Weapons (2025 film)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Weapons is a 2025 American supernatural mystery horror film written and directed by Zach Cregger. Its story begins at 2:17 in the morning on a Wednesday in Maybrook, Pennsylvania. Seventeen children walk out of their front doors and vanish into the night. All of them belong to the third-grade classroom of a teacher named Justine Gandy. Only one child from that class, a boy named Alex Lilly, stays behind. A child narrator tells the tale. What pulled seventeen children from their beds at the same moment? Why did their parents turn on their teacher? And how did a single screenplay set off a scramble among Hollywood studios before a camera ever rolled? The answers involve a grieving writer, a mysterious elderly visitor, and a theatrical run that earned many times what the film cost.

  4572456

• 2. The Case in Maybrook

  ›

  After the disappearances, the parents of Maybrook accuse Justine of being involved, and she is placed on administrative leave. Archer Graff, a construction contractor whose son Matthew is among the missing, becomes her most suspicious accuser. Josh Brolin plays Archer and Julia Garner plays Justine.

  Justine relapses into alcoholism and has a one-night stand with Paul Morgan, a married police officer and her ex-boyfriend. Worried about Alex, she follows him home. She finds the windows covered with newspaper and Alex's parents sitting motionless inside. When Justine dozes off in her car during a stakeout, Alex's mother walks out in a trance and cuts a lock of her hair.

  Archer, frustrated by the lack of leads, starts his own investigation. He compares his video doorbell footage with another couple's and sees that the children's paths all point toward one unknown place. Nightmares begin to plague both Archer and Justine. Each dreams of the missing children and of a mysterious elderly woman.

  Paul, meanwhile, stops a homeless drug addict named James from committing a burglary. While frisking him, Paul pricks himself on a needle. He strikes James in anger, then lets him go when he realizes his patrol car's camera recorded the assault. James later breaks into Alex's house and finds the missing children in the basement, seemingly catatonic. Paul chases him into the woods, believing James has come to report the beating. James tells him where the children are, and Paul takes him to the house. Paul leaves James handcuffed in the car. Hours later he bursts out of the house and drags the screaming man inside.

  Principal Marcus Miller, played by Benedict Wong, agrees to conduct a wellness check on Alex after Justine persuades him. Before he can schedule it, an elderly woman appears in his office and introduces herself as Aunt Gladys. She says she is helping care for Alex's ill parents. Marcus insists on the check anyway. Gladys then confronts him at home, cuts a lock of hair from his husband Terry, and performs a bewitchment ritual on Marcus. He is compelled to murder Terry and is ordered to kill Justine next.

  Marcus finds Justine at a gas station, where she is arguing with Archer. Archer defends her long enough for her to drive away. As Marcus tries to give chase, he is fatally run over. Archer later reconciles with Justine, and together they work out that the children were all heading for Alex's house.

  The truth is that Alex's mother had invited Gladys into the home. Gladys was a distant, homeless relative. She bewitched Alex's parents and drove them to self-harm to force Alex to do her bidding. On her orders, Alex collected personal belongings from his classmates. Gladys used the objects to summon the children, then locked them in the basement to feed off their energy.

  When Archer and Justine arrive, Gladys is preparing to leave with Alex. The bewitched Paul and James attack, and Justine kills them both. Archer goes down to the basement, where Gladys ambushes and bewitches him into attacking Justine. Alex breaks a totem to turn Gladys's own spell against her. The children storm out of the basement, chase her through the neighborhood, and tear her apart.

  Her death breaks the spell, though everyone except Archer is left catatonic. Justine finds Alex embracing his parents, and Archer carries Matthew home. The child narrator closes the story with the aftermath. Alex's parents were institutionalized, and he moved out of town to live with a different aunt. The children returned home, and some had to learn how to talk again.

  2451565750

• 3. A Studio Bidding War

  ›

  On the 22nd of January 2023, the screenplay for Weapons reached the market. Cregger had written it on spec, meaning no studio had asked for it. Netflix, New Line Cinema, TriStar Pictures and Universal Pictures all expressed interest. Jordan Peele's company, Monkeypaw Productions, entered the bidding alongside Universal.

  The success of Barbarian, Cregger's 2022 film, had been both critical and financial, and it set up what he wrote next. The new script has been described as a "horror epic" and a more "personal story" for its author. Cregger cited the films Magnolia (1999) and Prisoners (2013), plus Jennifer Egan's novel A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), as inspirations.

  The writing itself grew out of loss. Cregger was moved to write the screenplay after the death of his close friend and collaborator Trevor Moore. A reference to a sketch Moore wrote for The Whitest Kids U' Know was added to the finished script.

  At 8:00 am on the morning after Cregger sent the script to studios, Michael De Luca, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Pictures, called him to close a deal. By Cregger's account, the exchange took less than 90 minutes. New Line secured the rights within 24 hours with an offer of $38 million, covering every cost including production and salaries.

  The terms for Cregger were generous. He received $10 million as writer, director and producer, and a guaranteed theatrical release. He also won final cut privilege, which depended on how audiences reacted at test screenings. Universal's offer came in $7 million lower. His CAA agent, Joe Mann, negotiated the upfront fee, and Cregger deferred $2 million in return for 50 backend points on the film.

  The auction had casualties. After losing the film, Peele dismissed his longtime managers Joel Zadak and Peter Principato. Principato was also Cregger's manager.

  Revisions followed the sale. Cregger wrote a scene at a construction site where Archer apologizes to his employees. He also changed the story so that Alex steals the name tags for Aunt Gladys.

