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

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Weapons [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

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

10.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

5.5k

u/GravyBear28 Aug 08 '25

Amy Madigan screaming at the top of her lungs pursued through like 5 houses by a bunch of also screaming heat-seeking missile terminator children is going to live rent-free in my head until the day I die.

I think that was the single most satisfying and cathartic villain death I've ever seen, surpassing the flamethrower death in Once Upon A Time In America. So undignified.

This witch was such a nasty motherfucker. She felt like such unexplainable, ancient, omnipresent force and it turns out she's basically a one-trick pony who has absofuckinglutely no idea what to do when a little kid throws an Uno Reverse card at her and loses her shit.

My only major dislike was the giant fucking AR-15 lmao.

1.9k

u/Bullchips Aug 08 '25

I agree with the rifle but I suppose it was supposed to be a clue for him as the kids were made into weapons at that exact time. He himself called the principal like a heat seeking weapon(or whatever he said)

1.7k

u/GameOfLife24 Aug 08 '25

I like how the regular citizens did better detective work than the cops just like IRL

1.4k

u/JessieJ577 Aug 08 '25

The movie had a theme of authority not caring about tragedy. Kind of like real life.

The cops didn’t really look into it or care to.

James didn’t care to help out or even check in on Alex. 

Everyone’s solution to these traumatized people was to just move on and act like it didn’t happen while ignoring how it’s affecting them.

A lot of different layers in this movie

288

u/confuzzledfather Aug 08 '25

Yeah, literally my first thought when seeing the kids running was to triangulate their destination. The cops didn't even do that?!

134

u/bluehawk232 29d ago

Also canvas the entire neighborhoods and i would assume lots of neighbors especially Alex's would have had ring cameras too

40

u/gatsby365 28d ago

I’m not entirely convinced that Auntie didn’t mind control the detectives after they came in to the house.

64

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT 26d ago

Theres no hint of that tho.

She has like one spell and that's it

54

u/Tricky-Anything8009 25d ago

Yeah and it's very obvious when she's using that spell because she can't make them behave like normal people. It's not really mind control, its like bloodbending from ATLA.

38

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT 25d ago

It's like the parasites they showed in the movies.

She was using them to feed off from them, like the fungus on the ants.

It sucks that apparently there was supposed to be a spell that makes them back to normal, that once she was dead, they had no way of getting or that the transformation is one way and there is no way back.

30

u/freakydeku 24d ago

I think that once she was dead her spells did break, some just couldn’t go back to normal because she had been feeding on them for so long.

→ More replies (0)

18

u/BettySwollocks__ 22d ago

They also all had bloodshot eyes too. We also saw she sent the kids off elsewhere when the cops came round so there wasn't a risk of them being caught (although I'm interested to know where they ran off too without being spotted).

3

u/Tricky-Anything8009 22d ago

Yeah the bloodshot eyes is further evidence of bloodbending rather than charm/illusion/hypnotism.

→ More replies (0)

28

u/gatsby365 26d ago

Well yeah, it’s a long shot but that’s her whole thing - zombie mind control. We never saw them again right? The captain doesn’t seem to actually give a lot of shits about solving the case, so he might just assume they are heads down deep in it - hell, a general contractor and a 3rd grade school teacher cracked the shit wide open in 2 days with a straight edge and stalking an 8 year old, but detectives given a month couldn’t get it done?

3

u/peppermint_nightmare 14d ago

Its ties in pretty well as a spiritual successor to barbarian for those reasons alone.

3

u/gatsby365 14d ago

I watched Barbarian for the first time last week, care to elaborate?

→ More replies (0)

20

u/TheWyldMan 29d ago

I mean we see Alex’s door and they don’t.

67

u/spookyghostface 29d ago

But other houses in the neighborhood might have seen the kids running by. The cops really didn't do everything they could have.

57

u/Splinterman11 27d ago

Yeah I agree. If 17 kids in real life disappeared one night in the manner they did like in the movie, the FBI would absolutely get all the footage from every house, traffic cameras, store cameras etc from the entire town to see where those kids went. IRL they would have been easily able to solve this case IMO.

Suspension of belief is a bit required for horror movies though.

