What seems like a potential plot hole in the original 1995 Jumanji actually has a logical explanation. Now rebooted into a modern franchise where Jumanji is a video game, rather than the traditional variety with a board and pieces, Jumanji first stampeded onto the big screen with Robin Williams as the lead and a young Kirsten Dunst among the supporting cast. The story revolves around the mysterious Jumanji game, which traps players into its magical grasp and forces them to endure a series of jungle-themed threats and dangers until the game is completed. Alan and his friend, Sarah, start playing in the late 1960s, and are forced to finish almost 30 years later when Jumanji is rediscovered by Dunst's Judy and her younger brother, Peter.
As well as playing through all manner of wild beasts, natural disasters and primate transformation punishments, the thrown-together quartet are pursued by a game hunter from the world of Jumanji by the name of Van Pelt. This gun-totting villain remains a menace right until Jumanji's closing scenes, in which Pelt finally corners Alan in the collapsing house and shoots at him. Fortuitously, Alan manages to hit the winning roll and say Jumanji just in time, causing both the bullet and Van Pelt's gun to disappear. Some, however, argue that the gun and bullet shouldn't have been affected, because they came from the real world, not the Jumanji world. Earlier in the film, Van Pelt procures a modern day weapon and some ammunition from a store, and this is the gun that evaporated during the closing scenes, ensuring Alan's survival.
It's easy to see why this moment could be interpreted as a plot hole. The closing sequence of Jumanji sees everything previously created by the game drawn back into the center of the board in a big, early-CGI cyclone. The jungle animals all come crashing back into their own realm, and Van Pelt himself is dragged through too, with his head briefly getting stuck on the way down. But while the scene's visuals give the impression that everything Jumanji created is being taken back (and, therefore, real-world items should be excluded) that's not actually what's happening.
According to the rules, completing a game of Jumanji means that "the exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji and called out its name." Although Van Pelt's gun may not have come directly from the world of Jumanji, it was still a consequence because a figure from the game bought the weapon and fired it at Alan. Once the final throw of the dice was made and Alan uttered the magic word, everything went back to how it should be, meaning the gun was never taken or fired in the first place. This is why the gun and bullet seem to disintegrate, while the rest of the Jumanji creations are sucked back into the game.
There's a clear disconnect between the visual effects in Jumanji's ending and the actual intention of the script. Seeing the animals and Van Pelt physically warped into the Jumanji board via a swirling vortex certainly creates the sense that the game is reclaiming what it created, but the reality is more akin to a rewinding of time. In either case, it's testament to the original Jumanji movie that the story is still so keenly discussed a quarter of a century after its initial release.