Characters / Jumanji (1995)

This page is about characters in the 1995 film Jumanji. Click here to check other characters in the Jumanji Franchise.

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Alan

Alan Parrish

"What year is it?!"

Portrayed By: Robin Williams & Adam Hann-Byrd (young) ^{Other Languages} Michel Papineschi (European French)

A man trapped in Jumanji for 26 years.

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• Action Survivor: He was only a kid when he was sucked into Jumanji, and was forced to figure out how to fend off all of the game's horrors very quickly just to survive.
• Alone with the Psycho: His last trial of the game is facing Van Pelt unarmed.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: He chronicles the beginning of the game to Sarah, who is in denial about it ever happening, before revealing that he is Alan.
• Beard of Barbarism: Due to spending 26 years in the jungle while never shaving. He gets rid of it once he leaves Jumanji.
• The Beastmaster: He might not command them, but he knows how to keep them away (and he must!).
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Wanted to leave his family and life behind. In Jumanji, he got it.
• Berserk Button: He really doesn't like it when Peter accuses him of being afraid of the game.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: At different points, he uses an antique sword in the Parrish home to fight the perils of Jumanji.
  Alan: (to the portrait over the case) Sorry, Angus.
• Canon Foreigner: Despite being the main character of the film, he is actually not in the book, nor is any character resembling him or his fate.
• Childhood Friend Romance: In the final scene, the de-aged Alan and Sarah eventually developed feelings for each other. Cue the epilogue and they're a married couple expecting their first child.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He comes out of the game as an adult man, used to life in Jumanji, and clueless about how long he was gone and what happened to his hometown and family.
• Coming of Age Story: A bizarre one, but still. The film shows Alan learning to care about others, putting on his father's shoes, and facing challenges himself rather than running away from them, "Like a man".
• Deadpan Snarker: Developed into this as an adult. Being played by Robin Williams kind of makes it inevitable.
• Decomposite Character: His not-so-friendly personality and "experience" in the game make him more akin to Van Pelt's namesake than the hunter himself.
• Disaster Dominoes: In the same day he causes his best friend to get fired, gets beaten up by bullies, his father tells him he's being sent to a boarding school, and he gets sucked into a Hungry Jungle with Everything Trying to Kill You.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Sucked into the game's jungle as a child, forced to survive untold horrors for 26 years, only to discover that his family is dead. After many trials and tribulations, he gets his family and fortune back, along with the girl and his own friends and family, a thriving family business and even gets the chance to save Peter and Judy's parents.
• Experienced Protagonist: Having spent 26 years trapped inside Jumanji, he's well familiar with the dangers and hazards that are brought out from the game.
• Face Your Fears: His last speech before Van Pelt is about facing his fears "like a man".
• Fish out of Temporal Water: It doesn't really get mentioned, due to everything else he's dealing with, but he's completely unaware of all that has happened in the world in the twenty-six years between when he went in to the game and when he emerges as an adult.
• Generation Xerox: Much to his chagrin, he finds himself talking to Peter like his father used to talk to him as a child.
• Impoverished Patrician: He was born to the richest family in town; thanks to Jumanji, he finds himself homeless and dressed in skins and leaves (and later, in clothes lent to him by a homeless man). Thank God there was a Reset Button.
• It's a Wonderful Plot: In its own bizarre way, the game shows how much harm he would do to others if he disappeared one night as a child. Not only did his parents suffer, but the whole town did as well.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the present, he's a bit brusque and short-tempered but it's understandable given what he's been through and he is able to apologize such as when he tears into Peter and realizes he's acting just like his dad used to.
• Kilroy Was Here: The hut he lived in while trapped in the game is still present by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with the words "Alan Parrish Was Here" carved into one of the walls.
• Large Ham: At first, due to years of being in the jungle leaving him a bit off, to put it mildly. That and being played by Robin Williams, meaning it'd be odd if he wasn't hammy.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Before going to Jumanji, he is the son of the richest man in town, but he has no friends except Sarah and Carl (until he gets him fired), and is a victim of bullying.