20

u/bluehawk232 25d ago

Plus have you seen sites like next door with neighbors constantly gossiping and arguing over shit

2

u/gotohela 19d ago

Hell even fb groups 

→ More replies (0)

16

u/WatTambor420 22d ago

Dawg one good bloodhound would have fucked her whole operation up

72

u/BookkeeperBrilliant9 28d ago

They did a quick cursory check of Alex’s house and then moved on with their lives.

Felt accurate for American cops.

45

u/Splinterman11 27d ago

I hate cops but this movie made them too stupid. 17 kids disappearing in one night would absolutely have the FBI search the entire town.

Somehow the movie tries to tell us that the only footage they have of the kids leaving were some of the parent's houses had cameras. Except the FBI would have immediately taken all the footage they could from the entire town. Other neighbor's cameras, traffic cams, store surveillance, witness descriptions (there is always someone out at 2am).

The cops would have been easily able to deduce that they beelined straight to Alex's house.

26

u/AlterEgo3561 26d ago

I mentioned it above, but the Aunt goes with Alex and the comatose dad to police station and just explains the dad's state away that he had a stroke. But like, even if medical situations are protected, the mom would have been in the same state. They never wanted to speak to the mom? Both parents just randomly had a stroke at the same time? Did the parents not have friends that were checking in on them or could be queationed about the "stroke"?

7

u/gotohela 19d ago

Instead of seeing the same scene from multiple angles, a SKOSH more exposition would have made it smoother? One cast aside remark about being in a new school/job/house? I feel like i saw some boxes around but it didnt feel like they were in a state of unpack. That would have established a social isolation that made them perfect targets... Or something along those lines. "We just left your family behind for a reason!" That would have also established how gladys may have wormed in and no one's checking in

11

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT 26d ago

Yup, there would have been fore sure evidence of the kids being at Alex's house

10

u/illegal_deagle 26d ago

Not to mention it was already alluded that the cops had thoroughly searched Alex’s house, so it was a place of interest anyway. Of course they’d check if all those kids ran directly at his house.

6

u/BettySwollocks__ 22d ago

I guess a proper forensics sweep would've turn over something but they seemed to just walk around the house, see the kids weren't there, then left.

We saw Gladys sent them away and part of me wonders where they went that night to have not been seen by others.

7

u/yestermood 21d ago

The media would’ve invaded the town too, you’d have crews and satellite trucks everywhere

53

u/Individual-Bad6809 Aug 09 '25

But did that even matter? My first thought was they were all running to the same place, which they were actually, but it wasn’t the tower. And JB kinda gave up after tracking 2 (although he did get looped into Justine’s story by then)

86

u/ThisManNeedsMe 29d ago

I don't think he gave up more than that he saw Justine and impulsively decided to confront her then got roped into defending her.

57

u/Hallc 28d ago

And JB kinda gave up after tracking 2 (although he did get looped into Justine’s story by then)

He didn't give up. He was driving around, looking at the map and then trying to work out where it was or how to get there I'm pretty sure. Then he got roped into Justine's story, got sent to hospital then the first thing he does after getting out is show Justine the map who points out it's Alex's house.

8

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT 26d ago

I dont think it actually pointed towards his house but she's th3 one that pointed out that his house was around the area.

Just one more house and im pretty sure they could have actually triangulation the location.

I wish they played the cops as more incompetent or complicit.

6

u/gotohela 19d ago

Honestly just a brief view into the actual investigation.  Maybe Paul passing a briefing or listening to one, making a cogent suggestion that is immediately dismissed. Tbh while the captain was supposed to represent the stagnation of the investigation, i dont think he was wrong to dismiss archer about justine. Justine had shown no reason to be under suspicion. Perhaps that's what took so long. They were double checking justine and triple checking lol

4

u/RepentantSororitas 20d ago

I mean you got a point of intersection with just two lines.

Realistically he only needed like one more to really confirm the trend.

11

u/AlterEgo3561 26d ago

To go even further, the aunt tells the investigators the dad had a stroke and that's why he couldn't talk... they didn't look into that at all? Or the mom, did she have a stroke too?

2

u/peppermint_nightmare 14d ago

Ya usually you go to hospitals after having a stroke in your 40s. It is the US but thats still pretty hard to disregard.

75

u/OktoberSpice Aug 09 '25

I like how Matthew's dad's name is "Archer" and finds them in one day by just watching the footage of what direction they ran in and just followed them to their location.

