Weapons

The film opens with the voice of a little girl (Scarlett Sher) narrating about an event that happened in her town of Maybrook two years earlier. On a regular Wednesday morning at 2:17 AM, 17 students from Ms. Justine Gandy’s (Julia Garner) second grade class, minus one boy, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), all walked out of their houses and disappeared into the darkness while running with their arms stretched out. Nobody knows where they went or what caused them to all flee their homes. Justine and Alex are interviewed for any knowledge on the students’ disappearances, they don’t know anything. JUSTINEParents are gathered at the school for a meeting held by Principal Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong). Almost everyone has blamed Justine for the disappearances, claiming she said or did something to them that caused them all to leave, even though Justine is just as worried for the kids as everyone else. Marcus does his best to protect Justine from the other parents’ wrath since they are calling for her incarceration. Justine copes with her depression by grabbing bottles from the liquor store. She gets anonymous threatening phone calls from the parents. Later while she is at home, someone bangs on her door, and she goes to see that someone spray-painted “WITCH” on the side of her car. Marcus puts Justine on a leave of absence, as it is also noted that she has overstepped her boundaries with students in the past (giving a hug to a crying student, or giving another one a ride home). She later files a police report for the vandalism and the threatening phone calls. Later that night, Justine meets with her ex-boyfriend, a cop named Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich). They go to a bar, even though Paul has maintained his sobriety. They later go back

to her place for sex, and she drops him off at his home in the morning. After school, Justine sees Alex walking home alone. She follows him to his house and tries to enter, ringing the doorbell but getting no answer. She then sees two people, Alex’s parents, sitting on the couch very still, so she ends up leaving. Justine reports the weird scene to Marcus, who orders her to stay away from Alex’s home. She then goes to the liquor store where she is attacked by Paul’s wife Donna (June Diane Raphael), who knows that they slept together, so she pours vodka all over Justine until the clerk subdues her. Justine later has a nightmare that she is walking into her classroom in the middle of the night, and all of her students are sitting at their desks with their heads down. Alex puts his head up and seems to be wearing some kind of creepy clown makeup. Justine wakes up and is frightened by the appearance of a creepy red-haired woman on her ceiling. The next day, Justine follows Alex home again and tries to see if he’s okay. He says he is, but when she keeps pressing, he yells at her to stop following him. Justine spends the rest of the day spying on the house until she passes out drunk. During the night, a mysterious woman walks out of the Lilly house and enters Justine’s unlocked car to snip off a lock of her hair. ARCHERArcher Graff (Josh Brolin) is among the concerned parents in Maybrook, as his son Matthew (Luke Speakman) was one of the kids who went missing. He frequently rewatches a Ring camera video of Matthew running out of the house at night and heading in a straight line. Archer also works as

a contractor but has been unable to properly deal with issues at his job. Archer goes to speak to Captain Ed Locke (Toby Huss) at the police station, but they have no new leads or information on the kids’ whereabouts. Archer is among the many accusing Justine of having some involvement, and he is also later revealed to be the one that vandalized her car. He then goes home and dreams that he is chasing Matthew through the woods but ends up back at home, seeing a rifle in the sky with 2:17 on the side. Matthew is back in his room sleeping, and Archer tearfully tells his son he loves him despite not telling him as much in real life. When Archer shines the light on Matthew, he instead sees the same creepy red-haired woman that Justine saw, grinning at him. Continuing his investigation, Archer visits the home of the Baileys, Gary and Erica (Justin Long and Sara Paxton), whose child also vanished. He asks to see their Ring camera footage of their kid leaving. Erica is uncomfortable with it, but Gary allows him. Their daughter also ran in a straight line like Matthew did, and Archer tries to pinpoint the exact location they could have run to on a map. Archer then drives to a gas station where he sees Justine filling her car. He goes to talk to her, which she thinks is another confrontation. They then see Marcus running towards them with his arms out like the kids, with his eyes covered in blood as he charges towards Justine. Archer gets him off her, and she runs into the convenience store while Archer tries to hold Marcus off. PAULPaul is seen going through his day (before meeting with Justine) at the station, talking to Locke before

going on patrol. He sees a young man, James (Austin Abrams), trying to break into a building. Paul calls him out, leading James to make a run for it. Paul eventually catches up to James and tackles him to the ground. While searching James’s pockets, Paul accidentally pricks his finger on a used needle. Paul punches James hard in the face, but then realizes his dashcam saw the whole thing. Paul just tells James that they are even now and for him to get the hell out of Maybrook. Paul later goes on his date with Justine and sleeps with her. As soon as he gets home in the morning, Donna can quickly tell that he was having an affair. At work, Paul is chastised by Locke since he found out about the incident with James. As Paul is walking back outside, he sees James walking towards the station. Paul angrily begins to pursue him. JAMESJames is shown to be a junkie living in a tent in the woods. He tries to sell useless junk to fund his drug habit. After his run-in with Paul, James breaks into the Lilly house to find stuff he can pawn off. James walks into the basement where he sees all 17 missing children standing catatonically. He is startled by Mr. and Mrs. Lilly (Whitmer Thomas and Callie Schuttera), who start to follow him until he runs out the door. By his tent, he also spots the creepy red-haired woman waving at him. James discovers that there is a $50,000 reward for any information on the missing kids. He reluctantly goes to report this to the police station, which is where Paul spots him again and goes after him. Paul chases him to his tent in the woods attacks James for showing his face

