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Budwing Family
Walter
Played by: Josh Hutcherson
- Aerosol Flamethrower: This is exactly what he uses during his unsuccessful attempt to undo the cryogenic stasis card's effects on Lisa early on in the film.
- Aloof Big Brother: He actually resents Danny for even ever being born at all at first, but he grows out of this later on, though.
- Big Brother Bully: Whenever he’s not ignoring Danny he’s insulting him or otherwise mistreating him.
- Big Brother Instinct: He doesn't really have much of one of these to begin with due to his intense resentment of Danny, but he does eventually promise to live up to the basic principles of this trope near the end of the film.
Walter: I'll never let anything happen to you, because that's what being a brother means.
- Bratty Half-Pint: He always acts this way as a means of dealing with his parents' divorce prior to the events of the film.
- Cain and Abel: This is unfortunately how he is with Danny at first, even to the point of him flat-out wishing Danny right on out of existence itself in an alternate timeline as further expanded upon below.
- Cassandra Truth: Unfortunately for both him and Danny, neither his father nor Lisa is ever that great at believing him about anything at all, most significantly when the game teleports everybody out into deep space for the whole rest of the film.
- Chekhov's Gun: The "reprogram" card ultimately becomes one of these for him in facilitating the killer robot's Heel–Face Turn that's further expanded upon below within his folder.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He's much more prone to arguing with Danny than Judy ever was with Peter, and he doesn't ever even bother to read the instructions at all before ever starting up some weird game like Judy did as well on top of that.
- Distressed Dude: This actually happens to him three separate times throughout the film:
- The first time around, the astronaut has to go and save him from getting Thrown Out the Airlock by none other than the game itself of all things for cheating at it at one point.
- The second time around, a lone Zorgon gets ready to eat his and Danny's heads off, only for Lisa to suddenly drop a piano down on top of him and likewise completely stop that from ever actually happening to either one of them.
- The third time around, once it's finally revealed that Zathura is really nothing other than a black-hole all along, Lisa unsuccessfully attempts to carry him off to safety, only for the both of them and also Danny to all get sucked into it together as the game finally resets both itself and time upon its official completion near the end of the film.
- Doppelmerger: At the end of the movie he merges with a different timeline version of himself who happened to be the astronaut.
- Expy: He and Danny can be seen as these for Judy and Peter but with a shared poor sibling bond despite the presence of the aforementioned Contrasting Sequel Main Character trope above.
- Freudian Excuse: His parents' divorce prior to the events of the film is his main reason as to why he's such a bully to Danny in the first place because he also believes him to even be the cause of it all to start with.
- Giving Them the Strip/Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: He does this at one point to escape the killer robot's grasp when he grabs onto one of his shoes during one scene.
- Jerkass: When he thinks that the robot is his personal slave he rudely tells it to get him a drink and takes Danny telling him to be nicer to it as jealousy.
- It's All About Me: A lot of Walter's resentment of Danny is not being the center of attention to the point of him finding it “not fair” that his dad is making an effort to spend just as much time with Danny instead of just him, and he even tells Danny that his life was perfect before he ever came along to start with, but he gets better from that eventually, though.
- Heel–Face Turn: He eventually learns to care about Danny over the course of the movie and not just think of himself.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: He mutually agrees with Danny to not ever bring up the events of the film ever again following the game's official reset.
- Misplaced Retribution: Walter blames Danny for their parents divorcing, and while we don’t get into full details, it’s still clear that he’s just directing his anger at Danny and literally nothing else besides that.
- Never My Fault: He actually blames Danny for briefly getting him sucked out into space when it was really his fault for cheating at the game just prior to that moment in time.
- No Fair Cheating: What happenes when the game discovers that Walter was cheating? He is thrown out of the house into space.
- Oh, Crap!: He gets an epic moment involving this trope once the meteor shower that comes right at just the very start of the gameplay happens right within his very own living room in fact along with Danny.
- One-Note Cook: At one point in the film, he claims that the only thing that he explicitly knows how to make is water and literally nothing else besides that.
