Weapons ending explained: What happened to the missing children?

While there are certain things we already knew about the film – for example, that it focuses on events after a class full of children mysteriously run away, and that it adopts a multi-perspective approach – much of the latter sections have thankfully been kept under wraps for viewers to enjoy unspoiled in the cinema.

And the mystery surrounding it has already led to all sorts of theories circulating online about the precise meaning of the title and the circumstances that led to the children disappearing, something which star Josh Brolin has already enjoyed watching unfold.

"I mean, that's the fun of it," he explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "It's like when a new book comes out, a new movie is coming out. You get into it, you want to figure it out. It's a puzzle that you can't necessarily figure out."

But now that the film is out, what really does happen in the film's wild closing sections? And more to the point, what does it all mean? Read on to have the Weapons ending explained - but beware spoilers.

Weapons ending explained: What happened to the missing children?

Throughout the film, we slowly learn more about the mystery that has been plaguing the town of Maybrook – with each new chapter providing a little more information about exactly where the 17 missing kids have got to.

It's in the penultimate chapter, focusing on headteacher Marcus (Benedict Wong), where things really begin to unravel.

After he is convinced by Justine (Julia Garner) to check up on the welfare of Alex (Cary Christopher) – the one child who did not go missing – Marcus is visited at the school by a strange woman (Amy Madigan) who claims to be the child's aunt.

Intriguingly, this woman also just so happens to have an uncanny resemblance to the woman glimpsed in visions by the other characters, and there's unquestionably something a little... off about her.

When Marcus explains that ideally he'd need to speak to Alex's legal guardians – his parents – she explains that they won't be able to visit him as they are currently suffering with consumption. Hmmm.

Not long later, Marcus and his husband Terry suddenly receive an unexpected visit from Gladys at their home. Although Marcus is understandably reluctant to let this strange old woman into their house, Terry has no such qualms and invites her in – and it's at this point that we learn than Gladys really is a nasty piece of work.

Turns out, she practices some sort of dark magic, and she performs an unusual ritual involving sticks, human hair, her own blood and a little golden bell – which appears to let her exert control over people. She does exactly this to Marcus, setting him first on his own husband and then on Justine. In other words, he has become her weapon.

Archer (Josh Brolin) and Justine – who had previously been very much at odds – are able to work together to escape Marcus, who is brutally killed by a passing car. They both end up in hospital and eventually decide to put aside their differences and team up to solve the mystery once and for all, working out that goings-on at Alex's house are very clearly at the centre of all the unusual events.

We then head into the final chapter, unfolding from the perspective of Alex himself and taking us back to before the kids had even gone missing. One night, Alex's dad – who seems like a very normal man – informs him that his Aunt Gladys, who he has hardly ever met, will be coming to stay as she is deathly sick and has nowhere else to go.

Of course, it doesn't take long for things to turn out very differently. Although Gladys appears terribly old when Alex first gets a glimpse of her, when he returns home from school the next day she seems much younger and full of life.

Not only that, both of his parents now appear to be in essentially comatose states, entirely under the control of Gladys. It appears that she is able to feed off energy from others, giving her renewed youth but draining away their own life.

Naturally, this is all rather terrifying for poor Alex – and he quickly discovers that he must do what his 'aunt' says or risk terrible consequences. Still, while reluctantly helping her he is seen to take care studying her strange rituals, taking mental notes for later.

One day, Gladys tells him to bring back a possession from each member of his class and he reluctantly obliges. With these items, she is able to control the children – in the same way that we'd seen her control Marcus – and beckons them to come to the house at 2:17 one night, where she will now drain them of energy to keep her youthfulness.

So this is where the children have been all along – in the basement of Alex's house.

What happens to Aunt Gladys in Weapons?

Some time later – after the investigation has been going on for a while – Alex arrives home and sees that Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) and James (Austin Abrams) are being kept hostage by Gladys, and that she has also drawn a line of salt on the floor – near where his still unresponsive parents are – which she tells him not to cross.

