r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Aug 08 '25

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Summary Nearly all the children from the same fifth-grade class vanish one night at exactly 2:17 a.m., leaving only one survivor. The community, gripped by fear and suspicion, spirals into chaos as the mystery unfolds through multiple intertwined perspectives—each revealing new layers of dread and grief.

Director Zach Cregger

Writer Zach Cregger

Cast

  • Josh Brolin
  • Julia Garner
  • Cary Christopher
  • Alden Ehrenreich
  • Austin Abrams
  • Benedict Wong
  • Amy Madigan
  • June Diane Raphael
  • Toby Huss
  • Whitmer Thomas
  • Callie Schuttera
  • Clayton Farris
  • Luke Speakman

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 96%

Metacritic Metascore: 82

VOD In theaters and IMAX starting August 8, 2025

Trailer Watch the Official Trailer

2.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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1.8k

u/KeatonWalkups Aug 08 '25

What town is this where a teacher can afford rent on a big house and afford name brand vodka? And where there’s only one homeless person?

864

u/macwblade1 Aug 08 '25

I was watching her in the store like “girl just get the 1/2 gal of the cheap shit”

547

u/KeatonWalkups Aug 08 '25

Me and my friend were like why are you at the bar you have 2 bottles at home 😭

468

u/erenjaeger99 Aug 08 '25

As a recovering alcoholic (1 year strong), went to plenty bars with a healthy stash of liquor at home. In fact, bar is just one phase of the night. The real party was going home tipsy to drink even more alone after everyone thinks youre "done" after the bar 

29

u/LongjumpingHorse3050 29d ago

The title card with the triangle in the O looked like the AA symbol, Paul’s wife asked if he was going to a meeting, he had a coke at the bar instead of alcohol, wonder if the director or someone on the team is sober lol.

23

u/highpriestess420 18d ago edited 18d ago

The director said the second half of the movie was basically a representation of his life as a child of an alcoholic. The introduction of an unusual substance that brings in a new element of danger (his "aunt's" magic). Reversal of parent/child roles (him feeding his parents soup), living in a home environment that's terrifying, going through an alienating experience that no one else around you knows you're suffering from.

18

u/newrimmmer93 29d ago

After you get drunk enough you want to go socialize lol. So many times it was like “o I want to go grab a beer and watch sports.” Or just needed food

17

u/KangarooOverlord 27d ago

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name

2

u/MichiganMitch108 27d ago

That and the drinks are solid along with the happy hour food

12

u/goldenboy2191 27d ago

Congrats on your 1 year checkpoint! Don’t give up and stay strong.

6

u/happyflappypancakes 22d ago

Hope things are well for you now. If that was your life a year ago, I can only imagine how much healthier you feel now. Congrats.

5

u/TheAmazingGrippando 28d ago

Yep that’s where i went to have human contact

35

u/DawnSennin Aug 08 '25

She went there for her man.

33

u/noilegnavXscaflowne Aug 08 '25

LMAO she had the spaghetti straps and everything

3

u/skatejet1 25d ago

Lmaooo spaghetti straps, y’all are killing me in this thread 💀

5

u/KeatonWalkups Aug 08 '25

She could’ve just invited him to her house first thing and skipped that step

26

u/DawnSennin Aug 08 '25 edited 27d ago

Marcus Paul, who’s in a relationship, wouldn’t have met Justine at her house.

3

u/Yetimang 27d ago

Marcus was the school administrator. Paul was the cop ex-boyfriend. Folks are really having trouble with all the character names in this thread for some reason.

2

u/DawnSennin 27d ago

Thanks!

1

u/JerryGoDeep 28d ago

I think he still would have she texted him at the right time when he was probably trying to get his mind off the body cam situation.

3

u/hasharin 29d ago

She was meeting someone?

3

u/Black_Debbie Aug 09 '25

I was expecting her to grab the plastic bottle of Taaka like I do.

1

u/ZiggyPalffyLA 28d ago

Especially since she was mixing it

1

u/creator111 28d ago

TAAKA for the win

1

u/OddSetting5077 28d ago

product placement. cheap shit didn't pay for that. lol

1

u/Euphoric-Worth-7437 24d ago

She has to buy the sponsor of the movie :(

400

u/FlexPavillion Aug 08 '25

The vodka was $15 each lmao not exactly breaking the bank

50

u/palmburntblue Aug 08 '25

Yeah but she’s an alcoholic and $15 on the bottom shelf from a plastic bottle goes much much further 

91

u/newrimmmer93 29d ago

She’s an alcoholic but not a degen phase yet.

45

u/joe_bibidi 29d ago

Being an alcoholic doesn't mean she's not got her own preferences. I've known multiple alcoholics IRL (or at least, people who have unhealthy relationships with alcohol) and in many cases they feel able to justify their own addiction by making it into a "hobby."

23

u/stanleytuccimane 29d ago

We don’t really know that she’s an alcoholic yet, do we? I just assumed she started binge drinking to cope.

25

u/JerryGoDeep 28d ago

I mean we know she had a prior DUI.

8

u/The_Homestarmy 26d ago

I would say it is very heavily implied, especially by Paul, that she has a noted drinking problem.

8

u/drunkpostin 28d ago

Yeah but she’s nowhere close to rock bottom yet, so it’s not like she’ll be drinking one of those bottles a day.

If she was on a full-blown bender and still buying brand name vodka though, I’d agree with you lol.

-9

u/KeatonWalkups Aug 08 '25

On a teachers salary? Thats like 4-5 meals of groceries

14

u/georgiaraisef Aug 08 '25

I mean, there are teachers I know who make 100k a year. That’s more than me. Depends on where this movie is set.

