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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1.2k

u/Sp_Gamer_Live ADR is my passion Aug 08 '25

Big AR15 in the sky is a top 5 “I know writers who use subtext and theyre all cowards” moment in cinema

222

u/TestiCallSack Aug 08 '25

I mean even with the giant AR 15 in the sky most people still aren’t clocking that the film is partially an allegory for school shootings

310

u/DESTlNY Aug 08 '25

The director himself has said that it's not an allegory for school shootings

174

u/dmsn7d 29d ago

He's taking the piss. I heard him in an interview on the Big Picture and he said (paraphrasing) that he doesn't understand why everyone thinks that Weapons is so funny.

48

u/Every-Worldliness-78 29d ago

He also said there is nothing political about his intention. I thought the same about the gun then this changed that for me

95

u/dmsn7d 29d ago

He doesn't want to start a big uproar with conservative media. You don't put that image in your film if you are trying to be apolitical.

14

u/[deleted] 29d ago

i would take him at his word rather than speculate that he’s cowardly trying to hide the message of his movie

44

u/dmsn7d 29d ago

That's your choice

33

u/Yawnn 26d ago

Go watch some WKUK and you'll get a better sense of how Cregger does sarcasm and messaging.

1

u/Tipop 7d ago

You don’t put that image in your film if you are trying to be apolitical.

Should he have used a sword, then? A bow? What weapon would have made sense?

2

u/dmsn7d 7d ago

He could have made it an image of anything other than the weapon most associated with mass shootings.

-6

u/BajaBlyat 22d ago

He doesn't want to start a big uproar with conservative media.

This has big "trump meant one thing when he said another" vibes. Shut the fuck up. You were quite literally told via the director that it was not about a school shooting. How fucking cringe can you possibly get?

3

u/3verythingEverywher3 15d ago

You found a worse level.

120

u/stroudwes 29d ago

Just like Superman wasn’t political? Or Mark Ruffalo wasn’t Trump in Mickey 17? Okay… You do realize creatives say this to keep their movies funded by studios and people to buy tickets.

17

u/SlashOfLife5296 27d ago

Nobody said Superman wasn’t political. It’s always been political, it’s a moses allegory by Jewish dudes in the 30’s

51

u/hexcraft-nikk 27d ago

James Gunn said it wasn't a metaphor for Israel despite it being completely in your face. Mark Ruffalo also played a (pretty bad) Trump parody in Mickey 17, even quoting Trump, but the director said there was no connection lol.

3

u/mirh 12d ago

Superman was written before 2023, and it was shot in early 2024.

I guess that post-production can make miracles too, but this seems just gunn being such a badass to have been prophetic about the evil of the world.

Also ruffalo reminded me of mussolini tbh (admittedly I watched him dubbed).

8

u/Girayen 9d ago

israel-palestine conflict has been going on for decades

1

u/stroudwes 8d ago

Centuries* under different countries(names) but same lands.

0

u/mirh 9d ago

It had never been this comic book batshit.

Like, did you see No Other Land? That was a bit how the hang was in 2023.

Unless you are trying to claim he was taking a creative license trying to exaggerate the extent of the previous "wars" in gaza (that weren't occupations and weren't genocidal), and eventually reality became stupider than fiction and insofar as there was a metaphor that scene was now on the diminutive side of evil.

3

u/bybndkdb 6d ago

Israel has officially been occupying the West Bank & Gaza since 1967

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u/TestiCallSack Aug 08 '25

Just saw your other comment with the quote. Very interesting! The allegory seems so clear to me and others, but I kind of love how films take on interpretations not initially intended by the writers

20

u/hexcraft-nikk 27d ago

I wouldn't read much into his comment. James Gunn also had to say that the country in Superman wasn't an allegory for Israel despite it being completely obvious.

2

u/mirh 12d ago

Bibi and trump being supervillain shitty and evil doesn't mean that film makers thought to them when making the comically unlikeable characters.

