With many of us currently unable to leave the house, you have to do what you can to occupy your copious amount of free time, be it taking up baking, learning to play the banjo, starting on that novel you always promised yourself you’d write, or going through every single MCU entry and ascertaining the chronological order of the saga not just by movie, but scene by scene.
The task is not as straightforward as you might imagine, as many of the films have prologues, epilogues and post-credits scenes that aren’t always set in the same time frame as the bulk of the story, and then it must be figured out when these take place in relation to other such scenes. Then there are some installments that take place at similar points in the timeline or have events that run concurrently, along with flashback scenes to take into account that might jump back to when the events of other movies were happening elsewhere.
It was compiled by a Twitter user with the apt handle of Beautiful Internet Weirdo, who crafted a list of the scenes and their timecodes, with additions and updates further down the thread.
Well nerds, I fuckin' did it.
Took me a global pandemic and a damn quarantine, but I did it.
I figured out the precise chronological order of all the MCU movies (so far) BY SCENE.
I'm out of my Goddamn mind. You're welcome. pic.twitter.com/3VXjqk4kjQ
— Bust A Mecond April Second (@tonygoldmark) May 27, 2020
It should be noted that this only features the films of the MCU, and doesn’t include the Netflix or ABC TV shows, which is probably just as well, since the flashback scenes, time travel and relative presents of many characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is enough of an undertaking to straighten out just on its own, never mind in relation to the events of the movies that the show has an increasingly loose association with.
Putting the list together was clearly a mammoth undertaking and it’s impressive he managed to stay on task and finish it. Now all we need is an even more demented fan to put together a 50-hour supercut of the entire Infinity Saga incorporating this scene order. Who’s up for the challenge?