Ten years after Jumanji, we were introduced to Zathura, an unrelated spinoff of the 1995
classic.
Since it's a family adventure movie that both kids and adults can watch together, the adults
are sometimes going to pick up on things that the kids just don't see.
These are the things only adults notice in Zathura.
Zathura begins by introducing us to the somewhat compromised dynamic at work in the Budwing
family, as older brother Walter and younger brother Danny bicker over who gets more time
with their dad, who gets control of the TV, and more.
In the process of introducing us to the family, the film makes it clear that this environment
is the product of divorce.
This is made abundantly clear by the various arguments Walter gets into with both his brother
and his father.
At one point, when he learns that they're about to be moved to his mother's house, Walter
gets angry, wishing he could stay at his father's instead.
A few minutes later, though, when both Walter and Danny point out that their father's house
is "creepy," Walter seems to acknowledge that his mother's house is just a better place
to hang out.
And then, of course, there are the frequent moments throughout the film in which an angry
Walter calls Danny the reason for all of their problems, claiming that everything was fine
before he was born.
Unless the kids watching have been through it themselves, they might not really understand
the level of emotional confusion Walter's going through.
This is a kid who provokes conflict because, deep down, he still doesn't fully understand
why his whole life had to change, and he wants someone to blame.
The opening minutes of Zathura are all about setting things up for the story so that Walter
and Danny can be alone to play the game and embark on their space adventure.
With that in mind, their father is very quickly hustled out the door to go to an important
meeting, and in lieu of calling another adult to watch his sons, he instead wakes up his
teenage daughter, Lisa.
Even if Lisa showed an interest in watching her little brothers, which she doesn't, she
ends up cryogenically frozen for most of the movie, and is therefore unable to help.
And yet, adults in the room might notice a detail that points to at least one other adult
who might have been in the picture.
In the scene in which the Astronaut starts eating all the food in the fridge, Danny points
out:
"So?
Lupe just went shopping."
Who is Lupe?
The implication is that she's a housekeeper, but she could also be a relative or even the
father's romantic partner.
So, if the father can afford a housekeeper, why can't he also get a babysitter?
And if it's a romantic partner or relative who's that involved in the household, why
can't she be called at the moment?
Lupe could've stopped all of this before it started.
Like Jumanji, Zathura is the story of a magic board game that physically affects the world
around its players.
Unlike Jumanji, which brought elements of a jungle setting to our world, Zathura literally
takes the players and the whole house they're living in to space, creating a whole new set
of rules for how things might work in terms of danger.
On some level, because of the nature of the film, it's easy to just not question this
new circumstance.
The film even pokes fun at itself at one point when Walter insists that the plumbing won't
work even as Danny fills a pot of water to make macaroni and cheese.
While kids are invested in the magic of it, though, the adults in the room probably notice
that not all Zathura threats are created equal.
For one thing, the house seems to maintain its own gravity field despite being teleported
into outer space.
For another, whole walls can be ripped off of the structure without dragging the occupants
out into the void, and yet when they pass by a sun, the gravity field is enough to nearly
kill them.
It's all in service to the story, of course, but Walter and Danny are very lucky that their
house only responds to some aspects of danger in space.
Eventually, after surviving a number of other threats, Walter and Danny meet the Astronaut,
a stranded spaceman who's drawn to the house when the game gives them a card saying they're
supposed to rescue him.
As we spend more time with the Astronaut, we learn more about his backstory.
He was playing the game with his brother, made a wish on a shooting star that his brother
was never born, and was therefore stranded without any way to get home because the other
player, his brother, could never take their turn with the game.
In the course of explaining his life since then, the Astronaut mentions that he's been
eating "paste" from a tube for years, and he's managed to gain quite a bit of know-how
about how to survive out in deep space.
What he doesn't mention is how he managed to survive those initial days, weeks, and
months, particularly since he was a little boy at the time.
Was he rescued by other space explorers?
