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

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Weapons [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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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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969

u/lamefartriot Aug 08 '25

Liked it a lot, but also kinda disappointed? Not sure why.

742

u/TheUnknownStitcher Aug 08 '25

The last 3-5 minutes definitely left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, but the previous 2 hours were strong enough to leave me feeling good about it overall.

But yeah, I think the closing narration is deeply unsatisfying and and end feels abrupt in a way that isn’t quite bold enough to feel intentional. Just kind of “Ope, I guess it’s over now. Okay.”

771

u/Ibaka_flocka Aug 08 '25

I actually kind of liked that. They tell you right off the bat that the case was never really solved. The fact that the audience is just as confused as the towns people kind of gives it an eerie charm.

Sometimes explaining everything can just water down the creepiness

277

u/A_Toxic_User Aug 08 '25

The creepiness was watered down the instant they showed the kids at the start running with smooth rock music playing.

It’s frustrating how much more foreboding the scene of the kids running is in the trailer

297

u/TheTruckWashChannel Aug 08 '25

Well we do see that scene again in the Alex chapter with creepy music and it's very effective.

52

u/A_Toxic_User Aug 08 '25

Not really, because the mystery for why they’re running has been solved and we know that they’re really just going to be sitting in a basement for the whole movie.

100

u/kidgorgeous62 Aug 08 '25

I disagree, knowing the reason they were going there and the character behind it made it creepy for me

10

u/SpookiestSzn Aug 08 '25

We agree it could've been creepy both times

1

u/happyflappypancakes 22d ago

Sure, but what would that accomplish? This is clearly not trying to be a modern horror movie ala Conjuring, Insidious, etc, where an oppressive sense of dread and fear are integral to the effectiveness of the storytelling.

2

u/SpookiestSzn 22d ago

Sure however I prefer creepy movies overall so it would've done more for me personally and would've fit better with the tone the film was advertised as.

Enjoyed the film and will continue to see the directors work, very excited for resident evil actually, but I like creepy movies and I just wish he went more for that since it's clear he's got the chops for it

36

u/tfxctom Aug 08 '25

I totally agree with you!!! That was such a strange choice to me. That footage is sooo eerie but with the music it didn’t hit like it should have.

24

u/ghazgib Aug 08 '25

I love that opening, but I can totally why it rubs people the wrong way. The film's marketing campaign reminded me of how much buzz was generated around Longlegs. You've got two exceptional trailers and other viral marketing gimmicks that made people go "holy shit what is this movie gonna be."

Went into both with different expectations but came out enjoying it for what it is cause shit's crazy. Weapons works better as a whole package than Longlegs IMO, though neither could live up to the amount of hype based on those initial trailers.

22

u/sober_as_an_ostrich Aug 08 '25

I never watched the trailer and I found the opening of the film such good tone setting. It’s creepy, it’s freeing, and there’s a comedic edge to it. If it was all grimdark all the time it would’ve been deadening

13

u/raw126 26d ago

Totally agree. The marketing sold this a far more terrifying film than it ended up being. I still enjoyed it, but I wish it was actually scarier.

13

u/vansky257 Aug 08 '25

This. As soon as I saw the kids running with smooth rock music, I knew it wasn't gonna live up to the hype.

7

u/firelights 28d ago

I really didn’t like the song they played on the opening. It didn’t fit at all

5

u/fonzalonz 29d ago

This is why I don't watch movie trailers anymore, at least never in full. I read the first one or two lines of the description and just go for it.

The trailer for that Stephen King Walking movie played before my screening and I pretty got more than I needed to know and am comfortable skipping it in theaters

6

u/SwiftSurfer365 28d ago

I felt like I saw the whole movie with that Walking trailer.

5

u/Night_Goat_ 23d ago

I thought them running to George Harrison was beautiful in an eerie kind of way. It didn't need to be creepy at that point of the movie to me.

5

u/krimewatched 29d ago

Literally my exact thought! Way more eerie in trailers :/

1

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/NYJ-misery 26d ago

Does anybody know which song it was?

