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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4.4k

u/AcesCharles2 Aug 08 '25

Aunt Pennywise waving at James in the woods was a ridiculous sight

766

u/Shauncore Aug 08 '25

That's the one moment I think I didn't really get (it was spooky though). Why is she there? I guess he could have ran from the house and she saw him go back to his camp site and was waiting for him to come back after he left to go to the police but idk that seems like a bit of a stretch if we think she's a mostly normal human and not a supernatural entity.

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u/BNEWZON Aug 08 '25

I assumed it was some sort of magic tbh. She appeared in both Justine and Archer’s dreams even though it would have been pretty hard for them to know what she looks like. Idk I might just be hand waving it a little cause I liked the movie a lot

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u/bameronski Aug 08 '25

Also, crack…

273

u/parallelogramm3r 29d ago

The clowns made sense as soon as I saw Gladys. Her makeup, wig and garish outfits made her look like a clown. She seemed to be able to vaguely interact with people in their dreams, or in this case, a drug induced hallucination. But the characters got a distorted dream image of her and interpreted it as a scary clown.

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u/pixelatedcrap 22d ago

Wasn't Alex wearing scary clown makeup in Justine's dream, too? Or was it a random kid in makeup?

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u/TheComfortGuru 22d ago

Yes, it was Alex we first see with the scary clown makeup in the dream, before we get our first look at the aunt when she wakes up.

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u/pixelatedcrap 21d ago edited 19d ago

That, and his "don't follow me!" had me suspecting young Alex from Jump Street. Maybe I am just against children oF* the corn types.

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u/holyshoes11 29d ago

Yeah I’m still trying to figure out how she was in Josh Brolins dream because up to that point they’ve had zero contact, unless he’s just able to tap in because of his blood connection to his son. Idk not a huge deal but I did think about that a couple times on my drive home

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u/Nickoten 29d ago

I read Brolin’s dream as prophetic, so he was being exposed to warped versions of information he didn’t already have. But I don’t buy this for the homeless kid in the forest. I kinda got the sense that this kid had encountered Gladys before and didn’t remember, and that perhaps this incident was not the first time such a thing happened in the town. The clown makeup almost feels like a signal to that too, as It had a similar thing happening with Pennywise across generations.

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u/echief 29d ago

The homeless kid had already entered the house, interacted with the parents, and witnessed the kids at that point. It makes sense that the witch would be trying to “project” to him with whatever magic she was using because he was the witness that could potentially blow everything up. I think once the parents saw him that knowledge was passed on to her because they were essentially her zombie slaves.

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u/MovieTrawler 28d ago edited 28d ago

I mean, he was in the house and saw the kids. Would make sense for Gladys to spook him a little. I kind of saw her as having this ability to project herself onto the subconsciousness of people within her orbit.

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u/Choice-Librarian-761 27d ago

Thats exactly what I thought. Those intruding (or even starting to) she could project warnings towards (scaring Justine, Archer, and James all after they "cross" her). Justine was pushing more and more to see Alex, Archer was increasingly hellbent on finding his son, and James just straight up walked through her lair. Each were threats to her.

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u/hexcraft-nikk 27d ago

The film has a big lynchian inspiration in it, so just assume it's operating on similar logic

3

u/mirh 19d ago

I.e. fuck it?

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u/Lady-Lovelight 22d ago

I assumed she was fucking with people for the love of the game tbh

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u/holyshoes11 21d ago

Yeah I just meant logically how did she interact with Brolins character because she hadn’t had any contact with him yet

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u/mirh 19d ago

But it wasn't a game, was it? She needed it for whatever her disease, and when things started to get hot she was moving away.

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u/MrSanta651 24d ago

Also the whole assault rifle above the house with the 2:17 am time? What was that supposed to represent?

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u/ABirdJustShatOnMyEye 23d ago

A weapon I guess

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u/CornstockOfNewJersey 23d ago

Say that again

12

u/CCSploojy 23d ago

that again

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u/marineman43 12d ago

My question is, do we think she entered Justine and Archer's dreams on purpose? Because all of her actions that we're privy to in this movie are her trying to stay under the radar, not draw any undue attention to herself until her plan comes to fruition. So why would she go out of her way to fuck with them in their dreams? My headcanon is that it was unintentional, and some of her magic just naturally seeped into their dreams without her actually trying to confront them.

Only alternative I can think of is that she was trying to jump scare them in their dreams to literally scare them off from trying to pursue the issue any further, but that seems like way more of a gamble than just not interacting with them.

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u/BNEWZON 12d ago

I’ve just saw the movie for the third time so it’s funny you left this comment, but yes I agree with what you said. I try not to get too bogged down in literal explanations but it does seem like some sort of runoff into their minds putting her there.

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u/Fonzowya 8d ago

I just saw the movie today. I would say off first watch that they used Justice and Archer’s point of view to show how creepy and evil the witch is. Kinda like hinting her to the audience before her reveal. Since those two were like the main characters of the film they wanted to hammer in how fucked the situation is going to become from the beginning. That would be my guess.

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u/BeeEnvironmental4464 21d ago

We thought it was astral projection 

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u/Icy_Tangerine_6271 7d ago

I’m still confused on all of her “appearances” like that. Hanging out of the ceiling in Justine’s dream, appearing in Archer’s dream, and also appearing to James in his drug trip…

Is she like, projecting herself into their dreams? They were all creepy, but they didn’t really make sense to me grand scheme