Weapons is one of the most complex horror movies of the year, and its тιтle has a deeper meaning than you may realize. Ever since its release, reviews for Weapons have been incredible, and audiences and critics have been engrossed by its twisty mystery. In the Zach Cregger-directed movie, 17 children, all from the same classroom, inexplicably leave their homes and run into the night at 2:17am.

The ending of Weapons reveals that Alex’s great-aunt Gladys cast a spell to possess all of these children. Even though Gladys is defeated and the children, along with her other victims, are set free, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. Fans of the film will continue talking about Weapons for months and years to come.

It tackles themes such as grief, trauma, and power, and explores American culture. These elements are showcased through some of the most talked-about scenes, such as Archer seeing the floating gun in his dream. To better understand scenes like this and the themes that the film is exploring, let’s examine what Weapons‘ тιтle really means.

The Missing Kids Are The Weapons Referenced In The тιтle

Whether Gladys is a witch, a demon, or something else entirely is never explicitly stated in Weapons. However, it’s clear that she has learned special powers that have allowed her to stay alive for a very long time. When she is first introduced, Gladys is shown to be very sick, which is precisely why she needs to take control of Alex’s classmates.

Presumably, Gladys wanted to cast a spell on the 17 children and abduct them so that she could feed on their youth and live for longer. Obviously, this doesn’t work out for her, but for quite some time, the children, along with Alex’s parents, are all under Gladys’ control. Archer even states that the victims of the spell have been “weaponized.“

On a surface level, the тιтle of the movie refers to all the people under Gladys’ control. She may be quite weak at various points in the movie, but she can force those under her spell to do her bidding. This is clearly seen when she possesses Marcus and turns him into a weapon who is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ-set on killing Justine.

Throughout the movie, Gladys could have sent her victims after anyone she wanted, as long as she had one of their personal belongings. At the end, this actually backfires on her, as Alex sends Gladys’ own weapons after her. This leads to her death, as she is torn apart by the very children that she cast a spell on, abducted, and kept hidden for months.

Weapons’ тιтle Also Connects To The Movie’s Gun Violence Metaphor

Due to the тιтle of the movie, the scene in which Archer sees a floating gun above his house has remained in many viewers’ minds. It’s striking visual and an unsettling one, seeing as it comes when Archer is following his missing son in a haunting dream world. It suggests that Weapons‘ story is also meant to explore the immense amount of grief caused by America’s gun violence epidemic.

It is never explained why Archer sees the floating gun, but it seems to draw a connection between the children’s disappearance and school shootings in real life. Cregger’s movie explores a town in disarray following a tragic event, which is exactly what so many communities throughout America have had to go through following school shootings.

The grief that the Maybrook residents feel causes them to turn on each other as they desperately search for answers. This is mostly seen through Archer, whose grief sort of turns him into a weapon as well. Obviously, he is different from the people under Gladys’ control, but his son’s disappearance and his grief completely change who he is and how he interacts with others in his community.

Based on the events of the movie, most viewers have ᴀssumed that Weapons is exploring the effects of the gun violence epidemic. However, Cregger has actually claimed that it was never his intent for this to be a common reading of the film. Speaking with Yahoo News about the floating gun visual, the filmmaker actually admitted that he doesn’t even know what it is about. He said:

I don’t know. 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 sнιт 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. I don’t really care. It’s not up to me. I just like that it’s there.

Even though Cregger has denied that this was his intention, connecting Weapons to school shootings and gun violence is an obvious interpretation of the story. In the movie, Gladys acts as the school shooter who causes an immense amount of grief and creates trauma that will last for generations, long after her own death. This actually makes Gladys the most dangerous weapon in the movie.

Overall, the тιтle can be tied to practically every character in the movie. It is both simple and incredibly complex at the same time, which is very rare and proves how well-thought-out the story is. The meaning of the тιтle and its many layers further proves why Weapons is one of the best movies of the year so far.