7 Easter eggs and references you probably missed in Weapons

Zach Cregger's Weapons fuses horror and dark humor to give fans the story of a small town shaken up by an unexplained event: 17 children from the same class wake up at 2:17 am and vanish overnight. Chaos ensues as the main characters' lives are thrown into disarray. As they dig deeper, their stories become interconnected in unexpected ways.

From jump scares to slow-burning horror, the movie took its time introducing fans to a brand new world. This means that clever Easter eggs and references are peppered across the movie. Whether it's about director Cregger's Stephen King influences, or the connection between his debut movie Barbarian and his latest, Weapons, there are some moments that fans might have missed.

Disclaimer: All opinions in this article belong to the writer. Spoilers ahead.

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Zach Cregger's Stephen King inspiration, Barbarian, and other Easter eggs and references in Weapons

1) The time on the clock is a reference to The Shining

The children vanish at 2.17 am (Image via YouTube/Warner Bros.)

In Weapons, as soon as it strikes 2:17 am, the children wake up in a trance and run into the darkness, never to be seen again. While this number might have appeared odd to an average viewer, a seasoned horror fan will immediately get the reference.

In Stephen King's The Shining, room number 217 at the Overlook Hotel is where David is lured in by an unseen force, which turns out to be a ghost in the bathtub. Although the number is changed in Stanley Kubrick's movie version, Cregger himself confirmed that in an interview with Farout Magazine published on August 6, 2025,

“I’m a Kubrick guy when it comes to The Shining; I definitely worship that movie, and I thought of changing it to 2:37. But then I was like, ‘You know what? My first impulse has got to be the one I stick with,’ so I kept 2:17.”

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2) Gladys' true abilities are foreshadowed

Fans can see the board at the back talking about parasites (Image via YouTube/Warner Bros.)

As the tension builds in Weapons, the true story of what happened to the missing children begins to unravel. Alex, the only child who didn't go missing from his class, is revealed to have a great-aunt and caretaker named Gladys. She feeds off human souls to stay alive and powerful, and uses witchcraft to lure them in. After years of controlling Alex's parents, she branches out to his classmates.

Her parasitic nature is foreshadowed throughout the movie. On Alex's classroom chalkboard, fans can see a lesson about parasites in the background. Justine also asks the students about parasites in a flashback. In Marcus's chapter of the movie, fans can hear the TV in the background, and the news talks of cordyceps, a zombie ant virus with parasitic abilities.

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3) Zach Cregger's nod to his late friend Trevor Moore

Director Cregger ( Second from left) and his late friend Trevor Moore (Center) (Image via Getty)

Director Cregger wrote Weapons to process the death of one of his closest friends, actor and comedian Trevor Moore. The movie drops an Easter egg for one of the duo's older comedy sketches from The Whitest Kids U' Know (2007-2011). Right before Principal Marcus and his husband, Terry, settle in to watch their documentary about fungi, they prepare a feast featuring seven hot dogs.

Fans thought this was an oddly specific number since there are only two of them. However, Cregger included the moment as an homage to a sketch in season 3, titled "Hot Dog Timmy," where Moore plays a doctor. After finding out his patient eats seven hot dogs a day, he admits, concerned, that the number is a "little high".

"I was talking to Ari Aster (director of Midsommar) about this, and was like, ‘I don’t know about the personal stuff.’ And he was like, ‘The personal stuff is what makes this work. Don’t be ashamed of it!’ Hearing him say that… it’s part of the DNA of Weapons. The town is dealing with a loss. And so was I."- Zach Cregger, Rolling Stone interview, August 10, 2025.

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4) Magnolia (1999) influences are seen throughout the movie

Paul resembles Jim Kurring in Magnolia (Image via YouTube/Warner Bros.)

Director Zach Cregger admitted to being inspired by Tom Cruise's 1999 non-linear drama Magnolia, and the same structure is seen throughout Weapons. The story is told through fragmented chapters, each from a different character's perspective.

Apart from the story structure, a subtle nod to characters like John C. Reilly's Jim Kurring can be seen with Paul. Both police officers sport similar hairstyles, handlebar mustaches, and an intense demeanor.

“I love that movie [Magnolia]. I love that kind of bold scale. It gave me permission when I was writing this to shoot for the stars and make it an epic. I wanted a horror epic, and so I tried to do that.”- Zach Cregger, interview with Indie Wire published April 28, 2025.

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5) Cregger's movies have a fun crossover

Justin Long appears in both of Cregger's movies (Image via Getty)

Justin Long resurfaces in Weapons after playing the sleazy and horrific AJ in Barbarians. He played the irredeemable man to perfection, and fans were torn between loving his portrayal and hating his character. So his cameo in Weapons is a fun surprise.

The actor plays the dad of one of the missing kids, and crosses paths with Josh Brolin's Archer when he goes digging for clues about the missing children. He is way more affable, albeit very confused in his role. Moreover, in the marketing website for the movie, Cregger sneaked in a fictional news article about the events of the Airbnb in Barbarians, connecting the two worlds in a fun way.

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6) Cregger's personal life inspired Alex's home life

Alex's parents are manipulated by Gladys (Image via YouTube/Warner Bros.)

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on August 8, 25, Cregger confirmed that the final chapter in Weapons, aka the storyline of Alex and his parents, was inspired by his own life. He tapped into the turmoil of living with alcoholism and having an alcoholic parent, and how that inverts the caretaker-caretaken dynamic. That metaphor is strong in Alex's chapter.

"The final chapter of this movie with Alex and the parents, that’s autobiographical. I’m an alcoholic. I’m sober 10 years; my father died of cirrhosis. Living in a house with an alcoholic parent, the inversion of the family dynamic that happens," he said.

The director added,

"The idea that this foreign entity comes into your home, and it changes your parent, and you have to deal with this new behavioral pattern that you don’t understand and don’t have the equipment to deal with. But I don’t care if any of this stuff comes through, the alcoholic metaphor is not important to me."

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7) Gladys' magical artefacts have occult significance

The bell has an inverted triangle and a 6 (Image via YouTube/Weapons)

One of the unanswered questions in Weapons is about Gladys and her strange magical artefacts. She uses a short, thorny tree to draw blood and a bell with an inverted triangle and the number six on it. While it is not explained in the movie, the reference might go back to ancient witchcraft.

The triangle is a symbol of feminine energy and the Crone Goddess in many spiritual practices. Moreover, the six could also be an occult callback, with the number being associated with evil, especially when repeated (666 represents the devil.)

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Watch Weapons in cinemas worldwide.