At the same time, Justine and Archer have arrived at the house in their bid to finally get to the bottom of everything, and their arrival kicks off all sorts of chaos – as Paul and James, now under Gladys's control, attack them and a vicious fight kicks off, eventually resulting in Justine killing both men.

Amidst all this, Alex makes a move towards Gladys's room, but in crossing the salt line he triggers something which causes his own parents to start brutally attacking him. Thankfully he is able to fight his way through and make it inside.

Meanwhile, Archie has arrived in the basement and is desperately looking for his son amongst all the missing children, but Gladys then appears again and makes him her latest victim – duly setting him on Justine.

It seems there is nothing for it, but it's at this point that Alex turns hero. Turns out he really has been paying attention to Gladys's rituals, and he now turns her magic against her, using her sticks and assorted magic paraphernalia to set all his 17 classmates on her.

At once, the children pile on her, and although she attempts to run away – leading to a thrilling and hilarious final chase scene – she can't get very far before they catch up and tear her limb from limb. She might be able to reverse the ageing process, but this is one thing she can't survive.

Archer – who had only recently come under Gladys's spell – instantly snaps back to normal. But the others – both Alex's parents and his 17 classmates – have clearly had too much life force drained from them and remain slightly absent, even if they are no longer being used as weapons by a horrible witch.

What is the meaning of Weapons?

One of the great things about Weapons is that there is a degree of ambiguity around it: there's no one particular message being spoon fed to the audience. But there are several possible interpretations of all the strange events in Maybrook, and it's up to the viewer to work out which makes most sense to them.

On its most basic level, the film is a classic dark fairy tale in the style of the Brothers Grimm – a scary story designed to provide some frights and keep you up at night – and even just on that level Weapons is a very effective movie.

But there are various other things being explored beyond the surface here as well. For most of the film, it explores how the residents of the town each respond to a crisis in different ways – which in turns rips apart the community from the inside, as people turn on each other with no rational outlet for their concerns and fears.

The need to look for a scapegoat – poor Justine in this case – and the ease with which some turn to conspiracy theories to make sense of horrific events are just two of the intriguing angles taken.

Some viewers have even suggested that the film is more specifically an allegory for school shootings, and the ways in which communities are affected by them – although this is by no means the only way in which you can view the events of the film.

If we look at the character of Gladys more clearly, another possible allegory emerges – that of the dark influence of toxic online culture. The idea of a classroom of children being brainwashed and weaponised by a hidden force that their parents and teachers can do little to prevent is one that feels especially relevant – perhaps we could even view the film as a companion piece of sorts for Netflix's Adolescence?

The two projects are different in more or less every other way – from genre to tone to narrative structure – but it's no stretch to say that both explore children being led astray by dark forces, even if one takes a far more allegorical approach.

The very end of the film – which sees the children no longer under Gladys's spell but still vacant – also gestures at long-term responses to childhood trauma: they might have survived the terrifying ordeal, but they and the community around them will never be the same again.

Of course, these are just a selection of potentially valid readings of the film – it's very possible yours will be completely different. It's that fact that could well see Weapons become a proper horror classic.

What has Zach Cregger said about Weapons?

For his part, while Cregger hasn't yet said anything about the specific meaning of the movie, he has spoken candidly about the circumstances that led to him writing the script, explaining that began working on tit while processing the grief of losing his friend and former co-star Trevor Moore.

"It just sprang out," he told GQ in a recent interview. "I literally started with the sentence, ‘This is a true story.’ I thought it would be cool to start a movie where a little girl was telling a campfire story. I didn’t even know what story she’s going to tell."

He added: "The movie’s about that overwhelming emotion you get when you lose someone close to you. This script was me venting about that. So I didn’t explode."

Meanwhile, in a separate chat with Polygon, he said: "You just have all this emotion, and it’s better for me to just start writing characters that are feeling the emotions I’m feeling and letting them go kind of crazy and bounce off each other and do everything I can’t do. It feels good. It was cathartic."

He continued that there are some images in the film – such as the giant floating assault rifle that appears to Archie at one point – that even he can't work out.

"The fact that I don’t understand it is what makes it so important to me," he said.

Weapons is now showing in UK cinemas.

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