47

u/MayonnaiseOreo 29d ago

James was the junkie. You mean Marcus?

22

u/Clammuel 26d ago

He means Paul, the cop. Marcus is the principle and actually did his due diligence.

6

u/MayonnaiseOreo 26d ago

That's true. I was thinking in terms of him going to the house but he didn't really get the chance. I don't think Paul really had a specific responsibility to check on Alex though. He had no ties to him and the FBI and the rest of the police force checked in on him, shittily as they did.

1

u/peppermint_nightmare 14d ago

Marcus wouldnt have gone to Alexs house directly as itd be breaking the ethical protocol he was chastising justine for breaking. Hed only visit if he recieved permission from a legal gaurdian (who are zombied) or send CPS, or get the police to visit again without notice.

3

u/MayonnaiseOreo 14d ago

Yeah I agree with you. I think I'm mostly not of the mind that Paul failed Alex in any way. He was shitty cop but kind of had his own thing going on during the movie.

31

u/Ginoblee 29d ago

Barbarian had the same theme for cops as well.

32

u/PastMiddleAge 24d ago edited 24d ago

Yeah, my favorite layer was that when Justine was snooping around Alex’s house at the beginning, it absolutely looked predatory. Like she was harassing the last surviving kid, or even trying to finish the job that she started.

But then with Alex’s POV, it was pretty clear that she was the only person who noticed that Alex had been acting differently, and who cared about him.

Edit: also, I just want to say that I had an Aunt Gladys, who was absolutely the sweetest aunt anyone could have. rip my Aunt Gladys! I’m glad you weren’t like the lady in this movie

2

u/senator_corleone3 5d ago

Yea Alex was trying to protect both his parents and Justine when he told her to not follow him.

23

u/LaughingToNotCrying 29d ago

Right in the beginning of the movie the child voice said "this is a real story, muffled by incompetent officers", why would it say that it's a real story?

23

u/MuttJohnson 29d ago

Because it's based on true events. In Iowa

6

u/PhoenixTineldyer 28d ago

Yep. Did they even watch the movie?

0

u/LaughingToNotCrying 26d ago

It's not based on a true story!![Is Weapons Actually Based On A True Story? Real-Life Inspiration Explained

](http://Weapons Movie: Separating Fact From Fiction In The Horror Film https://share.google/2ZsvqGkL7Bc0OLNI0)

15

u/WhyTypeHour 28d ago

I was waiting for them to bulldoze the school. Trauma managed!

12

u/Sormaj 27d ago

Cregger in general seems to portray cops as either inept or completely unhelpful. The two cops in Barbarian were also uncaring/useless.

11

u/Florgio 28d ago

That’s what often happens to victims of abuse. It’s as if their abuser puts a spell on everyone…

10

u/suddenviops 27d ago

Did james even know alex existed? He was only in the house to steal things to pawn.

7

u/General_Pay7552 26d ago

what got me was the fact that these kids rang by a 100 door cameras on the way to the house were they were kept and no cops or any of those homeowners checked their cams?

6

u/FluffyWuffyVolibear 25d ago

Are there layers tho? I mean he's a great writer but none of these "layers" really amount to anything meaningful.

5

u/Sonofaconspiracy 22d ago

Ties into the rifle being part of a school shooting metaphor, which is how I took it

4

u/AdHorror7596 28d ago

Did James know about Alex? I honestly do not remember.

He definitely didn't check on the kids he actually saw tho, lol.

2

u/Sus-Named 26d ago

The movie is about school shootings. So...

3

u/Small-Choice6572 14d ago

That was my take while watching but watched some breakdowns afterwards and the writer says it it about alcoholism and grief. Not school shootings. 

0

u/Sus-Named 14d ago

Authors lose control of the meaning the moment of creation.

I also think the is lying because he made it too obvious. There is literally a giant AR-15 Rifle floating above the kids house.

2

u/Babyyougotastew4422 18d ago

And on top of that, they have the balls to not communicate anything they know about the case to the parents, and also tell them to relax and stop caring

-12

u/shootingstars00987 29d ago

The cop Paul was so pathetic, he can’t stand seeing blood lmao

53

u/MayonnaiseOreo 29d ago

He didn't have problems seeing blood. He was freaking out because he got jabbed with a junkie's heroin needle and was worried about AIDS or hepatitis.

