Saga What is the time scale of The Phantom Menace?

A few questions regarding the time scale of The Phantom Menace...

1) How much time passes between the start of the movie and when the Queen escapes Naboo and gets passed the blockade? (My guess is 6-12 hours)

2) How long do they spend on Tatooine? (My guess is 24-36 hours)

3) How long do they spend on Coruscant? (My guess is around 12 hours)

I assume from arriving back on Naboo, the battle on the plains, the duel of the fates and Qui-Gon’s funeral all happen on the same day, with the celebration parade happening the next day.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

We see at least 2 nights on Tatooine before the Podrace (First night where the group have dinner at the Skywalker's, second when Anakin builds the podracer and Qui-Gon checks his Midi count), and while on Coruscant we see another single night pass.

I'd assume, based on how much focus those transitions get, is that TPM takes place over the course of about 5 days, with Qui-Gon's funeral being on the night of the 4th and the parade on the 5th.

 

Good point. So does all this seem plausible:

Naboo day 1
Meeting with the Trade Federation
Jedi get down to Naboo (morning)
Meeting with the gungans
get to Theed
Rescue the queen and escape (late afternoon)

Up to12 hours is plenty of time for all that.

Tatooine day 1
Arrive (afternoon)
End up in Watto's shop
Anakin takes them home for dinner

Tatooine day 2
Qui-Gon makes bet with Watto
They prepare Anakin's pod
Qui-Gon checks Anakin's blood

Tatooine day 3
Pod race!
They leave (afternoon)

48 hours seems like a reasonable length of time.

Coruscant day 1
Arrive (late morning)
Go to meet council/senate debate
Anakin brought before council (evening time)
Second senate meeting
Final meeting with the council (night)
Depart during the night

12 to 18 hours seems about right for all of this.

Back to Naboo
Arrive (mid morning)
Meet gungans
plan attack
battle on the plains/duel of the fates
Entire battle is over mid to late afternoon
Yoda knights Obi Wan (sunset)
Qui-Gon's funeral

Naboo day 2
Celebration parade

 

Band on the Kessel Run.

 

So here’s a revised timeline...

Naboo day 1
Meeting with the Trade Federation
Jedi get down to Naboo (morning)
Meeting with the gungans
get to Theed
Rescue the queen and escape (late afternoon)

Up to12 hours is plenty of time for all that.

Tatooine day 1
Arrive (afternoon)
End up in Watto's shop
Anakin takes them home for dinner

Tatooine day 2
Qui-Gon makes bet with Watto
They prepare Anakin's pod
Qui-Gon checks Anakin's blood

Tatooine day 3
Pod race!
They leave (afternoon)

48 hours seems like a reasonable length of time.

Coruscant day 1
Arrive (late morning)
Go to meet council/senate debate
Anakin brought before council (evening time)
Second senate meeting (evening)
Final meeting with the council (night)
Depart soon after during the night

12 to 18 hours seems about right for all of this.

Back to Naboo
Arrive (mid morning)
Meet gungans
plan attack
battle on the plains/duel of the fates
Entire battle is over by late afternoon

Naboo day 2
Cleanup and celebrations preparations
The council arrive
Obi-Wan is knighted (sunset)
Qui-Gon’s funeral (night)

Naboo day 3
Celebration parade

 

I used to think that as well, but that's not right. At "dinner", Anakin specifically says that the race is on the following day. Therefore, they're having lunch, not dinner, and the deal with Watto and the construction of the podrace happen in the same day! They spend a single night on Tatooine.
I think the fact that we cut to Coruscant at night, right before dinner, creates the impression that the day is over in Tatooine as well.

 

Interesting that they spend 3 days on Tatooine to pick up Anakin "born of a virgin" Skywalker.

 

A little off topic but here is the time scale for ANH

Tatooine Day 1
Blockade Runner ambushed, droids arrival at Tatooine (mid day) and are captured by Jawas (late evening)

Tatooine Day 2
Imperials investigate escape pod, Owen Lars purchases droods (early morning)
Luke and Threepio discover Artoo is missing (late evening)

Tatooine Day 3
Luke and Threepio search for R2 and are ambushed by Sand People but are rescued by Obi Wan (early morning)
Luke and Co discover sandcrawler destroyed, Luke finds his Aunt and Uncle dead (mid day)
Luke and Co travel to Mos Eisley (late afternoon)

Not sure what the time was when they were on the Death Star

Yavin look like it was maybe mid day and the award ceremony was late in the evening