- Precision F-Strike: He unleashes one of these early on in the film when Danny successfully a football that he himself was also trying to catch at the very same time as him as evidence by the image caption above.
- Plummet Perspective: Played with in that he at first looks down at the dark and infinite abyss that is none other than just the very vacuum of outer space itself before inexplicably spitting out into it and then seeing that there's actually zero gravity anywhere outside of the now floating house.
- Running Gag: All throughout his time up within deep space, he continuously says that literally nothing around the house should even be working at all due to its complete physical disconnection from anything that would realistically allow its critical systems to be working all throughout that time, only for it to then end up someway somehow working anyway.
- Skewed Priorities: During one infamous scene in the film, he actually worries more about Danny currently being ahead of him in terms of him being closer to winning the game than just simply trying to get both himself and everyone else back home to earth as soon as possible, easily creating even more problems for everybody than they otherwise would've had if he hadn't tried to cheat at the game by sliding Danny's Retro Rocket game piece backwards.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Is upset when the Astronaut helps himself to the fridge. This is despite the fact that it was only thanks to his intervention that they survived the Zorgon's attack. He gets called out on it too.Astronaut: Well as I recall, the card says "Rescue Stranded Astronaut." Looks to me like I'm the only one who's done any rescuing so, I don't think a couple of dagwood sandwiches is too much to ask for.
- Wasteful Wishing: During one scene, he actually wishes for a Brett Favre-signed autograph football, to which Danny berates him for not wishing to be out of the game. Justified as he felt pressured by the astronaut yelling at him.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: Just after the game finally finishes resetting itself, he tells Danny not to press the "start" button on the game-board for shall we say painfully obvious reasons.
Danny
Played by: Jonah Bobo
"TAKE ERASIVE ACTION! TAKE ERASIVE ACTION!"
The main protagonist's younger brother who's always getting disproportionately blamed for literally every single thing that ever so dares to go wrong in his older brother's life.- Ashes to Crashes: He basically verbally announces the film's usage of this trope by shouting out "GRANDMA!" when a meteor crashes into an urn containing her cremation ashes.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Well, according to Walter anyway as this is exactly how he sees him at first and literally nothing else due to each of the different aforementioned perceived problems that he's originally caused for him overtime prior to the main events of the film.
- Apologizes a Lot: Whenever he does something bad to cause more problems for literally everybody else around him. For example:
Danny: IMSORRYIMSORRYIMSORRYIMSORRYIMSORRY!!
- Big "NO!": He lets out one of these once Walter gets sucked into a black hole.
- Cain and Abel: Again, unfortunately, this is actually how he is with Walter at first, even to the point of him getting outright wished completely out of existence in an alternate timeline as still further expanded upon below.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": At one point in the film, he inflicts this trope upon a goat-like creature that has four eyes on stalks much like either a snail or even Jar Jar Binks.
- Cassandra Truth: Neither his father nor Lisa is ever very good about believing him on anything really, most notably about them now being stranded within outer space together during one scene.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Danny's much more prone to arguing with him than Peter ever was with Judy, and on top of that, he doesn't ever even read the Zathura instructions at all before blindly teleporting himself, Walter, and Lisa all up into deep space together as well.
- Decoy Protagonist: At first, he appears to be the main character of the film since the first several scenes of it primarily focus on him, but the actual main character of the film is really Walter of all people as shown later on in the runtime.
- Distressed Dude: He himself becomes one of these as the lone remaining Zorgon gets ready to eat both his and Walter's heads off, only for Lisa to suddenly drop the piano down on top of him, effectively stopping such a horrific fate from ever actually coming to either one of them.
- Doppelmerger: He merges at the end with another version from a different timeline when they meet.
- Dumbwaiter Ride: He uses the house's dumbwaiter to hide from both present-day Walter and the Zorgons all throughout the film.
- Expy: As already discussed above, he and Walter are basically shared poor sibling bonded thematic analogs of Judy and Peter.
- Hope Spot: He has one of these when he finds the cover for the game-board aboard a Zorgon starship and at first believes it to be the actual game-board itself.
