Pod

Pod

“Don't touch the purple ones, they shoot poisonous barbs... And definitely stay away from the Pods, the big yellow ones...”

—Alan Parrish to Sarah, Judy & Peter

Pods are a very deadly, hostile plant that grows in the jungles of Jumanji's dimension that behaves like the Venus fly trap.

Behaviour

Many flowers serve as part of a reproduction in the vegetation kingdom and beneficial to the animal kingdom, but these plants use long and strong vines to seize anything they sense in their presence that can't get away in time before being crushed to death and dragged into its jaws. The Pods also feature a frightening display of color on their heads which could intimidate victims into losing their ability to resist being dragged into its mouth.

• 1995
• MB
• TV
• 2017

A Pod has Peter as its next victim.

In the 1995 film, Sarah Whittle's second dice roll in the Parrish Mansion living room releases a collection of fast growing plants, which quickly overwhelm the house overtime. One of the many plants is the Pod which wraps its vine around Peter Shepherd in the midst of Alan Parrish teaching the players to stay away from them. Before Peter could be dragged into the Pod's jaws, the players caught Peter but were distracted by the gaze of the intimidating display of color. Alan then ran to grab a cutlass belonging to General Angus Parrish and sliced the vine in half, causing the Pod to retract its vine, shriek in pain and retreat. In the novelisation, before the Pod retreats, it gives off white footing seeds akin to dandelions, leading to Alan quickly shutting the windows and quarantine the living room, intending to keep the vegetation from growing outside which clearly didn't last long.

Harvest time!

The Jumanji vegetation started to spread across the Parrish Mansion before branching out into Brantford. While Nora Shepherd tried to catch Officer Carl Bentley's attention, she was fortunate enough to miss the grasp of a Pod's vine before it seized his police car, totally collapsing and condensing it with its strength. Carl yelled back at the Pod in vain to just take it.

The game board.

• Secret symbol: Axe
• Number: 3

In the Milton Bradley board game, the Pod has its own danger card by itself and appears on the game board. Rolling an Axe on the rescue die within 3 seconds will defeat the Pod threat.

Van Pelt stuck in a Pod's jaws.

Pods of different sizes appear in the animated series as lethal vegetation. Different sizes of Pods are prominent throughout the jungles of Jumanji, ranging from roughly the same size as Purple Flowers to being big enough to devour humans like Van Pelt.

Bridge Pods.

Due to his survival in Jumanji, Alan is well aware that with the night-time are when they are the least hostile and day light ones being poisonous. Some Pods could take root on bridged walkways above chasms, requiring the bridges to be cut to escape from their entanglement.

Bridge Pods.

Like the 1995 film, Pods could still send out vines to entangle and drag captured prey back into it's jaws. However, victims could free themselves by using sharp objects such as pocket knives, which saved Judy Shepherd from being pulled into it's jaws.

In the closing credits of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, an illustration of a Pod appears next to Ser'Darius Blain and Madison Iseman's credits.

Trivia

• Just before Alan cuts the Pod's vine to save Peter, he yells: "Harvest time!". This was improvised by Robin Williams.