again, but he tells Paul that he knows where the missing kids are. Paul drives to the Lilly house with James in the back of his car. Hours later, Paul emerges from the house in a trance and starts dragging James out of the car and into the house by his feet. MARCUSMarcus is at the supermarket with his husband Terry (Clayton Farris) when Justine is calling him about what she saw at the Lilly house. Marcus agrees to meet with Alex and his parents on Monday to see what is going on with him. On Monday, Marcus waits to meet with the Lillys, but instead is met by…THE CREEPY RED-HAIRED LADY! She is Alex’s Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), and she claims that Alex’s parents are unwell and could not make it in. Later that day, Gladys stops by Marcus and Terry’s house while they are having lunch, claiming that she is in distress and needs water. She requests a bowl of water and then cuts her hand, rubbing blood on a stick that she pulls out. Gladys then snips a lock of Terry’s hair and wraps it around the stick. When Marcus threatens to call the police, Gladys pulls out a small bell and rings it, causing Marcus to freeze up. She then breaks the stick, and Marcus begins attacking Terry, regurgitating black bile all over him before headbutting him to death until Terry’s face caves in. Gladys then wraps the lock of Justine’s hair around another stick and breaks it, sending Marcus to kill her. Marcus runs into Justine and Archer, chasing her into the store until Archer tackles him into the beverage fridge. Justine manages to escape, but Archer chases after Marcus as he runs into the street. Marcus gets run over by a car, and his

head is messily splattered all over the road. After going to the hospital, Justine and Archer put their differences aside and agree to work together on the case. He shows her the map where he drew the lines of where Matthew and the Baileys’ kid could have ran to. Justine recognizes the location as the Lilly house. ALEXThe film jumps back to sometime before the disappearances. Alex is seen as a quiet and lonely kid, and Matthew is his most frequent bully. His parents are seen as friendly and loving, but they tell Alex that Aunt Gladys is staying with them for a while since she is unwell. He peeks into her room and sees that her red hair is a wig, and that she keeps a small tree in her room for the branches that she uses in her rituals. Alex returns from school one day to find both of his parents in a catatonic state, while Gladys looks somewhat healthier. When he protests over why his parents are acting weird, Gladys breaks one of her sticks and causes Mr. and Mrs. Lilly to start stabbing themselves in the face with forks until she decides to make them stop. Gladys threatens to harm Alex’s parents if he tells anybody about what she is doing with them. Alex spends time keeping quiet and having to feed his parents. Gladys starts to grow weak again, and she requests that Alex bring an object from each of her classmates so that she can get better, and finally leave. Alex takes the name tags of every student from their personal bins, and Gladys tears them up and creates a concoction that summons the children to the Lilly house at 2:17 AM. Back in the present, Gladys has Mr. and Mrs. Lilly standing behind

a salt line that she orders Alex not to step over. Justine and Archer decide to make their way inside the Lilly house, but Justine steps over a salt line and triggers the possessed Paul and James to attack her and Archer. At the same time, Alex steps over the salt line and causes his parents to chase him. Justine peels part of Paul’s face with a potato peeler before taking his gun and shooting him. Archer fights with James until he ends up in the basement where the kids are. Justine blows James’s brains out and goes to find Alex. Archer tries to find Matthew, but Gladys finds him first. The now possessed Archer goes to attack Justine. Alex locks himself in the bathroom and takes a branch from Gladys’ tree. He pricks his finger, smears his blood on it, and wraps a lock of Gladys’ hair on it before breaking it. Gladys realizes something is wrong, and the 17 children soon start stampeding out of the basement and towards Gladys. The evil witch then runs out of the house in a panic, going through the neighbors’ houses while the kids scream and break through windows and fences. They finally catch up to Gladys and viciously tear her to pieces. This breaks her spell on Archer and the Lillys. Justine goes upstairs to find Alex hugging both of his parents, while Archer finds Matthew and takes him home. The child narrator’s voice is heard saying that Alex’s parents were institutionalized, and he is now living with a different aunt who is much kinder. The other children were reunited with their families, and some have started to speak again. Related Movies: *CUT TO THE CHASE*Brought to you by At exactly 2:17 AM on a regular Wednesday morning, 17 children in

the town of Maybrook walked out of their homes and disappeared. Their teacher, Ms. Justine Gandy, is suspected of having some involvement in the disappearances, leading to parents threatening and harassing her. One parent, Archer Graff, whose son Matthew went missing, leads his own investigation into what happened. The culprit is a woman named Gladys, the aunt of Alex Lilly, the only student in Justine's class who didn't vanish. Gladys is a witch who first uses Alex's parents to rejuvenate herself by keeping them catatonic and controlling them to do her bidding (she turns people into her "weapons") by performing a ritual where she rubs her blood on sticks from a tree she grows, and then using a lock of the intended victim's hair wrapped around the stick, which is broken and makes her "weapon" go after the victim, controlling them with a bell. When they are not enough to sustain her, Gladys makes Alex grab items from his classmates, which she uses to summon them to the Lilly house and keeps them there for months. Gladys controls Principal Marcus Miller into killing his husband and then trying to kill Justine, but he fails and is run over by a car. She later possesses Justine's ex, a cop named Paul Morgan, as well as a junkie named James that he apprehended. Justine and Archer put their differences aside and try to investigate the Lilly house. The weaponized Paul and James attack them, while Mr. and Mrs. Lilly chase after Alex. Justine kills Paul and James with Paul's gun, but Gladys possesses Archer to attack Justine. Alex performs Gladys' ritual to cause the 17 children to chase after Gladys into the streets, where they tear her to pieces. Gladys' death causes her spells to wear off, breaking Archer and the Lillys

from her hold. Archer reunites with his son, who is left catatonic, as are the other kids and Mr. and Mrs. Lilly. Alex's parents are institutionalized while he is sent to live with a nicer aunt, and the other kids are reunited with their parents, with a few being able to speak again.