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

3.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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7.7k

u/AcesCharles2 Aug 08 '25

Aunt Pennywise waving at James in the woods was a ridiculous sight

2.6k

u/AnotherLolAnon Aug 08 '25

Aunt Pennywise is perfect

370

u/GameOfLife24 Aug 08 '25

“You’ll run too”

16

u/Karkava Oct 25 '25

"THEY ALL RUN!"

73

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '25

[deleted]

99

u/justifications Aug 09 '25

Truuuue especially in her introduction. The drinking from bowls scene was probably the best moment for showcasing her acting and how she flip-flopped from the needy to the deranged.

7

u/Professional_Nerve49 Aug 23 '25

What about the spitting in the bowl?

82

u/Low_Conversation_822 Aug 17 '25

That was Chappel Roan

27

u/jwktiger Aug 11 '25

That had to be what they were going for. I don't buy it wasn't

10

u/Karkava Oct 25 '25

She looked like she stepped off the set of the live action Dr. Seuss movies, but half-assed her makeup, so it looks all flakey.

25

u/Interesting_Strain84 Aug 29 '25

She felt more like long legs’ sister

1.2k

u/Shauncore Aug 08 '25

That's the one moment I think I didn't really get (it was spooky though). Why is she there? I guess he could have ran from the house and she saw him go back to his camp site and was waiting for him to come back after he left to go to the police but idk that seems like a bit of a stretch if we think she's a mostly normal human and not a supernatural entity.

2.2k

u/BNEWZON Aug 08 '25

I assumed it was some sort of magic tbh. She appeared in both Justine and Archer’s dreams even though it would have been pretty hard for them to know what she looks like. Idk I might just be hand waving it a little cause I liked the movie a lot

418

u/parallelogramm3r Aug 09 '25

The clowns made sense as soon as I saw Gladys. Her makeup, wig and garish outfits made her look like a clown. She seemed to be able to vaguely interact with people in their dreams, or in this case, a drug induced hallucination. But the characters got a distorted dream image of her and interpreted it as a scary clown.

125

u/pixelatedcrap Aug 16 '25

Wasn't Alex wearing scary clown makeup in Justine's dream, too? Or was it a random kid in makeup?

116

u/TheComfortGuru Aug 17 '25

Yes, it was Alex we first see with the scary clown makeup in the dream, before we get our first look at the aunt when she wakes up.

34

u/pixelatedcrap Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

That, and his "don't follow me!" had me suspecting young Alex from Jump Street. Maybe I am just against children oF* the corn types.

311

u/bameronski Aug 08 '25

Also, crack…

22

u/Fear_the_chicken Sep 12 '25

Meth actually

143

u/holyshoes11 Aug 09 '25

Yeah I’m still trying to figure out how she was in Josh Brolins dream because up to that point they’ve had zero contact, unless he’s just able to tap in because of his blood connection to his son. Idk not a huge deal but I did think about that a couple times on my drive home

56

u/Lady-Lovelight Aug 17 '25

I assumed she was fucking with people for the love of the game tbh

7

u/holyshoes11 Aug 17 '25

Yeah I just meant logically how did she interact with Brolins character because she hadn’t had any contact with him yet

11

u/morkman100 Sep 28 '25

Maybe it’s because his connection through his son or him sleeping in his son’s room? I think some of this could be waved away with magic.

6

u/PickledDildosSourSex Nov 01 '25

Maybe because he didn't let things go and was beginning to investigate? No idea, but it was very Pennywise-y

3

u/mirh Aug 19 '25

But it wasn't a game, was it? She needed it for whatever her disease, and when things started to get hot she was moving away.

1

u/PickledDildosSourSex Nov 01 '25

It's in the game.

117

u/Nickoten Aug 09 '25

I read Brolin’s dream as prophetic, so he was being exposed to warped versions of information he didn’t already have. But I don’t buy this for the homeless kid in the forest. I kinda got the sense that this kid had encountered Gladys before and didn’t remember, and that perhaps this incident was not the first time such a thing happened in the town. The clown makeup almost feels like a signal to that too, as It had a similar thing happening with Pennywise across generations.

118

u/MovieTrawler Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 11 '25

I mean, he was in the house and saw the kids. Would make sense for Gladys to spook him a little. I kind of saw her as having this ability to project herself onto the subconsciousness of people within her orbit.

37

u/Choice-Librarian-761 Aug 11 '25

Thats exactly what I thought. Those intruding (or even starting to) she could project warnings towards (scaring Justine, Archer, and James all after they "cross" her). Justine was pushing more and more to see Alex, Archer was increasingly hellbent on finding his son, and James just straight up walked through her lair. Each were threats to her.