• Lovable Coward: Alan tends to run when faced with major threats, but remains sympathetic anyway. It's justified given the kind of stuff he's up against where running is the only way to avoid death.
• Mountain Man: Living in Jumanji turned him into a social misfit who is really good at surviving in the wild. He also has a messy beard and had to fashion his own clothes once he grew out of the ones he wore into the game.
• Mr. Exposition: As a Jumanji veteran, he is an expert in the challenges populating the game and lectures the other characters on how to avoid them.
• Mundane Luxury: Living in a brutal jungle for two and a half decades has made him appreciate the little things about modern life such as indoor plumbing and being able to wear a suit rather than whatever he could piece together.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • When he realizes that his father went broke and ultimately died because he disappeared.
  • Again, when he realizes what a hardass he was to Peter and is compelled to apologize.
  • Again, when he learns that his actions got Carl fired from his job at the shoe factory.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: He was quite willing to leave Peter and Judy to figure the game out for themselves until Peter said he was too afraid to play, not even in an antagonistic manner but sympathetically. Peter then reveals this was entirely intentional.
• Oh, Crap!: His very soul trembles when he realizes Van Pelt is coming.
• Older Than They Look: Technically, he lives 26 extra years thanks to Jumanji. Not that he enjoyed them one bit.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Once he's freed from Jumanji and starts playing again, he's at different times sarcastic, joking, and stern, but he never loses his single-minded focus on finishing the game and breaking the spell. When the rhyme about Van Pelt appears, though, he becomes absolutely petrified and starts running for his life, abandoning the others and the game in the process.
• Papa Wolf: To Judy and Peter. He uses the survival skills he’s acquired from his time in the game to protect the kids from various creatures the game sends out.
• Properly Paranoid: He knows Jumanji is no mere toy and he is very reluctant to continue playing.
• Rebel Prince: He would rather run away than choose a life that his dad could give him. He does learn to accept his position after 1969 plays again. The novelization also admits that he has great resentment of his family dynasty.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Nobody expected him to return after 26 years.
• Rightful King Returns: After learning of his parents death, he looks forward to meeting Peter and Judy's aunt and telling her that the house rightfully belongs to him.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: He still remembers Peter and Judy 26 years after Jumanji reset. He's even able to warn their parents against taking the ski trip that gets said parents killed.
• Talkative Loon: When he comes out of the game. Judy and Peter find him almost as terrifying as the lion. Justified as he was alone in a hostile jungle for over twenty years with no one to talk to.
• There Will Be Toilet Paper: After he shaves for the first time, he's excited that he doesn't have to wipe with leaves anymore.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Though he doesn't actually injure Van Pelt, the sword he throws still lands on its point, nailing Van Pelt's sleeve to a column and deflecting his shot.
• Took a Level in Badass: This occurs twice for Alan.
  • The first crosses with Offscreen Moment of Awesome—he seems to be a quiet, shy child in 1969, gets badly beaten up by bullies, and runs and hides rather than admit his mistake in the shoe factory. But being sucked into what he later calls "the deepest, darkest jungle in existence" forced him to become the Action Survivor described above, and do it before turning twelve.
  • The second occurrence is also the emotional climax of the movie—when Van Pelt, who's the embodiment of all of his fears, has him at gunpoint and tells him to "start running," Alan refuses, and admits that while he's absolutely terrified, he's going to face what he's afraid of instead of trying to escape. It's even implied that this decision is what allows him to win the game, as the second die doesn't stop rolling until he makes the choice to stand up to Van Pelt.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Towards Peter when the pelican snatches the board game and he yells at him for not getting it. Even after Peter gets it from the river, Alan just gives him a halfhearted thanks. Later, when Peter returns the group, his anger at Peter was forgotten, only to resurface when he saw Peter become a monkey for trying to cheat. On the way to the mansion he scolds at Peter for messing up, but soon apologizes when he realize he's treating Peter like his own dad treated him.
• Timeshifted Actor: Obviously, played by a different actor as an adult and as a young teen.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Alan is terrified when he realizes he just rolled in Van Pelt.

