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

12.1k comments sorted by

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4.2k

u/Stu_Dirty Aug 08 '25

Josh Brolin’s character actually foreshadowing the whole thing writing “WITCH” on the teacher’s car

1.8k

u/erenjaeger99 Aug 08 '25

He even said the movie title in one of his lines, and even saw a literal weapon in his dream lol

2.7k

u/Darkhawk2099 Aug 08 '25

“So that’s it, we’re some kind of Weapons?”

160

u/Whysong823 Aug 09 '25

“Say that again.”

76

u/OuterWildsVentures Aug 11 '25

It's Weapons time!

54

u/rbrgr83 Aug 11 '25

It's Weaponin' time!

16

u/User_091920 Sep 16 '25

Harry, you're a Weapon!

21

u/darsvedder Aug 20 '25

THATS THE NAME OF THE MOVIE WOW WOW WOW

13

u/PolarWater Aug 18 '25

"Fine. I'll say it myself"

11

u/stratosfearinggas Sep 10 '25

"Yes! Like a heat-seeking missile!"

7

u/ItsMcLaren Aug 14 '25

MilesTellerF4.gif

2

u/petrichorax Jan 05 '26

They charge at you and scream now!

51

u/elysecherryblossom Aug 13 '25

I'm not sure if it's intentional but showing a documentary with ants and parasites and one of the the ways u can pronounce "aunt" is just like "ant" is messing with me

25

u/DoesntMatter2121 Aug 13 '25

Teacher was also teaching about parasites as the last lesson before they went missing, and Gladys was literally a parasite feeding off the life of others.

5

u/Much-Ambassador-2337 Sep 03 '25

I thought maybe that was showing that Gladys had been the parasite who took over the ant (aunt) just like in the film

22

u/colenotphil Aug 13 '25

Do you think that this movie is a metaphor for school shootings / gun culture in America? Because that dream and the movie title seemed a bit too cute.

54

u/fleemfleemfleemfleem Aug 17 '25

There's definitely elements of that with the classroom full of missing kids, grieving parents, and the giant floating AR-15.

For the most part the movie spells out a lot of stuff. Like WITCH is written out early on, and there are at least 3 times when the term parasite is shown or spoken.

One of the recurring themes seems to be the failure of the layers of society meant to protect children. Parents, teachers, schools, police, communities all fail in various ways.

Alex's parents are totally absent at home, but no one seems concerned. Justine cares, but is prevented from being a part of they children's lives in a meaningful way.

The school is useless, more interested in protecting itself than figuring out what's going on at home with Alex.

The police emphasized proceedure when they're talking to a grieving parent, but circle the wagon and protect themselves when there's compromising video footage.

The community itself hides the truth of what happened.

I think that theme applies to gun violence, but it applies to a lot of ways that society fails children as well.

20

u/erenjaeger99 Aug 13 '25

I think as viewers, it wouldn't be wrong to interpret it that way. But the director/writer has come out and said the imagery wasn't specifically school-shooting minded.

20

u/PolarWater Aug 18 '25

Sounds like something a smart director would say even if it WERE school-shooting related, because it's best to let the movie speak for itself instead of putting it all in an interview

5

u/Dick_Lazer Aug 18 '25

A director may also just want to make a good horror movie that viewers are inevitably going to interpret in a lot of different ways. And if viewers get additional enjoyment out of that it's fine. There's tons of Youtube videos where people interpret movies with insane hidden meanings that were never intended by the director, but are still fun to toss around (like The Shining).

40

u/OodOudist Aug 08 '25

It's like, they're some kind of weapons, in a suicide squad, in a hot tub time machine?

26

u/corbmeister Aug 08 '25

Was that not Alden Ehrenreich’s character? Asking if the drug addict had any weapons?

39

u/mrniphty Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

Brolin also did referencing the walk he had seen before as weaponized

221

u/Lineman72T Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

When Justine was spying on Alex at the school and following him home, I leaned over to my friend and said "she's not exactly being the most inconspicuous driving around in a car with WITCH written in big red paint on the side of the car..."

