“Avengers, assemble!”
Over the past decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown into a sprawling timeline of overlapping plots, leaving fans to sort out when each major event actually takes place.
Marvel and Disney both have their official timelines, but Tony Goldmark, host of the Escape from Vault Disney podcast, decided a drastically more thorough scene-by-scene chronology was in order.
It all starts with Thor: The Dark World’s Lord of the Rings-style prologue, which depicts a battle thousands of years before the movie proper begins.
The timeline continues with a brief scene from a somewhat less ancient battle also in Thor’s realm between the Valkyries and Hela.
Next up, the intro to Black Panther shows the origin of Wakanda and the first person to wear the Black Panther mantle.
From here on, the time jumps get much less dramatic, beginning with a flashback to pre-Super-Soldier Steve Rogers.
Now, you can take a break from switching movies for a while and watch most of Captain America: The First Avenger, which takes place during World War II.
Next, a short, jaunty road trip breaks up the war and drama in a flashback to 1980 with Kurt Russell as Ego.
The next flashback is a mix of action and heartbreak, with the final adventure of the original Ant-Man and Wasp.
Another rough childhood scene follows, with a young Peter Quill saying goodbye to his mother, shortly before being abducted by a mysterious spaceship.
A flashback to Thanos taking Gamora with him before slaughtering the rest of her people rounds out three tragic backstories in a row.
Of course, that’s just the beginning. If watching the MCU series one scene at a time hasn’t made you want to give up on movies altogether yet, there are still more than 100 steps to go.