Always "Go" At The Right Time with RunPee

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

When I was in high school, my friends and I had something of a ritual. We’d go to this dingy Chinese food buffet, and then to a movie. It was our standard movie-going evening, and always led to one thing: me, about an hour in to the movie, needing a bathroom break like never before. I’d then have that awful internal battle over when to go to the bathroom, trying to game the movie to only miss the boring parts.

I’ll see that, and raise you another movie conundrum: many filmmaker’s favorite thing to do is to put, at the very end of the movie, after 14 1/2 hours of credits, a 15-second clip that everyone then talks about for six months. And I always miss it.

Here comes the Web to the rescue once again! There is a fantastic Web app that alleviates both of these annoyances, and makes you better at going to the movies. It’s called RunPee.

Runpee is a constantly-updated list of movies in theaters, with the best time to, as the name suggests, "RunPee." The cleverly-designed timeline tells you how far into the movie the optimal point is, how long you’ll have to go pee, and (if you want a spoiler and click "unscramble") exactly what it is you’ll be missing while you’re gone.

Take, for instance, the new film "The Proposal." (Good movie, by the way). A quick look tells you that, about 36 minutes into the movie, right after Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock kiss for the first time, that’s your cue to run to the bathroom. You’ll have about four minutes to spare, and RunPee tells you exactly what you’re going to miss.

Don’t have to go 36 minutes in? No worries – RunPee always comes up with alternatives for you at various points in the movie. It’s actually funny – bad movies tend to have a LOT of possible PeeTimes (as RunPee calls them). Obviously, if it’s a matter of dire emergency, you’re going to want to go when you gotta go. But RunPee’s looking out for you if you can hold out for the boring bits.

You can add your own PeeTime to the site, if you notice a perfect moment. Ironically, it’s a good thing to do while you, ahem, powder your nose.

Now, on to the other problem: those earth-shattering scenes at the end of the credits that I never see, but always wait for at the wrong movies. At the end of a lot of RunPee’s movie timelines is one last dot. Select that dot, and you’ll see if there’s another scene after (or sometimes during) the credits that you want to stick around for.

In "The Hangover", for instance, where there’s a montage of pictures shown during the credits, RunPee tells you that: "There are some photos when the credits start. But after that nothing at the very end."

RunPee’s a site I now check every time I’m going to a movie. Its usefulness is exploding, with a newly-release iPhone app that even lets you figure out what you need to know while you’re sitting in the theater. It’s a good thing, because I’ve found I can’t always know when I’m going to have to pee. Though I’m working on it.

RunPee is a great way to find out what you can afford to miss, and when it’s worth staying through for some epicness at the end.

What other sites make going to movies better?

Photo: JanneM

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