Weapons (2025) ending explained: Who traced the missing kids back home?

Zach Cregger’s Weapons, which hits theaters on August 8, 2025, blends horror, mystery, and psychological tension into a chilling small-town nightmare. The plot is set in a small Midwestern town where, at precisely 2:17 am, 17 children from the same third-grade class mysteriously wake up and walk out of their homes into the depths of night.

The doorbell and security cameras record the whole event, leaving an unshakeable visual anchor on the mystery. The story unfolds through a series of interlocked viewpoints: the teacher, who became the scapegoat of speculation, the father searching for his son, the local cop pursuing the case, and Alex, the only child who didn't go missing. In the end, Alex traces the missing kids back home, using his knowledge of Gladys’ ritual to break her control and free them.

Every chapter adds another layer, culminating in a finale that finally tells the truth: a sinister new arrival to the town has been manipulating events through occult means. This ending is not a vague metaphor or a purely symbolic gesture; Weapons makes it clear exactly who was responsible for the disappearance and how it happened.

Disclaimer: The following article contains spoilers from Weapons. Reader’s discretion is required.

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What happened in the final moment of Weapons?

In the tense finale of Weapons, the case of the missing 17 children draws to a startling conclusion in the most unlikely place imaginable, Alex's house. The mastermind behind this gruesome act is Gladys Lilly (Amy Madigan), who enters Alex’s life posing as a fragile aunt but is soon exposed as a witch.

She practices occult lore: she steals personal things like hair or nameplates, ties them onto a twig, anoints it with her blood, and finalizes the spell with a bell chime. When broken (snapped), the spell enacts control over the victim, while water immersion disrupts it.

When Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) and Archer (Josh Brolin) enter the house, they are met with a chilling sight: children standing motionless in trance-like positions in the basement. They are soon attacked by others under Gladys' spell, including Paul and James. Justine protects them by shooting both controlled adults to death.

Amid the chaos, Alex quietly intervenes. He imitates the ritual done by Gladys with her hair or her token around a twig, and then he breaks it, reversing the spell against the witch.

The children who were once under the spell of Gladys chase her across town and violently kill her in one of the biggest gut-punch scenes of the film. The death of Gladys causes the spell to fail, and the children are freed and physically return, but forever changed.

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How did Justine fight back and clear her name?

Justine’s journey through Weapons is one of vindication through violence. From the beginning of the film, the town accuses her of being a suspect, ruining her reputation and ostracizing her within the community.

A still from the trailer (Image via Warner Bros.)

The final scene puts her in imminent danger as she and Archer enter Alex's home. There, she must defend herself and others against Paul and James, both violent puppets under Gladys' control.

In a moment of intense, claustrophobic action, Justine kills both men, a necessary action that breaks her morally yet clears her name. She appears at the end, alive but burdened by what she had to do, as she sees both the death of Gladys and the homecoming of the children.

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Archer’s rescue, his son’s trauma, and lingering guilt

In the final act of Weapons, Archer collaborates with Justine, setting aside his earlier hostility toward her to save the children. The movie does not offer a heroic reconciliation with his son; instead, his son returns alive but withdrawn.

A still from the trailer (Image via Warner Bros.)

This emotional reality underscores the main truth of the ending: the rescue did not reverse the psychological harm. Archer's final moments carry both relief and a growing sense of the community's collective failure to recognize the actual threat before it was too late.

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How does Alex turn Gladys’ magic against her?

Alex, the only one not taken that night, is the key to resolving the film. He begins as a silent, manipulated figure under Gladys' care but keenly observes the workings of her magic. Weapons depict her ritual in full detail: the hair or nameplate on a stick, the blood drop, the bell, and the decisive snap.

A still from the trailer (Image via Warner Bros.)

Alex turns the tables in the finale with this knowledge. Snapping a stick connected to Gladys herself, he disconnects her hold on the children and redirects their aggression toward her. The children mob Gladys and murder her in the street, an act shown in close, graphic detail.

Her death breaks the spell, and the children go home. The triumph is morbid. The epilogue reveals that most remain catatonic, Alex's parents are under psychiatric treatment, and the town is permanently scarred.

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The movie doesn't leave the ending as an open-ended metaphor; it roots the cause in supernatural control, covering the ritual in full. What remains unsolved is not the “how,” but the emotional toll, leaving viewers with an ending decisive in plot yet haunting in its aftermath.

Weapons is now playing in theaters nationwide.