The RunPee iPhone app has user-suggested break times for some of the films that opened this weekend.

In the long-distant past — late December, 2003 — I went to see “Return of the King” with a colleague. We headed straight to the theater from work, and she downed one of those industrial-size movie theater drinks during the previews.

When the trailers had just ended, in those few frames of darkness at the beginning of the first reel, she leaned over and whispered, “Is it safe to go pee?” I’d already sat through the movie’s 201-minute runtime twice, so I knew we weren’t looking at the start of another trailer. It made me wince to have to say, “No, this is the movie,” and I spent the next three-plus hours wondering whether I was about to witness a death scene reminiscent of Tycho Brahe’s.*

If only RunPee.com had been a thing. I could have relied on someone with more presence of mind than myself to note which exact moments in the movie would be the best ones to make a mad dash out of Middle-earth and into the lobby.

I heard about RunPee.com from Wired’s GeekDad blog earlier this summer, but I didn’t actually use it as a reference until yesterday. I hate ducking out in the middle of a film, so I usually plan well in advance and ration my beverages carefully. But last night, I went to dinner with a group of friends before seeing “District 9,” and drink specials were involved.

Once we got to the theater, before the trailers started, I downloaded the RunPee iPhone app and instantly had mostly non-spoilery descriptions of three moments that might be good for a break, plus more-spoilery synopses of what happens in the few minutes thereafter. I also took a look at the RunPee recommendations for “Ponyo,” which I’d seen the night before, and noted that the recommended times — which are user-submitted — matched up nicely with what I’d have suggested.

The GeekDads have talked about RunPee in the context of taking kids to the movies, but with the number of films that are running close to or beyond three hours, it’s a handy tool for grown-up geeks, too. Just don’t light up your iPhone screen in the middle of a crowded theater while the movie’s playing.

See inside some long movies at HowStuffWorks.com:
Inside “Watchmen”
Inside “The Dark Knight”
Inside “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”

* Yes, I know the going theory is that Brahe didn’t die of a ruptured bladder … but I learned it the old way pre-mercury poisoning discoveries, and it just makes such a better story.