Sarah

Sarah Whittle

"I have spent over 2,000 hours in therapy convincing myself that that doesn't exist. See, what happened to you was so awful I made up that whole thing."

Portrayed By: Bonnie Hunt & Laura Bell Bundy (young)

Alan's friend who is traumatized by Jumanji and devastated by Alan's disappearance.

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• Babies Ever After: She's pregnant in the Distant Finale.
• Broken Bird: After watching Alan get sucked into a board game, getting attacked by bats, and then being dismissed as insane by everyone in town for trying to talk about what happened, she ends up a bitter, lonely shut-in who's heavily implied to be reliant on prescription medication just to make it through her days.
• Canon Foreigner: Like Alan, she is a film-only character.
• Cassandra Truth: Everyone else blew her off when she tried to tell them about Alan's disappearance.
• Childhood Friend Romance: In the final scene, the de-aged Alan and Sarah eventually developed feelings for each other. Cue the epilogue and they're a married couple expecting their first child.
• Fortune Teller: She became one known as "Madame Serena" as an adult, in the broke town timeline.
• Girl Next Door: To Alan, literally and figuratively, she is the nice and relatable girl that lives nearby.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's blonde and, as a child, the kindest person in town, even bringing Alan back his bike after bullies steal it. Even after growing up isolated and friendless, she remains a kinder person to the kids than the adult Alan.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She tries to jump in front of Van Pelt's bullet when it looks like Alan is about to die. Thankfully, Alan's successfully won the game at that point, so they both live.
• I Have Your Wife: Van Pelt attempts to take her to bait Alan.
• Love Interest: Alan's. They get together after playing the game.
• Mama Bear: To Judy and Peter. While she’s not as action oriented as Alan, Sarah is willing to put her life on the line to keep the Shepherd children safe from harm. She’s even willing stand up to the gun-toting Van Pelt when he has her and Judy cornered.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Deconstructed—as an adult, Sarah relies heavily on things like star signs and fortune telling, but it's all but stated that she doesn't really believe in those things and is instead using them as a shield to justify her isolated existence and keep people away after the whole town wrote her off as crazy.
• One Head Taller: As a child, she towers over Alan by a good five or six inches. As adults, they're almost the same height.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Despite claiming that she's starting to forget the events that followed the game after finishing it, she still remembers Judy and Peter 26 years later.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Two:
  • When she ended up getting attacked by African bats after Alan gets sucked into the game, she ran out of the Parish mansion, forsaking Alan to a potentially horrible fate.
  • Then, after dealing with the man-eating plant, Sarah is so scared of playing the game again that she tries to run away. She doesn't get far before Alan catches her.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Her final actions as an adult—refusing to let Alan fall to his doom ("I won't leave you!"), chasing after him once he goes downstairs, and then trying to shield him from Van Pelt's bullet—suggest that she's trying to make up for abandoning Alan and getting him trapped in Jumanji in the first place.
• Team Mom: She quickly becomes more protective and sympathetic to Judy and Peter than Alan.
• That Man Is Dead: At first, she refuses to admit she is Sarah.
• This Cannot Be!: Her reaction to meeting Alan alive as an adult is certainly shock.
• Timeshifted Actor: Same reason as Alan; 26 years is too much for a single actor.
• Together in Death: When Van Pelt is about to shoot Alan in the end, Sarah runs to be with him, and maybe catch the bullet herself.

Judy

Judy Shepherd

"Listen, I know you're upset and all, but I kind of feel we should finish the game."

Portrayed By: Kirsten Dunst

One of two young orphans who find the game stashed in the attic of the Parrish home in 1995.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the book, Judy and Peter's parents were still alive. In the film, Judy and Peter are orphans.
• Brief Accent Imitation: When Aunt Nora calls home and she pretends to be someone else, sporting a British accent.
• Consummate Liar: She is great at deceiving others but, in her defense, it's always for a greater cause.
• Cool Big Sis: She is very protective of Peter.
• Death by Adaptation: Strongly implied (at least) near the end of the game, when she is hit by a flower poison dart and passes away in Peter's arms, murmuring how she would like to see her parents again. In the book, neither Judy nor her parents died.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason Judy keeps telling lies is because she misses her parents and is trying to hide it from everyone.
• Perfect Poison: Dies within minutes of being hit by a plant poison dart, but with no other apparent ill effects.

Peter

Peter Shepherd

"I thought I could end the game myself. I was only ten spaces away."

