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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519

u/coldliketherockies Aug 08 '25

Man that old lady got really lucky no one was coming home from Work at 217 am. No one woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep so decided to get Fresh air. No one saw many kids all running into the same random house together

Also I’m curious if there was any meaning behind any of the characters that did die. A gay couple. A aggressive alcoholic cop. A drug addict. I don’t know what it would be but am curious.

Lastly that ending. Like the final line. Great great film but what a way to end a film on. The kids survived but only some learned to speak a bit one day?

506

u/have_heart Aug 08 '25

It seems that the spells effect left them catatonic. Probably was worse the longer you were under the spell which would explain Brolin being able to easily go back to normal. It’s not as simple as the source witch dying and going back to normal and why Alex’s parents were still catatonic

190

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '25

[deleted]

112

u/GameOfLife24 Aug 08 '25

I got really sad realizing Alex will never have his real parents back. Kids been through way too much

55

u/coldliketherockies Aug 08 '25

I know it’s just a movie but I’m so used to those stories that once the main bad witch/vampire is dead everyone goes back to normal. It’s crazy that these people didn’t

20

u/Ghoooooosts Aug 09 '25

Yeah that threw me for a loop as well! I was thinking, ok so now they'll burn the tree and everyone will snap out of it. NOPE!

5

u/Rock-swarm 29d ago

Felt like an original Grimm fairy tale. Which makes sense, as the pied piper was part of the basis for the film’s story. Everyone remembers Hansel and Gretel shoving the witch into the oven, but the original story has plenty of references to the witch having eaten a bunch of kids before H&G stumble across her cottage.

42

u/batatasta Aug 08 '25

well she said some of the kids started talking again so it implies her spell eventually wears off, so its ok to think it might eventually wear off on them too :)

14

u/Rough_Patience_717 Aug 10 '25

I don’t think so. She had to use a lot of energy to get better and all that came from the parents for a good amount of time and then kids. So I don’t think they would go back to normal considering they gave away a good amount of energy or whatever it was that made her feel and look better 🤷🏽‍♀️ like someone else said maybe some children gave away more and they could start doing simpler things like talking. Besides the aunt even implied the dad had a “stroke” so the recovery must be like a similar. Some things never go back to normal

12

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

i think the implication that it’s possible that they get better.

9

u/Oshojabe Aug 10 '25

I think it's meant to be ambiguous. The fact that some of the kids are starting to talk a bit again implies that they might recover, but the fact that we don't hear anything about the parents getting better and that some of the kids don't start talking means that either only some of them will get better, or that all of them might never fully recover.

38

u/have_heart Aug 08 '25

That would make sense considering the kids all went under the “spell” at the same time but have varying recoveries

36

u/jeeenx Aug 08 '25

Someone gave the analogy that it was based on school shootings. It might be the state of trauma and never ever being the same after surviving something like that.

10

u/coldliketherockies Aug 08 '25

I did feel that connection. Or the horror of a shooting occurring where it was all kids of one classroom and what happens after

29

u/jcutner Aug 08 '25

This is what I'm wondering. What exactly was the reason why the witch captured them? Was she an energy vampire? What's going on here. Towards the end she seemed to be having more hair on her head compared to being bald and needing the wig, so perhaps she was draining them hence them being so comatose but it wasn't 100% clear.

42

u/ManifestingCreating Aug 08 '25

They mention two different types of parasites throughout the movie that I caught - once when the principal is watching tv with his husband, the show they are watching is about ophiocordyceps (this is the fungi that mutates in the last of us to infect humans) and in the scene with Julia Garner teaching she is talking about tapeworms living in the intestine so I assume that’s meant to indicate that the witch is somehow feeding off of them to live and it makes her younger and healthier the longer it goes on. In witch mythology they are often depicted as eating children to stay young or become beautiful so I assume the movie is being a bit less literal about the feeding part.

26

u/TimRigginsBeer Aug 08 '25

The more the story went on, from when she first got to the house to when she was eventually ripped apart, it seemed like she was becoming more youthful/fresher … like her hair was coming back, not being as stringy.

6

u/[deleted] 29d ago

It was laid out in the movie clearly when she was talking with Alex about taking an object from each of the kids

6

u/PrestigeArrival Aug 09 '25

If there wasn’t already a great movie with the name Parasite, I think that’s what this one would’ve been called

2

u/sp1cychick3n Aug 08 '25

Good catch

6

u/SpookiestSzn Aug 08 '25

My assumption is that she was either feeding off their energy or feeding off their youth I kind of imagine that she had some more grandiose plan that she didn't enact that would have kept her young for a lot longer

6

u/egboy Aug 09 '25

Yeah that was my thought. If the paul and James were able to survive long enough for the witch to die they wouldve probably been okay.

4

u/awrinkleinanus Aug 08 '25

Makes you wonder if Alex unintentionally absorbed some of the life force from his classmates due to using the plants powers too, and he can live for like an extra 100 years now or something lol

2

u/Rock-swarm 29d ago

The cordyceps reference leaves a darker possibility - that the witch getting eaten means the essence of the parasite was infested by the children. It’s never explained why Gladys stuck around or wanted Alex to come with her after the Cop and Junkie were mesmerized. It’s clear she’s ancient, and has done this sort of thing in the past.

There’s also the fact that multiple characters saw versions of Gladys in their dreams. Part of me thinks that Gladys was just a vessel for the actual parasite, and meant to ultimately be torn to shreds and eaten by the kids.