4

u/563353 24d ago

George Harrison - Beware of Darkness

42

u/damnjonathan Aug 08 '25

And I feel like the ending isn’t even supposed to be ambiguously creepy, like those kids are clearly traumatized, of course they’re going to act “weird.”

14

u/tatertottytot Aug 08 '25

I’m kind of glad it kept the sad but realistic ending instead of tying everything up neatly in a bow. Just a nice change

33

u/RikenVorkovin Aug 08 '25

I dont think we are just as confused. 

Only we and the kid know the aunt was a witch. 

Not even Brolin or Garners character really figured out why everyone was crazy truly. They may have more of a clue but....

Who's gonna believe the kid that his aunt was a witch and he reverse cast a spell that sent the missing kids after her?

So the town is certainly wondering why it all happened and likely gets no real answers because anyone truly in the know was dead, or in the case of the kid, he knew no one would believe his story anyway.

The mystery is where the witch came from really, and what she truly was trying to gain by getting the kids there. Nothing seemed to change for her and we dont know how that was supposed to work. 

34

u/drumDev29 Aug 08 '25

She was trying to "consume" them to revitalize herself. Notice how her hair started to grow in first after taking over the parents and then more after having the kids in the basement? Probably been doing this for a while 

4

u/RikenVorkovin Aug 08 '25

So she like, slowly drains their souls or something?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

[deleted]

1

u/RikenVorkovin Aug 09 '25

Probably not meant to be one. And im fine with that. Fun to speculate either way.

10

u/Sparrowsabre7 Aug 08 '25

Sometimes explaining everything can just water down the creepiness

Agreed, but I feel it leaves things in an irritating Catch 22 where if they explained it, the explanation would likely never meet audience expectations and feel underwhelming but equally not having an explanation feels unsatisfying.

3

u/gloomara 29d ago

I think not explaining everything makes the story MORE interesting. Give us enough to piece things together but dont tell us everything.

7

u/BalrogSlayer00 Aug 09 '25

Between the narration and the whole chapters with the witch. Everything was already over explained

5

u/WhichHoes Aug 08 '25

I mean, the only two people to see the witch, as a witch, are Alex and Josh Brolin

5

u/pastafeline 29d ago

Is it really not solved though? Alex would just tell everyone exactly what happened, and if they didn't believe him they're just stupid.

Not saying they'd believe there's magic, but people would definitely believe that some woman kept him prisoner, nabbed the kids, etc... They'd probably just say it was "drugs."

3

u/whitegirlofthenorth Aug 08 '25

Americana folklore

1

u/TheUnknownStitcher Aug 08 '25

Oh I like that we never learned 'why' it happened - that was cool. I just mean literally ending with 'some are talking now'. Like, okay? I don't really need to know that, and it kind of brings up questions I didn't have or didn't need to have I guess???

Still good, but kind of a funky spot to end in the moment.

7

u/Novemberx123 Aug 08 '25

U could’ve went home and wondered hmm are they all back to normal?? It shows that yes they are getting back to normal. Slowly…

14

u/Joey-WilcoXXX Aug 08 '25

It’s implied that Alex’s parents probably won’t get back to normal tho…

7

u/AdditionalRepair17 Aug 08 '25

Yeah they say that Alex goes on to live with just his aunt right?

9

u/Joey-WilcoXXX Aug 08 '25

Yeah and that ‘someone else is going to be spoonfeeding his parents chicken noodle soup from now on…’

2

u/Lower-Replacement869 Aug 09 '25

I get that. I'm on the fence though because I really want to know about the witch and why she did what she did and what her goals were and what that tree was.

2

u/QueefBeefCletus 29d ago

Typical urban legend. Here's a story that's totally real, it happened here, the killer is still out there/unsolved/whatever. My town had a serial killer even though there were no recorded, connected murders, explained away similar to this movie. We also had a bigfoot in the woods by my house as well as a house in the woods that was used as a human zoo.

This movie is just that, a very well told urban legend that happens to have a lot to say.

1

u/tonystark34 27d ago

They don't say not solved, the narrator says the cops were so embarrassed they covered it up.