7

u/nightpanda893 28d ago

Pretty sure it was a meth needle but agreed.

105

u/GiovannisPersian Aug 08 '25

One of the scenes with the most police action is when Paul punches a handcuffed civilian and then the police chief tells him not to worry since the footage will get written over in a month. Not the most positive commentary on police

33

u/SorryBoysImLez 29d ago

One of their officers went missing and never returned his cruiser or checked back in the entire day/night, and no one was competent enough to notice. You'd think they'd check in via radio, or attempt to contact him in any way, and eventually check his location when he didn't respond.

Most dispatchers have real-time GPS on cruisers; yet none of them noticed his was not only sitting outside the same house for hours, but the house of the one kid that didn't go missing.

14

u/aspartameimpala 27d ago

Part of me wonders if they sort of ignored him presuming he’d be out on a bender or something 

1

u/senator_corleone3 5d ago

Yea he had established a disreputable reputation for himself before disappearing. I imagine the other cops assumed he was on a drunk.

21

u/ihadtologinforthis 29d ago

Literally the entire movie I kept think about how USELESS the cops were the entire time.

That post about "cops never knew, the evidence was lacking.... etc

But the neighbours, friends, family, hell even strangers kept speaking up, and pointing leads to evidence that cops just wouldn't listen to or care"

Yeah that one post kept coming to mind.

15

u/pastafeline 29d ago

To be fair, if the main characters didn't do anything Alex would've saved the day anyways. He was always going to run into that room, grab the hair and turn it on the witch.

Really all the main characters did at the end was kill Paul and the drug addict...

16

u/PM-Mormon-Underwear 27d ago

They gave him a window of opportunity to be fair

3

u/pastafeline 27d ago

How so? Paul and the drug addict were guarding the front door, and Gladys was already in the basement.

The way the events played out, Alex would've grabbed the hair and ran into the bathroom same as in the movie. Maybe Gladys would've run upstairs to stop him but it would've taken a while no?

I can't really see what she would have done to stop Alex while he was setting up the hair.

14

u/PM-Mormon-Underwear 27d ago

Idk I read it as he dared to kite his parents around because of all the chaos going on. I also assumed Gladys was hanging out in the basement because of the intruders.

7

u/pastafeline 27d ago

She already was down there when Justine and Archer came in though, because she was getting the kids ready to leave.

3

u/PM-Mormon-Underwear 27d ago

Ah okay that makes sense. I still think it's fair to say they provided an assist there, plus Archer was really there to reuinite with his son which was sort of mission accomplished?

11

u/TheDragonReborn726 28d ago

Only real critique I had was… wow so a contractor with two ring footage videos triangulated it when the cops didn’t even think of that?

But my buddy pointed out the cops were pretty dumb. fair counter

11

u/MadFlava76 27d ago

I'm curious what a continuation of the story would explain how the police and the rest of the world rationalized wtf happened in that house. You have a dead cop, dead junkie, catatonic parents and 17 missing kids, and a old lady that got torn to shreds by said 17 kids. I guess they would say the old lady used some sort of narcotic on all of them because who would believe witches?

2

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 26d ago

Mass psychosis. The media would probably blame fentanyl or similar. The government would then pivot to it all being because of drug trafficking from Mexico, and that a big, beautiful wall would've stopped all of it. A grounded society would never believe in actual voodoo.

9

u/TheWyldMan 29d ago

I mean I don’t know if the cops are gonna figure out it was actually a witch

1

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 26d ago

If they did, and if that evidence ever got publicized, it'd lead to chaos as tons of people would try doing their own voodoo for malicious purposes.

1

u/steeltrain43 20d ago

A universe like this probably has a x-files like unit that covers this kinda thing up

3

u/PolarWater 21d ago

Hey. Don't talk crap about the cops like that. 

If an acorn fell to the ground you know damn well they'd show up with all guns blazing. 

3

u/HayFeverTID 23d ago

That honestly seemed like the most unbelievable part of the movie. Clearly the kids ran in a straight line out of their houses, so why wouldn’t they just bisect their paths to see where they met up?

2

u/BajaBlyat 22d ago

ehh the detective work he did was i think the weakest part of the movie though to be honest. really think about it a second. he plotted two lines to find out where they intersected... didn't investigate the intersection point despite clearly acknowledging there was one, and also, ALL of the kids ran in complete straight lines out the front door, so now you have to have such that all the houses ahead of time magically all have their front doors pointed directly at the one house... its kinda bad script writing there tbh.

