In 1996, in Brantford, New Hampshire, teenager Alex
Vreeke receives the Jumanji board game, found by his father on a beach. When
Alex refused it, the game magically transforms into a video game cartridge.
When he plays it, he is teleported into the game.
Twenty years later in 2016, four students in
Brantford High School are placed in detention together: Spencer Gilpin, who was
caught writing essays for his former friend, Anthony "Fridge" Johnson
(who is also in detention for the plagiarism), while Bethany Walker and Martha
Kaply have both disrespected their respective teachers during class. They were
ridiculed for their actions and are assigned by the school's principal to clear
out its basement, the four find Jumanji, a multiplayer action-adventure video
game. One of the playable characters (video game avatars) is inaccessible. When
Spencer hits Start, the four are sucked into the game.
They find themselves in a jungle, each now in the
forms of their game avatars. Spencer is a tough, muscular explorer named Dr.
Smolder Bravestone, Fridge is a short zoologist named Franklin
"Mouse" Finbar (whom he had selected upon misreading the name as
"Moose"), Martha is a gorgeous commando and martial art expert named
Ruby Roundhouse, and Bethany is an overweight, male cartographer named Professor
Sheldon "Shelly" Oberon. They soon realize that they are in a video
game, and each have three lives. If they lose all three, they will actually
die. Each of their avatars also comes with special skills and weaknesses.
They learn from Nigel, an NPC guide, that the
big-game hunter, Russel Van Pelt, wants to obtain a jewel, the "Jaguar's
Eye", allowing him to manipulate Jumanji's animals. To escape the game,
the players must return it to an enormous jaguar statue and call out
"Jumanji". Along the way, the group begins to lose lives through
various means when completing game levels. The group start working together to
obtain a clue from a snake but are cornered by Van Pelt's men. They are rescued
by Alex, the fifth player, whose avatar is a pilot named Jefferson
"Seaplane" McDonough. Recuperating in a treehouse built by previous
player Alan Parrish (protagonist of Jumanji), Alex learns that he has been in
the game for twenty years and the newcomers vow to help him return home. They
commandeer a helicopter and fly for the jaguar statue to return the jewel. Upon
landing Alex loses his last life after a mosquito bites him, but Bethany
performs CPR in time and transfers one of her lives to Alex in the process,
saving him from dying.
Arriving at the statue, the players find themselves
facing Van Pelt's forces and predatory guards. Using their resources and
teamwork, the players distract the villains while Spencer returns the jewel to
the statue and calls out the game's name. The game ends, disintegrating Van
Pelt into many rats, and the players revert to their former selves and return
to the real world, but discover that Alex did not come with them. On their way
home, they discover that the Vreeke household – once the neglected home of
Alex's father "Old Man" Vreeke – has been restored. An adult Alex
appears; he returned to 1996, and history was changed. He is now married and
has named his eldest daughter after Bethany out of gratitude for saving his
life.
Spencer and Fridge reconcile, Bethany becomes a
better person and makes plans to go backpacking for another adventurous
encounter, Martha starts dating Spencer, and the teens are now friends after
their experiences in the game. The four hear Jumanji's drumbeats, but they take
the game behind the school and destroy it with the bowling ball they found in
detention to prevent anyone from playing it again.https://en.wikipedia.org
