The movie everyone is talking about lately is Zach Cregger’s Weapons. It’s a horrifying and hilarious look at the disappearance of kids from a neighborhood and everyone who is implicated in the crime.
For me, the thing I want to talk to other people about is that wild and wacky ending that is so much fun.
So, today, we’re going to unpack that.
Spoilers for Weapons to follow.
Let’s dive in.
The Weapons Plot
The central mystery of Weapons revolves around the simultaneous vanishing of all but one child from a single elementary school class at 2:17 in the morning.
That disturbing instance throws an entire community into a state of panic, with the children’s teacher, Justine (played by Julia Garner), and the father of a missing boy, Archer (played by Josh Brolin), at the forefront of the desperate search for answers and the target of a lot of ire.
As the narrative unfolds, we learn that the disappearance happened because of the work of a witch named Gladys, who has been posing as the eccentric aunt of the lone remaining student, Alex.
All of the kids in the class are in Alex’s basement, and Gladys uses a spell to trick the cops and everyone who looks for them.
Gladys is draining the life force of the children to sustain her own life. To do all this, she takes a personal item from each child, performs a spell, and gains control over them.
The Ending of Weapons
The film’s final act sees Justine and Archer converge on Alex’s house, which has become Gladys’s horrifying lair.
They discover the missing children in a trance-like state in the basement. But Gladys unleashes her supernatural powers on the intruders and puts a spell on Archer, who then tries to kill Justine.
The turning point arrives when Alex, who has been a reluctant accomplice to Gladys, manages to break the witch’s control over his friends and turn them against her.
This shatters her power over the children, who turn on her like a cannibalistic horde, chasing her and then tearing her apart limb from limb.
With the witch vanquished, the spell is broken, and the children are freed from her influence, though the traumatic experience leaves its mark.
We learn that the kids never recover, and some of them are still not talking years later. But Archer gets his son back, and Justine is not blamed for the kids’ disappearance.
What Does It All Mean?
The ending of Weapons played like a dark worldly lesson, where the ultimate salvation from evil comes not from the adults, but from being a resilient kid who can make it through the trauma.
It’s basically saying, “The adults won’t save you, but you can save each other.”
The film leaves the audience to ponder the lingering scars of trauma on the small town. It’s clearly a giant metaphor, probably for gun violence or school shootings, but I think you could generally say for the evil world we’ve created, which doesn’t value keeping children safe.
It’s both terrifying and poignant.
Summing It All Up
This was my favorite movie of the year so far, and a deep look into the horrors of the suburbs and the world we’ve created. I loved what Cregger was doing with basement horror, and I am so excited to see what he does next.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
