Weapons is holding its secrets closer than any other summer movie has, even plot-sensitive IP behemoths like Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps
Weapons is holding its secrets closer than any other summer movie has, even plot-sensitive IP behemoths like Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps. With those, moviegoers at least knew what they were getting. But what is Weapons, exactly? The enigmatic title alone has confounded people. The plot that’s been revealed so far in trailers comes down to a question: Why did 17 children in a petite town disappear into the darkness, never to return?
“Look, I feel like we have a pretty sticky premise with this movie. You can wrap your head around it instantly: all these kids from one class go running out in the middle of the night. Why? Clean question,” says director Zach Cregger, clapping his hands together. “Not a lot of confusion there.”
But the premise raises countless other questions. Is Weapons a supernatural story? A straightforward kidnapping thriller? Are the kids dead—or is there hope of finding them again? Producer New Line Cinema and Cregger are hoping this uncertainty will preoccupy potential ticket buyers. While other movies are sharing as much as possible in an attempt to win a petite piece of the ever shrinking attention economy, Weapons wants to become a phenomenon by playing keep-away.
“Our mission for the marketing was: lean into the question, lean away from the answer,” Cregger says. That’s not always the case with studios and their corporate parent companies, which tend to prefer sure things over question marks. “Luckily, everybody at Warner Bros. was totally down. It wasn’t like we had a big tug-of-war. We didn’t ever lock horns and freak out about what was too much.”
It’s a lesson Cregger learned after making the 2022 horror hit Barbarian, which earned $45 million worldwide against a minuscule $4.5 million budget. That film, too, was an original concept that succeeded by preserving its central mysteries. “I think everybody was totally inclined to just, ‘Let’s do it again,’” Cregger says.
What does the title of Weapons mean? Even those who’ve seen the movie aren’t sure, which is just how Cregger wants it. “I always like a title that’s opaque. I think it invites you to consider the movie one layer deeper, and to try and make sense of it,” he says. “I’ve heard a couple of people articulate why [it’s called that], and I think they’re all right. I think it’s all legal. I probably called it Weapons when I first hit ‘save’ when I started, and I just never really second-guessed it.”
What people can know about the story: Julia Garner plays a teacher who faces suspicion because the missing children are all in her class. Josh Brolin is the irate father of one of the lost boys. Benedict Wong is a school administrator, and Alden Ehrenreich is a local cop.
As with his previous film, Cregger hopes the promise of surprise will drive more people to the theater. “And Barbarian didn’t have as clean of a launching point as Weapons does,” he says. “Two people checking into a double-booked Airbnb is fine, but I feel like the question of Weapons is a bit more, I don’t know—it’s a better hook.”
The only obstacle now is loose-lipped preview audiences. It’s ironic: Cregger was once a member of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know, playing Abe Lincoln in a sketch that sees the 16th US president killed because he keeps disrupting the play at Ford’s Theatre by talking too much. (“Now you fucked up! Now you fucked up!” he bellows from the balcony after John Wilkes Booth tries to politely shush him.)
Cregger has a Lincoln skull tattoo on his right arm, a tribute to his comedy days. It’s next to an image of a bloody red hand, which symbolizes his turn to horror.
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