- It Kind of Looks Like a Face: This is exactly why the basement furnace is oh so scary to him at first.
- Kiddie Kid: Walter also personally sees Danny as this at first and likewise also even goes as far to call him a baby at certain points in the film on top of that.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Danny mutually agrees with Walter on not ever bringing up the events of the film again after the game completely resets on them both and also Lisa.
- Malaproper: He always seems to get similar-sounding words and definitions horribly mixed up with one another. For example:
Danny: TAKE ERASIVE ACTION!! TAKE ERASIVE ACTION!!
- No Fair Cheating: He points this out to Walter once he notices that something's not quite right with the game-pieces' positions on the board.
- The Scape Goat: He's easily the one that constantly gets disproportionately blamed for literally every single bad thing that happens in Walter's life as already heavily addressed within several of the above trope examples in fact.
- Sir Swearsalot: Unfortunately, he's actually quite fowl-mouthed for someone who's only six-and-three-quarters like he says so himself at some point or another.
- Wham Line: He delivers two of these near the end of the film:Danny: You wished for two of me?!
Walter: I-I-I just wished for the astronaut to have his brother back.Danny: IT'S A BLACK HOLE!! ZATHURA'S A BLACK HOLE!! - Your Television Hates You: He gets a brief moment like this from a Sports Center broadcast just after Walter tells him not to press the "start" button on the Zathura game-board.
Mister Budwing
Played by: Tim Robbins
"You can't be using that kind of language around your brother."
The unnamed head of the family who desperately attempts to balance out both giving his two sons enough individual attention and his time at work, easily leading to a lot of the squabbles regularly seen amongst his offspring.- Cassandra Truth: He's not very good at believing literally anything that either Walter or Danny ever says to him at a given moment in time as further expanded upon both above and below within the other Budwing family member folders.
- Parents as People: For a divorced father, he actually doesn't do half-bad, but it's just that there's quite literally not enough of him to go around whenever his two sons are constantly demanding his exclusive attention along with the fact that he also even has to work on Saturdays on top of that.
Lisa
Played by: Kristen Stewart
- Aloof Big Sister: At first, she seems completely disinterested in literally anything having to do with either one of her two younger brothers, but for additional information on whether or not she's actually a straight example of this trope, also see her other trope examples relating to just this very topic alone below.
- Anger Born of Worry: We see this exact type of emotion out of her once she finally sees present-day Walter and Danny deliberately stoking a fire within the kitchen, finally proving to us once and for all that she's Not So Stoic as further expanded upon below, even with present-day Walter and Danny simultaneously group-hugging her during that moment in time.
- Big Sister Instinct: She first shows this trope off as she drops a piano down on top of a lone Zorgon who's currently getting ready to eat present-day Walter and Danny's heads off no less and then shows it off again once its finally revealed that Zathura was actually a black-hole all along by unsuccessfully attempting to carry present-day Walter to safety, even though he could've just gotten up and ran off all by himself since we literally never see any evidence of either one of his legs getting internally injured at any point in the film prior to that moment there.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just when Walter and Danny were about to be taking by a Zorgon, she drops a piano on top of it.
- Cassandra Truth: She has this trope inflicted upon her during the scene where in which Walter and Danny both unsuccessfully attempt to get her to realize that they're all now stuck within deep space together, and it's not like she's any better about believing literally anything that they ever say to anybody else about anything than their shared father is as already further expanded upon above within his folder.
- Canon Foreigner: She's a character created specifically for this movie. In the book, Walter and Danny had no sister and the director added Lisa because he figured it wouldn't make sense for their dad to leave the brothers all on their own.
- Death Glare: She gives present-day Walter one of these in response to him asking her if she still thinks that he has gorgeous eyes.
- Expy:
- She's the thematic counterpart to Aunt Nora from Jumanji as she's the female character who's related to the main characters, aunt/sister more specifically, and also gets caught up in the adventure later on, monkey in her car/wakes up from cryonic chamber more specifically again, not to mention neither take it so well when they see the state that their house is in, once again more specifically their mansion overgrown with Jumanji vines and nephew turned into a monkey/their brothers actively stoking a fire in the house.