  91011127

• 4. Recasting After the Strikes

  ›

  In May 2023, Pedro Pascal and Renate Reinsve were announced as part of the cast. Cregger later confirmed that the original lineup also included Brian Tyree Henry and Austin Abrams. Filming had been intended for May to July of that year. The 2023 Hollywood labor disputes created schedule conflicts for all four actors, particularly Pascal, who had several other projects lined up.

  Casting resumed in February 2024, when Josh Brolin replaced Pascal. In April, Julia Garner and Alden Ehrenreich joined. In May, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, Cary Christopher and June Diane Raphael came aboard, and Abrams was confirmed. He was the only member of the original cast to remain. Explaining why, he said, "I loved the part and I didn't wanna let it go. So I just really held on 'cause I really wanted to do it."

  The part of Aunt Gladys demanded a precise choice. Cregger remembered liking Madigan in Field of Dreams (1989). When he saw her name on a list of possible actors, he believed she would deliver. He now says Madigan "saved" the film.

  Cregger gave her two possible histories for the character. In one, Gladys is an ordinary person using witchcraft to stave off death from an incurable condition. In the other, she is an immortal creature performing an approximate imitation of a human being. He did not ask which version Madigan chose.

  1516171821

• 5. Georgia Shoot and Soundtrack

  ›

  The fictional Maybrook Elementary School was a real location in Tucker, Georgia. Principal photography took place in the Atlanta area and wrapped in July 2024. According to Time Out, 170 children were involved on the busiest days of filming. Child labor coordinators were hired to keep the young performers engaged between takes.

  The gas station confrontation was shot over three days at a BP station and convenience store in Covington, Georgia.

  The ending changed after the cameras stopped. The film first closed on a silent shot of Matthew. Test audiences reacted negatively, so a voiceover from the child narrator was added.

  WaterTower Music released the soundtrack on the 1st of August 2025. It holds 36 tracks composed by Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay and Cregger himself. The opening sequence features "Beware of Darkness" by George Harrison, and the end credits play "Under the Porch" by MGMT. Justine also briefly plays Harry Nilsson's "Gotta Get Up" from her phone speaker.

  2526272829

• 6. Release and Box Office

  ›

  the 16th of January 2026 was the first release date set for Weapons in the United States and Canada. Strong, positive reactions at test screenings led the studio to move it up to the 8th of August 2025, when Warner Bros. Pictures released it in American theaters. The earliest Thursday showings began at 2:17 p.m., a wink at the hour that anchors the story.

  Home viewing followed quickly. The film arrived on video on demand on the 9th of September 2025. DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray editions came on the 14th of October 2025, and HBO Max added it on the 24th of October 2025.

  The film opened against Freakier Friday and Sketch. Forecasts projected $25-40 million from 3,200 theaters. Weapons took in $18.2 million on its first day, including $5.7 million from Thursday previews, and debuted to $43.5 million. That topped the box office and made Warner Bros. the first studio in history to open six straight films at number one with more than $40 million. The earlier five were A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Final Destination Bloodlines, F1 and Superman.

  The second weekend dropped only 44% to $24.4 million, still holding first place. In its third weekend, Weapons fell to second with $15.4 million, behind the sing-along version of KPop Demon Hunters at $19.2 million.

  The final tally was $151.6 million in the United States and Canada and $118.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $270 million. In September 2025, Variety reported that the film was expected to earn a theatrical profit of at least $65 million.

  3237394136

• 7. Critics and Audiences

  ›

  CinemaScore audiences gave Weapons an average grade of "A minus " on a scale running from A+ to F. Viewers surveyed by PostTrak gave it an average of 4 out of 5 stars, and 65% said they would "definitely recommend" it.

  Critics were largely enthusiastic. The San Francisco Chronicle called Cregger a "true horror auteur". Empire awarded 5 out of 5 stars, marveling at how easily he turned parental grief over missing children into something a crowd could enjoy. Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave 3.5 out of 4 stars and judged the film better than Barbarian. He admired the script's "abject refusal to connect every dot" and noted that the inciting incident can be read as an allegory for a school shooting.

  Variety described the film as a "cruel and twisted bedtime story" of the kind the Brothers Grimm might have told. Tim Grierson of Screen Daily thought the finale was "superbly orchestrated" and credited Cregger with answering the riddles he teased along the way. Lisa Wright of the London Evening Standard compared its wild rollout to The Substance. Charles Pulliam-Moore of The Verge praised its look at how communities invent "convenient boogeymen" instead of facing real dangers to children.

  Tom Jorgensen of IGN scored the film 9 out of 10, calling it a "righteous, fully actualized genre-bender". The Associated Press gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. It noted that Barbarian arrived out of nowhere and announced a new voice, so Weapons lacked the advantage of surprise.

  Not every review was kind. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times found Cregger's structure only partly successful and called its segmentation "a whole lot of delay tactics". William Bibbiani of TheWrap loved the cinematography, which found "the eeriest camera angle in damn near every scene". He still felt the ending was contrived after more than an hour of suggesting stronger possibilities.

  4849505157

• 8. Awards and Gladys's Return

  ›

  Amy Madigan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Gladys. She also won the Actor Award and the Critics' Choice Award in the same category, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe. Her earlier Academy Award nomination came in 1986. That gap is the longest between two nominations for an actress.

  Cregger earned nominations for Best Original Screenplay from the Critics' Choice Awards and the Writers Guild of America. At the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, the film was shortlisted in Best Casting, the newest category. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture.

  A sequel has been discussed. Cregger told Variety he was excited about the idea but wanted to make other films first. In an interview with Fangoria, he said he had been talking with Warner Bros. about a prequel centered on Aunt Gladys.

  In April 2026, it was reported that Cregger and Zach Shields would write the prequel together. The same month, Warner Bros. announced that Gladys would be released on the 8th of September 2028.

  5964617072