Weapons is a psychological thriller that was released in August of this year (2025 for those reading this in 2026 lol). The trailers for this movie were done very well. They kept a lot hidden in comparison to many trailers recently over the last few years that have just given too much away in a 2 minute trailer. But the marketing team did a great job, and so did the filmmakers, the writers and the on-screen talent.
At first, this movie seems to be a small town "children-go-missing" tale with the local authorities getting involved. As you continue to watch, it becomes much more than that. Children from one specific teacher's classroom all go missing overnight. This is what the trailer tells you. What the movie itself tells you about 20 minutes in, is that every child went missing....except 1 specific child. This is why it's so important for marketing teams and film studios to keep certain things secret until the viewer is sitting in front of the movie, watching it from start to finish.
As characters get introduced, the story evolves and the story unfolds, leading the viewer down a road of twists, turns and gasps. I can usually guess where a movie is going, but with Weapons, I was not able to guess where it ended up going. And that seems to be a trend with the director/writer of this movie, who also directed and wrote Barbarian, which was another psychological thriller that had its own twists and turns. The difference, in my opinion, between Barbarian and Weapons is that the story in Barbarian starts go to down a path that just isn't fully interesting as the beginning of that film. With Weapons, there is a sense of freshness within this movie. While you see it from multiple POVs, these different POVs converge together but also stray off on their own path.
This movie is one of the best films that I've watched this year, and the best movie that I've watched that was released in 2025. There is no "I knew it" moment in this film. There is no way that anyone can predict where this film is going and that is a huge part of the reason that this is an enjoyable film to watch. It's beautifully shot, it's very well acted with an all-star cast of Josh Brolin (Thanos), Julia Garner (Ruth from Ozark) and Amy Madigan, who's success mainly was seen in the 80s but plays a huge and pivotal role in this film and plays that role to perfection. This is a must watch and I can see this being a fan favorite for years to come.