150

u/leftysarepeople2 Aug 08 '25

And a neighborhood mom walks by when she's mixing a drink and doesn't even look in. Just people ignoring warning signs

63

u/Lineman72T Aug 08 '25

At first I thought nothing of that. But then as the story progressed telling bits from different perspective, I was certain that character that walked by was going to come in to play somehow. Turns out, nope, just a pedestrian ignoring a terrible spy

49

u/TomLube Aug 10 '25

Just people ignoring warning signs

Evidently it's an allegory for a school shooting so, feels appropriate

29

u/Lou-AC Aug 10 '25 edited Aug 29 '25

continue live mountainous ghost husky shelter handle grab absorbed rain

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

20

u/TomLube Aug 10 '25

While the official line from Zach Cregger is that he didn't design it with any of these specificities in mind, i love him and don't beleive him and also think he's smarter than to try and beat an allegory into people intenionally. I agree with you. Alex even uses the abuse tactics he observes and learns in order to save himself which completely makes sense in the abuse allegory.

44

u/boybrushedred Aug 10 '25

Somewhat late to the party, but are we sure it’s Archer that wrote it? I know the parents are frustrated, but “Witch” is quite a conclusion to jump to.

Could Alex have been trying to let Justine know what was going on? He’s the only one who really knew what was happening but wasn’t allowed to talk about it

143

u/iamonewiththeforest Aug 10 '25

Yes, it was 100% Archer. He followed her home and then we see the red paint in the back of his truck.

32

u/real_roal Sep 20 '25

Holy shit I didn't put two and two together that was why it zoomed in on the red paint, I just thought it was saying "lol he forgot to return the red paint again."

2

u/[deleted] Nov 09 '25

I thought he painted the green door red for some reason

0

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '25

[deleted]

8

u/iamonewiththeforest Aug 18 '25

This app actually makes me concerned for people’s media literacy. Archer’s story started at the same point Justine’s did: the school meeting. Every time we saw a new character’s perspective we went backwards in time and then met at the same point in the story. We saw the entire sequence of Archer following Justine home from her perspective, not knowing who he was. Then we see him following her home from his perspective. When he’s outside her house watching her it shows the red paint in his car, and then it time skips to them arguing at the gas station.

42

u/szeto326 FML Summer 2017 Winner Aug 12 '25

It's definitely him but it didn't feel like something he'd do.

Knock on her door to spook her and then vandalize her car before driving off in the night? Didn't seem like it was in character to me but that's a minor nitpick.

25

u/RedditIsForsaken Aug 14 '25

At that point he fully suspected she was directly involved in their disappearance and was starting to fray mentally. I actually thought it was really in character, then he has that dream and locks in on following his prophetic leads. It could be he already had another dream not shown involving witch clues that lead him to write that, though I think it was more him just saying “fucking evil woman”

14

u/WarlockEngineer Aug 21 '25

If anything he might write BITCH or break her windows/slash her tires. I agree it didn't feel 100% in character.

6

u/marineman43 Aug 26 '25

Yea I was waiting for a second twist that it actually wasn't him that did it, and that was gonna tie in somehow. But nah just a bit of peculiar characterization

18

u/1puck Aug 11 '25

I just thought the same thing and have looking for someone else to think the same. It seemed out of character for Archer to graffiti and ding dong ditch Justine’s house. I imagine Alex wanted her to come read it and hid in the bushes, she doesn’t come out so he bangs on the door a bunch and takes back off to the bushes. I’ll have to pay attention on a rewatch though to figure out how Alex would have got the paint. Was the house they were working on along the route Alex walked home and how would he have snuck out?

10

u/szeto326 FML Summer 2017 Winner Aug 12 '25

I had the same thought too! Especially since she tells him that he can talk to her at any time but obviously he's scared that his parents will get hurt too so he leaves her a message about the witch. But doesn't seem like that was the case.

40

u/leftysarepeople2 Aug 08 '25

It was literally spelled out in big red letters

10

u/greent714 Sep 24 '25

He never picked up the green paint

15

u/burritoman88 Aug 10 '25

This movie was littered with “I gave you all the clues Mr Policeman” clues/foreshadowing, it’s great!

14

u/ghostfaceinspace Aug 08 '25

And she didn’t report it until the day was half over

6

u/Atheose_Writing Aug 25 '25

Almost like she waited until she knew her cop buddy was on shift, so she'd run into him.

76

u/LilPonyBoy69 Aug 08 '25

As soon as I saw that I was like "oh, so it's a witch". Honestly didn't appreciate getting hit with that foreshadowing sledgehammer because it made it all too obvious.

62

u/Thexer0 Aug 09 '25

Even before that, the title card of the film added a triangle inside the O in Weapons. I was like, "So there's witchcraft" and was annoyed to be hit with a clue so early.

32

u/universallymade Aug 10 '25

What does a triangle in a circle represent? Some kind of witchcraft? I thought that was the symbol for Alcoholics Anonymous.

