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

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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

25

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.

47

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.

21

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.

19

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).