Weapons twisty ending, explained: What happened to the missing kids?

Warning: This contains spoilers for the ending of Weapons.

Well, that was intense, wasn't it?

Zach Cregger's Weapons is every bit as twisty and horrific as the trailers have suggested, with an ending that answers many questions while leaving others a bit more open-ended.

From the missing children to the whole "weapons" motif, we've tried to unpack everything below.

The Barbarian writer/director's new film has one hell of a premise: A town is thrown into chaos after an entire class of school children — minus one boy — goes missing on the same night at the exact same time. Doorbell camera footage shows the children leaving their homes seemingly of their own free will, running out into the night with their arms held out at the sides in a kind of creepy flying V. Nobody knows where they've gone, or why they've gone.

The aftermath of this incident leaves the townsfolk blaming each other as they look for answers. The film follows a few of these struggling figures, including the class teacher — and now town pariah — Justine (Julia Garner); a father of one of the missing boys, Archer (Josh Brolin); school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong); and Alex (Cary Christopher), the only member of Justine's class that didn't disappear.

Justine and Archer, on the trail of the missing kids. Credit: Warner Bros.

As the film progresses we learn that the figure responsible for the missing children is a witch named Gladys (Amy Madigan), Alex's aunt who has been using a mysterious potted tree — combined with personal effects and her own blood — to control the people around her. Gladys, who is terminally ill when she moves in with Alex's parents, is in some way able to restore herself back to full health by using the people she takes hold of. After Alex returns from school with name tags taken from his classmates' cubbyholes, she incorporates these into a ritual that draws all of the children to their house at once. Gladys keeps them down in the basement, then continues using the tree to cover up what she's done while Alex is forced to help her.

In the end, though, she underestimates those around her. Justine and Archer trace the missing children back to her house, and Alex is able to use her own tree against her: He escapes from his room and uses the stick that controls his classmates to turn them on her, with the children chasing her down in the street and literally ripping her to pieces. Archer rescues his son, Alex has his parents back, and the town is able to return to some version of normal.

Poor little Alex doesn't have a great time in "Weapons." Credit: Warner Bros.

Yes and no. On the plus side, all of the children are found alive and are able to return home. We can tell from the blank looks on their faces after they've killed Gladys, however, that they haven't immediately reverted to their old selves. There is clearly residual trauma from the spell they've been placed under.

The movie's voiceover at the very end reenforces this. We hear that Alex is living with a new family and that his parents still eat soup (the food Gladys forced him to feed them while they were under her spell), and that the missing kids are back with their parents — and "some of them even started talking this year."

The implication seems to be that anyone placed under Gladys' control has been badly damaged, but there may still be some hope of recovery.

In one strange but memorable dream sequence in the movie, Archer sees a giant assault rifle hanging in the sky over his house while he's out looking for his son. It's a moment that reminds us the film is in fact called Weapons, even though the presence of literal weapons in the movie is somewhat limited.

So what's the deal with the title? Well, there are a couple of arguments you could make. The film's focus on the collective grief of a town after a class full of children is suddenly erased has an undeniable echo of the many school shootings plaguing America. There's also an exploration of the parental fear that comes with not being able to fully protect your children from the outside world, along with the terror of them being brainwashed into violence — a topic that was explored in grim detail in Netflix's brilliant miniseries Adolescence. This second point is emphasized by Archer saying the children seem like they've been "weaponized," and comparing them to heat-seeking missiles — a reminder that Gladys is quite literally using her victims as weapons.

Weapons is in theatres now.

Additional reporting by Belen Edwards.