Portrayed By: Bradley Pierce

Judy's younger brother.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the book, Judy and Peter's parents were still alive. In the film, Judy and Peter are orphans.
• Big Brother Instinct: Little brother, actually, but he has this to the point where, in the novelization, he went crazy and attacked a classmate for calling Judy a liar (the classmate was the son of the realtor who sold them the house, who was told the true story by their aunt). He also checks on Judy after she’s attacked by the purple flower and kicks a giant spider away from her.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Peter tries to rig his dice to finish the game sooner. Jumanji punishes him by turning him into a monkey.
• Elective Mute: He stopped talking to anyone besides Judy after their parents' deaths. When Alan is released from the game and finds his parents have also died Peter voluntarily speaks to him.
• Evolutionary Levels: Jumanji tells him he'll "slip back even more than [his] token" (a monkey), and becomes a generic monkey. Or more accurately, a little kid in a monkey suit, rather than an australopithecine or another real human ancestor.
• Failed a Spot Check: Peter runs to the shed to pick the ax. Finding it locked, he takes the ax (which is outside) and uses it against the lock before realizing that he has already what he wanted. After that, he looks straight into the camera as if saying "boy, am I stupid."
• Forced Transformation: For trying to cheat (by deliberately dropping the dice so they'd land on twelve, letting him finish the game), Jumanji causes him to slowly turn into a monkey.
• Hidden Depths: He is smarter than he looks.
• Maniac Monkeys: He becomes more energetic after being turned into a monkey, and his willingness to swing an ax is almost worrying.
• Manipulative Bastard: He gets Alan to continue playing by questioning his bravery.
• The Quiet One: He became almost mute after his parents died.

Carl

Carl Bentley

"I should've been a fireman!"

Portrayed By: David Alan Grier

An employee at the Parrish Shoes factory and Alan's only friend, who later becomes a police officer.

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• Chronically Crashed Car: His police cruiser suffers untold abuse through the movie, culminating with being swallowed by a giant, carnivorous plant. Carl admits defeat and simply yells at it to keep it.
• Determinator: Even being handcuffed to his car doesn't stop him for long.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: He always wanted to kick a door in after identifying himself as police. Doing so, unfortunately, washes him into a monsoon flood.
• In-Series Nickname: During his days at the Parrish Shoe Company, he was known as the "Sole Man".
• Inspector Javert: He's convinced that Judy and Peter's "uncle" is up to something and keeps trailing him for no reason.
• Intergenerational Friendship: He formed a close bond with thirteen-year-old Alan when he was in his 20s.
• Lemming Cops: Though he communicates with other police through radio, he keeps trying to investigate on his own instead of retreating or calling for backup, no matter what happens to himself or his car. Justified later on as it’s implied the monkeys released from the game have overrun the police station.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: When he's surfing a monsoon flood on a front door, and again when he sees a giant crocodile swimming past him.
• This Is Going to Be Huge: In 1969, he designed a 1990s tennis shoe and was certain that it would conquer the market. Unfortunately, Alan left the shoe on a conveyor belt, causing an accident that broke it, leading to Carl's unemployment. Subverted when the game resets to 1969 and Alan tells his father the truth, ensuring Carl keep his job and his shoe becomes successful after all.
• Token Minority: The only main black character in the movie.

Sam

Samuel Parrish

"We're taking you there next Sunday! And I don't want to hear another word about it!"

Portrayed By: Jonathan Hyde

Alan's strict father and the owner of Parrish Shoes.

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• Canon Foreigner: As expected from an element of Alan's backstory, Alan's father does not exist in the source material because Alan himself does not.
• Convicted by Public Opinion: A rumor spread through town, claiming that Sam murdered and dismembered Alan, then hid the remains in the Parrish home's walls.
• Death by Despair: After Alan disappeared, Sam gave up everything he had to try to find him. His eventual death of a broken heart likely wasn't helped by rumors that he himself had murdered Alan and hidden the body.
• Fisher King: When Alan disappeared, he spent his fortune looking for him, the shoe factory closed down, and the local economy went into recession.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: After Alan disappeared, Sam was dogged by rumors that he had murdered him, giving him a terrible reputation among the townsfolk.
• It's All My Fault: He blamed himself for Alan's disappearance because he had just told him he intended to send him to a boarding school to toughen him up, and Alan lashed against him saying "I'm never talking to you again!"
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being depicted as an aloof man and a strict father while alive, he clearly loved his son and spent everything he had to try and find him in the bad timeline. Alan only finds out how much his father truly loves him when he first escapes the game. He also apologizes to Alan for his initial attitude and says he wont force him to go to boarding school, saying they'll talk it over in the morning.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His boy disappeared one night without a trace. Right after he had an argument with him and he tried to run away.
• Papa Wolf: When Alan goes missing, he pours everything he has into finding him and is so devastated when Alan isn't found that he gives up on everything completely.
• Parents as People: He's stern and aloof but he does love Alan dearly and even apologizes for his initial harshness.
• So Proud of You: It's subtle but when Alan admits he was the one who left the shoe on the conveyor belt, not Carl, Sam isn't mad, even smiling a bit, and merely says he's glad Alan told him, implying this reaction.

