They say the badness of a movie is proportional to the number of helicopters in it. Happy to report that “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” has just one whirlybird, and is as much fun as the previews indicated.

The film owes a huge debt to “The Breakfast Club,” with its “detention for disparate high-schoolers” theme. This time around the teens are a nerdy hypochondriac, a gorgeous and shallow blonde, a football jock who scorns academics and a loner who’s hyper-focused on getting into Princeton.

“Detention” involves cleanup duty in a cluttered basement room. Guess what they find? An old-school video game setup. Before you can say “exposition,” they’ve been sucked into a potentially deadly game in a world that looks a lot like Oahu.

And of course I found personal finance lessons there. You would have, too.

 

Well, maybe you wouldn’t. That is, unless you’re a PF blogger who likes to have a reason to charge off her movie tickets as a business expense. Here goes:

 

1. Life changes. Change back at it.

 

One minute you’re trying to deny helping the jock cheat on his homework and the next you’re being called on to save everyone from constant peril, even though you’re a secret crybaby whose Claritin didn’t follow him into a world potentially full of unknown allergens.

Each of the teens is challenged by the sudden fracturing of life as they know it. Who wouldn’t be? It all seems like a horrible dream, but there’s no time to focus on that or to cry about the unfairness of it all. Adapt or die.

With luck you’ll never get sucked into a video game (except maybe in the abstract). However, you might experience a sudden economic downturn. One minute you’re rolling along secure and confident, or maybe not quite secure but at least pretty much handling things. The next minute you’re hearing your boss telling you to clean out your desk, your partner saying “we need to talk” or your doctor suggesting a chat about the test results.

Terrifying. Potentially ruinous. And possibly inevitable. You may be one of the lucky ones who sails through life without a single money hiccup. Don’t count on it, though, and be ready with an emergency fund and a Plan B.

 

 

2. When help is offered, take it.

 

Venom. Endurance. Cake. These are some of the weaknesses experienced by the teens-now-adults. Only one of them, the nerdy Spencer (played in the game by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), has all the skills and no weaknesses.

In theory, anyway. Although he’s awed by his newfound physique (the film could also have been called “Jumanji: Welcome to the gun show”) and seemingly effortless fighting skills, Spencer is also terrified. He needs reassurance and support from his fellow avatars in order to get through the game and get them all home.

Ever had something go wrong? Really wrong? Lost job/unexpected expense/serious-medical-bills wrong? If you’re lucky, you’ll be ready to deal with the tough stuff. If not – and even if so – don’t be too proud to accept a hand up from a relative or friend. That person might be able to help with advice, mad networking skills, a place to live and maybe even a short-term loan.

Pride is a great thing to have. Maturity is, too, and as adults we need to recognize that sometimes saying, “Yes, thanks – and I owe you one” is necessary. Do what you must to get through a rough patch. The people who love you want to help. Let them. And if you owe them one, be sure to pay it back or pay it forward.

 

3. It takes all kinds to make a team.

 

Martha (Karen Gillan) is the anxious academic who clearly disdains the gorgeous and selfie-obsessed Bethany (the hilarious and quite effective Jack Black – yes, picture-perfect Bethany’s avatar is a chubby middle-aged man). In the game, the two young women are forced to work together to survive – and, in true movie fashion, each learns from the other. The same thing happens with Spencer and the hulking football player, Fridge (the delightfully shrill Kevin Hart).

Maybe you have a “get outta my way” attitude at work and maybe outside of work, too. You just know that a co-worker, a neighbor or a fellow PTA member has nothing to add to the conversation. And maybe you’re right.

But you might also be wrong. The person you ignore or automatically write off might be the missing piece of the workplace project or community effort. Be wise enough to listen, and to examine your own preconceived notions about the jock, the blonde, the nerd or the loner.

 

4. Don’t play by other people’s rules.

 

The lonely Spencer helps Fridge cheat on his schoolwork even though he knows he could be expelled for doing so. Some unspoken Teen Code says that the popular football player must remain on the team at all costs, and it’s up to Spencer to help him do so. Fridge certainly takes this kind of assistance for granted, to the point of blaming Spencer for “getting me kicked off the team” when the cheating is exposed.

Ever been asked to do something unethical or even illegal at work, or to take the blame for a project that didn’t go as planned? The pressure might have felt enormous and the alternative – losing your job – could have been too awful to contemplate.

Don’t be pushed into agreeing with other people’s interpretations of right and wrong. Every time you compromise your integrity, you lose a piece of yourself. In some cases you might even go to jail.

 

5. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

When all seems lost, Spencer makes a judgment call that costs the life of another team member. Harsh, but necessary in order to increase the team’s chance of completing its mission. (Since each player gets three lives, the person doesn’t stay dead but does stay irritated for a while.)

I once interviewed a woman whose remodeling business took it on the chin during a recession (not the 2008 one). When layoffs happen or are threatened, people didn’t want to put any money into their homes. The company struggled. Then she was offered the chance to take care of the scene of a violent crime: clean up the blood and repair the damage.

Fun stuff, huh? But she took the job. And the next job. And the job after that. (Violent crime is, apparently, recession-proof.)

Before long the company added post-flood and -fire services, and now does more restoration than remodeling. Not what they’d ever intended to do, but they were willing to gamble to keep the company alive. Sometimes big risks mean big rewards – or at least the chance to stay in the game.

 

Related reading:

• 5 financial lessons from ‘Parsifal’
• 6 money lessons from ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
• 8 personal finance lessons from ‘Gotterdammerung’