Jumanji (film)/Plot

The plot to the 1995 "Jumanji" film.

Plot

1969

Digging out the past.

In 1869, two boys Benjamin and Caleb bury a chest in a forest near Brantford, New Hampshire, and hope that no-one ever finds it. A century later in Brantford, New Hampshire 1969, 12-year-old Alan Parrish flees from a gang of bullies led by Billy Jessup to a the Parrish Shoe Company factory owned by his father, Sam Parrish, where he meets his oldest friend Carl Bentley, one of Sam's employees. When Alan accidentally damages a machine with a prototype sneaker Carl hopes to present, Carl takes the blame and loses his job. Outside the factory, after the bullies beat Alan up and steal his bicycle, Alan follows the sound of tribal drumbeats to a construction site near the factory and finds the chest buried 100 years ago, containing an elaborate jungle adventure board game called ""Jumanji"".

Sarah is attacked by swarming Bats.

First Move

Alan takes the game home to the Parrish Mansion and attempts to run away after having an argument with his father about attending the Cliffside School for Boys. However, his friend Sarah Whittle appears at the front door to give his bike back. The two begin playing "Jumanji" after hearing the drumbeats, which acts strangely: When a player rolls the dice, the player's piece moves itself and a message appears on the board. When Sarah throws the dice away onto the game, it is automatically accepted as a roll and summons shrieking Bats into fireplace, scaring the kids to give up playing. Alan starts putting the game away but makes his first move when the clock chimes and he drops the dice, the crystal ball message states that he must wait in a jungle until a five or an eight is rolled, and he is sucked into the game. A swarm of Bats released by the game then attack Sarah and chase her out of the house.

Monkey mayhem.

1995

Twenty-six years later in 1995, Judy Shepherd and Peter Shepherd move into the Parrish house with their Aunt Nora Shepherd after losing their parents in a car crash when on a skiing vacation in Canada. A few days later, Judy and Peter hear "Jumanji's" drumbeats and play the game in the attic, and as a result, giant Mosquitoes attack them, and local monkeys destroy their kitchen. Realizing that the consequences the game releases will disappear and everything will be restored when the game ends, they continue the game despite the danger. Since he rolled doubles, Peter rolls another turn and lands a five, releasing both a male Lion and an adult Alan, who locks the Lion in a bedroom. Alan learns about the sate of Brantford during his life in "Jumanji" and goes to the now closed shoe factory to find his parents. On the way, he meets Carl, working as a police officer, and discovers that the town's economy was devastated by the factory's closure. In the factory, a homeless man reveals that Sam abandoned the business to search for his son until his death in 1991 along with his wife Carol-Anne. Back at the Mansion after escaping a Mosquito, Judy and Peter try to persuade Alan to help them finish the game but he is having none of it.

A new world.

A new world

Alan does soon join playing the game with Judy and Peter when rolling the dice has no effect on the board, because he realizes they are continuing the game he and Sarah started years ago. Finding Sarah, now a psychic who had gone into isolation after Alan's disappearance, Alan tricks her into rejoining the game and the following moves releases "Jumanji" vegetation (man-eating Pods and poisonous Purple Flowers, a big-game hunter named Van Pelt who is intent on killing Alan as he is a product of the game itself and continuing their alleged rivalry, and an animal stampede (Rhinoceroses, Elephants, Zebras and Pelicans). Among other things, Peter transforms into a Monkey after trying to cheat while Alan is taken away by Carl, but soon recognizes Alan; Peter, Sarah and Judy battle Van Pelt in a local department store to retrieve the game and only lose him when Alan and Carl crash through the store and bury Van Pelt under fallen paint pots.

Jumanji

Alan swims through the rapids.

Back at the Mansion; now becoming overrun by vegetation, a Monsoon floods the house and triggers the appearance of two Crocodiles that attack the group; only ending when Carl and Nora try to enter the house and drain the flood outside. Upstairs in the attic, Alan is sucked into the floor by Quicksand; large poisonous Spiders come out and Judy is shot by a poisonous barb from a Purple Flower. Sarah's last roll releases an Earthquake that splits the house in two. Finally, Alan wins the game just in time when Van Pelt is about to shoot him, causing all jungle elements (including Van Pelt) to be sucked back into the board in a form of a whirlwind.

The Spiders close in on Alan and Sarah.

After that, Alan and Sarah suddenly find themselves back in 1969 again, once again children, but with full knowledge of their lives after they started playing. Alan reconciles with and admits to his father that he was the one who damaged the machine. Carl gets his job back, and Sam allows his son to attend a local school if he wishes to do so. Alan becomes terrified, thinking that Judy and Peter are still in the attic, but Sarah reminds him that it's 1969, before Judy and Peter are even born. Sarah hands their game tokens to Alan as a way of showing that they were never in the game. Alan and Sarah chain up the "Jumanji" board and throw it into a river.

Alan and Sam reconcile after he won.

1995

Later in 1995, Alan and Sarah are married and expecting for their first child. Alan has taken over the shoe business, Carl still works in the factory as the plant supervisor, and Sam is retired, but still alive along with his wife. Judy, Peter, and their parents meet with Alan and Sarah at a Christmas party, where Alan and Sarah offer the children's father a job in the shoe company and discourage them from going on the ski trip that would have killed them.

Meanwhile, two young girls hear drumbeats as they walk along a beach, and are due to see the "Jumanji" board game half-buried in the sand.

• As the film credits draw to a close, "Jumanji's" drumbeats can be heard during the reprisal of the opening titles and menacing child's play scores, indicating that "Jumanji" will return to be played again.