History NightmareFuel / Zathura

* The book has a turn in which gravity increases so strongly, Danny becomes as short and stout as a beach ball (to quote Van Allsburg). If this scene stayed in the movie, it likely would've fallen into the UncannyValley.

* Lisa getting frozen. Mainly from the brothers point of view, but the audience might feel this a bit when she's falling around, helpless to move or be aware of her surroundings, alter on as the house moves.

*** Which explains the real Walter’s quick, guilty glance at Danny upon hearing his adult counterpart’s story. ''He was thinking about wishing Danny away, too.''
** Even worse when you take into account that Lisa was also in the house in the alternate timeline as well, and due to the game not progressing because Danny was wished out of existence by Astronaut Walter, that means that the alternate timeline Lisa is forever frozen in cryo-stasis.

--->'''Walter:''' Why don't they just burn up their own planet? --->'''The Astronaut:''' Oh, they already did. That's not even the worst of it. Their problem is their ravenous appetite. They never stop eating.

--> '''Robot:''' [[MadnessMantra Alien lifeform!]] [[AIIsACrapshoot Must destroy!]]

* [[WhamLine "IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"]] Thankfully it's also the ResetButton, but there's ''no way'' anyone playing the game for the first time would know that, and so their terror that they're about to die (or their reactions when they think others have died), [[{{Understatement}} is very, very real.]]

* [[WhamLine "IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"]] Thankfully it's also the ResetButton, but there's ''no way'' anyone playing the game for the first time would know that, and so their terror that they're about to die (or their reactions when they think others have died), [[{{Understatement is very, very real.]]

* [[WhamLine "IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"]] This one is [[NightmareRetardant dulled a bit]] by the fact that it turns out Zathura is also the ResetButton, but there's no way for anyone playing the game to ''know that.''

** The fact that the astronaut is [[spoiler:Alternate Timeline!Walter]]. No wonder he was worried when Walter landed on the shooting star space.

* [[WhamLine "IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"]]
** [[spoiler: This one is [[NightmareRetardant dulled a bit]] by the fact that it turns out Zathura is also the ResetButton, but there's no way for anyone playing hte game to ''know that.'']]

* CAUGHT CHEATING: automatic ejection i.e: ''Thrown out into space''. Danny nearly had this happen to him when hoping to finish the game and go home. And this was ''straight up through a hole in the ceiling''. If he hadn't grabbed that wire....

* The fact that the astronaut is Alternate Timeline!Walter. No wonder he was worried when Walter landed on the shooting star space.

* The astronaut's tear jerking (and quite chilling) backstory: [[spoiler:years prior to the events of the movie, while playing the Zathura game, he landed on the shooting star space and wished that his brother never existed because he was being annoying. The astronaut immediately regretted his actions, and to make it even worse, he couldn't finish the game because his brother wasn't there to take his turn, leaving him stranded in the emptiness of space, all alone, for some twenty-odd years. Well, until Danny spun him, that is.]]
** Adding to the nightmare fuel is the fact that the astronaut is [[spoiler:Alternate Timeline!Walter]]. No wonder he was worried when Walter landed on the shooting star space.

* [[spoiler:[[WhamLine "IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"]]]]

* CAUGHT CHEATING: automatic ejection

* [[spoiler:[[WhamLine "IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"]]]]

* CAUGHT CHEATING: AUTOMATIC EJECTION.
* Not to mention the astronaut's tear jerking (and quite chilling) backstory: [[spoiler:years prior to the events of the movie, while playing the Zathura game, he landed on the shooting star space and wished that his brother never existed because he was being annoying. The astronaut immediately regretted his actions, and to make it even worse, he couldn't finish the game because his brother wasn't there to take his turn, leaving him stranded in the emptiness of space, all alone, for some twenty-odd years. Well, until Danny spun him, that is.]]

* Everything involving those goddamn Zorgons... including the fact that they were so homicidal, they burned ''their own home planet'' without a care.

* Everything involving those goddamn Zorgons...
* The robot chasing Walter through the house.

* Not to mention the astronaut's tear jerking (and quite chilling) backstory: years prior to the events of the movie, while playing the Zathura game, he landed on the shooting star space and wished that his brother never existed because he was being annoying. The astronaut immediately regretted his actions, and to make it even worse, he couldn't finish the game because his brother wasn't there to take his turn, leaving him stranded in the emptiness of space, all alone, for some twenty-odd years. Well, until Danny spun him, that is.
** Adding to the nightmare fuel is the fact that the astronaut is Alternate Timeline!Walter. No wonder he was worried when Walter landed on the shooting star space.

* [[WhamLine "IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"]]

* [[WhamLine ''"IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!"'']]

* [[WhamLine ''"IT'S A BLACK HOLE! ZATHURA IS A BLACK HOLE!]]

* Not to mention the astronaut's [[Tearjerker tear jerking]] (and quite chilling) backstory: years prior to the events of the movie, while playing the Zathura game, he landed on the shooting star space and wished that his brother never existed because he was being annoying. The astronaut immediately regretted his actions, and to make it even worse, he couldn't finish the game because his brother wasn't there to take his turn, leaving him stranded in the emptiness of space, all alone, for some twenty-odd years. Well, until Danny spun him, that is.