This article includes spoilers and is a summary of the Minecraft Movie.
What is the top-selling video game of all time? Minecraft. With over 300 million copies sold since 2011, when the game came out, Minecraft has made over 3 billion dollars. Minecraft is such a sought-after game because of how it can pull out your creativity. It is a game where you can build full cities and fight off monsters. You could make all-out civilizations if you wanted to. With the game being so loved and treasured by so many and feeling even more nostalgic for others, eventually someone was going to make a movie about it. This movie is based almost entirely off of the video game.
Almost nine years ago on June 27, 2016, Mojang Studios announced that “A Minecraft Movie” would be coming out on May 24, 2019.Just like I was, you may be wondering why the movie took almost a decade to reach the silver screen. Well, like most things in spring of 2019 and into 2020, production was shut down due to COVID-19 and the pandemic that followed. However, that wasn’t the only thing slowing the production down. There were director changes, creative differences between developers, and the issue of how to bring a movie to the screen that would stay similar to the beloved game, and fit with the guidelines of live-action movies. But, in April of 2024, it was re-announced that the filming process had begun and the movie would be coming out to long-awaited fans on April 4, 2025. This time around, the deadline stayed true. It was also announced that Jack Black and Jason Mamoa would be starring in it alongside Jennifer Coolidge, who would make some appearances.
Fans could not wait for the day when their favorite game would be turned into a movie. So, on April 4th, doors opened and on opening weekend the film generated 163 million dollars in the U.S and 313.2 million dollars globally. So, it is safe to say that people were very excited.
The movie starts with a young child named Steve who wants to play in the mines. Since Steve is a child, he is not allowed anywhere near them, but when he becomes an adult, he goes back to the mines and starts cutting into the rock. Steve suddenly sees something glowing and picks it up. The glowing light is actually an orb that creates a portal and takes him out of the real world and into Minecraft. Once in this new world, Steve trains a dog who later becomes his best friend. The two are living a great life, building houses and cities, and they have even made friends with some villagers in their city. Overall, everything seems to be going great. Steve does not have any interest in going home because he feels as though he has always been more of a loner and was never able to fit in anyway, so he builds a new life. One day, however, an evil pig, Malgosha, who is the queen of Netherland, wants to control Minecraft. Malgosha sends her minions to grab Steve, who still has the orb, to give it to her so she can have power. Steve hands the orb to his dog and tells the dog to run and hide the orb outside of Minecraft in the real world. The dog takes the orb and runs with it, eventually returning it to the real world and hiding out in Chuglas, Idaho.
A few years later, two teenagers named Emily and Henry move to Chuglas, Idaho, after the death of their mother. As they are settling in and readjusting to life, they meet a woman named Dawn. She is a zookeeper and real estate agent. Eventually, Henry has to start school. On his first day, before school, Henry runs into a gaming shop and meets a man named Garret “The Garbage Collector.” Garret is seemingly stuck in the 80s and likes to play video games.
Once Henry is at school, he creates a jetpack to try and fit in. Outside, he tests out this jet pack, but it flies into the company building where his sister is working. The school brings Henry into the office and says he must call his legal guardian. Henry does not want to disrupt his sister, so he calls in Garrett as his uncle to pick him up. Garret takes Henry back to the store, and while he is looking around Henry finds the orb. The orb has a scroll in it that says not to follow it, but being the knuckleheads they are, Henry and Garret follow the mysterious object. Back in Chuglass, Henry’s sister Zoey is very worried about him since he has not been home in a while. She calls Dawn the zookeeper, and they head into the mines where they find Henry and Garret standing in front of a portal.
The four of them fall into the portal, where they are transported into a Minecraft reality. Once there, they try to figure out what is going on, but eventually, nighttime rushes in and the monsters come out. Stricken with fear, the four of them take the orb and run into a building. What they don’t know is that monsters can climb, and there are so many of them that they start to climb up and bombard the four of them. Just when they are about to be overtaken, Steve comes flying in and starts to fight off all of the monsters, as he has experienced.
After Steve defeats the monsters, it becomes daytime and Steve, Zoey, Henry, Dawn, and Garret all set out on a quest to the woodland mansion to get an Earth crystal so they can go home. They face many difficult challenges but ultimately come out on top. Once they arrive at the Woodland Mansion, they have to face off against a bunch of creatures to get the crystal. After obtaining the crystal, the evil Malgosha comes back to try and steal it. There is one final battle, and Garret sacrifices himself for the win. Everyone thinks that he is gone, but in the end of the movie, Garret comes back, and the final scenes of the movie end with everybody, including Steve and his dog, going home to Chuglas, Idaho.
The movie was very popular in theaters and even brought about various memes that went viral on TikTok, such as chicken jockey, which is in one of the scenes during the movie. There will most likely be a sequel, which may be just as successful as this movie has been.