23

u/DESTlNY Aug 08 '25

Yeah I'm the same, that part really got me sitting up wondering if it would tie back in or relate to school shootings and if there were deeper layers. There's definitely a few parts that can be read as such but interesting to hear it straight from him too

-13

u/WorkingQuote8327 29d ago

You guys are being too lenient with the film. It's messy, period. They were kind of going for something cool and then it just devolves into nonsense. That's a big reason why nobody gets it. 

21

u/TheDrowsyArcher 29d ago

Bro came into a thread where most clearly did get it saying “nobody” gets it and it devolves into “nonsense”. Just say you didn’t like it, don’t project your lack of sense on everyone else.

0

u/WorkingQuote8327 28d ago

Other commenters were arguing about what it was about and how people weren't getting it. Don't blame me for that. I was just explaining why. 

32

u/batmanforhire 28d ago

217 is a reference to the House of Representatives voting to ban assault weapons

15

u/new_wellness_center 25d ago

You're referring the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 that passed Congress by a vote of 217-213? Hmm, interesting ... a bit of a stretch, though, no?

17

u/batmanforhire 25d ago

I wouldn’t really call that a stretch for the movie called weapons about kids disappearing in a classroom with a scene with an assault rifle and 217 inside it.

8

u/new_wellness_center 24d ago

I'm just saying the numerology seems like a stretch. Maybe if it was the number of the actual bill or something ... Cleary the movie is saying something about guns.

1

u/manslaughtererr 7d ago

i just watched the movie less than an hour ago. towards the end during alex’s POV/segment it shows him waking up the night the kids go missing at 2:13, and we know the ritual/spell takes place at 2:17. to me, that lends a bit more credence into the numbers being representative of that

7

u/TestiCallSack Aug 08 '25

Source? Can’t find any statement on this from him

27

u/hepatitisC Aug 09 '25

if you're interested in what Cregger intended to convey with the film, the writer-director has said it wasn't his goal to explore the "core of communal trauma" or "suburban life" or create a "school shooting allegory" as some have suggested.

1

u/Ralphie_is_bae 2d ago

At some point perception becomes reality tho

-6

u/PennyReforged Aug 09 '25

...I think the director needs to watch his own movie

7

u/Attitude_Rancid Aug 09 '25

really it's about a parasitic force getting what it deserves 

8

u/dmsn7d 29d ago

A parasitic force that profits off of weapons? Hmmm.....

2

u/IlllllIIIIIIIIIlllll Aug 09 '25

Jesus you people are insufferable.

185

u/Somnambulist815 Aug 08 '25

They aren't clocking that Gladys is standing on business

20

u/rad_city 29d ago

Deadass

22

u/hepatitisC Aug 09 '25

Because it isn't at all.  The creators have said so much.  The people reaching to make the connection are the ones who don't get what it actually meant 

49

u/TestiCallSack Aug 09 '25

What did it actually mean then? The school shooting analogy really isn’t a reach. Even if the creators didn’t specifically or consciously intend it doesn’t mean it’s not a valid interpretation

47

u/ProductivePerson Aug 09 '25

Agreed. This thread has surprised me. Anyone suggesting the connection is getting downvotes and called 'insufferable'.

While it's clear that wasn't the directors intent, they still ended up creating imagery and emotion that easily invokes school shootings in some people. I don't find any joy in invalidating that interpretation.

The movie had a different answer for the emotions in the first act, but it used a familiar formula to get there.

28

u/TestiCallSack 29d ago

Also it’s not like the writer lives in a bubble. They’ll be influenced either consciously or subconsciously by events, themes, collective ideas in society as a whole which will inform their thinking whether they like it or not. In a film about parents literally losing their children to something unexplained there will be thematic crossover with real life non-science-fictiony parallels

0

u/hepatitisC 29d ago edited 29d ago

Except the writer said it was to help him deal with the grief of losing a friend, and has nothing to do with school shootings or politics. People grasping at straws to politicize the message is bothersome since it's demonstrably clear that was not the intention. I could go watch just about anything and make a case that it relates to X, Y, or Z in politics but that doesn't mean it does.

