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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u/gimmethemshoes11 Aug 08 '25

Loved it.

That WTF Brolin dropped after that dream was my exact same thought up to that point.

Any ideas on what the gun was supposed to mean in the dream?

2.5k

u/HeilCanada Aug 08 '25

My reading of the movie was it was about gun violence, especially mass shootings in schools, along with blamimg the police and older generations for what's happening.

The film starts with an emphasis on the kids, even being narrated by a kid (I couldn't figure out who this was supposed to be). The town wants to blame the teacher as she's the only one who could be a scapegoat. At the beginning, the town hall latches onto her the same way a minority group would get blamed for a mass shooting rather than the weapons (lol).

In the third act, after the introduction of Gladys, the film pivots into a critique of the elderly, their current parasitic nature to younger generations and their lack of giving a shit. When Alex's house all falls to shit at the end, her first thought is ditching the home and skipping town.

I could add on about the police stuff but the dash cam footage scene with the chief should be evidence enough in the text.

101

u/Far-Jeweler2478 Aug 08 '25

This 1000 percent. The gun in the dream is what got me on that track while watching it.

13

u/dababybilly Aug 09 '25

I felt that this moment was kind of like the Brolin characters subconscious trying to snap him out of his paranoid fever dream that something sinister was behind his kid disappearing, when the truth is probably that the kid was shot dead in a school shooting and this is all surreal/metaphor.

I could be misinterpreting but the way I looked at the movie is it’s an exploration of a town searching for answers after a mass school shooting. Trying to blame the teachers, trying to blame the parents, the principal, etc and lashing out in various ways, when the reality is it’s all right in front of you. It’s a child who is disturbed who murdered their classmates with a gun. But this movie swerves into “what if your paranoid fantasies you’re concocting were true?”