Marvel Cinematic Universe Timeline

The Snap: When Exactly?

In this chapter I'd like to try and narrow down the exact moment of the Snap. In the films we see it happen in four different scenes:

- A:IW at ground zero in Wakanda, which is canonically located between Uganda and Kenya (as seen in the chapter about CA:CW)

- A:IW's after-credits scene when Nick and Maria are in an undisclosed US city (maybe NYC)

- AM&TW's mid-credits scene on a rooftop in San Francisco, CA

- A:E's opening scene on Barton farm somewhere in the USA (maybe Iowa)

Unless the Snap works on a delay, which given it affected an entire universe would be impossible to calculate, all of these scenes occurred within the same handful of minutes. Also, I've already established that the Snap must take place in the fall months of the Northern Hemisphere. Now.

There is a three-hour time difference between San Francisco and New York City, but a seven-hour difference between NYC and Nairobi, which I will use as a stand-in for Wakanda's capital. Since it is broad daylight in the AM&TW scene, and the Bartons are just sitting down to what appears to be their midday meal, the Snap we see in Wakanda must take place in the late afternoon of that time zone.

As stated in a previous chapter, the Avengers arrive in Wakanda just after daybreak; let's guess 6am since there are mountains obscuring the sunlight anyway. This makes it 11pm in NYC and 8pm in San Francisco.

Now let's say in the A:E scene at Barton farm it is the traditional lunch hour of 12pm, and let's assume them to be 1hr behind NYC. This means it is 8pm in Wakanda and the Avengers have been battling Thanos most of the day.

Un-hecking-fortunately, that creates a conflict. Sunset in that part of Africa is always around 6pm. Since the A:IW battle does not appear to end at sunset we should move the Snap back at least an hour to 5pm. This means the Bartons are having hot dogs for breakfast at 9am, which, like, okay I can see Clint's family doing that, why not? This means the other Snap scenes taking place in the US occur in the early morning as well with the San Francisco scene occurring around 6am.

Though it is purely symbolic and takes place on another planet, the last scene of A:IW is Thanos enjoying a sunset. It is fair to interpret this as the story's "day" ending.

Conclusion: The Snap occurred at approx. 5:00pm/1600 UTC in Wakanda.*

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*I have little confidence in my understanding of how time is measured anymore.