Warning: Major spoilers for WeaponsZach Cregger’s gripping horror hit Weapons solved its central mystery by the end of its runtime, but it left so many more unanswered questions. Starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, and Amy Madigan, Weapons emerged as an immediate box office and critical hit upon its release.

The movie follows the fallout in a small town after 17 children disappear from their homes without a trace, running into the darkness on their own accord. Ultimately, the children’s whereabouts are discovered, but in the process a mystery unravels surrounding the reason for the mᴀss disappearance.

In reality, the town is plagued by a parasitic evil, which eventually meets its own grisly end, but not before several upsetting deaths occur. The resolution is satisfying in some ways, but some viewers will undoubtedly find it frustrating given how many threads are left unexplored, and how many questions go completely unanswered.

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What Does The Floating Gun In Archer’s Dream Mean?

Perhaps the most talked-about mysterious element of Weapons is the floating ᴀssault rifle that Archer Graff (Brolin) sees hovering over the Lilly house (where the kids are being kept) during a dream he has while sleeping in his missing son’s bed. The gun itself displays the time when the children all got out of bed and left, 2:17.

Many theories have flown about the gun, with the most popular typically tying the gun to the movie’s тιтle, and tying both to symbolism around school shootings. The lone surviving (bullied) child, combined with the anger and trauma that engulfs the entire town as a result of the disappearance, certainly provides enough of a path to draw that conclusion.

The reality of the scene, as Zach Cregger intended it, is far less straightforward. In an interview with Variety, Cregger spoke directly about the scene:

It’s a very important moment for me in this movie, and to be frank with you, I think what I love about it so much is that I don’t understand it. I have a few different ideas of what it might be there for, but I don’t have the right answer. I like the idea that everyone is probably going to have their own kind of interaction or their own relationship with that scene, whether they don’t give a s*** about it and it’s boring, or whether they think it’s some sort of political statement, or whether they think it’s just cool.

Cregger didn’t intend the moment, nor the movie as a whole, to be politically charged, although it’s certainly possible to interpret it that way. The floating gun will remain a lightning rod for discussion, especially because there is no “correct” interpretation.

6

Why Did The Children Leave At 2:17 Specifically?

The children all leaving at a very specific, seemingly random time has also sparked plenty of discussion. Once again, the most popular theory seems to point towards a school shooting connection, with the 2:17 referring to the 217 winning votes in the House of Representatives’ ban of ᴀssault rifles in 2022, although that never became a reality after failing to pᴀss the Senate.

Once again, Cregger has thrown cold water on the sociopolitical connection. In an interview with Far Out Magazine, Cregger noted that the 2:17 time must have been his own subconscious reference to room 217 in Stephen King’s novel The Shining, which is where the most diabolical haunting occurs. The number was changed to 237 for Stanley Kubrick’s movie, but Cregger stuck to the original.

I’m a Kubrick guy when it comes to The Shining; I definitely worship that movie, and I thought of changing it to 2:37. But then I was like, ‘You know what? My first impulse has got to be the one I stick with,’ so I kept 2:17.

It’s possible that there is a deeper meaning to draw from it, but with Cregger confirming his own selection process on the number, it feels like another mystery that is left up for interpretation for each respective viewer.

5

Who (Or What) Is Gladys, Really?

Aunt Gladys (Madigan) is clearly some sort of witch, although we are only given subtle clues about her origin. Cregger initially intended to give Gladys her own chapter in an early draft of the movie, but opted for mystery over clarity with his main villain.

Gladys has likely been around for far longer than an average human lifespan, using her ability to drain the life force from others as a way to maintain her vitality. Her reference to “consumption”, which is an outdated way to refer to the widely-eradicated tuberculosis, hints that she has probably been alive since at least the late 1800s.

It isn’t clear if Gladys is actually Alex’s great-aunt. In fact, it seems intentionally confusing given that she’s referred to at multiple points as Alex’s aunt and his mother’s aunt. His mother and father seem to have met her before, but whether the creature that shows up at his house is in fact his aunt or a witch pretending to be his aunt remains unclear.

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Why Does Gladys Appear In Dreams?

As a witch, Gladys seems to essentially “infect” the entire town. She appears to multiple people who have not actually met her, including Justine and Archer in their dreams and James in the woods, which easily rank as three of Weapons‘ scariest moments. This is the result of her overall magical/psychic influence on the town: she appears to people in moments of stress or fear.

3

What Is The Creepy Little Tree?

Gladys’ blood magic is executed with the ᴀssistance of a dark and dastardly-looking bush or small tree that she carries with her. Using its branches, she pricks her own finger and smears her blood over the thorny branches, which are wrapped in or connected to a personal item of her target. By snapping the branch, she unleashes her possessed victims upon the target.

Alex is later able to use the branches himself, indicating that the magic either lies with the tree, or perhaps that Gladys is in fact Alex’s great-aunt, and he has some magic in his own blood.

It’s impossible to tell what kind of tree it is, but based on its use and the plant species’ long-standing history with witchcraft (especially in Gaelic/Celtic culture) it appears to be some sort of blackthorn. However, the leaves on Gladys’ tree don’t really align with blackthorn, so in reality it seems like a custom-made creepy plant that serves the same purpose.

2

What Do The Symbols On Gladys’ Bell Mean?

The triangle and number six that appear on Gladys’ bell could carry several meanings. From a witchcraft perspective, the triangle (which appears inverted on the bell before appearing right-side-up in the credits) carries several meanings, mostly ᴀssociated with the Crone goddess, as the triangle is a feminine symbol.

The number six is considered a symbol of witchcraft, devilry, and evil, especially when tripled (666), so that connection seems plausible enough. The combined symbols could reasonably just be a label, dictating whose bell it is and what its purpose is: for a witch to execute her evil with.

While the blackthorn branches help Gladys weaponize people, the bell is how she actually triggers a possession after she crafts the potion or spell/curse to possess someone. The triangle switching directions in the credits could also indicate that the symbols are related to alchemy/potion-making.

1

Why Do Gladys’ “Weapons” Run Like That?

The odd, arms-out running style of the people who are possessed by Gladys is never really explained, but it might be simpler than it seems at first glance. Given that the individuals are operating not of their own free will, they run with the parts of them that Gladys now controls (their head and heart, mind and soul) leading the way, causing their arms to drag behind.

Basically Gladys is pulling these people in a certain direction, and their running style is indicative of a central point (the head and chest) being where she has “grabbed” them. No other real reason is given, although Cregger himself has admitted to a subconscious reason why he included that as the key visual in Weapons.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cregger noted that he believes the unsettling running style originated from his own memory of the “Napalm Girl” pH๏τo, which was one of the defining pH๏τographs of the Vietnam War. In the pH๏τo, a young Vietnamese girl runs with her arms out, as her body has been badly burned by napalm.

I think that image is so awful, and the way she’s holding her arms out just killed me. I think there’s something really upsetting about that posture. If I had to guess, that might be where the seed is from. I don’t know. But there was no second-guessing that pose. I knew that they would run that way.

Like the floating gun vision, a lot of the most striking visuals in Weapons seem to be dream-state machinations from Cregger’s own mind, and not as logical as many would want them to be. Cregger’s movie is almost self-therapeutic, which leaves a ton of room for interpretation based on how many questions he simply refuses to answer during the movie’s runtime.

Source: Variety, Far Out Magazine, Entertainment Weekly