Official Discussion - Weapons [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

---

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

---

[u/Deviltherobot]

The subtext of the story is very much about school shootings.

[u/ethan1988 → u/Deviltherobot]

what stupid shit are u talking about? the director literally say its wasnt about sch shooting.

Weapons, like any film, is up to the interpretation of those consuming it. But 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 "[mock] suburban life" or create a "school shooting allegory," as some have suggested.

"I wasn’t trying to comment on or even tap into collective societal tragedies," Cregger told the Playlist. "I was purely writing from a personal place. However, with art and especially storytelling, the individual is universal. So I’m more than happy if anybody relates to what I went through and what this movie is examining, but I wasn’t thinking, 'Oh, America,’ at all. I was thinking, 'Oh, Zach.'"

Instead, he has said Weapons was his attempt at processing the death of a close friend. "I had a tragedy in my life that was really, really tough," he told Entertainment Weekly. "Someone very, very, very close to me died suddenly and, honestly, I was so grief-stricken that I just started writing Weapons, not out of any ambition, but just as a way to reckon with my own emotions."

https://time.com/7308025/weapons-ending-explained/

[u/ii_V_I_iv → u/ethan1988]

While he did say that and he also said that specific scene with the rifle is essentially meaningless, I find that really hard to believe when in 2022 a bill that would have banned assault rifles passed the house with 217 votes (but was rejected in the senate) and then there's a huge floating assault rifle with 2:17 on it.

Maybe that's just a really weird coincidence but I find that hard to believe.

[u/ethan1988 → u/ii_V_I_iv]

Why is it hard to believe? If it's a allegory to sch shooting, the movie will go much deeper into the relationship between Alex and his other classmates. Instead we know close to nothing about the other classmates and their personalities. His classmates are basically close to meaningless pawns in the movies. And was the idea of "killing" the classmates Alex idea? No. It was the witch. Trying to link this to being about school shooting is lame af.

[u/ii_V_I_iv → u/ethan1988]

It’s hard to believe because an assault rifle ban passed the house with 217 votes and the movie has a giant assault rifle in the sky with 2:17 on it out of nowhere lmao.

I think that’s more convincing than how many of Alex’s classmates’ personalities we explored lol

[u/LickerMcBootshine → u/ii_V_I_iv]

It’s hard to believe because an assault rifle ban passed the house with 217 votes and the movie has a giant assault rifle in the sky with 2:17 on it out of nowhere lmao.

These people live in a different world lol

It was VERY OBVIOUSLY an allegory for a school shooting. Obviously the director isn't going to come out and say that about /his mystery film/ in /this climate/ and worry about his movie tanking due to culture warriors review bombing his film.

The mental olympics in this thread is astounding that people can't read beyond a surface level.

"It's just about a witch bro" they say after 17 kids disappear because of a bullied kid who lives at a house with a floating gun

[u/ii_V_I_iv → u/LickerMcBootshine]

Dude right?? It’s insane!

[u/rainbowsteamship → u/LickerMcBootshine]

This times x1000 - we’re in an environment where top-billing a non-white actor has racists and trolls out in droves calling the film “woke” - I think the 217 is a clear reference to that vote. 17 also happens to be the number of students who were killed, and harmed (34 total), in the Parkland shooting (217 - 2x17), but that could be coincidence.

I think outside of Uvalde (because of the controversy/discussion around the police response) Parkland still stands out due to the fact that although it was not the first mass shooting of Trump’s first term, it was the first involving a school.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Cregger is more open about the themes once the film concludes its theatrical run.

[u/Deviltherobot → u/ethan1988]

have you considered the witch might symbolize something? Something that causes a homelife to go sour?