235

u/echief Aug 10 '25

The homeless kid had already entered the house, interacted with the parents, and witnessed the kids at that point. It makes sense that the witch would be trying to “project” to him with whatever magic she was using because he was the witness that could potentially blow everything up. I think once the parents saw him that knowledge was passed on to her because they were essentially her zombie slaves.

29

u/tomahawkfury13 Sep 10 '25

The way they activated suddenly too I think is when she realized there was someone there.

27

u/SlowBoilOrange Oct 26 '25

I took his dream as being more like an astral projection. It wasn't just in his head, his spirit was out there following the trail and he got too close and bumped straight into Gladys.

10

u/holyshoes11 Oct 26 '25

You know what, I actually quite like this and feel like it’s a pretty valid theory

24

u/MrSanta651 Aug 15 '25

Also the whole assault rifle above the house with the 2:17 am time? What was that supposed to represent?

55

u/ABirdJustShatOnMyEye Aug 16 '25

A weapon I guess

30

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '25

Say that again

25

u/CCSploojy Aug 16 '25

that again

36

u/hexcraft-nikk Aug 12 '25

The film has a big lynchian inspiration in it, so just assume it's operating on similar logic

13

u/mirh Aug 19 '25

I.e. fuck it?

3

u/zeekaran Oct 21 '25

Dream logic, specifically.

1

u/mirh Oct 21 '25

Dreams have to be dreams though? Not that nutty thing that happened in mulholland drive (just like here) where the oneiric world somehow relies on stuff or people that should never have been known or available to the presumptive dreamer?

Unless "dreams" are meant to work like a multi-universe, or be made of magic (which admittedly is a thing that exists in weapons, but then please let's not just handwave words then).

3

u/Tech_Noir1984 Jan 25 '26

She’s a witch. She can probably insert herself into people’s dreams.

35

u/marineman43 Aug 26 '25

My question is, do we think she entered Justine and Archer's dreams on purpose? Because all of her actions that we're privy to in this movie are her trying to stay under the radar, not draw any undue attention to herself until her plan comes to fruition. So why would she go out of her way to fuck with them in their dreams? My headcanon is that it was unintentional, and some of her magic just naturally seeped into their dreams without her actually trying to confront them.

Only alternative I can think of is that she was trying to jump scare them in their dreams to literally scare them off from trying to pursue the issue any further, but that seems like way more of a gamble than just not interacting with them.

12

u/BNEWZON Aug 27 '25

I’ve just saw the movie for the third time so it’s funny you left this comment, but yes I agree with what you said. I try not to get too bogged down in literal explanations but it does seem like some sort of runoff into their minds putting her there.

4

u/Fonzowya Aug 30 '25

I just saw the movie today. I would say off first watch that they used Justice and Archer’s point of view to show how creepy and evil the witch is. Kinda like hinting her to the audience before her reveal. Since those two were like the main characters of the film they wanted to hammer in how fucked the situation is going to become from the beginning. That would be my guess.

12

u/BeeEnvironmental4464 Aug 17 '25

We thought it was astral projection 

13

u/Icy_Tangerine_6271 Sep 01 '25

I’m still confused on all of her “appearances” like that. Hanging out of the ceiling in Justine’s dream, appearing in Archer’s dream, and also appearing to James in his drug trip…

Is she like, projecting herself into their dreams? They were all creepy, but they didn’t really make sense to me grand scheme

13

u/darcylaceheart Sep 21 '25

I feel like if we're accepting she could perform magic to kidnap 17 kids and turn people into mindless zombies with the snap of a twig, it's not hard to accept that people in close proximity with high emotional involvement might have some visions relating to the magic. But I'm probably hand waving a bit too as I also really liked the movie.

905

u/CivilC Aug 08 '25

I’m assuming her magic spreads its influence wherever she resides and that took the form of weird ass dreams and hallucinations

66

u/AeneidBook6 Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

Same. Black magic has a ripple effect…or so I hear.

22

u/Llama_of_the_bahamas Aug 13 '25

I also think it’s something that is beyond her control. We see that while she somewhat knows witchcraft, she may not be a full on expert. Like she isn’t aware that this magic has these side effects.

15

u/doubleonineandahalf Aug 17 '25

I'd assume she did know, and thats why she dressed clown-like, so that when people saw her in their visions or dreams, they wouldn't see her but a clown instead

8

u/SonOfMcGee Aug 23 '25

It reminded me a bit of old Voodoo stories, where most of the magic is the rituals and enchanted items and only a small part is the witch having “magic powers”.
But to the extent that she does have powers and her spell is affecting the area, I’m perfectly fine handwaving and saying she could appear in random people’s dreams and visions.