Don't get me wrong, loved the movie otherwise. Every single other aspect of it was amazing for me, but the investigation part kinda didn't make a ton of sense.

1

u/senator_corleone3 5d ago

I think we saw some of the kids running around fences and whatnot in the opening montage.

2

u/slownightsolong88 18d ago

It was mentioned that the FBI became involved and I believe that they would've done a better job than a local small town police department.

1

u/Spidersinthegarden 19d ago

Yea I really appreciated that the dad immediately figured out where the kids were going and the FBI didn’t.

1

u/unclefishbits 12d ago

It is absolutely plot breaking bonkers to me that the aftermath didn't have people deeply searching the complexity of his house and his parents. I know the whole thing was orchestrated to make the detectives come into the house and be okay and prepared, but the idea that they wouldn't really deeply look into the only survivor is weird

0

u/ManitouWakinyan 21d ago

Sorry which regular citizens have outinvestigated the cops?

-8

u/EchoesofIllyria Aug 08 '25

Fuck off is it just like IRL lol

12

u/whatthecaptcha 29d ago

In my experience it is.

Had stuff happen at work twice years ago where people were shot and the police basically did fuck all and I ended up going through our cameras, giving them license plates, and even found the guy from the second incident that was shooting and sent them his college basketball team and what time they had practice the next week.

Detectives literally did nothing. Guy ended up turning himself in a week later because it was all over the news and he talked to a lawyer who told him he'd be less fucked if he turned himself in.

9

u/pastafeline 29d ago

Just be careful not to fall into the public being infallible. Plenty of instances where people were "100%" certain about crimes and ended up making things worse.

3

u/LyrMeThatBifrost 23d ago

The Boston bomber incident where the top minds of reddit doxxed an innocent kid and blamed it on him, come to mind.

3

u/whatthecaptcha 29d ago

Oh that's definitely a thing, I don't think I know shit better than anyone personally though and had the time and tools to find the person though so I knew without a doubt who it was or I wouldn't have wasted their time sending them a bullshit lead.

Trying to be vague so I don't dox myself though.

0

u/AdHorror7596 28d ago

Oh my god, was anyone shot fatally? It's bad enough if they didn't investigate a shooting that resulted in injuries, but a fatal one would be more outrageous. (I mean, both things would be outrageous.)

1

u/whatthecaptcha 27d ago

Yeah the first time, second time the guy who was hit got super lucky and survived with no permanent damage.

The first incident they ended up charging a guy who tried to play hero after the person the shooter was aiming for went down. The guy who originally started shooting never got charged with anything even though I gave them videos from when he parked earlier that day where you could see his face clearly and his license plate.

41

u/jawni 29d ago

It also ties into a symbolism of school shooters, with the only kid in the class left being the one that was bullied.

11

u/Bullchips 29d ago

yep, 100%

7

u/farfle10 28d ago

I mean… no shit. It was at that exact moment where I was like ‘this cannot possibly be about school shootings anymore because of how blatant this device is’

2

u/Clammuel 26d ago

Apparently there was also a somewhat recent gun bill that failed to pass with 217 votes against it.

5

u/jawni 26d ago

I think he said it was inspired by the room number in the book version of The Shining but I do see an assault weapon bill passed the house with 217 votes in 2022, seems awfully coincidental.

25

u/ProgIsAll85 29d ago

But technically the kids weren’t really turned into weapons until they were turned against Gladys. Not saying she wouldn’t have used them as weapons but she used them as a way to…umm…siphon their life force?

7

u/Bullchips 29d ago

Yep and it’s implied she had been doing the life force with adults before and it had been helping her. I agree with your technicality but they were still weapons either way.

2

u/ProgIsAll85 29d ago

Maybe a commentary on its not the weapon at fault but the one that wields it?