Where are they?
How did he end up with a spacesuit?
Did the game provide those things and allow him to improvise?
Whatever happened, he'd apparently be very good in some kind of Man vs. Wild-in-space
situation.
Walter and Danny face a number of threats during their time playing Zathura, from a
meteor shower to a malfunctioning robot to the gravity well of a sun.
However, the most dangerous of these threats turns out to be the Zorgons -- a race of alien
scavengers who show up and seem ready to rip the house to shreds until the Astronaut drives
them away with the help of a burning couch.
As the Astronaut explains, the Zorgons are cold-blooded lizard creatures who scavenge
the galaxy for any kind of heat.
They're drawn to things like lights and appliances and heating elements, so to get rid of them,
Walter and Danny must turn off every light and extinguish every flame in the house -- even
the tiniest pilot light.
"Turn off all the lights and electrical appliances."
"Me?"
"Yes, you, go!
Do it!"
For kids, this makes perfect sense, but the adults in the room might have questions.
After all, the Astronaut insists that every heat source has to be turned off, but he never
mentions body heat.
If a pilot light on a furnace in the basement can draw these things, why can't several living,
breathing humans clustered together in a high-stress situation?
When we first meet the Astronaut, he's portrayed as a mysterious figure from space who just
happens to be summoned into the house because Danny and Walter pull the right card.
Eventually, though, the reason he knows so much about the game and about them becomes
clear: He's actually a future version of Walter, 15 years older, who got stranded in space
after he wished on a star that Danny had never been born.
The Astronaut only reveals this to the boys after Walter gets a second wish card, and
wishes that the Astronaut could have his brother back.
This produces a doppelganger of Danny, the truth comes out, and both the Astronaut and
the other Danny fade away as the timelines are reconciled.
It's a sweet moment, but the adults in the room might've noticed something interesting
about the event.
By talking Walter out of using his first wish to wish Danny away, the Astronaut actually
prevented his own sad future from happening at all.
There was no need for a second wish to bring Danny back because Danny never left.
Therefore, if this is a film that posits that the alternate future is simply erased, it
should've probably been erased the moment young Walter decided he wanted Danny to stay.
Time travel just tends to make things a little loopy that way.
Zathura is the story of two brothers who are caught up in an adventure together.
Walter and Danny begin the movie at odds with one another, get caught up in playing the
game, and have to learn to work together to get back home safely.
The ultimate message of the movie — that family is about love and cooperation, even
amid adversity — is still quite clear, but the adults watching the film may have noticed
something else.
Walter and Danny are playing the game, but their older sister, Lisa, is also stranded
in space with them, and she eventually even wakes up from cryogenic stasis to help them
survive.
The Astronaut ultimately reveals himself to be future Walter, who got stranded when Danny
was wished away, but if that's true then what happened to Lisa in the Astronaut's timeline?
It's possible that the game didn't let her take Danny's place after he vanished, but
even if that's true, she should've also been alive in the house, right?
Did she die?
Did she get taken by aliens?
For adults, these are questions that just can't be glossed over for the sake of fun
and easy entertainment.
Zathura is a successful film experience in part because it delivers exactly what its
trailers promised — a fun, family-friendly space adventure.
What really puts the film over the top, though, is the way it works as a story about family,
destiny, and love.
When Walter and Danny draw the astronaut card while playing the game, they expect just another
random sci-fi encounter, and when the Astronaut shows up, he at first presents in exactly
that way.
As the film goes on, though, we find out that he's actually an adult Walter from the future,
and he's come back to convince his younger self not to destroy his family out of spite.
This is particularly interesting because every other encounter in the game is still random,
which implies there was a reason for that card at that moment.
It seems that Zathura itself, whether out of a desire to finish the game or some self-aware
sense of love, sent Walter back to fix his mistake and repair his family.
For the adults in the room, this is a subtle and comforting message -- that sometimes the
universe takes over and sorts things out on its own.
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