Explain to Me the Ending of the Movie Weapons. Everyone is a buzz about the movie Weapons. The THiNC. discord is all lit up about the movie. I have people texting me asking me about it. Everyone seems to be talking about the dark sleeper hit of the summer. I really enjoyed this one – and felt that if you like darker type movies, maybe this one would be for you solely because of the more clever movie premise. Don’t come to me if you find that the movie is too dark for you – you’ve been warned! This is a dark one. But if you watched it, and you didn’t fully understand the ending, maybe this post will help you out.
Okay, movie lovers, strap in because this one had me glued to my seat. We’re talking creepy small-town vibes, missing kids, a nightmare woman in clown makeup, and one of the craziest witch reveals I’ve ever seen in a thriller. Let’s break it down—because you’re gonna want to see this for yourself.
It’s 2:17 in the morning—Wednesday—in sleepy Maybrook, Pennsylvania. Out of nowhere, seventeen third graders bolt from their houses into the night… and vanish. Poof. Gone. All except one kid, Alex Lilly. And ohhh, that detail is going to matter. (And at this point in the movie, I am having serious flashbacks to Brit Marling’s The OA.)
A month later, their teacher, Justine Gandy, is in the crosshairs. The town thinks she’s involved, she gets suspended, and things start spiraling—like, full-on life-collapse spiraling. Her ex, a cop named Paul (Alden Ehrenreich of the Disney Solo fame), drifts back into her life, but honestly? He’s not much help. Justine still intent on finding her own answers to what happened to her classroom of children, begins stalking Alex. She visits his house, which is weird because all the windows are news-papered over. And the parents? They seem to be sitting in the dark, not moving. And when Justine eventually talks to him, he has zero interest in talking to her. Something really very weird is going on here.
Then one night, Justine sits outside Alex’s house, intent on watching to see what is going on. But she quickly falls asleep after drinking a bit too much and misses the real goings on. In the middle of the night (was it at 2:17??) a woman jilts her way out of the house, gets into Justine’s car, and cuts off a lock of her hair. Why? What is happening? Was it needed for a ritual? Seance? Witchcraft? WHAT IS GOING ON IN THAT HOUSE?!?
Meanwhile, one of the missing kid’s dads, Archer Graff (played by Josh Brolin – of Goonies!! fame, oh also, by the way No Country for Old Men, Sicario, etc.), decides the police aren’t cutting it and starts his own investigation. He begins by watching closely the ring cam footage of his child, and plotting a course for the direction they went. Then he begins asking other parents to look at their footage, and plotting the direction where their courses would intercept and converge on the same location. (Fairly ingenious really.)
Enter James—a local lowlife who breaks into Alex’s house looking for stuff to pawn—and stumbles right into the missing kids, plus Alex’s parents, all in some catatonic state in the basement. He tries to cash in on the reward, but it goes sideways. Paul, the cop, who had been having run-in after run-in with him finally catches up with him. James, who was being chased by a clown through the woods, thinks he’s about to be killed by the clown and ends up stabbing Paul in the face with a syringe.
Paul takes James into custody, and James directs Paul to the house where the children are in the basement. Paul heads inside – the door was a convenient gaping maw – and it gets dark. James, cuffed in the back of the police car is just waiting and waiting for Paul to come back. When Paul comes out, he’s doing that same jilted/stumble walk, and he attacks James and drags him into the house.
Enter Marcus – the school’s principal. Alex’s aunt visits Marcus at the school, and then later at home. She brandishes a thorny branch, slices her palm open with it, and then rings a bell. The bell renders Marcus hypnotized. The aunt snaps the branch and Marcus attacks his husband, and bludgeons him to death by headbutting him repeatedly. Marcus then is turned into a weapon pointed directly at Justine by using the lock of hair cut from her head the previous night. Yeah. This is witchcraft folks, and it’s not the cutesy kind.
Marcus – in a psychotic rage – races to find Justine. At the time, Archer is interrogating her to find out what she knows about his child’s disappearance. Marcus attacks her and Archer saves her by slamming into Marcus just before he was able to get her. Justine flees Marcus, and narrowly gets away. Marcus is eventually run down by a passing car and killed, saving Justine from the heat seeking missile that was the school’s principal. Archer and Justine meet back up at the hospital, after getting treated, and Justine thanks Archer for saving her life. Archer shows Justine what he’s been working on – and Justine sees the intersecting coordinates and knows that Alex’s house was right in the center of their trajectories.
What Is the Secret Behind Weapons??!?
Enter Alex. We return to his story, but this time, we watch his story from the beginning. We watch as his aunt, Gladys, joins the family. She cast spells on his parents, and she threatens her nephew by showing him what sort of power she has over them. She snaps the thorny branch, and instantly his parents start stabbing themselves in the face over and over again. In other words, Alex is just as trapped as his parents, but due to a different force entirely. Fear for his mom and dad. He begs her to make them stop and she does. Alex promises to never speak about her or his aunt and Alex finds himself feeding his parents and doing whatever his aunt asks him to do. And ultimately, she asks Alex to bring an object from each of his classmates home to his aunt, and he does. You see where this is going.
Ultimately, Gladys needs the youthful energy of the young to stay young herself. And she uses Alex to cast spells on each of the students in his class. Alex is told by Gladys that if she could get better again, she would go back home, and so he agrees to do it.
The Ending of the Movie Weapons Explained
Fast forward to Justine and Archer who now know something horrible is going on at Alex’s house. When they arrive at the house, Paul – Zombie Paul – invites them in. And that is when the fireworks begin. Paul attacks Justine, and James attacks Archer. They fight and struggle… Paul has some of his face filleted. It’s out of control. And then, ultimately, Justine manages to shoot Paul in the head, saving herself. But Archer is still struggling on the ground with James, trying to stay alive. When out of nowhere, Justine kills James by shooting him in the head.
Then, Alex sends his parents into a frenzy when he steps over the line of salt Gladys told him not to cross. All manner of chaos is going on in the house. But Archer, he’s hellbent on finding his son, Matthew. So he storms down into the basement, looking for him. Only to get turned by Gladys – who sends him after Justine. But Alex, using a page out of his aunt’s playbook, casts a spell and sends all the children after Gladys. She goes running for her life and heads to the next door neighbors house to hide. They eventually haul her down and rip her to pieces – thereby ending her hold on them all and leaving them in something of a catatonic state. The narrator at the end of the film tells the viewer that Alex went and lived with a kinder aunt because his parents were institutionalized. And that is the end of the fireworks.
If you didn’t understand the ending – let’s pause, and take a quick step back. The key is Gladys’ tree of thorns. Alex stole a thorn branch from the pile, entwined some hair from Gladys’ brush in the bathroom, and sent the kids after her. He used his own blood to complete the spell and to send her running for her life. I think that was pretty clear from what the movie showed us, but maybe not everyone understood that completely 100%.
Final Thoughts on Weapons
This movie is a weapons-grade supernatural thriller—missing kids, small-town paranoia, and a witch reveal that hits like a freight train. If you’re into dark mysteries with supernatural payoffs, this is your next must-watch. Trust me, it’s gonna haunt you—in the best way. If you are looking for movies in this sort of vein, I’d probably point you first to Talk to Me, and Mother!
Edited by: CY