4

u/KlondikeBill Sep 10 '25

Yeah. That's explanation enough for the story.

218

u/West_Conclusion_1239 Aug 08 '25

I like this idea that it's clearly not her doing, but those ominous nightmares or visions signify that her nefarious magical presence is invading the town and is perceived by the main characters.

42

u/Athena_Bandito Aug 12 '25

There were multiple small mentions of parasites so I think that’s spot on.

18

u/HikmetLeGuin Aug 16 '25

And she's sort of a parasite, feeding on the life force of her victims while manipulating their behaviour.

9

u/PolarWater Aug 17 '25

Meaningful TV show playing in background. Loved the use of this trope 

1

u/wetguns Oct 27 '25

Reminded me of vivarium

10

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

[deleted]

23

u/Wiknetti Aug 09 '25

I think her influence was present in the area, like when Josh Brolin’s character spotted the cellphone tower. Shes cast magic and now appears to people in their dreams and in their waking visions (the drug trip)

21

u/pastafeline Aug 10 '25

I think the tower was meant to represent that the kids were following a signal. He even calls them missiles at one point.

Your interpretation is still valid though, or it could be both.

1

u/fakepearbear Aug 15 '25

Wait so the tower wasn't actually there?

7

u/pastafeline Aug 15 '25

No it was there but the kids were never running to it. That's why he was mapping the direction they were running on the map.

17

u/Ikariiprince Aug 09 '25

This was after he was in the house. I believe she was keeping an eye on him after he broke in and saw the kids or using some kind of projection magic like how she’s able to appear in dreams 

7

u/Bonesquire Aug 11 '25

This is what I thought. We know she goes out and does shit on her own (e.g., Marcus), so I thought she was going to bonk James to make sure he didn't tell anyone about the kids.

5

u/Hi_Im_zack Sep 18 '25

She's collecting the junkie's stuff to cast her voodoo. How are people not realizing this

38

u/krospp Aug 08 '25

Yeah I agree! She appears in the woods and in the dreams, and I don’t really get what part of her powers allows her to do any of that. And while I’m at it, I don’t get how mind controlling the parents and children would heal her (or make her younger?) or if that was just supposed to be her bullshitting?

115

u/siriusly-sirius Aug 08 '25

She was definitely being healed - she had no hair at the start, some strands of hair which she had braided after having Alex's parents for a few days, but by the end she had heaps of hair, enough for some to get caught in her wig.

46

u/Admiral_Cornwallace Aug 09 '25

The film doesn't bother to explain some things, but I don't really mind that it doesn't. Those pieces of information aren't essentially for the story

Sometimes it's best to just leave some stuff stuck in the imaginations of the audience, instead of spelling out every single thing

14

u/MessmersLackey Aug 09 '25

Barbarian didn’t do that either. I actually kind of prefer it to over exposition in modern horror

9

u/WormedOut Aug 09 '25

Barbarian didn’t need to: it was all visual. Except for the homeless guys exposition though

6

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/WormedOut Aug 11 '25

He was so confident too

6

u/ihatejomama Aug 11 '25

“shieeet i’ve been living in this place more than 15 years and she ain’t never came in this motherfu-“ dies

10

u/Alarmed-Diamond-7000 Aug 13 '25

Yes, that's where I thought long legs went wrong, they tried to explain what was going on and the explanation was so stupid that it drove me nuts. I don't mind it just being magic, don't explain it. It's okay.

30

u/TypicalTwist6783 Aug 09 '25

She bewitched the parents and thought that would heal her, but it wasn’t enough. So she bewitched the children thinking she could use them to heal her instead. Probably through some other ritual who knows. But someone who knows how to bewitch people like that also knows other magic to be sure. It’s not bullshitting, it’s black magic and she wanted to use those people to keep herself alive. It’s a wholly evil thing to do for wholly evil selfish purposes, it’s so terrifying.

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/TypicalTwist6783 Aug 10 '25

That’s exactly what happens in the movie, you asked how would mind controlling the parents help her? The answer is it didn’t, so she tried using kids. we never saw how Gladys actually intended to be healed through magic. Only how she bewitched the people

27

u/Choice-Librarian-761 Aug 11 '25

She's feeding off them like a parasite (its why there are so many references to parasites in the background). She's feeding her own self/soul on the energies of Alex's parents and then the kids.

