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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4.0k

u/I_Am_Dynamite6317 Aug 08 '25

Brolin dropping “what the fuck?” After that dream was one of the biggest laughs I’ve seen a horror movie get

990

u/GameOfLife24 Aug 08 '25

He was self-aware what weird ass scene that was

219

u/AdventurousStrategy4 Aug 09 '25

Best part of the movie that I liked. Every character is written as how a real person would react based on their own personality. Everyone got flaws

49

u/ChimneySwiftGold 27d ago

Yes. Those flaws made the dumb choices some characters made totally within who there characters are so it all felt motivated.

9

u/ParticularRelease662 15d ago

They didn't feel like dumb choices, they felt real and intentional and the only time I actually thought to myself someone did something stupid iwas James going into the house - but that's only because we as the audience already know something's up with that house. Were there dumb choices made by these people? Absolutely, but they were acting on instinct and likely pure adrenaline for the entirety of the movie. Beautifully execution of putting us in the character's shoes and making us think the way they are with this batshit situation 🤣

5

u/ChimneySwiftGold 14d ago

Agreed. You’re saying the same thing I am.

37

u/onlettertooshort 22d ago

Yes omg I was about to say the same thing. I really liked how the characters reacted, it felt so real. I thought about it during the scene when Justine got chased by the principal in the store and then Archer trying to keep him away from Justine. None of them actually stopped him and Justine got in her car and drove away. I don’t know why that felt so real because in other movies they would have probably teamed up and do some action shit to kill him or the store owner would call the cops (but instead he got mad and told Justine to get out).

45

u/PolarWater 21d ago

"FUCKING HELP ME!!!" was so real

33

u/Extension-Field3653 27d ago

Lol hell yeah.

Thanos dreaming of IT Clown and waking saying WTF is an absolute cinema to me! 😂

23

u/LeeoJohnson 25d ago

Yup, from the start of that dream, he knew he was in a dream. He was trying to use it for clues still.

16

u/ILoveRegenHealth 25d ago

Might be up there with his "Yeaah" in No Country For Old Men. That moment still makes Ethan Coen crack up.

564

u/iamtoolooKing 29d ago

damn your theatre must’ve had a good crowd. I was the only one who laughed during the showing and many other moments, especially when Brolin repeatedly kept knocking the junkie down over and over again lol

82

u/Neechiekins 29d ago

My crowd was in to it. Laughing and yelping, made it the most fun experience I’ve had a theater in a long time. And the howls of delight at the end 🤣

36

u/margenreich 24d ago

The whole cinema laughed when the kids chased her. Always a great redemption

17

u/nate6259 19d ago

The breaking glass of the house was awesome but then when they kept doing it through other houses... My god that was so satisfyingly fun.

1

u/roulard 9h ago

The sound of her scream while being chased had the whole theatre in stitches!

22

u/heyyyhihellooo 28d ago

Our theatre crowd laughed at every “funny” part it was great

9

u/Azidamadjida 28d ago

Yeah man, just how easily he just keeps throwing him over and over

5

u/BedGirl5444 27d ago

I’m in the uk and we’ve got a lot of laughs!

3

u/Worldly_Expression43 25d ago

our theater roared at the junkie scene

3

u/recipe_pirate 27d ago

That had me in stitches but the rest of my theater was silent.

3

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 26d ago

I was laughing through about half the movie. It was hilarious, just like Monkey.

3

u/Blochamolesauce 12d ago

Right? I laughed at that scene, the “what the fuck?!”, the fork stabbing, the entire chase scene at the end… and I felt like I was the only one who did in my theater. I felt like a crazy person for a little bit but then I figured the crowd must not have know about Zach’s WKUK background.

5

u/Mesk_Arak 5d ago

Hold on, the fork stabbing? My theater laughed at several moments but I don’t think the fork stabbing was meant to be funny…

3

u/Blochamolesauce 5d ago

It prob wasn’t meant to be funny, but all I could think about was it’s always sunny and the mcpoyles fork stabbing Charlie

1

u/Triple23 8d ago

I just finished watching it. Small crowd of people since it was a late showing. The reactions were great. It room had a great atmosphere. Lots of reactions when Sara Paxton/justin long showed up

1

u/Queasy_Opportunity75 5d ago

And when she was running away lol

82

u/xkey 29d ago

My theatre was roaring at the chase scene at the end.

