What to watch before Jumanji 3

No. 01 · 1995 · Film · 1h 44m

Jumanji

When siblings Judy and Peter discover an enchanted board game that opens the door to a magical world, they unwittingly invite Alan -- an adult who's been trapped inside the game for 26 years -- into their living room. Alan's only hope for freedom is to finish the game, which proves risky as all three find themselves running from giant rhinoceroses, evil monkeys and other terrifying creatures.

Why it matters: Robin Williams escapes a board game after 26 years; the jungle follows him out.

Starring

Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, and Bradley Pierce

Director

Joe Johnston

Box office

$263 million on a $65 million budget

Scores

IMDb 7.1 · Rotten Tomatoes 56%

No. 02 · 2017 · Film · 1h 59m

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Four teenagers in detention discover an old video game console with a game they’ve never heard of. When they decide to play, they are immediately sucked into the jungle world of Jumanji in the bodies of their avatars. They’ll have to complete the adventure of their lives filled with fun, thrills and danger or be stuck in the game forever!

Why it matters: The game becomes a video game and four teens become its avatars.

Starring

Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black

Director

Jake Kasdan

Box office

$995 million on a $90 million budget

Scores

IMDb 6.9 · Rotten Tomatoes 76%

No. 03 · 2019 · Film · 2h 3m

Jumanji: The Next Level

As the gang return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, they discover that nothing is as they expect. The players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored in order to escape the world’s most dangerous game.

Why it matters: The grandfathers get pulled in, and the avatars swap.

Starring

Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black

Director

Jake Kasdan

Box office

$802 million on a $125 million budget

Scores

IMDb 6.6 · Rotten Tomatoes 71%

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 · 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. 03 · 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.