 

Just my personal impression, but I would say less than a (standard 24-hour Earth) day. Things moved pretty quickly. Han and friends hiding on the Falcon, couldn't have been more than 30 minutes, in the control center discussing, maybe 2 or 3 hours at the most, then on to the cell block, an hour at most, the shootout, no more than a couple of minutes, trash compactor, no more than an hour or two, then shooting their way back to the Falcon and escaping, couldn't have been more than an hour either. Time spent in hyperspace getting to Yavin, unknown.... but possibly a couple of hours or a day.... they had to get some sleep after all. Preparations on Yavin, maybe another day or two; the final battle, 30 minutes maximum. So my guess is the whole movie takes place within a week.
Not sure about TPM, but likely much longer than ANH, meaning at least a few weeks or months.

 

Going by the galactic map, and the distances away from the Core of Naboo and Tatooine (43,000 light years for Tatooine, 34,000 light years for Naboo, and they're most definitely not in a neat line away from each other) they probably had to do 15,000 light years or more - on a malfunctioning hyperdrive. If there is a time skip, that could reasonably be where most of it is.



Possibly it was a case of "heading for the nearest, fastest, major Hyperlane - the Corellian Run - then discovered the malfunction - then limped to Tatooine from near the Run"

 

I always had the impression that the Gungan attack was the day after their arrival, as marked by early morning fog and dew that arises as the Gungans advance. Also always assumed at least one day passed between the battle and the Chancellor’s arrival- remember that there is a galactic election taking place all within the second half of this one movie.

There’s also no indication they spent more than one evening on Tatooine. They have a meal at Shmi’s to pass the time while the sandstorm passes. Could be lunch, could be dinner, and one could assume that it’s dinner, but it seems just as likely that lil Ani was given a half day bc it was Saturday, meaning they return to Watto’s late afternoon and prepare for the pod race early evening. Could conceivably be one day, but could also be two.

 

Day 1: Fall of Theed
Day 2: Tatooine Day 1 (i suppose this *could* be the same day as the Fall of Theed, but most likely isn't)
Day 3: Tatooine Day 2 (Star Wars Episode I Journal: Queen Amidala very clearly confirms that the party are on Tatooine for 3 days)
Day 4: Tatooine Day 3/Boonta Eve Classic
Day 5: Coruscant
Day 6: Return to Naboo
Day 7: Battle of Naboo (Save Naboo! confirms that the battle begins at dawn the next day)
Day 7 or 8: The Funeral (Star Wars Episode I Journal: Queen Amidala arguably says that the Funeral occurs the next day, but it may simply be that the entry is meant to have been written the morning after the funeral)
Day 8 or 9: The Celebration (Star Wars Episode I Journal: Queen Amidala says the Celebration is the day after the Funeral)

 

Interesting about Amidala's journal. I always saw it this way:


Opening - IMO the start of the film to their escape from Naboo was about a day, maybe day and a half. I say this cos I imagine it would've taken some time for Qui Gon and Obi-Wan to travel thru the core to the other side of the planet the way they were.

Tattooine - at first it seems like it's just overnight-and left the next day after getting the parts. Which makes sense. Although I'd acknowledge a day or two could've plausibly passed between certain scenes offscreen.

Coruscant - I think this is the part of the film in which the timeframe was most clear. They had an emergency senate session-which implies it happened a matter of hours after their arrival. Then we see the sunset, and they leave Coruscant at night after the Jedi met with the council for a night session. There'd be no reason to believe here that they were there for more than one day.

Final battle/duel/climax - I also think this all happened in one day. I suppose there could've been a passing of a day or two between them asking for the Gungans help and the beginning of the actual battle, cos it does seem like there was a bit of a pause in the momentum there before we see the Gungans riding out in the fog, blowing the horns and whatnot. Afterall, the Gungan city and Theed are on different parts of the planet, and it would take time for the Gungans to mobilize and all of them to get there. I'd bet they didn't ALL go down thru the planet core that time.

Ending celebration - To me, this doesn't look just like the next day or couple of days. I mean, think about the amount of time planning such an event takes: Ceremonies like that are planned weeks in advance, for many reasons-the most simple being just to announce the date and invite everyone. Not to mention Anakin by this time has had his hair cut, his outfit is that of an official Jedi Padawan, and even his demeanor has changed a bit. To me that is meant to imply that some time had passed. After helping liberate Naboo, the Jedi went back to Coruscant and went about their business, and they've returned for this event-which could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months later.