Nora

Nora Shepherd

"Peter, take this suitcase up to the attic, then we can all have ice cream... and bourbon."

Portrayed By: Bebe Neuwirth

Appearances: Jumanji | Jumanji: The Next Level

Judy and Peter's paternal aunt and legal guardian.

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• Butt-Monkey: Jumanji has a knack for involving her despite not playing the game and not trying to get immersed into the actions of the players, like Carl does.
• The Cameo: Makes an appearance at the end of Jumanji: The Next Level as the owner of a restraunt, Nora's, that the characters meet up in.
• Canon Foreigner: Less so than others. She replaces Judy and Peter's parents, who are alive in the book. In fact, early versions of the script had Nora as Judy and Peter's mother, with only their dad missing.
• Hero Antagonist: Judy and Peter want to finish the game to get rid of the damage to the house before she comes back.
• Maiden Aunt: Seems to have no other family besides the kids.
• Mama Bear: While Judy and Peter may exasperate her at times, she does everything she can to help them when she realizes they're probably in danger.
• Parental Substitute: Got custody of Peter and Judy after their parents died.

Van Pelt

Van Pelt

"You miserable coward! Come back and face me like a man!"

Portrayed By: Jonathan Hyde

A big-game hunter from the game who tries to hunt Alan.

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• Adaptational Villainy: In the book, Judy rolls a lost jungle guide who ignores her and is only interested in checking his map. No other human "threat" is summoned.
• Adventurer Outfit: He wears a Victorian era safari outfit, fitting for a big game hunter in a world based on sub-Saharan Africa.
• Ambiguously Human: Is he really human, or just an illusion created by the game? He seems to be "human" in the same way the other Jumanji denizens are "animals" and "plants."
• And You Were There: Is played by the same actor as Alan's father.
• Ax-Crazy: He's very unhinged and violent, perfectly willing to hunt a child.
• Baddie Flattery: When Alan finally stops running from Van Pelt and chooses to stare him down, knowing that it means he's a dead man, Van Pelt compliments Alan on "finally acting like a man" after all this time. It's enough for Van Pelt to allow Alan to say a few last words, which proves to be his undoing when Alan rolls the exact die roll to reach the end of the game and say "Jumanji", thus winning the game and undoing everything that happened.
• Beard of Evil: He has a short, villainous goatee in contrast to the full bearded Alan.
• BFG: Van Pelt's elephant gun was deliberately exaggerated by the production crew, who crafted a pipe on top of a real gun. It's another possible hint to Van Pelt's inhumanity: He is as much an exaggerated, vicious caricature of a Victorian Great White Hunter as any Jumanji creature is of its real-world wildlife counterpart. The more modern semiautomatic shotgun he acquires after his elephant gun runs dry is no slouch, either.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: He's out to hunt Alan, because Alan rolled the dice. Van Pelt is only after Alan, because he was the one who summoned Van Pelt. It makes perfect sense to him and he never questions or tries to explain it.
• Butt-Monkey: Despite his late entry, he is the character that receives the most direct, physical abuse.
• Decomposite Character: He might have Van Pelt's name, but it's Alan who mostly follows his role from the book.
• Dragged Off to Hell: When Alan wins the game, he tries to shoot Alan, only for his bullet, his gun, and Van Pelt himself to be physically sucked back into the Jumanji board game before it slams closed, giving off this impression.
• The Dreaded: Alan is positively terrified of him. Considering he lives in Jumanji, that's saying something.
• Dull Surprise: One of the tall telling signs that he's a creation of the game rather than a sentient being is his lack of reaction towards modern culture and society. Being told his choice of bullets has gone out of production for nearly a century? Mild disappointment followed by an immediate demand for a new gun.
• Early-Bird Cameo: His image is in the upper left corner of the Jumanji board game.
• Egomaniac Hunter: In a classic Jungle Opera he'd be a Great White Hunter—but this is Jumanji, the land of Everything Trying to Kill You.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Yeah, he's Hunting the Most Dangerous Game, but he'll only try to kill the player who summoned him. When Carl tries to stop him, he never shoots to kill, and he doesn't try to kill Sarah when she's at his mercy.
• Evil Brit: he has the look and he definitely has the accent.
• Evil Poacher: Not shown much, since he seems uninterested in hunting anything that isn't Alan, but he's definitely a hunter and an antagonist.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He speaks with a deep, melodious voice.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's polite to anyone who didn't roll him out of the game, as well as the gun shop owner, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still focused on hunting and killing his target (which happens to be a human).
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Downplayed. He's completely unfazed by modern society and technology, but he's still walking around in Victorian clothes and using ammunition that went out of production in 1903. Although he's smart and pragmatic enough to just buy a modern gun the instant he finds out he can't get more ammo.
• Great White Hunter: A villainous version in that he's Hunting the Most Dangerous Game. It's also implied Van Pelt hunted Alan within the jungle of Jumanji as well, picking up where he left off while abiding by the game's rule of only hunting the player who rolled him. And the thing is, Alan isn't even really sure why, just knowing that "everything about me, he finds offensive."
• He-Man Woman Hater: He is obsessed with Alan facing him "like a man" and shows contempt for his companions.
