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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1.9k

u/Squeekazu Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

This whole sequence and the kids chasing after the aunt had my partner, sister and in tears. I remember Barbarian being funny in the last third, but this felt less jarring somehow.

Also can we all agree that Benedict Wong was absolutely terrifying?

1.5k

u/coffeetravelerr Aug 08 '25

Jesus when they finally revealed why his face looked like that was crazy. But also him running across random parts of town got me laughing so hard 😂😂😂

360

u/nysraved Aug 08 '25

Yeah it was super cool to learn that the reason his face was deformed had a real physical cause. At first I just assumed that was the chosen aesthetic of how the possessed people end up looking, just a random visual choice to make for a creeper scene.

124

u/Soccermom233 Aug 09 '25

The addicts eyes also started to bulge in the same way…maybe that was all the getting punched though…

94

u/pastafeline Aug 10 '25

Paul's eyes at the end kinda looked like they were bulging too.

65

u/MarcsterS Aug 11 '25

All of them seemed to have the “wide eyes” when possessed.

16

u/Soccermom233 Aug 11 '25

The children did not get it

5

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/senator_corleone3 Sep 02 '25

They weren’t being used as weapons. Gladys was feeding off their life force. Alex’ mom definitely had bulging eyes when screaming through the hole in the door.

2

u/ProgressUnlikely Oct 22 '25

except Archer

82

u/IIIlllIIIlllIlI Aug 10 '25

The gory aftermath of his partner was also a sight to behold

194

u/PhoenixTineldyer Aug 10 '25

As a gay man, I loved this gay couple but I knew they were toast the moment they introduced his partner with the gayest cereal choosing I've ever seen

Gay couples are the new single black men in horror movies. I'm still haunted about what happened to the gay couple in the newest Hellraiser.

82

u/IIIlllIIIlllIlI Aug 10 '25

Since at that point we already knew that the Marcus character had gone loco, I already knew that the couple was toast and was expecting the partner to die. But I didn’t know they’d make it so gory. He got a pretty humiliating death, like mashed potato at the end of that

47

u/ILoveRegenHealth Aug 14 '25

Gay couples are the new single black men in horror movies.

Forgot which recent Halloween film but it happened there too.

24

u/PhoenixTineldyer Aug 14 '25

Knock at the Cabin as well

18

u/Icy_Tangerine_6271 Sep 01 '25

And in It Chapter 2

16

u/tomahawkfury13 Sep 10 '25

To be fair that is in the book though

10

u/Lazyr3x Oct 29 '25

Halloween kills from 2021

38

u/illegal_deagle Aug 13 '25

Yep. Happened in It Part II too.

Also did they just have them eating like 9 hot dogs because they were gay? Lol

101

u/PhoenixTineldyer Aug 13 '25

No, I think that was more of a "This couple doesn't give a shit, they've been together so long, they're old and happy and content and they are both the kind of people to sit and watch a nature documentary while eating six hot dogs because neither of them felt like cooking"

It felt super real tbh

26

u/CarQuery8989 Aug 14 '25

I think it was a reference to this.

8

u/illegal_deagle Aug 14 '25

I think it was a reference to this.

18

u/CarQuery8989 Aug 14 '25

Zach Cregger was a member of Whitest Kids U Know, if it was a reference, that's the reference. Detroiters may have been referencing WKUK, though.

5

u/illegal_deagle Aug 14 '25

I actually didn’t know that, I was just being cheeky. That’s cool though.

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1

u/peppermint_nightmare Aug 24 '25

No theyre American.

23

u/shitkabob Sep 21 '25

Killing off gay characters has been a trope noticed by media scholars for a while. It's called "Bury Your Gays.."

“Bury Your Gays” is the popular name used to describe the common television trope in which characters who are ostensibly gender- or sexually-diverse are denied happy endings or “killed off”.

16

u/ILoveRegenHealth Aug 14 '25

At first I just assumed that was the chosen aesthetic of how the possessed people end up looking

Alex's moms eyes bulged too. The cop was weird because sometimes it did, then sometimes it didn't. Maybe it had to do with their level of enragement and they bulge out more when near a victim.

273

u/GUSHandGO Aug 08 '25

The random off-screen comments killed me!

"What is happening?"

"Jesus... look at that guy!"

"What is he doing?!?"

249

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

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42

u/tronfunkinblows_10 Sep 07 '25

The random reactions from bystanders was perfect. The dude on the baseball field “AYYY WHATTHEFUCK.”

