Seeing The Odyssey? Don't Skip the Water. Time Your Bathroom Break.
The Odyssey runs 172 minutes. That's almost three hours in a dark theater, and since it's the first feature shot entirely on IMAX cameras, a lot of people are going to see it on the biggest screen they can find.
So the internet is full of the same advice: don't drink anything before you go. Skip the giant soda. Hit the restroom right before the movie starts.
It's well-meaning advice. It's also bad advice.
Showing up thirsty isn't a plan
Think about what that actually asks of you. You're about to spend three hours in a theater. You paid for the ticket, maybe drove across town, and the plan is to show up a little dehydrated and stay that way until the credits roll.
That's not a solution. It's a tax on the movie, and it doesn't even work. A trip to the restroom right before the lights go down buys you maybe 90 minutes. The Odyssey is 172.
Your bladder isn't the problem. The problem is that nobody told you which minutes you can afford to miss.
"No slow parts" doesn't mean "nothing you can miss"
A lot of reviews say there's no good time to get up during The Odyssey. That's high praise, and for this movie we think it's earned.
But look at what it actually says. It says the movie never drags. It doesn't say all 172 minutes matter equally, or that there isn't a three-minute stretch anywhere in it you could miss and still follow everything important. Those are two different claims.
A good movie isn't a movie with no gaps. It's a movie that's clearly built: well paced, cleanly edited, easy to step back into. That's why well-made movies tend to have better Peetimes than bad ones, not fewer. The movies that give us trouble are the ones that cut between four groups of characters every 90 seconds, and those are hard to follow whether you leave your seat or not.
So we don't disagree with the reviews. We just have one piece of information they don't.
What RunPee actually does
Somebody sits through the entire movie with a stopwatch.
Not an algorithm. A person, in a theater seat, watching all 172 minutes and marking the stretches where you can step out for three or four minutes without losing the plot. Then they write down two things:
- A cue. Something you can recognize in the dark without staring at your phone. For The Odyssey, the cue to start the Timer is the Universal logo fading out. Start the Timer then, and the app knows exactly where you are for the rest of the movie.
- A synopsis. What happened while you were gone. It's waiting for you when you get back, so you're not the one leaning over to whisper "What did I miss?"
There's one rule behind every Peetime: picture a friend sitting next to you who hasn't seen the movie. Would you tell them it's OK to go now? If the answer is anything short of yes, it's not a Peetime.
Some people have pushed back on one Odyssey Peetime in particular, the one during the giants' attack. Dan explains why it's there in In Defense of the GIANT Peetime.
The Odyssey at a glance
- Runtime: 172 minutes.
- RunPee grade: A.
- Timer cue: the Universal logo fading out. Not your showtime, and not the start of the trailers: the movie itself. The gap between the time on your ticket and the moment the movie actually starts is the most misunderstood part of using RunPee, and it's usually 15 to 20 minutes.
- After the credits: nothing. We checked. The credits run about seven minutes, so once they start you're free to go.
- The Peetimes themselves: how many there are, when they start, and what happens during each one are all in the app.
Get RunPee
RunPee is free on iPhone and Android, with no ads and no subscription. If you'd rather not install anything, the web app at runpee.net/app has the same Peetimes and the same Timer.
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