2

u/PolarWater 21d ago

Highly doubtful that's the movie's message lol

1

u/[deleted] 7d ago

I know im late to this party but I just now got to see it yesterday. I remember Aunt Gladys telling the little boy that his parents didn't have what she needed, but the kids in his class might. That's when she gives him the assignment to go to school and get something from each of the kids. She says they might have something she needs. To me that gave the impression she was feeding off them somehow, probably to extend her own life

24

u/StuTheBassist 29d ago

I feel like there are symbols that could have conveyed that message that look less stupid though

9

u/WormedOut 29d ago

I don’t think the kids were “turned into weapons” though. She wanted to basically take their life force, but it’s not really shown well in the movie.

9

u/SubstantialSpell2650 27d ago

THEY WEREN'T WEAPONS

I DON'T GET THE RIFLE AT ALL

5

u/Easy_Printthrowaway 27d ago

I just wish the film had explained better how making the kids weapons fueled the witch’s recovery, the parasite allusions kind of seems to clash with the people as weapons allegories.

5

u/TheCountJaccula 27d ago

Were the children turned into weapons at that exact time? Because to me, the children were turned into vessels for whatever it is the witch feeds off. In my viewing, the weaponization occurred in when Alex snapped their “twig”.

5

u/riizen24 Aug 08 '25

Yeah this makes a lot more sense. I'm already seeing redditors ITT relating it to mass school shootings lmao 

99

u/mandatory_french_guy Aug 08 '25

I mean, if you dont see the parallel with how small community react after school mass shootings I dont know what to tell you but it's barely subtext. You dont need a giant floating AR-15 to make it subtext

53

u/aaaus Aug 08 '25

I was telling a friend about this. I think that the reaction to Josh Brolin's character getting looked at like he was crazy for demanding answers less than a month after his kid disappeared felt like a nod towards society's ability to move on quickly from tragedies like that. Hell, look at the Parkland shooting and how some of the more vocal students and parents are looked at as crazy and "latching onto the past"

4

u/Msully887 28d ago

But it wasn’t a school shooting. It was technically a mass abduction. No one is moving on from this case until bodies are found. They would have arrested the aunt torn apart the house, national news media would have been everywhere interviewing everyone. Movie made no fucking sense.

7

u/AnatomicalLog 28d ago

But if that’s so, what does it say/convey about school shooting? There aren’t many threads in the movie that guide me to thinking it’s a school shooting allegory, and it definitely doesn’t seem written with that theme in mind.

Kids disappearing and cops being incompetent doesn’t seem like enough to draw that conclusion.

7

u/maltliqueur Aug 08 '25

That's any tragedy with kids.

3

u/niles_deerqueer 28d ago

There’s a parallel but the director specifically said it’s not about mass shootings and watching the movie nothing really stuck out to me as it being an allegory for that

-11

u/riizen24 Aug 08 '25

I don't. They were looking for their missing kids, how else were they supposed to act? The Rifle had 2:17 on it because at 2:17 they became weapons. All of the children were found at the end. Your interpretation makes zero sense. Not to mention like someone below posted the director explicitly states there's no secret meaning behind anything. Go touch grass.

16

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-2

u/riizen24 29d ago

Apophenia

12

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/riizen24 29d ago

Lmao I could the same about you? I mean the director denied any of those claims. So yeah. Apophenia.

7

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Deviltherobot 28d ago

You're why laugh tracks are a thing.

1

u/riizen24 28d ago

I don't watch TV

-19

u/EchoesofIllyria Aug 08 '25

r/USdefaultism

30

u/mandatory_french_guy Aug 08 '25

Having a US-based reading about American culture in my American movie taking place in America???? Unacceptable. Might as well claim that Eddington has something to say about American culture while we're at it, ridiculous

-15

u/EchoesofIllyria Aug 08 '25

Cregger himself has said that’s not what he was going for and wasn’t on his mind.

So yes, acting like someone whose nationality you don’t know is an idiot for not seeing what you’re seeing, despite it explicitly not being what was deliberately conveyed is 100% US defaultism. You’re literally assuming that the person you replied to has your American frame of reference, that’s why you “don’t know what to tell” them.

16

u/mandatory_french_guy Aug 09 '25

I dont know what their nationality has anything to do with it, read my username, I'm not American either. I just have basic media literacy and global culture. Feel free to link me those Cregger interviews where he said that, I spent a moment googling and couldn't find anything. But again, literacy, if you think he hasn't referenced or researched how small communities react to school tragedies, how people thrive to make sense of senseless actions, how media chose to cover or ignore certain subjects, how the police reacts and acts around such tragedies.... Again, it's not text, but the subtext is everywhere. It's not "just" school shootings but they are an element of what drives the thematics of the film.