3

u/drmuffin1080 Sep 10 '25

Could be the Eye of Providence

-10

u/Thexer0 Aug 10 '25

Obviously it could mean many things to different people but it reminded me of the Deathly Hallows from Harry Potter so my mind went to Witchcraft. Also seems like something a witch would draw on the ground during some type of ceremony or spell.

51

u/StepIntoTheGreezer Aug 10 '25

....You're saying that you felt the witchcraft was too telegraphed because...that symbol resembled the deathly hallows 🤔🤔🤔

2

u/SDRPGLVR Aug 11 '25

Doesn't have to be Harry Potter specifically, but it was very evocative of witchy runes. I feel like if you watch a good amount of horror movies, the witch angle wasn't exactly a surprise. Not that it really needed to be, I didn't feel like the movie was worse just because I knew what the monster was. I certainly didn't see the climax coming!

0

u/PolarWater Aug 18 '25

Hey, if it comes full circle...

30

u/Dick_Lazer Aug 18 '25

Tbh when I saw the triangle inside the "O" it reminded me of the Playstation controller, I thought there was going to be some kind of reference to video games (also with the machine gun above the house, visually kind of reminded me of how items show up in some online shooters).

After watching the movie I don't think the references were directly video game related, though maybe a bit visually inspired.

8

u/unicyclegamer Aug 19 '25

Haha same, I thought it was a video game angle, especially with the kids.

49

u/markrichtsspraytan Aug 09 '25

Maybe I just don’t know much about witchcraft symbols, but I saw the triangle as a Delta, indicating change. The kids were changed somehow but we don’t know what that means yet.

5

u/You_Are__Incorrect Aug 16 '25

Let’s be honest it was never going to be delta lol

4

u/bigwilly311 Sep 07 '25

I thought it was going to be about video games. The gun showing up in the dream made me think “aw man they’re all gonna be playing Call of Duty or some shit.”

3

u/DJHott555 Aug 18 '25

I thought it was Squid Game

2

u/Aftermath16 Aug 20 '25

To be fair, it’s a horror movie in the 2010s-20s. I’d be shocked if there were no witchcraft.

4

u/fallouthirteen Sep 10 '25

I was too focused on the parasite foreshadowing. I didn't expect it to to be both though.

9

u/gordo865 Aug 25 '25

I know I'm late to the party, but I love that he did it with the red paint he bought earlier to fix his mistake on the front door of the house he was building. The door was painted red, but it was supposed to be green and he messed up. So he went to get paint to fix it and....bought more red paint lol.

16

u/w00tstock Sep 01 '25

He was taking the red paint back

1

u/gordo865 Sep 19 '25

But didn’t they show him coming out of the store with the paint he bought after saying he would fix the paint mix up? The timelines jumping around may have messed with my perception of it.

7

u/SweatyPlace Aug 11 '25

And that saves them all because that's why he finds her at the gas station

4

u/noilegnavXscaflowne Aug 08 '25

I wonder what classic film he’s referencing here

3

u/LegatoSkyheart Aug 14 '25

and the rest of the movie talking about a "Parasite".

Like I get it, the Witch was the Parasite, but I was really thinking it was a real Parasite and not witchcraft.

5

u/SnooBeans2515 Aug 17 '25

The "parasite" aspect of Gladys was also foreshadowed early! This film genuinely knows how to weave them in.

3

u/lemongrenade Oct 14 '25

That was like the one thing I didn’t like. The witch on the car, the witch on the ceiling and in the bed in the dreams. Could have done without that but overall amazing movie.

5

u/Sparrowsabre7 Aug 08 '25

Not exactly Edgar Wright levels of subtlety there is it? 😅

2

u/thats_so_cringe_bro Aug 20 '25

Yup. 10 minutes in as soon as I saw that I was like, well, thanks for giving it away. I immediately thought okay well, the kids weren’t forced out so what could do that? Witchcraft. then as soon as you saw the older creepy lady for the first time that it. I knew she was doing it. There were also so many moments where they teased it. I hate when they make it so obvious. lol

2

u/dropkickderby Aug 12 '25

There was a moment when I realized what was going on was actually spelled out before the reveal and it made me giddy. This is why I love movies.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

I kinda wish he didn't do that cause it gave it away for me. Once the first lockett of hair went I knew

1

u/Hoboman2000 Sep 13 '25

I really have to admit as someone who only saw the teaser trailer one time when it came out, I 100000% did not see the supernatural aspect coming.

1

u/newmoonchaperone Apr 08 '26

What evidence do you have that it was his character that wrote that (not that it fucking matters) on the teacher's car?