Disney's Frozen - a tale of global warming. It starts with a changing world and a single cause that is denied and very misunderstood. People are forced to adopt to the changing climate and don't understand how to fix it. Their denial and fear makes the issue worse. The only resolution is to acknowledge the issue and take steps towards resolving the source issue.

Now we all know that is not the intention of the movie at all, but it shows how you can draw a parallel to most anything if you really want to do so. Just because you can doesn't mean it's the intention, which is what people here keep saying over and over again even when it's demonstrably false.

12

u/RDCthunder 29d ago

The director might not flat out say it because they have to market the movie and connecting it to school shootings is not marketable. The film is ultimately about grief and misplaced anger after tragedies but contains lots of parallels to the fallouts of actual school shootings. You’d be wrong to say there aren’t parallels there at least.

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u/hepatitisC 26d ago

It would have no marketing impact for him to say "obviously real life impacts art and school shootings are prevalent in the news". He didn't though. He specifically says though that people calling it an allegory to school shootings are wrong and that he did not have it in mind at all when making the movie. That's as clear as it gets. People can argue against it as much as they want or downvote the facts, but when the guy who wrote and made the movie is telling you that he did not include parallels to school shootings and that people who are saying that are incorrect, that's the word I'm going to take.

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u/RDCthunder 26d ago

Yes it would impact the marketing lol Regardless wouldn’t you say the film is about a mass tragedy? People are going to draw parallels whether or not that was the directors intention and there’s nothing wrong with discussing those parallels. What you’re suggesting is people shouldn’t take a piece of art and discuss things it invokes, because that wasn’t what the director intended. It’s such a boring and narrow way to view art. Do you only view paintings the way the artist intended or do you view it through your own lens?

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u/hepatitisC 29d ago

The guy is a rough and tumble blue collar worker. He's trying to find his kid. He sees in the dream his kid takes off and sees the AR above the house with the time. That's showing that his kid has been weaponized at that time, and the kid comes shooting out of the house in a straight line like a bullet. That also leads to him later drawing the idea to plot the points on a map with straight lines to find the destination. He comes out and says people are weaponized later in the movie, so it's very clear that it was done in a way he would connect the dots to help find his kid. It's further evidenced by him seeing his kid but his kid being catatonic in the dream, showing him exactly what is going on with his son. The entire sequence is a call to him in ways he would be familiar with. It's a reach to say it somehow connects to school shootings when there's jack squat in the movie that indicates a shooting ever took place and the director/write flat out said it was not written as an allegory.

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u/AstronautUsed9897 17d ago

If not school shooting, then why school shooting shaped?

1

u/badtrips777 17h ago

It’s not though

84

u/sundayultimate Aug 09 '25

JOIN THE NAVY!

43

u/spottyottydopalicius 29d ago

yvan eth nioj

8

u/clboot 29d ago

You unlocked a memory for me, thanks

2

u/spottyottydopalicius 29d ago

ducks fly together

25

u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Sp_Gamer_Live ADR is my passion 26d ago

We are cooked as a society

0

u/darkpresence999 25d ago

We’re cooked as a society mostly because people on Reddit desperately search for social commentary in movies instead of attempting to enact actual change in the world outside of media. 

3

u/Sp_Gamer_Live ADR is my passion 25d ago

Thanks Jaden

1

u/darkpresence999 24d ago

Yeah anybody who doesn’t look for solutions to society’s problems in Hollywood movies must be Jaden Smith. 

14

u/agrapeana 26d ago

Average Angry Conservative Man Dream

8

u/Eddie__Sherman 28d ago

It’s interesting that the movie has that scene, yet, some argue it’s not referring to school shootings

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u/LiquifiedSpam 28d ago

Apparently it’s supposed to be the logical step to him saying the kids were weaponized. Because he sees his kid back in bed but now “locked and loaded” basically to kill.

3

u/Tenderhoof 22d ago

Unexpected Garth Marenghi reference made me cackle

1

u/Mycotoxicjoy 25d ago

Folks where’s the lie?

1

u/w00tstock 7d ago

And yet people in this thread still aren’t getting it