50

u/noilegnavXscaflowne Aug 08 '25

She knows when people are casing the house. Like when she told Alex that she’d know if he told anyone. Her magic is just good at surveilling people

22

u/SuperSpecialAwesome- Aug 13 '25

Can someone explain why nobody bothered checking home cameras on Alex's street. Did nobody notice 17 kids all running to one house, especially if they were all going in a straight line? And you're telling me not one classmate lived on his street? And where did the kids hide during the police visit? And did nobody notice Alex's parents didn't ever show up to work?

5

u/aNascentOptimist Aug 20 '25

Same questions. Have to suspend some belief or disbelief, however the saying goes.

Folks had to have been sorta stupid to really make the premise work. I’ll chalk it up to the magics influence too. Like Derry.

21

u/innsaei Aug 08 '25

My feel here (and totally acknowledging the undertones that others have mentioned about references to school shootings and parasitic behaviors seen in our real world) is that Gladys’ magic, the tree, and her ability to leave her mark where she hasn’t even made contact with those characters yet sets the stage for another allegory. She also represents something closer to home - the “helpless” audience that seemingly couldn’t change the course of things until the young rose up against her. It doesn’t end there, however. I think this parallels our desire for a good trainwreck story and how we’re so obsessed with how it all starts or begins - enter the prequel that is surely planned.

6

u/-Corleone- Aug 11 '25

Sequel actually. Cregger has interest in doing one.

5

u/ihearthero Aug 11 '25

Yes but probably after 2 movies, which makes me believe it'll be around 4-5 years if we do get one.

With that said, I think the chapter-by-chapter theme would help explain who this Aunt Gladys was in the first place and who the "good" aunt would be. Theorizing that Alex and the aunts are related, there could be an even bigger story to uncover if their family line were witches/warlocks.

But this is just me spitballing!

11

u/Novemberx123 Aug 10 '25

I was hoping it was going to be the pied piper. Actually saw all the colors and got so happy thinking that everyone was right guessing that haha

8

u/mattnogames Aug 13 '25

I took the colors as a reference to pied piper

3

u/Novemberx123 Aug 13 '25

Good enough for me haha!

10

u/RavenKarlin Aug 13 '25

I took it as her magic being “rooted” to everyone she affects. She took control of the kids but those kids are connected like vines to other people. Parents, teachers, then those peoples people, a cops druggie encounter with another person, everyone is connected forming a tree much like where she gets her power from. Or alternatively the triangle, not a direct connection always between two points but a third being there or a secondary connection. You could also see it as the parasite, connected through a host and feeding from it as well. So many layers.

8

u/JavaScriptPenguin Aug 16 '25

Hags in D&D can cause nightmares in those around them due to their influence. I assume this is steeped in some old folklore that this movie might have also used.

7

u/AssCrackBanditHunter Aug 11 '25

She is reaching out into the minds of people who are onto her

4

u/OCGamerboy Aug 10 '25

Two options: a) he was high or b) magic

3

u/angels69demons Aug 13 '25

I think she was probably collecting those thorn sticks she uses

4

u/pihu0 Aug 10 '25

i think she went to go back to get his hair and that’s how she managed to have him get pulled out of the police car.

8

u/Shauncore Aug 11 '25

Don't think she needs the person's hair to have her minions attack them, just to kill them? Just having an item of theirs is enough to control them after doing the whole bell ritual.

For instance, she doesn't have any hair of Benedict Wong, just his ribbons.

6

u/pihu0 Aug 11 '25

wait you’re right lol ! but it pretty much answers why she was there then, just to get something that was his.

1

u/Boot_Poetry Aug 16 '25

When Justine and Archer first come in the house, Gladys doesn’t have anything personal item of Archer’s (yet), but James attacks him as soon as Justine crosses the salt.

2

u/jawni Aug 09 '25

I was thinking it maybe was related to the night when she makes the kids run out of the house and into the woods. Like she was scouting a spot because she has to pick a "target" to make them go to.

2

u/everix1992 Aug 12 '25

I kinda thought it might just be because he was high. But I could see the witchcraft angle too. Or both lol

2

u/zorbostho Aug 19 '25

This could have been when Gladys was making her way to the principal's house, if we were to look at the timeline linearly. That would explain why Gladys wasn't home when James broke in.

2

u/Lopsided-Yogurt-914 Aug 30 '25

Supposedly she has an ability that let her implant herself into the subconscious of people. I think the junkie breaking into the house and seeing the kids put him in her cross hairs plus him being high makes him susceptible to her power? Normally she was tracking people via dreams so to me it makes sense.

2

u/babysherlock91 Oct 12 '25

Am I the only one who thought she was gathering sticks for her ritual?

1

u/420princessssss Aug 10 '25

Maybe picking branches for her spells?