• The Heavy: It'd be a stretch to call him the Big Bad, but he's definitely the most prominent of the game's manifestations who persistently hounds Alan from his first scene to his last.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: He only cares about hunting Alan. He knows Alan is sentient and even talks to (and lectures) him before trying to shoot him.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Van Pelts' only goals are to hunt down Alan no matter what; everyone else that gets in his way only get scared off by warning shots. He even states this as he corners Sarah by citing that she wasn't the one who rolled the dice that summoned him, "Alan did."
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: He shoots at Alan a lot of times, but never nails him. The first one fired from offscreen in the study might have intentionally been a warning shot to give Alan a sporting chance.
• Implacable Man: Nothing will stop him from pursuing Alan. Alan tries to stop him by pinning him to a column with a sword; Van Pelt seizes it by the blade barehanded, snaps it in half, walks off the half still lodged into the column and resumes the chase without actually looking at it.
  Van Pelt: Coming, ready or not.
• Large Ham: He has a very boisterous and bombastic personality.
• Last-Name Basis: We never learn his first name in the original film, with some places crediting him as "Hunter Van Pelt" or simply "The Hunter".
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: Unlike Alan, who had to adjust to the world of 1995 after suffering a future shock, Van Pelt knows exactly what to do in his new environment, such as finding a gun shop to buy bullets for his gun. When told that his choice of bullets went of production in 1903, Van Pelt treats it like a minor inconvenience and immediately orders a replacement weapon, going as far as bribing the gun owner, before resuming his hunt for Alan without missing a single beat.
• Meaningful Name: "Van Pelt"—an animal's fur is often called a pelt, and Van Pelt is an Evil Poacher.
• The Nicknamer: Refers to Alan as "Sonny Jim" while hunting him, only acknowledging him by his given name when he stops running.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: He shrugs off having his shoulder pinned to a wall by a sword, and getting slammed through a shopping display and crushed by an avalanche of paint cans barely slows him down. Similar to the other living creatures the game summons, it's unclear if he can even be hurt, much less killed.
• No-Sell: Alan throws his sword at Van Pelt in an attempt to stop him chasing him; it manages to pin him to a column for about a split second (by his shoulder) but he simply snaps it in half and continues his chase, (the sword didn't even make him bleed, it nearly got his arm but only went through the shoulder portion of his blazer).
  '''Not good enough, Sonny Jim!"
• Noble Demon: He will never shoot anyone who isn't Alan. When Carl tries to stop him, he shoots at his (increasingly abused) cruiser and a lamp post over him as a distraction, rather than killing him. He also tells Sarah directly that he only wants Alan, not her or the kids, choosing to abide by the game's rules and hunt the player who summoned him. And when he finally has Alan cornered, he offers him a chance to run away first, compliments him when he refuses to do so, and then allows him to say some last words.
• Ominous Walk: Keeps his military-esque march while following Alan instead of running after him.
• Rule of Symbolism: Van Pelt isn't just a hunter—he represents Alan's strained relationship with his father, who constantly expected his son to "act like a man" and treated him coldly. It seems to be the game deliberately forcing Alan to face his worst fear.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: When he is about to crash at the Sports store, he gives off a girlish scream, which is comical with the rest of his persona.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He avoids the waiting period and background check by throwing a bag of gold coins on the gun store's counter.
• Super-Persistent Predator: As a human opponent, he is much more resilient, intelligent and dangerous than any animal that comes out of the game. He will keep coming after being dealt with once, use his surroundings to his advantage and even improve his weapons.
• Terms of Endangerment: He addresses Alan as "Sonny Jim," a dark take on what a father might call his son. It seems deliberate both In-Universe (Van Pelt's riddle states that he "makes you feel just like a child") and on a meta level (Van Pelt represents Alan's relationship with his father).
• Trigger-Happy: He might be more successful if he took a couple of seconds more to aim, but maybe this is intentional.
• The Unfettered: The one rule he abides is that he hunts the player (Alan) that brought him into the real world and no one else. That doesn't mean, however, he wouldn't use the other players as hostage bait if it means bringing Alan to him. Or buy a more deadly, modern weapon to hunt him with.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Only Carl takes notice of him, and it is because he is shooting an elephant gun in a residential area and in broad daylight. Nobody comments on the fact that he is dressed like a 19th century African Great White Hunter in 1995 New England.
• Villainous Breakdown: He's genuinely terrified when he gets sucked back into the game. His final line?
  "HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"
• Villain Respect: When Alan finally chooses to stop running and face Van Pelt, Alan says "my father told me you have to face what you're afraid of." This gets a genuine laugh out of Van Pelt, who responds "Good lad. You're finally acting like a man." Of course, Van Pelt then immediately intends to shoot Alan, but it's something.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: We can only speculate, but he might enjoy the chase more. That, or ending the hunt too quickly wouldn't be sporting.
• Worthy Opponent: He has a certain warped respect for Alan, the way an old-fashioned hunter does it's prey. When Alan refuses to run and faces down Van Pelt, Van Pelt compliments him for his bravery and gives him a chance to say his last words.
• Would Hurt a Child: He has possibly been hunting Alan since he was a teen.

