Ars longa vita brevis, they say, but I think that’s an overestimation. Sure, people are still listening to Bach, reading Dante, and admiring Euclid’s Elements, but most art produced throughout history are perhaps briefly noted by a couple dozen people and then immediately forgotten. Even if it accrues considerable popularity, if it grosses 65 million dollars in movie theatres worldwide, few might remember it even a mere twenty years later. Like Zathura: A space adventure. It’s a mostly forgotten movie from 2005, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Josh Hutcherson and Kristen Stewart1 in the dawn of their career.
The concept is that two squabbling brothers end up playing Zathura: A space adventure; an old game one of them finds in the basement. The youngest brother takes a turn and gets a card that reads:
METEOR SHOWER2
Take evasive action
Barely have they read the card or dozens and dozens of small meteors start mercilessly bombarding the living room they’re playing in.
Not even the chessboard is spared. Right before it gets crushed, we can see the following position:3
The pieces are very badly adjusted and the pawn on f8 is somehow crowding out both a knight and a bishop. But even if it were on f7 or g7, the position would be completely ridiculous. Nevertheless, I’m giving full marks. Before a meteor hits the board square in the middle,many others have already crashed in the room. And I have no trouble believing that a chessboard, doubtlessly with the pieces in the starting position, that gets thoroughly shaken4 by a meteor shower might look like this.
The kids barely manage to hide in the fireplace, which luckily wasn’t in use. The game will later get them almost exterminated by a robot, smashed into an exoplanet, and eaten by aliens. That almost never happens playing chess! Yet more — if rather unexpected — reasons to play our noble game instead of weird space-themed board games.
Realism: 5/5 Of course the actual position is a 0, but I cannot penalise the director, actors, or continuity manager for the results of a natural disaster. It is force majeur.
Probable winner: Well, the meteor won quite decisively. By force majeur.
1. [Their house ends up floating through space on a small clump of land, so Kristen Stewart is Trapped in a island with Josh Hutcherson.] ↩
2. [Meteors apparently stink to high heavens, so the meteor really should shower.] ↩
3. [Apronus: a diagram editor.] ↩
4. [Not stirred.] ↩