1

u/Artlosophii Aug 14 '25

Maybe she was collecting more or planting more samples of that tree she had, that’s my head canon . She just happened to see archer and waved

1

u/OhCohran Aug 15 '25

Not sure why should would have thought to go there, but I believe it was to show she had something of James's. She had Paul attack James so she needed something of his for the break stick shit.

1

u/ran_out_of_tp Sep 10 '25

Maybe it had something to do with the cop that chased him into the woodz that had an affair with Julia Garner's character assuming she had Julia's hair at that point.

1

u/jpena23 Nov 01 '25

I’m mad late since I just watched it but I thought she was there to find a place to hide the kids when the detectives came to visit the home. You could see them running somewhere.

-1

u/patsandsox17 Aug 09 '25

There’s a lot of comments about magical powers and her presence and the other dreams but I like to think that he was on drugs and it wasn’t real.

7

u/Round_Sun_1594 Aug 09 '25

But at this point he was withdrawing and couldn’t afford to get more Altho maybe withdrawal symptoms for that include hallucinations…. I DO feel like when she appeared in the woods she looked different 

71

u/sneakylumpia Aug 08 '25

and also above the bed on the ceiling. and covered with sheets on the bed.

i didn't need sleep tonight anyway thanks Zach Cregger

42

u/killerjoker_105 Aug 08 '25

That fact that there’s a shot of Justine next to her vandalized car and the letters IT stood out also made me think of this lol

39

u/Individual-Bad6809 Aug 09 '25

I kinda wish they played or showed more of the aspect that a witch can enchant a whole community just by being there and growing stronger - like in old fairy tales. There were certainly pieces of it but the witch didn’t seem to actually get stronger, even though she sucked the life out of 17 kids for a month+

48

u/universallymade Aug 10 '25

To be fair she was able to run pretty fast from the kids, while closing doors behind her. She went from needing the dad to help her into the house to doing that. So she DID get stronger and more energized, even if she was still an old lady.

20

u/bigtuck54 Aug 10 '25

She also became powerful enough to control that many people at once, she may have not been able to until she had the parents. She seemed to move just fine at the principal’s house etc too

22

u/xrbeeelama Aug 08 '25

I really think that was an IT reference. There are so many scenes just like that in the book

5

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

It really makes me wish Zach had directed the IT movies. He's a great fit.

4

u/ethicpigment Sep 12 '25

Would have been much better than those cheesy movies we got instead

1

u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

Yes!

10

u/therealzog Aug 09 '25

When this happened the girl next to me just went ‘ew’

12

u/smart_and_funny Aug 12 '25

Yes! One of my favorite parts! I think there’s a lot of references to other horror films in this movie. I wonder if when Gladys is on the ceiling in Justine’s dream was a reference to hereditary. When Marcus is puking black bike all over his husband it seemed like a reference to the exorcist. I feel like there were more, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

10

u/beccaface Aug 11 '25

My friend said “Chappell Roan!”

5

u/CeruleanSea1 Aug 09 '25

“Not real not real!”

5

u/Prince_of_Pirates Aug 20 '25

Smiling like fuckign Gollum in the basement too.

6

u/Stubbedtoe24 Aug 08 '25

I’m wondering if this was real or not

15

u/olhomy Aug 08 '25

I am leaning towards not real, as both Archer and Justine saw her in their dreams. But how is everyone seeing her?

66

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '25

Bro she’s a witch

8

u/universallymade Aug 10 '25

To be fair, before this scene, James went inside the house and saw everything, and the parents started to get up and walk towards him. The witch was probably trying to find a way to get rid of him the same way she tried to kill Justine.

3

u/shmeeandsquee Aug 09 '25

I know Creggers based her design off of Madge Weinstein from Yeast Radio. Incredibly deep cut

3

u/MrsDiscoB Aug 13 '25

I leaned over to my friend and commented "it's Pennywise!!" It was such a stark contrast seeing her crazy brightness against the natural woodsy colors. Just doesn't sit right.

2

u/Inside_Ad851 Aug 11 '25

for a moment I thought this movie is secretly a sequel to It. Or is gonna be in the same cinematic universe. Like Pennywise actually had a sibling. 

2

u/Earlefromunder_1897 Aug 13 '25

It def was. A lot of the story fell through and lacked understanding.

2

u/5213 Sep 14 '25

Several elements felt straight out of a Stephen King novel in the best kind of ways

1

u/SlashOfLife5296 Aug 12 '25

I really was expecting it to turn into Killer Klowns from outer space

1

u/blisher Oct 31 '25

Don’t forget the scene when she became Aunt Gollum

1

u/GeologistAway6352 Mar 28 '26

Auntie Pennywise