- On top of that, though, she can also be seen as one of these for Sarah Whittle as she's the fourth person to help out with completing the game along with her also being the love interest for the thematic Alan Parrish analog, even though it's later revealed that they're actually both partaking in a Brother–Sister Incest all along, leaving her understandably
squicked out by it all as mentioned above once The Reveal actually happens before her near the end of the film.
- Harmless Freezing: The cryogenic stasis card effectively inflicts all three of these tropes at once upon her for five straight gameplay turns as she emerges from its effects seemingly unharmed by them later on.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: During the whole meteor-shower sequence, she still listens away to her tunes as if literally nothing's happening all while Walter and Danny face off against the game's horrifying antics all by themselves.
- Instant Turn-Off: She has one of these after learning that the astronaut was actually her brother.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Not only does she deliberately invoke this trope during the last several seconds before the end credits for obvious reasons, but she also even in fact perfectly quotes the name of this trope out-loud word-for-word on top of that.
- Not a Morning Person: Lisa is introduced lying in bed well past the break of dawn, looking relatively disheveled, and behaving irritably when her dad wakes her up to give her babysitting orders. Afterward, she goes back to bed for the next several scenes and sleeps through the house being launched into space. This is apparently normal for her, given how her brothers beg their dad not to wake her up on their behalf and are nervous about waking her up themselves.
- Not So Stoic: Initially, she never really shows any true emotions, and besides, this actually is sort of a Running Gag in the case of any character that's played by Kristen Stewart, but once we get to the moment in the film where she finally sees present-day Walter and Danny deliberately stoking a fire within the kitchen, we get this epic gem of a line:
Lisa: YOU GUYS ACTUALLY SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE?!!
- Redhead In Green: From when we first see her on-screen to when she breaks free of the cryogenic stasis card's effects, she's technically one of these since she wears a green shirt during that time actually.
- Skewed Priorities: Much unlike her two younger brothers during the scene involving the kitchen fire that they themselves created in the first place, she completely averts this trope by still attempting to grab onto a fire extinguisher and likewise put out said kitchen fire with the younger brothers still both tightly group-hugging her together as well.
- Spanner in the Works: Also playing into the thematic Jumanji parallels, if Aunt Nora hadn't gone with Officer Bentley to the old Parrish Place, they wouldn't have broken down the door and emptied the monsoon from the house, and likewise, if it hadn't been for Lisa, she wouldn't have pushed that piano down onto the remaining Zorgon preying on her brothers.
- Surprise Incest: Almost by the end of the movie it is revealed that the astronaut is actually her brother Walter, from a different timeline, all grown up.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: At one point, she gushes over the astronaut eyes.
The Game
Zathura
"Pieces reset at the end of each game. Play again for different adventures."
The titular board-game that seems to have a mind of its own as it repeatedly summons up all sorts of different terrifying extraterrestrial threats with literally every single turn that's ever so taken all throughout its gameplay.- Antagonist Title/One-Word Title: The game gets this dual-trope treatment much like how Jumanji also got it some 10 years prior.
- Artifact of Doom: Much like Jumanji, it's a sentient board-game that knows it whenever it's either somebody's turn or not somebody's turn, summons up horrifying threats with literally every single turn that's taken, also knows it whenever somebody cheats at it and likewise administers horrifying punishments for them doing so in the first place, and also even completely resets both itself and time upon its final completion at the end of the film.
- Big Bad/Non-Action Big Bad: On a technicality, this is the ultimate threat and source of conflict in the film, even though the game-board itself never gets involved in any of the action for obvious reasons.
- The Board Game/
Defictionalization: Believe it or not, an actual board-game based on this film exist much like with Jumanji, but thankfully, though, this film's Defictionalization also entirely lacks the reality-warping capabilities seen during the events of its respective film. - Everything Trying to Kill You/The Homeward Journey: While the one big primary goal of the game is obviously to get oneself back home to earth, at the very same time, though, literally every single turn that's taken summons up deadly extraterrestrial horrors untold that try to kill off the game's current players in any number of gruesome ways imaginable.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The gameplay actually only ever lasts for about three hours or possibly even less time than that.