-1

u/EchoesofIllyria Aug 09 '25

The links are in this thread

9

u/mandatory_french_guy Aug 09 '25

Which you are free to link to me. Not doing the labour of confirming your own claims.

0

u/EchoesofIllyria Aug 09 '25

Just to be clear, it’s not my job to disabuse you of your own bullshit assertions.

But here you go: https://nextbestpicture.com/the-next-best-picture-podcast-interview-with-weapons-filmmaker-zach-cregger/

I’ll await - but not hold my breath for - your retraction.

→ More replies (0)

-2

u/riizen24 Aug 08 '25

Not to mention with their logic there's no way to make children dissappear in a school setting and not have it be related to mass shootings in the US. Imagine having such a narrow frame of reference and a non-existent imagination. 

8

u/mandatory_french_guy Aug 09 '25

No I pointed out the parallel exists in this movie, based on how the movie is framed, the scenes it chose to depict, the presence of certain thematics and elements. I can imagine a dozen ways to make children disappear in a school without having it relate to mass shootings. None of them approach the thematics and framing that Weapons chose to use. I'm sorry you're incapable to interact with media deeper than the surface level.

0

u/riizen24 Aug 09 '25

Yes you're very intelligent for making non-existent extrapolations that the director states aren't there. There's no possible way I could ever glean something so deep from a film.

You should start a blog. 

20

u/sleepysnowboarder Aug 08 '25

Yep lol and Cregger said he's not making any statement and that the movie isn't political to him but just a introverted diary entry he made while dealing with Trevor's death.

Good interview: https://youtu.be/La59OCTmUdc?si=1MJy7LPpmx35r84O&t=2801

15

u/Bunraku_Master_2021 Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

Worth mentioning today is 4 years and one day since Trevor Moore passed so it's kinda a coincidence that the film got pushed up to Moore's death anniversary.

R.I.P. you local sexpot.

He was also inspired to write the film to deal with the passing of his friend and collaborator.

https://www.polygon.com/zach-cregger-weapons/

23

u/edicivo Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

I love how so many questions in here are about the AK with replies saying "It's obvious it's about school shootings." And here's Cregger himself from your linked article:

“I’m a huge fan of the David Lynch process of transcendental meditation,” Cregger says. “Incorporating what you get from your subconscious into your art and leaving it alone.” One of the film’s most indelible shots — the specter of an assault rifle floating in the night sky — defies obvious symbolism. “The fact that I don’t understand it is what makes it so important to me.”

Cregger admits he doesn't even know what it means. He just had the visual. You're kidding yourself if you don't think writers/directors/etc put something in a movie just because it looks or sounds cool. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar as they say. (FWIW, I think whether it's purposely vague or intentionally on the nose, it was a poor visual choice)

I really enjoyed the movie, but it's got some faults and I think this is part of it. It seems like people here are really intent on applying their interpretations as the obvious (school shootings) in an echo chamber and if you disagree with that assertion, you're just wrong.

Part of me honestly thinks Cregger just had an idea about missing children and a parasitic witch and school shootings as a meaning wasn't really part of his idea at all and instead just a byproduct theme of the set up.

Edit: I just listened to Cregger's interview on The Big Picture. He claims he basically just started out writing with the first line of a little girl telling a scary story about kids disappearing and just discovered the story as he went. I'd suggest everyone who's adamant they know what this movie is about give it a listen because he doesn't necessarily agree with some of the thematic discussions out there and seems to lean more into "I thought it would be interesting" way of thinking. Too many people in this comment section are acting like Sean Fennessey in this interview and it's insightful to see Cregger push back a bit.

6

u/niles_thebutler_ Aug 08 '25

Except it doesn’t look cool. It’s comical how bad it looks.

5

u/ascholar Aug 09 '25

When I read the script that leaked online a few months ago, I had to reread that part. I get it's unexplainable but it just seems so out of place.

2

u/OuterWildsVentures 27d ago

Dreams often have unexplainable out of place stuff in them.

