Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan star in the new, punchline-heavy trailer for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, director Jake Kasdan’s upcoming sequel of the 1995 fantasy-adventure film.
The clip opens by setting up the basic plot: Over two decades after the events of the first, Robin Williams-starring film, four teenagers stuck in high school detention discover an old video game named Jumanji while cleaning out the building’s basement. After firing up the vintage title, they’re sucked into Jumanji’s jungle landscape, where they inhabit the bodies of their game avatars – each with its own distinct superpowers and weaknesses.
While the nerdy Spencer (Alex Wolff) is psyched to learn he’s become the muscular badass archeologist Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson), not all of the characters are happy with their physical shifts. In particular, the superficial Bethany (Madison Iseman) is horrified to discover she’s transformed into cartographer/cryptographer Professor Shelly Oberon. “I’m an overweight, middle-aged man!” she exclaims after glimpsing her new Jack Black visage. “Wait a second – where’s my phone?”
The trailer veers from ramped-up action scenes (vicious cobras, motorcycle chases, helicopters) to several comedic moments, many featuring sharp banter between Johnson and Hart. In the final scene, the comedian (as zoologist Franklin “Moose” Finbar) encounters his personal kryptonite – a slice of cake – at a street market. “Am I shaking? Am I still black?” he asks. “OK, I’m fine! Everything’s fine! It’s all good.” Moments later, he explodes – wasting one of his three lives.
Ser’Darius Blain, Morgan Turner, Nick Jonas and Bobby Cannavale also star in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which hits theaters on December 20th.
