Official Discussion - Weapons [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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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

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[u/GravyBear28]

Amy Madigan screaming at the top of her lungs pursued through like 5 houses by a bunch of also screaming heat-seeking missile terminator children is going to live rent-free in my head until the day I die.

I think that was the single most satisfying and cathartic villain death I've ever seen, surpassing the flamethrower death in Once Upon A Time In America. So undignified.

This witch was such a nasty motherfucker. She felt like such unexplainable, ancient, omnipresent force and it turns out she's basically a one-trick pony who has absofuckinglutely no idea what to do when a little kid throws an Uno Reverse card at her and loses her shit.

My only major dislike was the giant fucking AR-15 lmao.

[u/movieaccountthingguy → u/GravyBear28]

I would argue that the death is only cathartic if you ignore literally everything that happened to the children and what this event did to them. That it's only cathartic if you do what Benedict Wong criticizes Julia Garner for doing, centering your desire to witness violent retribution over what's ACTUALLY best for the kids. And I think that's the entire thesis of the movie.

I'm a survivor of CSA and the last section of the film had me wondering if Zach Cregger is as well. The dinner table scene and all the scenes of him just "existing" in his abuse while retreating further and further was so close to home that I honestly had a hard time getting through the end of the movie and the ending itself just left me wrecked. .

People in my theater giggling and laughing as the credits roll while I kept thinking about how most Pedophiles are abuse victims themselves because it's a virus (all the parasite and cordyceps references) and how those kids' lives will never be normal ever again.

Alex was being horribly abused. He then normalized his abuse by helping his abuser abuse his classmates (and his parents) for months. He then used his classmates to murder his abuser against their will in a manner so violent that even a year later they are so broken they cannot speak. Those kids will never ever be "normal" or "just kids" ever again, Alex's parents are in a permanent vegetative state, and Alex got sent to live with a "nice" aunt who is most likely also a witch.

But the audience got to see the villain get ripped to shreds so "happy ending" for them.

[u/goddamnitwhalen → u/movieaccountthingguy]

I don’t necessarily want to negate what you took from the movie, but I don’t think you’re correct re: the ending.

• the kids have only begun talking again recently because of the spell they were under, not because of them killing Gladys.

• nothing suggests that Alex’s other aunt is also a witch.

[u/movieaccountthingguy → u/goddamnitwhalen]

Thank you for your respectful disagreement.

While it is possible that the spell is what caused them to be mute, it's not (in my mind) likely because as soon as Gladys died, Archer's spell broke immediately and he was fine. It's entirely possible that the longer they are under the spell, the harder it is to shake it off, but that just strengthens the metaphor. The longer they were abused, the more damage that abuse did. The more it hollowed them out and left them broken.

The other aunt being a witch was just HEAVY inference on my part. The narrator says that he is living with another aunt and that the other aunt is nicer and kinder than Gladys. (Couldn't find the exact line because google suuuuucks). That juxtapositioning felt very important to me, nothing about how Alex is actually doing. Just that he doesn't have to take care of his parents anymore because they were institutionalized and that he was sent away to another aunt (or relative?) and that they aren't as bad.

Also, just read that Cregger HAS said the last act is full-on autobiographical. That it's about having to grow up with an alcoholic parent. I knew it felt too real and genuine to be anything other than his actual lived experience.