I don’t remember much of my childhood, but a core memory of mine has always been watching “Zathura: A Space Adventure” at my dad’s house. The strange part was, as I grew up I had this memory, but no one ever talked about the movie. This left me with a concerning belief that I very well could have dreamt the whole thing. It wasn’t until I was hanging out with my friend, scrolling through Instagram together. We saw this meme that said something along the lines of, “Who else remembers ‘Zathura’? Wasn’t it wild?” We both looked up at each other and it was like a lightbulb went off.
“Zathura” came out in 2005, and stars some familiar faces — before they became familiar faces. Stars such as Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutcherson, Kristen Stewart and Dax Shepard. To me, “Zathura” is best described as “Jumanji” meets space. Walter (Josh Hutcherson), and Danny (Jonah Bobo) are left home with their older sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart). Lisa falls into the big sister stereotype of believing she’s too cool for her family. She can’t stand the fact that her dad is making her babysit her brothers — especially since she was supposed to go on a date that night.
Danny and Walter, desperate to find a cure for their boredom, start to play the board game Zathura. The game begins when you wind up the Zathura dial and press go to get a number of spaces you move. A card then pops out and has a phrase and an action that is required. The first card said, “Meteor Shower, Take Evasive Action!” Walter reads the card for Danny and is very annoyed by all of Danny’s questions. All of a sudden something falls through the ceiling and burns a hole through the card. From this moment on, the cards begin to come true and they are stuck playing this game to get things back to normal. By this point, after a few turns, their house is floating through space and they’ve managed to survive all the tasks thrown at them. Finally, they get some assistance from an astronaut (Dax Shepard) stuck in space. He helps them play the game and get to the end so they can return to normal life. Overall, he helps the three siblings, especially the two brothers, get along and find the importance of not taking each other for granted.
This movie was honestly terrifying to watch as a kid. I was so worried I would have to fight for my life to get my house out of space — well … that was probably the undiagnosed chronic anxiety. Regardless, watching it again had a very nostalgic feeling. It was fun to see how my view of the movie changed. Seeing the major plot twist, as a kid, was nothing more than an “OMG! WOAH!” moment. However, as an adult it really hammers home the lesson the film was teaching you.
Whether you’ve never seen the movie before or I just helped you stop gaslighting yourself into thinking the film didn’t exist, I definitely recommend watching it. For a 2005 film, the acting wasn’t all that bad, and was completely tolerable. So, what do you have to lose by watching it? You don’t even have to suffer through bad acting!