- From Bad to Worse: Basically the whole premise of the game can be seen as this as it first teleports its players into deep space and then throws meteor showers, robots, stellar gravitational fields, man-eating Zorgon invaders that oftentimes appear within massive swarms at one time, and finally glowing black-holes into the equation as well on top of that.
- The Game Come to Life/The Game Plays You/Luck-Based Mission: As with Jumanji, once the game actually starts, it basically sucks you into itself and also starts screwing with your head if you will all while exactly how easy or difficult things subsequently get for you depends entirely on dumb blind luck, and the skill part deals with just how well you're able to fend off whatever the game ever so chooses to throw at you at the moment.
- Gravity Sucks: Both moments in the film where in which any sort of a celestial body becomes a threat to its players, the gravity generated by it always perfectly "sucks" things right on down towards itself regardless of literally anything else happening to the things in question just prior to the gravity beginning to act upon it.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Unlike its jungle-based counterpart, it only punishes Walter for blatantly moving Danny's piece back when Danny later confesses and apologizes for moving his piece ahead of Walter's. Notably, the penalty card says "Caught cheating."
- Numbered Homeworld: One of the potential gameplay hazards that goes by the name of Tsouris-3 is easily one of these.
- Pocket Dimension: The world of the game if you will is oftentimes theorized to be this much like with the world of the Jumanji game, but at the very same time, however, there's also another theory out there suggesting that the game simply teleports its players into an area of deep real-life space, and if that's the case, there's also a chance that the Zorgon species could very well be out there someplace waiting for an opportunity to then come and effectively burn down our very own earth even!
- Point of No Return/Win to Exit/Yellow Brick Road: Again, in a similar thematic vein to Jumanji, once somebody even starts up the game at all, there's no going back whatsoever until they actually finish it themselves.
- Raygun Gothic: This game is in fact chockfull of it as it more specifically features defective killer robots, reptilian-looking extraterrestrial man-eating humanoids, retro-rockets, and even stranded astronauts just to name a few key features of it all.
- Retro Rocket: The main game-board pieces on slot-car-style monorails both resemble these.
- Reset Button: Actually managing to complete the game serve as this, and it's actually a rather scary method of resetting since it involves its current players along with anyone else who's currently around them all getting sucked right on down into a black-hole of all things, but it still eventually makes it to where it later seems like literally nothing ever even happened to anybody at all afterwards with the infamous exception of everyone perfectly retaining their memories from it all much like whenever Jumanji resets itself at the end of its respective film.
- Riddle for the Ages: As with Jumanji, major headscratchers such who or what even created the game in the first place, exactly when and for what exact purpose it was originally created for, and exactly where it got its special reality-warping abilities from are absolutely never even brought up at any point in the film at all.
- Space Is Air: Whenever somebody gets directly exposed to the vacuum of space during the gameplay, they can someway somehow still breathe and also still perfectly function afterwards.
The Killer Robot
The Killer Robot
Played by: John Alexander (suit), Frank Oz (voice)
- Adaptational Badass: The clunky and also laughably incompetent robot in the original book is nothing like the unstoppable killing machine seen in this film.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the tie-in video game, he can be reprogrammed much earlier and even becomes a playable character alongside Walter and Danny.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: He's not supposed to be malevolent, but he still goes on a terrifying rampage anyway because he's "defective", which actually translates to "mercilessly slaughter a young boy" in his case at the very least.
- Big Bad Ensemble: He's the second biggest threat in the film next to the Zorgons.
- Big Damn Heroes: Despite his initial status as a villain of the film, he still eventually gets a moment of his own featuring the usage of this trope as further expanded upon below.
- Big Shadow, Little Creature: This is exactly how it is with him at first, but that soon changes as further expanded upon below.
- Broken Record: For whatever reason, he can only ever seem to be able to speak the following five words:
Killer Robot: Emergency. Alien life-form. Must Destroy.
