give you an intermission, or at least some downtime to pop off to the bathroom, I'm here to dash those hopes. According to Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige, the three-hour-plus superhero epic will not afford you the luxury of hitting up the lavatory once the flick has started. So maybe consider getting a small soda when you go to see it.

Are you prone to frequent trips to the bathroom while you watch movies? If so, please don't sit in front of me, because that's distracting. Also: you might want to skip Avengers: Endgame. According to Kevin Feige, if you run to the bathroom while the movie is running, you're going to miss something. This might not be a problem with a standard-length movie, but Endgame is long. Like, really long. There's no official running time yet, but directors the Russo Brothers have confirmed the rumors of the three hour-plus runtime are pretty close.

Some had hoped that the film might feature an intermission, but that's not happening. So what about a lull in the action and plotting? Surely there has to be a moment like that to take advantage of! Not so, says Feige. "What I've always said is a movie is as long as it should be," the Marvel Studios president said (via io9). And we are not fans of overindulging movies. We are not fans of laborious lengths for no reason." Whatever you say, Kev.

Feige continued:

"We are fans of movies that you wish didn't end. Movies that you want to see again as soon as it's over. And movies that you just don't ever find a good time to run out to the bathroom. That's when a movie's working. And if a movie doesn't feel like that to us we continue to trim, we continue to shape, we continue to bring that time down. That happened to a certain extent on this movie. But we got to a point where it feels very exciting and goes by very quickly and in the end is the perfect length."

Here's what I'll say about long movies: it's all about the pacing. A well-paced long movie can feel as if it's flying by, so much so that you never even notice the length. Great examples of this include David Fincher's Zodiac, Oliver Stone's JFK, and pretty much every movie Martin Scorsese has ever made. If you can nail down the pacing, your long movie will never overstay its welcome.

However, if you blow it, and have a poorly paced film, a long movie can seem even longer. If Endgame ends up having terrible pacing, you will likely feel every single minute of its gargantuan runtime. But if the Russo Brothers (working with editors Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt) keep things moving, you'll be fine. Unless you really have to go to the bathroom. Then you're screwed.