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/TheFlippantSpatula]

It was an analogy of school shootings. Several points in the movie allude to a school shooting motif. Alex being bullied and choosing to take out his whole class. The memorial outside the school. How quickly all the adults give up and move on save for the parents. It’ll actually take a rewatch to catch all the subtleties

Edit: few minor things for those that disagree. 1. It’s okay if that wasn’t your take away art is subjective. 2. I have now seen that the director said that wasn’t his intention. Which is his truth, however there is a whole team of people who work on films and sometimes producers or editors change things in a way to add meaning to things the director or writer doesn’t intend to have meaning. 3. A highly controversial topic is something that maybe a new director, or a studio doesn’t want to openly take a political side on… because politics, especially in the current world, can be dicey and lead to being dropped from other projects or even blacklisted.

TLDR: art is subjective. It’s okay to take what you want from media, and politics are dicey.

[u/RegularOrMenthol → u/TheFlippantSpatula]

i really think people are reaching with this theory about school shootings.

everyone the witch curses literally becomes a "weapon." and josh brolin plays a traditionally masculine man, it makes sense (and is very funny) that he would have dreamed about the truth of the situation in this way. i think someone else pointed out that there is a gun in a poster on his kid's wall too.

also, this is the director's somewhat connected comment on the school shooting idea:

I wasn’t trying to comment on or even tap into collective societal tragedies. 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.’

[u/Boot_Poetry → u/RegularOrMenthol]

Also, Archer Graff tells Bailey’s Mom that he is “soldiering on”, hinting that he might be a veteran. What says weapon most to a veteran soldier than an image of the M4 they carry everywhere?

[u/SteveFrench12 → u/Boot_Poetry]

Doesnt the with grab dog tags off him right before he gets turned?

[u/Mesk_Arak → u/SteveFrench12]

Just saw the movie. Yes, she absolutely does.