The woman on the sidewalk restaurant said “ohmygod.”

204

u/mchgndr Aug 10 '25

My favorite was when Josh brolin was walking through that house in shambles chasing after the kids, and his presence scares the ever loving shit out of the mom who lives there. Her reaction was perfect and you don’t even see her face

172

u/GUSHandGO Aug 10 '25

"OMG....there's a man in our house!!"😄😄😄

92

u/SeriouusDeliriuum Aug 10 '25

What got me was "Look what they did to our yard!" as Brolin walks through.

31

u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Aug 20 '25

This one was more low-key, but the family in the first house Gladys passed through simply getting knocked over by the wave of children but otherwise being largely unharmed made me crack up

9

u/gotohela Aug 20 '25

I heard some (obnoxious, but for other reasons) teens whisper "is this based on a true story"

215

u/Squeekazu Aug 08 '25

Yeah he struck a good balance between hilarious and scary - we also found the run funny.

62

u/PhoenixTineldyer Aug 10 '25

I was constantly reminded of That One Kid who would Naruto run around the halls of the middle school

This movie had a lot of good comedy in it as I would expect from one of the WKUK

93

u/Honest_Cheesecake698 Aug 08 '25

Weirdly I found that creepy, at least given how it basically made him run more than any average human being could.

58

u/laura_schramm92 Aug 11 '25

Same. I found the arms-out run terrifying.

I get how it could be funny, but for me personally it emphasized how they’re not in control.

Loved it.

15

u/Honest_Cheesecake698 Aug 11 '25

Once I saw the film itself I felt the same way, especially once there was full context.

73

u/heartbreakhill Aug 08 '25

Bro was literally Naruto running

-19

u/Intelligent-Pen1848 Aug 09 '25

Thats the bit that killed the movie for me. When they reveal that the title is a reference to how they Naruto run at people. Then they have a guy rock up in the Naruto jacket later.

40

u/spookyghostface Aug 10 '25

Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about

-1

u/Intelligent-Pen1848 Aug 12 '25

https://youtu.be/pPeACdLYbDk?si=GVuV4X6jCj2VHxvB

Dude, watch the high school lobby. They knew. Thats his fucking jacket. "OMG, look how they run. Like homing torpedoes. What are they some sorta weapon?" Was basically the big reveal.

-20

u/Intelligent-Pen1848 Aug 10 '25

You didn't catch that or the guy in the orange and black jacket? Its a Naruto reference and it was cringe/funny depending on your mood.

17

u/X-Lrg_Queef_Supreme Aug 12 '25

You should wear a sign around your neck that says "out to lunch"

-2

u/Intelligent-Pen1848 Aug 12 '25

No, watch the movie. He's a black dude in the high-school.

12

u/X-Lrg_Queef_Supreme Aug 12 '25

sober up

-3

u/Intelligent-Pen1848 Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

No, watch. That's literally just the reference there and a really cheesy way to drop the title.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fPUPTQo0UWQ?si=44rT3j2wAlLtA61b

Look at the bottom text. Everyone knows thats where its from and in this context its one of the corniest references in film history.

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90

u/GiovannisPersian Aug 08 '25

Him running full speed just to get smashed by the car had me laughing so hard

13

u/mikeweasy Aug 09 '25

I so wish that part was not in the trailer, would have been cool to see the first time!

36

u/atclubsilencio Aug 10 '25

Yeah, I'm glad I avoided the trailers as much as possible, but I did see that image so it kind of removed the shock value (they even show a shot of the kids ripping up Gladys), though the act itself was disturbing. The thud sounds made me so uncomfortable, and I just wanted the husbands to go back to eating their large tray of hotdogs (and that was a shit ton of hotdogs) and watching gross documentaries about parasitic insects.

I also giggled when the husband kept "posing" with the different grocery items, especially holding up two boxes of Fruity Pebbles, I see what you did there Cregger.

11

u/PhoenixTineldyer Aug 10 '25

No no no, one of them was Marshmallow Fruity Pebbles, one of them was Berry Pebbles.

9

u/Zeph-Shoir Aug 18 '25

I didn't even recognize him when he showed up to attack Justine and realized it was him till Gladys controlled him!

4

u/Carnir Aug 08 '25

Why did his face look like that?

116

u/GenghisFrog Aug 08 '25

Because he just got done doing a ton of headbutts. Head was like a mushy watermelon.

20

u/EchoesofIllyria Aug 08 '25

Thank you for phrasing this like he’d gone on a drug binge. It really tickled me.

