Meaning of the ending of the movie Weapons - The Lost Hour

Weapons is considered the best horror movie of the year with profound content and impressive ending. Here are the developments, details and ending of the hit horror movie Missing Hours - Weapons .

 

Weapons is a multidimensional story told through the eyes of many different characters, with a compelling metaphor at the heart of the film.

From the very first scene, Weapons dives straight into its terrifying mystery—one night, at 2:17 a.m., all the students in Ms. Gandy's class leave their beds and disappear into the night, seemingly of their own free will.

It's a great opening, followed by a series of suspenseful chapters showing different perspectives from multiple characters—when the final twist comes, everything seems to come into focus.

 

Weapons Storyline - The Lost Hour

The film begins from the perspective of Justine (Julia Garner), the unfortunate "Mrs. Gandy" of the missing class. The only child left is Alex (Cary Christopher), and he doesn't want to talk about it. The whole town suspects Justine's involvement in the strange disappearances, as the parents become increasingly panicked.

Faced with a tragedy that defies any rational explanation, the parents blame the only adult in the room, and Justine is labeled a "witch," exposing the film's surprising villain in bold red letters.

The perspective shifts from Justine to a police officer, Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), to her worried father, Archer (Josh Brolin), to the school principal, Marcus (Benedict Wong), and petty criminal James (Austin Abrams), all caught up in the chaos.

Each chapter adds another piece to the puzzle, as characters struggle through a nightmare of fear, confusion, and grief. The biggest common thread is the black hole at the center of it all—the shadowy door in Alex's house.

In Archer's dark, prophetic dream, Alex's house is illuminated by a giant assault rifle hovering above the roof, bearing the fateful number 2:17. Archer's subconscious seems to be screaming at him, dream logic implying that the children have been turned into weapons.

Archer is confused, and so are we, but with each new chapter, the viewer gains a little more context. The weapons unfold perfectly, reminiscent of the unusual structure of Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monsters.

Each new perspective brings a clearer view of the mystery, and when the final card is turned over, revealing Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) as the witch at the center of the web, the intuition proves correct.

 

The " scary witch " reveal could easily have been dramatic or even silly, but Weapons built Gladys into a true terror.

What is Weapons really about?

Like any movie, Weapons is open to interpretation, but the witch in the movie acts like an abuser, exploiting kindness, hiding behind a weak appearance.

Gladys entered Alex's parents' home by appealing to their empathy and turned the house into her home, enslaving the owners. You could even compare Aunt Gladys to a pathological narcissist, sucking energy from those under her control and always looking for more victims.

Once Alex's parents had become mindless zombies, Alex was told, explicitly, never to reveal what was happening behind closed doors. If he told another child, teacher, or authority figure, Gladys would punish his parents.

She puts on a terrifying show for Alex, forcing his parents to eagerly stab themselves with forks. This is how Gladys enslaves Alex - no magic, just fear.

Soon, she forces Alex into her network. Gladys needs more than two bodies to maintain her youthfulness, as her extraordinary lifespan seems to be diminishing.

Alex helps her trap the other kids at school by stealing a personal item from all of them, allowing her to summon them to her house at 2:17 AM. Alex is then tasked with keeping her slaves alive, patiently feeding them spoonfuls. A cold-hearted Alex, of course, is too scared to tell anyone.

 

Weapons recreate Witchcraft in a special way

The bald, aggressive, eccentric witch in The Lost Hours is very much in the spirit of The Witches (Roald Dahl). Gladys also has a vampire streak, sucking the life energy from her victims.

Whoever Gladys really is, she doesn't seem human. Amy Madigan's impressive performance is both funny and terrifying, her witch an ancient and supernatural creature.

In her world, power comes from spiky, blood-stained "wands," bowls of water, and bells. Gladys's death is surprisingly comical - the powerful witch flees from a small army of murderous children who, when they finally catch her, tear her apart like a piñata.

Weapons ends boldly, bittersweetly—Alex has won, but it's too late. The witch has drained the children of their life force, and most of them are so traumatized they'll never speak again. His parents are alive, but dead.

So Alex was sent to live with a " kind aunt ", and was at least freed from Aunt Gladys's magical curse.

Will there be a sequel to "Weapons"?

Weapons - The Lost Hour ends the story definitively with the death of the witch and the damage done. However, there may be other witches, or other creatures out there in the world of Weapons.

Director Zach Cregger seems pretty open to a sequel, telling Variety: " I have another idea for something in this world that I'm pretty excited about ."

" I'm not going to do it again, and I probably won't do it after my next movie ," Cregger added, " but I have an idea and I'd like to see it on screen someday ."