Weapons is a film shrouded in mystery, and that includes the idenтιтy of the narrator, whose voice opens and closes the film. Zach Cregger’s Barbarian follow-up wastes no time throwing audiences into its narrative. It’s just as captivating and shocking as his previous horror film, and utilizes a unique storytelling structure that keeps viewers guessing until the credits roll.

It begins with a haunting scene where 17 kids in a suburban town wake up at 2:17 a.m., leave their homes, and rush into the darkness while sporting bizarre running poses. As the town investigates the children’s mysterious disappearances, the film cuts between the stories of different characters, showing their perspectives as events begin to escalate.

One character who’s never seen but plays a crucial role in delivering exposition is the narrator, who introduces the film’s mystery and reveals its resolution. While her voice, performed by Scarlett Sher, indicates she is a little girl, her idenтιтy is never officially revealed. However, Cregger does leave some breadcrumbs, suggesting who she is and how she connects to the story.

Weapons’ Narrator Is A Local Child In Maybrook

The narrator doesn’t give away much about her idenтιтy, but she does say enough to confirm that she’s from Maybrook. She says the incident happened in “my town,” and knows a lot of crucial details about the school and its teachers. While it’s tough to gauge who exactly she is without direct confirmation, there are clues about who she may be.

Firstly, she isn’t one of the 17 students in Justine Gandy’s class. In her opening voiceover, she uses the word “they,” meaning she was not part of the group that Aunt Gladys kidnapped. She also says that the events happened “two years ago.” That’s an important detail as she reveals in the Weapons ending that only some of the kids have started speaking again two years after the incident.

If she was part of this group, she likely wouldn’t be able to speak so eloquently. Since it happened two years ago, it also makes it difficult to gauge how old she is or where she was when it happened. Based on her description, it sounds like she wasn’t yet old enough to attend the school, or went to a different elementary school.

She says, “They had this teacher, who was new. Her name was Justine Gandy.” This confirms that Ms. Gandy is no longer a teacher here two years after the incident, but also infers that the narrator may not have been at this school when the kids disappeared. Her words sound like they come from someone who didn’t experience these events, but is repeating what they’ve been told.

While her background is a secret, there is a clue that may give away her name. The тιтle of the opening track of the soundtrack is “Maddie,” possibly based on the name of the narrator. Maddie isn’t an important character in the film’s narrative, but the тιтle provides a good guess of the mysterious storyteller’s name. Still, it may be better for Weapons that audiences don’t know her name at all.

Weapons Keeping The Narrator’s Idenтιтy A Secret Was Necessary

Weapons‘ opening scene is so sinister because it’s presented as actual events. The narrator says it’s a “true story,” and while it certainly isn’t, her account of the events suggests that she believes it. It’s presented as a folktale, something that gets told over a campfire, or a disturbing story from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Keeping her idenтιтy secret was necessary as it adds to the folklore tone that Cregger wanted the film to have. She could be any kid from Maybrook who knows this story, telling others what she’s heard, possibly from her parents or other residents of the town. If “Maddie” was someone’s sibling or one of Gladys’ victims, then the narration would lose its ambiguous, unsettling tone.

It involves witches and magic, yet only a few people actually know what happened. Alex is truly the only one who knows how Gladys’ magic worked, and he doesn’t live in Maybrook anymore. The narrator’s monologue suggests she only knows how it started and how it ended. Since it’s something she’s recounting, that may be what everyone else in the town knows.

The more specific details in the middle may have been blurred or misinterpreted over the years by the town’s residents. What’s disturbing is that the townsfolk may never find out what actually happened, unless Alex reveals the truth. Josh Brolin’s character seemingly had no memory of being under Gladys’ spell, and that could be the same for the kids and Alex’s parents.

There are still many unknowns about Weapons that make its mystery so intriguing. Maybe these answers could be revealed in Gladys’ possible prequel film. However, the film’s more ambiguous details make it more haunting, so it could be for the best that some things, including the narrator’s idenтιтy, remain a secret.