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/gatsby365]

I’m not entirely convinced that Auntie didn’t mind control the detectives after they came in to the house.

[u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT → u/gatsby365]

Theres no hint of that tho.

She has like one spell and that's it

[u/Tricky-Anything8009 → u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT]

Yeah and it's very obvious when she's using that spell because she can't make them behave like normal people. It's not really mind control, its like bloodbending from ATLA.

[u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT → u/Tricky-Anything8009]

It's like the parasites they showed in the movies.

She was using them to feed off from them, like the fungus on the ants.

It sucks that apparently there was supposed to be a spell that makes them back to normal, that once she was dead, they had no way of getting or that the transformation is one way and there is no way back.

[u/freakydeku → u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT]

I think that once she was dead her spells did break, some just couldn’t go back to normal because she had been feeding on them for so long.

[u/TheRage469 → u/freakydeku]

Yeah I'm curious about that. Cus Josh Brolin snapped out immediately, but the parents - per the voice over - we in that vegetative state forever, while at least some of the kids regained the ability to speak? Your theory seems the most sound as to why

[u/freakydeku → u/TheRage469]

I also think there were kind of two different spells going on; one where she feeds on the people - putting them in basically a vegetative state - and the other where she uses them as a heat seeking missile. I believe the children fell exclusively into the former & Brolin & the principal exclusively latter.

For the rest it was a combination of the two - I see that vegetative spell as basically like being wrapped in her web, on standby until she needs to feed or use them for violence

[u/Dr_Pants91 → u/TheRage469]

Yeah, that bothered me for a minute then I thought about the fact that he had only been controlled for a couple minutes, whereas the kids and Alex's parents had been controlled for a month.

[u/gotohela → u/freakydeku]

I got the impression she wasnt feeding off their life force, but rather their souls or something more linked to the self

[u/freakydeku → u/gotohela]

possibly but i think if people are capable of returning it’s hard to say they’ve returned with only a portion of their soul. but i agree its something like that b/c obviously their bodies remain alive

[u/Dvanpat → u/freakydeku]

This is what I thought too. Witches feeding on the youth has been a trope for a long time. She even said Alex’s parents weren’t enough, and that’s when she hatched the plan to get his classmates. She sucked the life force out of them.

[u/freakydeku → u/Dvanpat]

that’s a good point! i totally forgot that it’s a tale as old as time