Zach Cregger’s latest horror movie, Weapons, is already making huge waves at the box office and is being lauded by many fans and critics as a “masterpiece.” Similar to his horror feature directorial debut, Barbarian, Cregger has proven his capability as a filmmaker who knows how to blend horror and humor to great effect, and often in unexpected ways. Weapons is told through various perspectives of the movie’s main characters, roughly a month after 17 kids disappeared from their respective homes randomly one night at 2:17 a.m. After following Julia Garner’s character, the teacher Justine, we then switch to the point of view of grieving father Archer (Josh Brolin), who begins investigating the disappearance of his son. Archer’s investigation leads to a familiar face (and hilarious moment) that Barbarian fans will especially appreciate.
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Warning: Spoilers below for Weapons
Archer obsessively watches the footage from his front door’s Ring camera of the night his son, Matthew, ran off. When he attempts to trace the direction his son and classmates were running, Archer decides he needs to review additional footage and asks the mother of another missing child if he can look through their camera’s history, knowing the file has been saved since they all had to submit the evidence to the police. The mother, Erica (Sara Paxton), is uncomfortable letting Archer review the video and denies his request. So what does Archer do? He waits in his truck for her husband to come home so he can ask him instead. Funnily enough, Erica’s husband, Gary, is played by none other than Barbarian’s Justin Long.
Justin Long Has Become Cregger’s Secret Weapon
When Long’s character, AJ, first appears in Barbarian, it’s via a sudden mid-film cut that takes audiences from a nightmare scenario with the main character, Tess (Georgina Campbell) (who is trapped in an Airbnb basement from hell), to a sunny scene featuring AJ happily singing and driving down a coastal highway. The shift is jarring and completely changes the tone of the film, which is apt considering AJ himself acts as a major transition in the plot until his storyline eventually interlinks with Tess. It’s a fantastic example of Cregger’s balance between scary and funny, and the filmmaker utilizes Long in a similar way in Weapons.
Unlike Barbarian, where the actor is one of the main characters of the movie, Long is only in Weapons for a minute or two, but his character is leveraged as a unique mid-film cut that is initially humorous (just like his introduction in Barbarian) and serves as a fun Easter egg for fans of Cregger’s first film, who truly understand the significance of Long’s cameo. In Weapons, Long’s character, Gary, is seemingly intimidated by Archer, who now easily gains access to the footage he’s looking for. Not only are Long’s mannerisms played for laughs, but so is the image of Archer watching the footage with Gary sitting next to him as a frustrated Erica watches on from only a few feet away, glaring at the two men.
The scene is effective in briefly lightening the mood for the audience and works well on its own merits. Cregger bringing Long in to turn this short scene in Weapons into an Easter egg callback to Barbarian is nothing short of brilliant and makes it all the more special for fans, who now might be eager for the next time Long pops up in a Cregger project.
Weapons is now in theaters. Barbarian is available to stream on Netflix.
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