- Chainsaw Good: He can turn one of his claws into a whirling buzzsaw.
- Determinator: Absolutely nothing really stops this thing. Launched into space? He swerves back into the house. Damaged and locked in the basement? He starts manually repairing himself.
- Do-Anything Robot: Given his strength, speed, and arsenal it'd be cool to have him on your side, but unfortunately for the boys, though, he's really not on their side at all at first.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: He rapidly inflicts several of these at once upon the invading Zorgons following his reprogramming moment that's further expanded upon below.
- Heel–Face Turn: He soon does one of these upon Walter reprogramming him, and once that happens, he soon begins slaughtering the countless different Zorgon invaders.
- Implacable Man: Inhumanly strong, fast, determined, and coldly homicidal, this robot feels like a sci-fi slasher, and he's only stopped for good by siccing him on something else, that being the Zorgons of course.
- It Can Think: Much like Van Pelt from Jumanji, he only ever deliberately targets Walter prior to him getting reprogrammed by him more than likely because it was specifically Walter that "rolled" him in the first place much like how Van Pelt exclusively went after Alan Parrish after he rolled him of course.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's not only extremely strong and durable but also incredibly fast, especially when he deploys his rocket boosters.
- Madness Mantra: His above image quote is easily one of these:
Killer Robot: Emergency. Alien life-form. Must Destroy.
- Practical Effects: His head and torso are these, but his limbs are CGI since they're easily far too thin to ever be able to fit any human limbs down into them, but the effect is still rather neat-looking to say the very least.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: During the time that he's a villain, he very clearly sports these.
- Sizeshifter: Right when he first shows up, he looks to be no taller than say twelve inches, but just a handful of seconds later, he soon demonstrates a rather horrifying ability to dramatically increase his very own physical body size completely at his very own will.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Robot charges after Walter to destroy what he thinks is a dangerous alien and even whips out a circular saw to do so.
The Zorgons
The Zorgons
Played by: Derek Mears, Douglas Tait, Joe Bucaro, Jeff Wolfe
Astronaut: Like moths to a flame, they'll easily follow the fire no matter what.
A species of savage, bloodthirsty reptilian aliens who decide to loot the Budwings' floating house.- Adaptational Badass: The one Zorgon who appeared in the original book was a cowardly lizard who was chased away by the just as ineffective Robot. The movie Zorgons are way more ruthless and get more screen-time to show how much more. While they do get chased away by the Robot as well, who wouldn't run away from that thing?
- Adaptation Expansion: The Zorgons in the book had a very minor role as only one of them ever appeared, and even then, it wasn't a full appearance, and it likewise had little impact on the story, but the Zorgons here are far more prominent, and we also get some insight into their background, even including a look inside one of their starships.
- Aliens Are Bastards: It wouldn't be that hard of a game of course if the Zorgons all were nice and friendly towards the players.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Every Zorgon shown is a bloodthirsty predator who loves looting, burning, and eating anything and anyone. It's the lifestyle from being space nomads.
- Big Bad Ensemble: They're the most prominent threat aside from the Killer Robot, even if it's the game itself that's summoning everything in the first place.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Unfortunately for the boys, much unlike the general situation surrounding the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, this trope is very much averted in the Zorgons' case, easily making it to where they're still basically invincible whenever they're traveling within massive groups together all at one time.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Most of them come to some pretty gruesome ends, being shredded by the rampaging robot, crushed by a piano, their ship exploding, and many more being sucked into the black hole Zathura at the very end.
- Lizard Folk: Being monstrous dinosaur-like reptoids, they do anything for heat and food.
- Monster Delay: They're never even mentioned at all until around the halfway point of the film, and even then, we only ever see one of their [1]s at first until they finally show up in person even later on than that.
- Prehistoric Animal Analogue: Being reptilian bipedal monsters, they resemble dinosaurs in their appearance, especially raptors.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Nasty and brutish green monsters who burn anything they can and eat everything else.
- Planet Looters: They savagely raid other planets and vessels in order to be able to continue thriving, and the Astronaut mentions that they even at one point or another burned up their very own homeworld in fact.