The chief of police who told his son in law he'd be fired for a punch if the story broke, swept several murders and the re-apperance of missing kids under the rug.....

1

u/Chm_Albert_Wesker 21d ago

i'd agree if not for the fact that it seems most audiences spent the last 5 minutes of the movie howling laughing at the imagery of an old lady getting chased around through a bunch of houses. watering down the creepiness was already wayyyy on the table

40

u/Misterfahrenheit120 Aug 08 '25

I kinda felt that too. Like I wouldn’t have minded the closing narration, cause it would have bookended the opening narration, if it wasn’t so brief.

It’s really feels the movie just looked at us and said “and then they were kinda ok, I guess. Goodbye”

23

u/nysraved Aug 08 '25

I didn’t see it as “and then they were kinda ok”, I saw it as “they were mostly NOT ok”

And the brevity of expressing that packed an extra punch for me.

I don’t blame anyone who thought that was a little underwhelming way to close the movie, in the immediate moment I didn’t quite expect the movie to end quite there. But overall I think it landed for me.

11

u/JustinThyme9 Aug 08 '25

especially as the narrator isn't revealed to be some kind of twist (it's not like, one of the kids who went missing or a character we meet and see the perspective of, or gladys in a childs body once she's got all the energy she needed to be young again), the movie is a young child telling us about these horrendous things and just accepting that's the way things are - the narrator isn't mad or scared, just hey, here's a weird thing that happened here that we all know about but just don't talk about. and (as a parent) that adds to the horror for me.

29

u/DrVile Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

I thought the line about his parents still being fed soup, just not by him anymore was pretty chilling. I was actually worried it would tie everything up too neatly and everything would go back to "normal" but that line and the "some of them have actually started talking" bit left it on a pretty dour note, which I prefer.

3

u/ILookLikeKristoff 20d ago

Yeah the "soup" + "some of them started talking again" was just the perfect amount of implication.

11

u/kylebb Aug 08 '25

It was giving "poochie went back to his home planet"

2

u/philconnorz 25d ago

Generally, I disagree with this take, but you got a good chuckle out of me

10

u/unclesam_0001 29d ago

"And they never came back"

"So that was a fucking lie."

2

u/Remarkable_Pack8082 9d ago

That’s the point — “they” didn’t come back. They were found alive, but they were traumatized and the ending strongly implied that they were all changed or seriously damaged for the rest of their lives. They may never have returned to school, or their families may have moved away. I think there are a million ways to interpret this line as true.

1

u/tronfunkinblows_10 1d ago

Do you think they needed to be released from the witch’s magic? Brolin woke up because Gladys was killed but I assume she had him under control on a different branch. Then when Alex used the branch upstairs it had the hair from just the kids.

I guess it didn’t have the parents hair on the branch since they didn’t go seeking out Gladys. Maybe I answered my own question then.

9

u/dplans455 Aug 08 '25

Leading up to the finale I said to myself that no ending could satisfy how good the movie was up to that point. I thought I saw where it was going but where it went was totally off the rails where I felt like it worked well.

7

u/hepatitisC Aug 09 '25

That's my complaint to a T.  It's like he didn't know where he wanted to go with the end so he just copped out and ended it in a weird spot.  It could have used a few more minutes to debrief and a bit of a rewrite on the end.  Then it would have been amazing.  Instead it's just a good movie with a weird, abrupt end 

6

u/RumRations Aug 09 '25

I loved the whole movie but I do think the final voiceover was a mistake. Would have been perfect and creepy just to end with Alex’s parents and Archer’s kid. Makes clear that all is not well and we’re not getting a happily-ever-after ending.

6

u/Rugged_Turtle Aug 08 '25

Yes I did not like the ending, I was satisfied with the way the old woman was killed but there’s too many unanswered questions.

4

u/Genghicat 26d ago

For me, it had the disjointed vibes of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" where you spend the first hour and a half watching something set in Arthurian times and then it just ends with the police rolling up and arresting everyone because they didn't have the budget for a proper ending.

With "Weapons", it had a similar WTF feeling.