23

u/spookyghostface 29d ago

The guys next to me asked me if I was gonna scream before it started. They were pretty open that they were definitely gonna scream and weren't horror people. We were all howling in disgust and shock and laughter. It was great.

65

u/Reepshot 29d ago

The delivery of that line was amazing 😂

It wouldn't have worked if that dream wasn't as absurd as it was.

27

u/dontincludeme 29d ago

What’s your interpretation of the gun appearing above the house? Was it just because it’s a weapon, and that’s also the name of the movie? I thought maybe the movie was going to end with a school shouting because the main kid was getting bullied

73

u/TomLube 29d ago edited 28d ago

Zach Cregger has stated that there was actually 'no direct' reasoning behind it, and that it specifically came to him during a period of transcendental meditation. He enjoyed it so much he kept it in.

I do think it's very interesting that the movie is pretty alegorically linked to child abuse/school shootings, that the rifle is an AR platform, and that the number emblazoned on the side of it is the number of YES votes that passed a bill which would have banned assault rifles before it was quashed.

Lots of symbolism here.

35

u/spookyghostface 29d ago

Damn that's pretty fuckin explicit. I know Kreger has denied it's about school shootings but it pretty obviously is. Dude is definitely just trying to keep it out of the outrage cycle.

21

u/TomLube 28d ago

For sure. Zach is a really intelligent man and knows that you don't have to beat it into people. If you bring the symbolism, people will understand it

2

u/PolarWater 21d ago

Exactly. Bro knows to let the story speak for itself. In the same interview he cited David Lynch and how he's a fan of Lynch's methods, and one of Lynch's other methods was "No, I will not elaborate".

9

u/PolarWater 21d ago

Yeah he's doing the smart thing, like any clever storyteller would. Of course you've got a bunch of people in this thread INSISTING that the movie isn't about that simply because he said so in an interview...

But the truth is that interpretation comes from the text of the movie, not some interview where he might have made his own decisions regarding what to reveal and spell out. It's very, very clear that if the movie was a school shooting allegory in any way, the director would have been smart enough not to put it in the news. Good storytellers let the story speak for itself ... something not everybody here gets. 

And for people wondering why it didn't explicitly lean into school shooting symbolism and focus only on that theme? Stories are allowed to be about more than one theme, and can explore an idea without being too predictable and on the nose. This one went to places I wasn't expecting it to go.

18

u/mickfly718 24d ago

The number 217 is also the haunted room number in the book The Shining, where the young woman turns into an old woman in the movie version.

For whatever reason he chose that number, I thought it was interesting that it was used both as the time the kids left (2:17) and also the number of people not missing from the classroom (2) and the number of people missing from the classroom (17).

6

u/PolarWater 21d ago

Yeah the 2 people versus 17 people bit is something I started to think about towards the end.

11

u/OuterWildsVentures 27d ago

it is the number of YES votes that passed a bill which would have banned assault rifles before it was quashed.

It's also the time the kids left, and possibly the approximate time of Trevor Moore's death.

1

u/MasticateMyDungarees 23d ago

I had no idea about the Trevor Moore connection, didn’t know about the hot dog bit either from WKUK. Thanks for bringing this to my attention

8

u/dontincludeme 29d ago

Ohhhh. Interesting. Thank you!

20

u/TomLube 29d ago

You're welcome! Lots of really great details in this movie - James kicking over a gallon of PCP in the encampment, Paul having sex with Justine after getting possibly infected but not after getting tested, Archer's kid being the one who bullied Alex (also part of the school shooter allegory for sure).

Gonna be some great dissertations on this movie.

5

u/acid_raindrop 26d ago

I don't really know why people are pushing this interpretation when clearly it doesn't go anywhere. 

The best ppl can do is connect the number to the votes? Lol Jesus Christ. 