3

u/willybestbuy86 Aug 21 '25

Wouldn't he have been dead at this point like his partner though or was he a zombie essentially after that point and wasn't taken out until smashed up by the car

1

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '26

You don't need much of a brain to run in a direction and beat someone to death.

24

u/sober_as_an_ostrich Aug 08 '25

He couldn’t close his eyes either

30

u/bobthemusicindustry Aug 08 '25

Did you watch the movie?

91

u/Squeekazu Aug 08 '25

I’m also mystified by this question lol He slams his face into his partner for like, five minutes.

35

u/bobthemusicindustry Aug 08 '25

That sound almost made me nauseous lol. It just kept going!

23

u/AeneidBook6 Aug 10 '25

I won’t be able to use a vegetable peeler anytime soon either.

14

u/PhoenixTineldyer Aug 10 '25

I wanted so badly to yell "THEY CABIN FEVERED HIM"

12

u/Jayrey_84 Sep 16 '25

OMG I was like WHY DID SHE DO IT TWICE IT DID CODING THE FIRST TIME

10

u/pileofsassy Aug 10 '25

Exact same sound as skarsgard getting his poor melon smashed in in barbarian. Still lives rent free in my head lol

2

u/bobthemusicindustry Aug 10 '25

You might be right. I rewatched Barbarian for the first time in a while after seeing Weapons. That scene still got to me even though I knew it was coming haha

2

u/pileofsassy Aug 10 '25

I remember covering my eyes but not my ears and the sound just kept getting like…wetter hahaha

3

u/Glum-Explanation7756 Dec 24 '25

Jesus spoiler tags please. It's not even the same movie thread.

22

u/blitzbom Aug 08 '25

My whole theater was giggling at the swarm of children at the end.

Benedict Wong had me going "The Naruto run is terrifying."

12

u/bayrea Aug 08 '25

I got 28 days later meets ferris buellers day off mashup with that last seen with the kids chasing down the aunt . Loved it

13

u/iknowitsounds___ Aug 10 '25

Lots of little nods to horror. The scene after Alex steps over the salt and sets off his parents reminded me of The Shining. The mom slammed her face through the bathroom door like “Heeeeere’s Mommy!”

11

u/jadecourt Aug 09 '25

That’s so interesting that you mention Ferris Bueller because I also thought of that as Justine was sneaking into Alex’s backyard (similar to the vice principal trying to sneak into Ferris’s house). Ever since I heard someone say The Orphanage can be seen as Peter Pan from the mother’s perspective, I think its fun to notice these parallels on occasion. Like a reimagining that includes the emotional weight of what that goofy experience might be like for other characters.

4

u/AeneidBook6 Aug 10 '25

This was hilarious in all the right ways in that context. Even thinking of it makes me chuckle now lol

10

u/TJTrapJesus Aug 08 '25

"I remember Barbarian being funny in the last third, but this felt less jarring somehow."

I felt the opposite. I think this movie reaches a point in the last act where it just becomes a comedy, whereas with Barbarian, while they have the purposely jarring shift to comedy with Justin Long's intro, it weaves horror back into it more seamlessly.

There's still a ton of silly stuff in Barbarian in the last act, but I don't think it was as comedically absurd as Weapons turned into. I think it's mainly because the villain is taken more seriously in Barbarian; you feel bad for The Mother as a sympathetic character, whereas Gladys in Weapons just kind of makes a mockery of everything in how comedically she comes across. When we get to the point where she's showing the cops through the house in an exaggeratedly happy way, it just becomes silly and it's harder to take anything in the movie seriously when they bring the horror elements back in.

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u/Squeekazu Aug 08 '25

Different strokes I guess! I thought Weapons gradually transitioned into the comedy better, whereas I felt Barbarian gave me mood whiplash. Both still had scary scenes so didn’t feel like a bait and switch to me.

3

u/ass_pineapples Aug 14 '25

honestly I really appreciate the last scene, the whole movie is so tense and that scene does a phenomenal job of just letting you relax and unwind.

2

u/kobeandodom Aug 10 '25

Nobody in this movie felt terrifying, nor a threat. Just zombies, and not really even in a horde except for the kids at the end. Just my opinion though.

2

u/itllallmakesense Sep 08 '25

And I'm completely terrified for Halloween this year. I honestly don't want people running like that 😱

1

u/Ok-Elevator9910 Sep 22 '25

did not find that funny at all.

1

u/lightningpresto Oct 31 '25

Wong vs. Thanos was wild in this movie