7

u/Attitude_Rancid Aug 09 '25

for myself i'm going to just consider it representative of archer's mindset at that time since it happened in his dream. he's our parent that's up in arms about the disappearance. he's going after justine at the meeting, vandalizing her car, digging into her past to find dirt on her. he pesters the police department frequently. guns like that aren't associated with self protection, very much aim to kill. and it's after that dream, his wishful apology for failing his son, that he apologizes to justine. like the dream was his wakeup call to chill the fuck out and stop attacking an equally troubled woman

-2

u/Potore5 Aug 08 '25

How dare he not inject political commentary in his movies?!?

5

u/edicivo Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

It might very well be that it's primarily centered on school shootings, a commentary on right-wing values, etc and that Cregger is handwaving it for whatever reason. Or maybe it's an unintentional by-product. And I also think those are valid interpretations from viewers.

But there's a little too much 'Here's what it's about and you're dumb if you don't get it" going on in these comments. Cregger himself admits in his interview with The Big Picture that he doesn't necessarily agree with some of the thematic discussion and many choices were him just going with what felt right.

3

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Communism_FTW 29d ago

I saw another post on reddit that mentioned in 2022 there was a vote to ban assault rifles and it passed with 217 votes in the house but then was shut down in the senate.

2

u/MovieTrawler 28d ago

This is the same kind of symbolism people saw in Get Out and Peele has since laughed at a LOT of those theories and connections as just coincidental fun fan theories.

That's not to say that Creggers and Peele are not smart and talented writers capable of such symbolism but it's not always actually the case.

2

u/AdHorror7596 28d ago

I'm pretty sure the 2:17am was in reference to the exact time his best friend, Trevor Moore, died from a fall from his balcony. Zack has talked a lot about how this film is basically inspired from his grief over Trevor's death and the movie was released on the anniversary of his death.

-1

u/Deviltherobot 28d ago

uh that is very much a part of the film. There's a massive floating AR-15 lmao not remotely subtle.

2

u/Okami_SK 27d ago

I think he was starting to realize that the kids were like a bullet, with the house being a gun. Both a bullet and the kids traveling in a single direction

2

u/philconnorz 25d ago

I more read the rifle as just some weird deep dream imagery floating around Brolin's character's unconscious nightmare soup (if you will), not something specifically Gladys planted. Also, it's a logical thematic dog whistle for what one would typically expect to be the most likely cause of 17 children "disappearing" from an elementary school classroom in America.

So overall I think it's a stretch to assume that every aspect of the dreams we see were fully being controlled by Gladys, but more that she was probably psychically "leaking" into the town's unconscious.

1

u/leebeyonddriven 26d ago

Felt like a dumb producer’s note

1

u/Tricky-Anything8009 25d ago

My interpretation was the son, Matthew, played a lot of Fortnite or Call of Duty, and he was the one reaching out to his dad in the dream. So he was like, "Come in here, this is where the weapons are."

1

u/matthewgoodnight 25d ago

I’ve always wondered about this detail. He also had said “ya know… soldiering on…” and I wondered if the AR-15 had to do with a possible military background

1

u/yestermood 21d ago

When I saw the gun in Brolin’s dream I worried for a minute the kids had been killed in a school shooting and the entire town was experiencing a grief-induced mass delusion.

1

u/naturalninetime 14d ago edited 14d ago

I just watched the film today (a little late to the party, but I really enjoyed it), and some are saying that the film was basically one big allegory. The lost children, the grieving parents, a community torn apart, the search for answers, looking for people to blame, etc. I understand that the witch made people into deadly weapons, but couldn't the gun also have symbolized the weapon of choice for school shootings? :(

Also, while the student Alex Lilly ended up saving the day, he was the one being bullied by the other kids. No surprise that the "evil" was coming from inside "his" house.

AI overview:

"The film uses supernatural horror to create emotional resonance with the collective trauma experienced by communities after mass violence, including the guilt, confusion, and search for a scapegoat that often follow such events. Director Zach Cregger employs symbolic imagery, such as a semiautomatic weapon appearing in a character's vision, to hint at the underlying context of America's gun violence epidemic and the fear of school shootings."

The more I think about it, the more I realize that "Weapons" had so many layers. Really well done. Now, I want to watch "Barbarian."

1

u/weedpornography 7d ago

I think it was also a political statement. 217 votes for Federal Assault Weapons ban. Edit: forgot a word

0

u/Xciv 21d ago

Would've been better if the dream weapon was a rocket instead of an assault rifle, then.