Jumanji recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 1995 · Film

Jumanji recap

In 1969, twelve-year-old Alan Parrish finds a drum-beating board game buried at a construction site in Brantford, New Hampshire. Playing with his friend Sarah Whittle, he rolls and is sucked into the game, and Sarah flees from a swarm of bats. In 1995, orphaned siblings Judy and Peter Shepherd move into the empty Parrish house with their aunt and find the game in the attic. Their rolls bring mosquitoes and monkeys, and a lion and a grown Alan, played by Robin Williams, who has spent 26 years in the jungle. Learning his parents are dead, Alan realises the game must be finished, so he tracks down a traumatised Sarah and the four keep playing. Each turn brings something worse: a stampede through town, a flood, giant vines, a monsoon and Van Pelt, the hunter who has stalked Alan inside the game and now chases him with an elephant gun.

How Jumanji ends

With Van Pelt aiming at him, Alan stands his ground, the board is completed and Alan shouts "Jumanji", which pulls every creature back into the game. Alan and Sarah return to 1969 as children, with full memories, and Alan reconciles with his father. They throw the game in a river. In 1995 the grown Alan and Sarah, now married, meet Judy and Peter and their parents and stop the trip that would have killed them. The final shot shows the game washed up on a French beach as two girls hear its drums.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 02 · 1996 · Series · optional

Jumanji: The Animated Series recap

Judy and Peter Shepherd find the Jumanji board game in their new house. Instead of the game coming out into the real world, each roll gives them a riddle-like clue and pulls them into the jungle, and they can only leave once they solve it. Inside they meet Alan Parrish, trapped since he was a boy because he never saw his own clue, and freeing him becomes their goal. Across three seasons and 40 episodes, from 1996 to 1999, they face a cast of recurring threats: the big-game hunter Van Pelt, the crooked merchant Trader Slick, the robotic mad scientist Professor Ibsen, the pirate Captain Squint, the ape-like Judge, the wizard Flint, the Jamazon huntresses and the Lion that keeps chasing Alan. Peter often cheats and gets turned into an animal as punishment. Along the way they also free the Master of Jumanji.

How Jumanji: The Animated Series ends

In the final episode, "Goodbye Jumanji", a crystal that shows the past reveals that Alan was called to dinner just as his clue appeared, so he never saw it. The Lion that has hunted him turns out to be part of the clue: it has a thorn in its paw. Alan pulls the thorn out, solves the clue and finally leaves the game. Judy and Peter then decide to destroy Jumanji so no one else is trapped.

No. 03 · 2005 · Film · optional

Zathura: A Space Adventure recap

Brothers Walter and Danny are fighting while their father is out and their teenage sister Lisa is in charge. Danny finds an old space board game, Zathura, in the basement and starts playing. The first card brings a meteor shower that rips the house off its foundation and into outer space. Lisa is frozen in cryonic sleep, and the boys learn they must finish the game to get home. Their turns bring a malfunctioning robot, a pass too close to a star and the Zorgons, lizard-like aliens who hunt anything warm. A stranded astronaut appears and helps them. He reveals that years ago he wished his brother out of existence during an argument and has been stuck ever since, because the game needs two players. Walter draws a wish card and uses it to bring the astronaut's brother back, and the brother is Danny from another timeline: the astronaut is a grown-up, alternate Walter.

How Zathura: A Space Adventure ends

Lisa wakes and draws the Zorgons back, the robot is reprogrammed to fight them, and when a larger Zorgon fleet returns, Danny reaches the end of the board. Zathura turns out to be a black hole, which swallows the fleet and the house. The brothers wake up in their restored home just before their father returns, closer than before, and agree to keep it secret.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 04 · 2017 · Film

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle recap

In 1996, Alex Vreeke is given the Jumanji board game, which turns itself into a video game cartridge, and vanishes when he plays it. Twenty years later, four high school students in detention, the nervous Spencer, the football player Fridge, the shy Martha and the self-absorbed Bethany, find the old console and are sucked in as the avatars they chose. Spencer becomes the muscle-bound Dr. Smolder Bravestone, Fridge the short zoologist Mouse Finbar, Martha the fighter Ruby Roundhouse, and Bethany the middle-aged cartographer Professor Shelly Oberon. Each has three lives, shown as bars on their arms. The guide Nigel tells them to return the Jaguar's Eye jewel to its statue and lift the curse placed on the land by the explorer Van Pelt. Along the way they meet Alex, playing as the pilot Seaplane, who has been inside for two decades with one life left.

How Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ends

Bethany gives one of her lives to save Alex, the group storms the jaguar statue, and Spencer returns the jewel and calls out "Jumanji", ending the game. The teens return home, while Alex lands back in 1996 and lives a normal life; in the present he is a grown father who names his daughter after Bethany. The four smash the console.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 05 · 2019 · Film

Jumanji: The Next Level recap

After their first semester at college, Spencer feels his life is dull next to his friends' and secretly repairs the broken console so he can be Bravestone again. When he misses their Christmas reunion, Fridge, Martha and Bethany go in after him, and Spencer's grandfather Eddie and Eddie's estranged old business partner Milo are pulled in too. This time the avatars are mixed up: Eddie is Bravestone, Milo is Mouse Finbar, Fridge is Professor Oberon, and Bethany is left behind in the real world. The game is in a drought because the warlord Jurgen the Brutal has stolen the Falcon Jewel. They find Spencer playing a thief, Ming Fleetfoot, and Bethany comes in with Alex's help, as a horse called Cyclone. Milo tells Eddie he is dying, and the two old friends make peace. Magic water lets them swap avatars, and Spencer, Fridge and Martha get their old ones back.

How Jumanji: The Next Level ends

The friends rescue Eddie and Milo from Jurgen's fortress, defeat Jurgen and recover the jewel. Eddie rides Cyclone, now a winged horse, into the sky, holds the jewel up to the sun and shouts "Jumanji", winning the game. Milo chooses to stay in Jumanji as Cyclone, and the rest return home, with Spencer at peace with his friends.

Post-credits scenes

Yes. In a mid-credits scene, a repairman at Spencer's house looks at the broken console and accidentally switches the game back on. Moments later, a flock of ostriches runs down the street outside the diner where Eddie has reunited with its owner, Nora, and the friends realise Jumanji has got out into the real world. This sets up Jumanji 3.