Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has promised a fresh take on the concept of the original film from the beginning, but the new trailer shows us just how far this new version of the game is going to go. Rather than being a board game, the new Jumanji is a video game and the brand new trailer shows us how the mechanics of video games will play a part in the movie's plot, including the fact that it will be possible for everybody to lose. Check out the trailer, below.
The new trailer opens by showing us the basic premise. Four kids get sucked into the video game version of Jumanji and a little bit of body swapping goes along with it. The nerdy kid becomes The Rock, the jock becomes Kevin Hart, and the "hot chick" turns into Jack Black. However, the new trailer starts to show us how each character will have special skills, and weaknesses, that will obviously play into the plot. What's even more interesting, however, is that, in classic video game fashion, each avatar will also have a limited number of lives. We see Dwayne Johnson with a tattoo that seems to indicate how many they have in reserve.
The first trailer included a sequence where Jack Black's character appears to be attacked by a hungry hippo. At the time, I surmised that we might see the character die and respawn. Now, it seems that's exactly what will happen, and the event will also cause the team to realize the state of their situation: That they have a limited number of chances to get through this game.
Of course, this also promises that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle will have multiple really cool death scenes throughout its runtime. The trailer shows us one at the end, as Kevin Hart literally explodes after eating a piece of cake, his character's weakness. Dwayne Johnson stated to USA Today that we will, in fact, see every character die, at least once. According to Johnson...
That first meeting we had, I said, 'We have this gift of these three lives. What are the most fun, awesome, crazy ways that we can die and audiences are going to love?' That just opened up a new level of creativity. That means all of us, you know, um, well, we're going to go to meet our maker.
Of course, we're assuming that all four characters will die at least twice, because that's what drama demands. That means we've got at least eight opportunities for death scenes. While some might be played for laughs, based on the action we've seen, others will likely be part of big over the top action sequences. Could we see The Rock take on a room full of baddies and actually lose?
The limited life mechanic looks to add both an element of drama as well as fun to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. We'll get a chance to see how everybody dies when the movie hits theaters in December.
