Weapons is the new horror-thriller-mystery movie from Zach Cregger, who burst onto the scene with his surprise hit horror film Barbarian (2022). Cregger kept much of the story of Weapons under wraps, with trailers, posters, and TV spots all focusing on selling the terrifying premise of a classroom of kids (sans one) running out of their homes in the middle of the night and vanishing. However, now that the film is in theaters, moviegoers are finding out why Cregger’s script sparked such a furious bidding war between studios. True to his word, Cregger turns the story of Weapons into a multi-faceted, multi-layered horror “epic.” That said, all the convoluted threads of story and characters eventually have to converge, resulting in what is already one of the most discussed and debated movie climaxes, ever.
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The funny part about it is? When you re-watch it a second time, it’ll be clear that answers were always hiding in plain sight, through some wickedly clever irony and humor.
Weapons Ending Explained (Major Spoilers)
The first half of Weapons‘ story is dedicated to following the storylines of teacher Justine Grady (Julia Garner) and contractor/father, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin). Both Justine and Archer launch their own respective investigations into the disappearances of the children from Justine’s class, and end up looking in the same direction for answers: the home of Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), Justine’s only student who didn’t vanish.
The second half of Weapons expands the story’s focus, providing dark insight into what’s actually going on in Alex’s home. It’s revealed that before the vanishing event, Alex’s happy home was invaded by an evil auntie, Gladys (Amy Madigan), who is actually a witch. Gladys is dying and needs to feed on the life forces of others; by combining a small magic-laden tree, an item from an intended victim, and a blood ritual, Gladys is able to possess others and make them do her bidding, including seeking out and killing specific people. She first enslaves Alex’s parents, then uses the boy as her Trojan Horse to gather items from Justine’s entire class, to perform the ritual on a much larger scale. Sure enough, the 2:17 am time the children run away from home corresponds to the moment Gladys uses the ritual and summons them to Alex’s house, where she holds them as catatonic hostages in the basement, to feed on.
Local drug addict and thief James (Austin Abrams) inadvertently discovers Gladys and her scheme after trying to burglarize the house. James tries to alert the cops, but gets intercepted by Officer Paul Morgan (Aleden Ehrenreich), with whom he had a major conflict earlier in the film. Angry and skeptical, Paul drives James back to Alex’s house, and Gladys ends up possessing them both. By the time Justine and Archer put aside their differences, team up, and track things back to Alex, they end up having a brutal fight to the death against Gladys and her squad of thralls: Paul, James, and Alex’s parents. Alex ends up being the one who saves the day by stealing the magic tree and recreating the ritual, this time using Gladys’ hair as the target. In a crazy final sequence, Gladys goes running from the house with more than a dozen possessed children on her heels. The chase goes through several backyards and homes before the kids catch Gladys and rip her to bloody shreds.
The child narrator who opens the film provides the key epilogue information: those who were possessed are left traumatized. Alex’s parents go to an institution, while the boy goes to live with one of his good aunts. The final line of the film assures us that some of the children even started talking again. Eventually.
The Meaning of Weapons, Explained
Weapons is both a parable (or dark fable) and a personal piece for Zach Cregger. The filmmaker has made no secret that the death of his comedy troupe buddy Trevor Moore (of The Whitest Kids U’ Know) inspired this script. The multi-chapter, multi-POV format imitates classic cinematic greats like Rashomon and Pulp Fiction, and allowed Cregger to make each of the main characters a facet of grieving. Justine uses substance abuse (alcohol) to numb her rampant anxiety; Archer’s guilt and depression unravel him; Paul backslides into self-destructive behavior (brutality, infidelity); James is propelled by addiction, with little care for anything else. It’s hard to miss that each of these characteristics is also associated with the hardest and messiest forms of grieving people struggle with. Or that each character’s personal pain holds them back from actually solving the mystery that’s right in front of them.
Of course, the thematic scope is bigger than that; Weapons is also a more indirect rumination on many societal concerns of today. The vanishing event is a pretty clear allegory for school shootings; before the supernatural element is revealed, the first act is very much a drama about how a small town and its residents begin to unravel following a mass casualty event, turning on each other without spotting the real evil in their midst. Justine’s story also reflects concerns over “Cancel Culture” and what it does to a person’s life; Archer’s story has subtext about generational toxic masculinity and overcoming it, and then there’s Alex’s segment, which requires its own separate breakdown, thematically. In the end, Cregger packed so much depth into Weapons that the first viewing is nothing but preparation for the rewatch. Horror fans will be debating and discussing this one for years.
Weapons Hides Its Secret In Plain Sight (& Its Hilarious)
If you want insight into how Zach Cregger brings horror, drama, and comedy together into a strange brew, look no further than one of the best sight-gag jokes in the film.
One mystery subplot of the film leads to the reveal that Archer vandalized Justine’s car, writing the word “WITCH” on the driver’s side, in unwashable paint. Justine is forced to drive through most of the movie with the vandalism on her car; however, by the end, it becomes clear that Cregger was foreshadowing the reveal of Gladys and her witchcraft in plain sight the entire time, while also highlighting the irony that the mob mentality of the small town, made them cast aspersions on the wrong woman, while entirely missing the actual witch in their midst. The thematic metaphors of that are, again, hard to miss.
Weapons is now playing in theaters and IMAX.
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Image Courtesy of Paramount -
Image Courtesy of Big Finish Productions.