The Game Itself

Jumanji

"Adventurers beware: do not begin unless you intend to finish. The exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji and called out its name."

Portrayed By: N/A

Appearances: Jumanji | Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | Jumanji: The Next Level

A magical jungle-themed game of different formats that materializes dangerous creatures and situations.

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• Always Chaotic Evil: The animals and even the plant life of Jumanji are nothing but dangerous and consistently trying to kill the players. Monkeys are incredibly destructive, carnivores like lions and crocodiles eat people, stampedes lay waste to everything in their path, arthropods are humongous and deadly, and there's a big game hunter that tries to shoot whoever rolls the dice. And that's not even close to everything that can be summoned.
• Ambiguously Evil: As a board game, its purpose is to be played and nothing else. Yes, it unleashes dangers on whoever plays it, but there's nothing forcing them to play in the first place. It also has a Reset Button that is pushed after finishing a game and undoes all collateral damage. As a video game, players are constantly in danger from the native wildlife, but the game also creates helpful Non-Player Characters and grants avatars certain strengths to help them complete the levels.
• Artifact of Doom: You are better off not playing.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: According to the creator of the book, "Jumanji" is Zulu for "Many effects", and Williams quoted him on it once. But it isn't true.
• Berserk Button: Trying to cheat is the only known way to make the game legitimately angry.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Everything in Jumanji is oversized in some way compared to its real world counterpart. This goes double (or tenfold) for arthropods.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: It is a living, sentient game and so it naturally has a different flavor of morality than its players. Cheating is so highly offensive that it will devolve you. It will try as hard as it can to prevent players from winning because games are supposed to be challenging so that they can be fun. As soon as someone wins, everything is re-set; no harm, no foul. It will also go on indefinitely, waiting for players to continue even if it takes decades. If that means players being trapped inside for all that time, so be it.
• Death World: The world inside Jumanji is a massive jungle filled with extremely dangerous animals where everything, even the wildlife, is lethal and players can be trapped there indefinitely until the game is finished.
• Delighting in Riddles: After the dice land, the crystal ball in the middle of the board will describe the upcoming challenge in a vague rhyme. Jumanji still has a fondness for rhyming even after turning into a video game.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Oh, you don't want to play after rolling? Then the game will not continue until you do, and you must live with all the consequences thus far. You want to rig a game? Hope you enjoy bananas!
• Everything Trying to Kill You: The default mode of every creature in Jumanji. And if they don't actually try to kill you, they will try to ruin your day in some other way. Even the pelicans.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Despite it trying really hard to portray itself as one, the game is anything but. Dare to begin playing with it, and it will not hesitate to screw with and very possibly kill you until you either win or die.
• Exact Words: The instructions sell Jumanji as a game "for those who seek to find a way to leave their world behind", and clarify that the "exciting consequences" will disappear after completing the game. Both are true, but do not prepare the clueless new player about what's coming.
• Fate Worse than Death: Being sucked inside the game. Best case scenario is that you will have to spend at least some time in a world where just about everything is trying to kill you until someone rolls a five or an eight. The worst case is being left there indefinitely as happened with Alan.
• Faux Affably Evil: The game's riddles definitely give off this vibe, seemingly taking delight in letting players know about the horrible creatures they are about to encounter.
• Graceful Loser: The game will do everything it can to kill you and stop you from finishing but once you do, it accepts that you have won fair and square and sets things right again, even reversing time back to when the game was started.