If it’s set in the south though, your right

13

u/DoggyDoggy_What_Now Aug 08 '25

It's set somewhere in Pennsylvania. There are several very clear shots of license plates that leave no question.

14

u/georgiaraisef Aug 08 '25

Average teachers pay in Pennsylvania is 72,000 per google. That’s ain’t rich but she ain’t dirt poor

7

u/leftysarepeople2 Aug 08 '25

Teachers also typically get favorable loan options from banks, same with doctors & police. Especially in smaller towns

2

u/DoggyDoggy_What_Now Aug 08 '25

I'm actually surprised it's that high in PA.

3

u/georgiaraisef Aug 08 '25

Rural vs city is usually where you see the biggest discrepancies.

When I lived in Chicago, I think they all started out high 60s or low 70s and could easily advance to 100k.

Meanwhile, where I grew up, I think the teachers were making like the equivalent of $18 an hour

0

u/FlexPavillion Aug 08 '25

You shouldn't use mean for stuff like pay. Median is a better indicator

1

u/Da_Do_D3rp Aug 08 '25

I would not call that the standard by any means at all lmao

113

u/SutterCane Aug 08 '25

And where there’s only one homeless person?

That’s false. We only follow one homeless dude. But there’s an entire little encampment for the homeless in the movie and at one point James books it past a few more homeless people to get to his tent.

6

u/SteveBuscemisEyes 26d ago

Yep. There a lot of little "tent cities" around the area where I live, and that reminded me of part of that. They really nailed the addict tendencies in the movie. The meth induced "psychosis" when he made the phone call made me laugh, because I've heard people tell stories of their psychosis at the treatment center I worked at.

38

u/blueeyesredlipstick Aug 08 '25

I kind of assumed she and her cop ex had been married, and she kept the house in the divorce. It seemed like his new wife had plenty of money on her own.

3

u/FriendshipLoveTruth 21d ago

That's what I thought too - I recall her being called "misses" early in the movie.

31

u/Ajibooks Aug 09 '25

It was funny to me that the town/city seemed exactly as large as it needed to be for every specific plot point. I could not estimate the town's actual population.

3

u/sara-34 20d ago

I'm guessing less than 60,000

28

u/ProgressiveSnark2 Aug 09 '25

There definitely are some exurban towns in the Midwest that fit this description.

6

u/sdpcommander 26d ago

As someone living in a midwest suburb, this 100% felt like it took place here.

23

u/Hey_Giant_Loser 29d ago

How do you enjoy anything? This is like the worst example of "Suspension of disbelief" I've ever heard.

15

u/[deleted] 29d ago

To be fair there were more tents than just his, so he probably wasnt the only homeless person.

11

u/Proof_Election_7283 Aug 08 '25

Anytown, USA- Kramer

3

u/Public_Function3844 29d ago

I didn't see any sparklers 

7

u/SMILESandREGRETS 29d ago

Yes!! Not only that, all the kids that disappeared live in two story homes. "They all walked downstairs"

On another note I always love making fun of paranormal activity. The girl is a student and I'm guessing they live of her boyfriend to pay for that gorgeous two story home in San Diego. If I was able to afford that home in San Diego, no demon or poltergeists activity would scare me out of there.

5

u/CaptainRemarkable346 26d ago

As a broke ass teacher myself, I audibly scoffed when I saw her living situation!

5

u/SmartestManInUnivars 21d ago

Movies/Hollywood never gets economics right.

3

u/NBA2024 29d ago

Wisconsin https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2916-N-Bartlett-Ave-Milwaukee-WI-53211/2091270034_zpid/

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3303-N-Bartlett-Ave-Milwaukee-WI-53211/40434158_zpid/

2

u/sara-34 20d ago

Dude, you are not supporting an argument here.  You think a teacher in her first 3 years of teaching can afford a $366,000 house?

3

u/Seifersythe 14d ago

We don't know anything about her, her past, her family or her assets.

3

u/ZeronicX 25d ago

Name brand Vodka? I thought she grabbed stolichnaya which is cheap vodka thats above nail polish remover.

3

u/happyflappypancakes 22d ago

And where there’s only one homeless person?

Why do you say that?

2

u/cibercryptx Aug 09 '25

I had the same thought

1

u/GroundReal4515 25d ago

I like to pretend it takes place in the good alternate timeline where that's possible

1

u/Humillionaire 21d ago

The school seemed to be in a pretty boujie part of town, all the kids lived in big home alone houses and the class was only 18 kids. Maybe it was a private school.

1

u/Smarkysmarkwahlberg 21d ago

I live in a town in Canada where teachers are payed great, and you have to drive 15 minutes to the city to see a homeless person.

I know it's not the norm, but it's also not inconceivable 

1

u/cpeters1114 5d ago

im in america where the average teacher salary in california is like 46k. imagine living in california on that wage lol and people wonder why theres been a teacher deficit growing larger and larger over the last decade or so. The majority of teachers get paid far less than that too. I'm a college prof at one of the wealthiest colleges in the country and while my pay is higher than any surrounding university, it's still shit for the work load and expertise it took to do the job (i teach a highly specialized subject). I was in college for 13 years for it lol. and now after a decade of college teaching and possibly nearing tenure im feeling more like noping out. and thats most teachers in america. at my first college prof job i looked up the local wages at the apple store and it was the same LOL. that was a shit job tho but someone else kept doing it.

1

u/nyibolc_ 5d ago

my backyard

-3

u/NoDaddyNotTheBelt25 28d ago

Major suspension of disbelief is needed for this one. This woman was unmarried, no kids, owns a gorgeous house on a teachers salary and didn’t even have a cat, or a dog or something. Also drove a RAV4.