- Retro Rocket: This is exactly what they use to fly around in.
- Space Pirates: Their culture is built around hijacking spacecraft to pillage their resources, and to further drive the comparison home, they wield swords that resemble cutlasses.
- To Serve Man: Described as that type of alien by the Astronaut, and they seem downright gleeful at cornering Walter and Danny.
- Would Hurt a Child: The killer robot at the very least has the excuse of malfunctioning, but these guys, however, just see the brothers as snacks, and they obviously don't care exactly how grown the food is first.
The Astronaut (Unmarked Spoilers)
Played by: Dax Shepard
- An Aesop: He intensely invokes this trope upon his past self as greatly further expanded upon both above and below in fact.
- Anger Born of Worry: This is exactly how he responds to the possibility of his past self completely wishing Danny's very own existence away prior to the end of the game.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: He's actually still able to breathe within the vacuum of space when he goes and rescues his past self because Space Is Air in this game as mentioned above.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: He explains to the kids how, when he was little, he couldn't stand his little brother and when he got the chance, he wished for him to disappear. Besides the fact that he lost his brother, that also meant that he was stuck in the game forever, since it was still his brother's turn.
- Big Damn Heroes: He soon establishes himself as one of these by drawing away the initial Zorgon invaders using Mister Budwing's burning "nap-couch" and also later rescuing his past self when he gets Thrown Out the Airlock for cheating at the game.
- Cain and Abel: After having to live with the horrifically bad consequences of this film's example of this trope as already briefly touched upon within two of the above folders in fact, he does literally everything within his power to stop it from happening again for the second time so that he'll then actually be able to complete the game this time around.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Just after he finally first appears on-screen, he briefly looks over the interior of the house and subsequently delivers this rather epically hilarious gem of a line:
Astronaut: Looks like you've got a Zorgon problem.
- Distressed Dude: Prior to the events of the film, he was easily an extreme example of this trope since he had to survive all by himself within outer space for a decade and a half and also had to be accidently spun out of the game by Danny just so that he could then finally escape his extended predicament.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He never once mentions his actual first name out loud at any point in the film as that would easily ruin the already somewhat aforementioned reveal before it were to ever actually happen for obvious reasons.
- Expy: He can be seen as one of these for Alan Parrish as he's at one point spun out of the game to subsequently help out the main players.
- I Am One of Those, Too: When his past self shows him the "promotion to fleet-admiral" card, he himself soon claims to be one of those as well.
- I Hate Past Me: He is a bit of a jerk, but he is harsher towards Walter than he is to Danny which is understandable after it is revealed that not only he is Walter from the future, he was also a Big Brother Bully towards Danny and ended up erasing him from existence. He eases up after the younger Walter doesn’t wish Danny away.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yes, he has his jerky moments throughout the film, but he has the benefit of experience on his side, and also, he's really only ever a jerk towards Walter since he can see how his attitude can cause problems for himself.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He explains that when he played the game, he wished his little brother completely out of existence and subsequently ends up having to live with horrifically negative consequences that make him instantly regret his hasty decision.
- No Indoor Voice: He openly lampshades this trope once his past self and Danny get into yet another argument with one another.
- Oblivious to Love: He's entirely unaware of Lisa's romantic interest in him for good reason.
- Protect This House: Also playing into the aforementioned drawing away the Zorgons part, he also sticks around for the rest of the film and helps to defend the Budwings' house from whatever else ever so chooses to come and attack it for any number of potential reasons.
- The Reveal: Not only is he a previous player of the game, but he's also Walter's future self from an alternate timeline of events.
- Rewatch Bonus: When looked over and studied for the second time, literally every single one of his moments with his past self majorly foreshadows the reveal.
- Seen It All: Is well acquainted with the hazards of the game and is incredibly nonchalant even as the house is besieged by Zorgons. Danny recognizes that his help is the best chance they have of reaching Zathura alive.
- Walking Spoiler: He is revealed near the end of the film to be Walter from an alternate timeline, so he can only be referred as "The Astronaut" if you wish to avoid spoilers.