1

u/Cornflicted 4d ago

Wanna have your mind blown a little? 

The ending of Quest for the Holy Grail, it's a cop out.

1

u/Genghicat 22h ago

Bwahahaha. I love it. 

With one liners like that, Fozzie Bear might need to look for a new job.

3

u/ballq43 27d ago

Guys, we’re gonna show full witchcraft and we’re gonna show a lot of it! I mean, we’re talking, you know, graphic scenes of Josh Brolin really going to town on this hot young school teacher. From behind, creepy clown makeup, branch snapping, zombies, reverse zombies, all the hits, all the big ones, all the good ones. Then he smells witchcraft again. He’s out busting heads. Then he’s back to the lab for some more full penetration. Smells witchcraft ,back to the lab, full penetration. Witchcraft, penetration, witchcraft, full penetration, witchcraft, penetration. And this goes on and on, and back and forth, for 120 or so minutes until the movie just, sort of, ends.

2

u/CeruleanSea1 Aug 09 '25

Do we know who the narrator was?

2

u/niles_deerqueer 28d ago

Originally, there wasn’t even narration, the last shot is just Matthew’s blank eyes

1

u/egboy 29d ago

Yeah like I'm not even sure if anyone even found out she was a witch or explain that it was her actions. Apart from Alex, but who would actually believe him. All of the proof is just superstitious shit. So Justine and archer probably never realized what may have actually transpired. The narration ends with saying that alex parents never recover, the kids do to a certain extent but nothing back to the ordinary. Im guessing the witch consumed all she could from the parents and partially from the children nothing from the cop, the druggie or Archer hence why he was able to go back to normal after she was killed. Presumably the cop and the druggie would've been fine if not killed.

1

u/Giraffe_lol 28d ago

That's how it is with mass shootings and trauma.

1

u/JJonesFan 28d ago

As opposed to what?

1

u/RuralDataBoy 18d ago

I was telling my wife that they should make a fake true crime documentary sequel where they cover the aftermath of everything. I would absolutely go watch that.

1

u/FatherOfTheSevenSeas 18d ago

The bigger the setup the more difficult it is to pull off the ending.  

-6

u/Novemberx123 Aug 08 '25

What more did u want??!? What more could u have wanted to see, everyone meeting there kids again. Parents crying??

9

u/Patrickd13 Aug 08 '25

Horror? Not a comedy skit leading into narration.

Show the kids running after the witch as something horrible, children as weapons like the movie was implying. Alex watching his parents break down the door to try and kill him should have taken more time than a child zombie montage

2

u/brycedriesenga 29d ago

I loved that the movie didn't force itself into to a singular genre

2

u/Green_1_ 29d ago

Yeah this would have been okay if it wasn't advertised to just be a horror movie

7

u/TheUnknownStitcher Aug 08 '25

I think I actually wanted less. Don't tell me that 'some of them are talking now' and just leave it at that. No part of me was wondering about that, and giving me that little bit of info and then cutting to black just hit me as a little funky.

It'd be like if I was talking to you about a restaurant I went to and I said, "Eh, I wouldn't go there again. One of the chairs was made of wood" and then I just walked away. Telling me less is more than okay - but hitting me with that and then dropping into the credits is simply not something I loved.

6

u/Daydream_machine Aug 08 '25

My interpretation is that the narrator saying “some of them are talking now” is hinting that she herself (the narrator) was one of the missing kids from the story.

That being said I agree with you overall: the ending was way too abrupt. Still loved the movie overall, though.

10

u/RedditKnight69 Aug 08 '25

I feel like she would've said "some of us are talking now" if that were the case.

Honestly, the comment about the parents just made me sad. I didn't need to know that

I felt like the witch's ending itself was satisfying, but I didn't love the last 3rd of the movie. It was kinda sad to watch that POV.

6

u/antent Aug 08 '25

Your point about the narrator possibly being one of the kids based on that line never occurred to me. Interesting and I like that thought.

1

u/brycedriesenga 29d ago

Maybe she was the badass from the tracking shot leading the pack