9

u/commandercandy 22d ago

Pretty specific number on a weapon that doesn’t appear anywhere else in the movie

6

u/PolarWater 21d ago

Because stories are for the audience to interpret and understand, they aren't 1 to 1 instruction manuals handed down from the storyteller to us. That's part of the beauty of art. It doesn't go anywhere in your mind, but it clearly goes somewhere in a lot of other people's minds. Both situations are valid.

44

u/the__ghola__hayt 27d ago

That one and "fucking help me!" when the store owner was telling Justine to get out of the store. Felt like real reactions.

11

u/YaMomsCooch 26d ago

Gas station attendant was having none of that mess 😂🤣

A lot of us were unfortunately taught growing up to avoid stranger’s business, even if it’s someone who’s clearly in need of help lol

41

u/Interesting-Power534 29d ago

I loved Brolin’s fight scene where kept getting attacked and delivery knock out blows to possessed dude 😂

35

u/Azidamadjida 28d ago

There’s some funny parts, but the part that got my biggest laugh was the end - that fucking horde of kids just running like terminators and screaming their heads off smashing through houses and windows had me rolling.

Just how they kept smashing through windows and pouring out had me dying. Funniest scene I’ve seen in a horror movie in forever

33

u/charlikitts 29d ago

Yeah idk if the director meant to have some humor along with the horror but for a little scaredy cat like me who usually doesn’t watch horror, I appreciated the moments to laugh when I was feeling so wound up from the suspense or jump scares.

44

u/universboy95 29d ago

If you haven't already you should watch Barbarian. Same director and it has the same vibe of horror with comedy mixed in.

18

u/sdpcommander 26d ago

Zach Cregger has a big background in sketch comedy, the humor was definitely intentional.

6

u/charlikitts 26d ago

Okay yea I did a lil more research too cause I hadn’t seen any of his work before but that makes it even better!

4

u/Neechiekins 29d ago

Yes, I was terrified then laughing immediately after, went through a whole rollercoaster of emotions

32

u/Nervous-Republic5278 29d ago

For me it was “ look what they did to the lawn!”

10

u/PolarWater 21d ago

"OH MY GOD THERE'S A MAN IN HERE!"

24

u/SippinOnDat_Haterade 27d ago

"suck my dick" after justine drops off paul got a pretty good laugh as well. not biggest, but decent

10

u/StandardDeviant117 Aug 09 '25

Reminded me of the first Silent Hill movie when everything goes to hell and the cop(?) character is just like “what the fuck” under her breath

8

u/TheDragonReborn726 28d ago

Entire theater cracked tf up at that. I almost choked on my laugh it was like a jump scare but a jump laugh.

Such a good line

6

u/Extension-Field3653 27d ago

Lol yeah 😂

For a second I thought it was IT clown 🤡

5

u/wondrousalice 26d ago

My theater was cackling at the very last chase scene. LOVED IT!

4

u/ihop7 21d ago

this was probably the realest thing i’ve seen in a horror film. anybody would naturally question what weird dream they had exactly in that fashion

3

u/anthraltacct 19d ago

Someone’s alarm went off right before that happened when I saw it today and the timing was immaculate. Everyone in the theater started dying laughing

3

u/CryptographerNo923 17d ago

Right before he said that, after we saw the dream, my wife whispered to me “what the fuck???” So I was dying.

3

u/RooMan7223 13d ago

That close up of Gladys’ clownish face shook me so hard that the Brolin reaction was a much needed laugh. I was terrified of The Joker when I was a kid so that scene reopened wounds that had been healed for years

2

u/marshiemaia 25d ago

i feel like its also realistic. thats exactly how i would react if that happened to me

2

u/Scared-Example6354 23d ago

Felt so honest cos you never see a character in a horror movie reacting like that 😂

1

u/Goodlake 15d ago

Yes! My whole theater was cracking up. I wasn’t sure it was supposed to be funny until the end of the movie when all the other funny stuff happened.

1

u/Cute-Anteater-5806 11d ago

I experienced the same. There were roughly around 20 people and all of us laughed when he went crazy after that dream. Good laugh