Barbarian writer-director Zach Cregger’s upcoming horror film, Weapons, has become one of the most mysterious and intriguing movies scheduled for 2025. His new movie depicts all but one child from the same class leaving their houses and disappearing in the middle of the night, leaving their town baffled and frightened as they search for the missing children.

Based on the shocking twists featured in his previous horror hit, Barbarian, the story of Weapons seems like it will defy expectations. The trailers for Weapons leave a lot for the imagination, excluding any explanation of who took these missing children, how they did it, and why.

All that is shown are several bizarre and frightening images that hint at a scary, mind-boggling horror movie that demands to be seen in theaters. Despite the lack of information about the story, there are already multiple theories about what’s really going on in Zach Cregger’s Weapons.

7

It’s A Modern-Day Version Of The Pied Piper

Weapons’ Dark Story Seems To Come From A Classic Folktale

One popular theory about Weapons says that the story is based on the tale of the Pied Piper (via Cold-Fall-8237 on Reddit). In folklore, the Piper used his magic instrument to lure the children of a town away after the residents refused to pay him for luring the town’s rats away. This implies that the film’s antagonist made the children disappear by using some sort of hypnotic power as an act of vengeance towards the adults.

The bell that’s seen in one of the trailers could be the villain’s way of summoning people to him. The form of hypnotism may even be some kind of demonic possession, as people are seen in the trailers vomiting black bile and stabbing themselves with forks. Benedict Wong is even shown running with a bloodied, zombie-like visage, hinting at something monstrous taking over children and adults.

6

The Children Were Infected By Parasites

The Film Hints That Brainwashing Was Performed Using Parasites

If the children in Weapons were brainwashed into leaving their homes, one of the biggest questions about the film is how they were made to do so. However, a background detail in the first trailer implies that the kids were infected by parasites that took control of their brains.

Specifically, Justine Gandy, played by Julia Garner, dreams of entering her classroom, and she stands in front of a whiteboard listing different parasites. YouTuber @LorenBehindtheScreen suggested that these parasites were activated by a certain noise or signal, which could be the bell rung in one of the film’s trailers.

5

One Kid Is In On The Villain’s Plan

The Trailers Hint At A Villain Hiding In Plain Sight

In the first trailer for Weapons, when Justine dreams of entering her classroom, she sees all her students sitting at their desks with their heads down. However, one student raises their head and gives a sinister smile with their face covered in creepy makeup. This child appears to be Alex Lilly, played by Cara Christopher, who is listed as the only student in Ms. Gandy’s class who didn’t go missing.

At that moment, the child resembles another character who appears in the trailer, who laughs while wearing similar makeup. This implies that this one student wasn’t taken because he was working with the kidnapper the whole time.

4

The Children Are Controlled By A Government Experiment

Weapons Hints At A Vast, Sinister Conspiracy Carried Out In Smalltown America

Another Weapons theory suggests the children were affected by a government experiment gone awry (via DueChampionship3661 on Reddit). This suggests the plot was inspired by MKUltra, a real-life program in which the CIA experimented on people by dosing them with psychedelics, often without their knowledge, in an attempt to create a mind-control drug or truth serum.

While Weapons seems to be a more supernatural story involving witchcraft, it may have been drawn from MKUltra by showing civilians being brainwashed to carry out mysterious and even violent orders, becoming weapons themselves.

3

The Villain Is A Child-Eating “Clown”

Weapons May Be Zach Cregger’s Take On A Classic Horror Subgenre

Having previously worked with actor Bill Skarsgård, who played Pennywise the Dancing Clown in 2017’s It, Cregger may have been inspired to create his own story about a child-eating clown after working with one on his last film, Barbarian.

The trailer for Weapons features a brief sH๏τ of a mysterious, clown-looking figure, and the story does show children mysteriously disappearing, like in Stephen King’s It. If this “clown” was the one who took these children away, the former might have literally rung the dinner bell while summoning them all.

2

The Children Were Trying To Escape From Their Parents

The Kids of Maybrook May Have Come Across A Dark Secret

It seems like the children in Weapons were forced to leave their homes by an outside force, and that may be true for an unexpected reason. Ryan Thomas LaBee of Medium theorized that the children left their homes after learning some “unnameable truth” that has since infected the adults in Maybrook, turning them into “weapons of their own destruction.”

While it’s a bold theory, the story is likely about the cyclical nature of loss and grief, based on how sorrowful adults seem to kill themselves after their children vanish.

1

The Numbers 2 And 17

Recurring Symbols Hint At A Dark, Epic Narrative Straight Out Of The Bible

The numbers 2 and 17 appear to hold significant meaning in Weapons. Footage from the film shows seventeen children from Justine’s class leaving their homes in Maybrook and disappearing at exactly 2:17 AM. Though only one child from the class didn’t vanish, Justine herself counts as one of two people from the classroom who didn’t disappear.

These numbers could be a reference to the Great Flood from the Bible, which is said to have occurred on the 17th day of the second month. This Biblical parallel seems to hint at a supernatural or even an apocalyptic event occurring in the town. It is worth pointing out that Cregger cited Magnolia as an inspiration for Weapons (via Entertainment Weekly).

The former movie features frogs falling from the sky, referencing one of the ten plagues unleashed by Moses in the Bible. Weapons could take a cue from Magnolia and unleash another Biblical disaster that begins with the children disappearing. Similarly, @LorenBehindtheScreen theorized that the numbers may actually reference Matthew 2:17. Josh Brolin’s son in the film is even named “Matthew,” which may be more than just a coincidence.

The Biblical verse is part of the story of the “Mᴀssacre of the Innocents,” in which King Herod slaughtered the children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus. This tale parallels the disappearance of the kids in Weapons, leaving the adults of Maybrook in despair as they worry about the lives of their children.

Source: EW, Cold-Fall-8237/Reddit, DueChampionship3661/Reddit, Medium, @LorenBehindtheScreen