SALT LAKE CITY — I don’t know how I’ll survive.
Starting Tuesday morning, I will be taking part in the 59-hour, 22-film Marvel movie marathon at the Megaplex Theatres. That’s right. All 22 Marvel Cinematic Universe films back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back, including “Avengers: Endgame."
And I plan to leave with full power rankings of all the Marvel Cinematic films.
Details: The marathon begins with “Iron Man” (2008) at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning and conclude after the end of “Endgame” at about 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Survival: Finishing the marathon is, well, a marathon, not a sprint. Nearly 60 hours in a marathon? Good luck.
- Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos offered some tips for surviving the 60-hour marathon. Bringing a toothbrush and deodorant can be key, especially since there aren’t showers at the theaters. Hoodies and comfortable clothes are important, too. And make sure to build friendships with nearby moviegoers so you can keep your stuff protected. And developing a schedule of which movies to sleep through is a good idea, too.
Schedule: The schedule looks pretty daunting. But I already see some areas where I could fall asleep.
- For example, I might try to sleep after “The Avengers,” so I’ll miss “Iron Man 3” and “Thor: The Dark World” — which run from 12:05 a.m. to about 4:35 a.m. on Wednesday.
- The second day seems rough. I haven’t seen the two “Guardians of the Galaxy” films in a while, and both of them air that day. I could potentially grab a post-lunch nap during “Ant-Man” around 1:36 p.m., but then I risk missing “Captain America: Civil War” at 3:45 p.m. if I sleep too long.
- Wednesday night is my biggest worry. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” runs at 9:25 p.m. and “Thor: Ragnarok” runs at 2:25 a.m., followed by “Black Panther” at 4:50 a.m. Maybe I’ll try to nap during the day and then stay awake at night.
- The third day, Thursday, requires me to stay up. “Infinity War” kicks off the day so I’ll hopefully be awake for that. It’d be great to catch “Ant-Man and The Wasp” and “Captain Marvel” in the afternoon, but I guess that doesn’t matter.
- Thankfully our dinner break happens at 4 p.m., which gives us an hour before “Avengers: Endgame” at 5 p.m. I need to be awake for that one. Send prayers.
Anyway, I don’t really know what’s going to happen during this marathon. I may not get any sleep. I may sleep too much. But I plan on eating copious amounts of popcorn and drinking gallons of soda.
Rankings: By the end of the marathon, I really want to have solidified my power rankings. I've seen all the Marvel films, but it has been hard to rank them definitively.
Here are my current rankings with the Rotten Tomatoes score right next to them for context. I hope to see these numbers change once the marathon is over.
- "Iron Man" (93%)
- "Avengers: Infinity War" (85%)
- "Thor: Ragnarok" (92%)
- "Black Panther" (97%)
- "Captain America: Civil War" (91%)
- "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (84%)
- "Marvel's The Avengers" (92%)
- "Guardians of the Galaxy" (91%)
- "Captain Marvel" (78%)
- "Thor" (77%)
- "Iron Man 2"(73%)
- "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (90%)
- "Doctor Strange" (89%)
- "Ant-Man" (82%)
- "Thor: The Dark World" (67%)
- "Ant-Man and the Wasp"(88%)
- "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (75%)
- "Captain America: The First Avenger" (80%)
- "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (92%)
- "Iron Man 3" (79%)
- "The Incredible Hulk"(67%)
Updates: I will be updating my progress on Twitter with the hashtag #HerbScribnerEndgame and on DeseretNews.com, so keep an eye out for that. I will try to share my reviews and thoughts about each of the films as I watch them during the hour-long breaks. Of course, I’ll be wicked tired, so who knows what I’ll be writing.
So, please feel free to follow me on Twitter for updates and here at Deseret News.