• Hammerspace: The game is either a portal to another dimension or it contains a full dimension inside. Either way, it can summon multiple, gigantic animals that are several times the size of the board, and at the end they all get sucked back inside.
• Hungry Jungle: The world inside Jumanji is a jungle teeming with hungry animals and dangerous plant life.
• I Know What You Fear: Some of the challenges summoned don't seem completely random, but a result of the game being out to scare the players even more by tinkering with their own fears. Van Pelt in particular, plays on Alan's fear of his father and coincidentally has the same appearance as his father. Does he change his face every time a new kid plays?
• It Can Think: Jumanji wants to be played. It abides neither cheaters nor quitters.
  Alan: Oh, no. The game thinks I rolled.
  Sarah: What do you mean "the game thinks"?
• Jungle Drums: The sound of drums draws the attention of potential players. All you have to do is be near the game to hear it.
• Jungle Opera: The game's jungle follows many of the tropes associated with this genre, such as being chased by stampedes and beset by dangerous environments.
• Magic from Technology: Inverted. The board game's magic is twice confused with technology.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Jumanji's setting is "the jungle", but not any one in particular. Animals from different continents and environments of Earth live there together.
• Noble Demon: As evil and sadistic as it may appear, the game offers you the chance to not play (until you do) and it never forces or coerces anyone to start playing. It even warns you about what's coming. Then it rolls back all consequences after you complete it, indicating that it does have some sense of fair play. It even allows its players to be brought back to when the game first started and retain their memories of the timeline, although how positive that last part is is up for debate given how traumatizing the experience is, and the game might be helping with that as well, as Sarah says she's forgetting the whole thing once the game is over, but clearly remembers the kids and their story in the aftermath.
• No Fair Cheating: The game can punish those who attempt to fudge it. Peter learns this the hard way.
• Planimal: The Man-Eating Plants populating the game react to their environment in real time, grow fast enough to appear moving, hunt actively, and hide and make distress noises when they are hurt.
• Pocket Dimension: Jumanji is either inside the board game or the board game is a portal to it. Jumanji is not Earth, in any case.
• Post-Modern Magik: Upon being tossed aside by Alex Vreeke in favor of playing video games, the cursed board game turns itself into a video game cartridge in order to continue attracting potential victims.
• Reality Warper: The game can not only summon creatures from inside but also alter those outside, as Peter finds out. It can also summon weather and turn the floor you stand on into quicksand.
• Really 700 Years Old: The game appears intact and is played through 1869, 1969 and 1995. Who knows how old it is.
• Reset Button: After finishing a game, everything that came out during it, and its consequences are rolled back. If the game lasted for decades, you even get that time back with your memories of the intervening time at least somewhat intact.
• Riddle for the Ages: What is Jumanji? Who made it, and why? We don't know, and the few players who survive don't even want to find out. They just want it as far away from them as possible.
• Schmuck Bait: It draws in players using the sound of drums only they can hear and yet, for some reason, said players' first reaction is to play it. By the time they rethink things, it's already too late turn back.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Just a simple board game from the outside. If you choose a token and roll the device, then you see all the terrible things and sadistic intelligence on the inside.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: In Welcome to the Jungle a potential new player dismisses playing as "nobody plays board games anymore" and was more interested in video games. The same night Jumanji transformed itself into a video game cartridge with its own unique console.
• Would Hurt a Child: Only children can hear its drums. Which is probably why it doesn't have a recommended age label. It also has no issue sucking children into its world and leaving them at the mercy of the wildlife and Van Pelt.

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