NEED TO KNOW

• Weapons is a horror film that revolves around the mysterious, sinister disappearance of 17 children

• The horror film is directed by Zach Cregger and stars Julia Garner and Josh Brolin

• Weapons has received positive reviews and hits theaters on August 8

An upcoming horror thriller already has hearts pounding.

Weapons stars Josh Brolin and Julia Garner as characters trying to get to the bottom of how every single child — except for one — in an elementary school class disappeared at the same time in the middle of the night.

“When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance,” the film’s synopsis reads.

In addition to Brolin and Garner, the horror film also stars Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan. Zach Cregger, who directed the hit 2022 horror thriller, Barbarian, is at the helm of the new horror flick.

Weapons will hit theaters on Aug. 8, 2025, but it has already received rave reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, reaching the coveted 100% rating.

Here’s everything to know about Weapons, including the plot, cast and premiere date.

What is Weapons about?

Weapons is a horror film that starts when 17 out of 18 children from teacher Justine Gandy’s (Garner) elementary school classroom disappear at 2:17 a.m. Gandy must subsequently address the missing children’s parents, including the vocal father Archer Graff (Brolin).

Both Gandy and Graff become dedicated to solving the case, but they quickly realize that the children all appeared to mysteriously run out of their homes in a sort of trance. Video footage from the disappearances shows each kid making a beeline in the same destination.

Weapons is divided into several chapters that follow different characters’ perspectives as they come to terms with the disappearances and try to figure out what happened to the children. As each chapter plays out, the film takes a more sinister turn to reveal the terrifying truth.

“It’s a twisty, turny movie,” director Cregger teased at CinemaCon 2025 in April, per Variety. “It’s a movie that unravels and reinvents itself as it goes.”

Who is in the Weapons cast?

Brolin, who also co-executive-produced the film, stars as Graff, the father of a missing child named Matthew. Garner costars as Gandy, an elementary school teacher at Maybrook, who comes to school one morning with only one child left in her classroom, played by Cary Christopher.

Weapons also stars Ehrenreich as police officer Paul Morgan, Abrams as James, Wong as the school’s principal Marcus, Madigan as Alex’s aunt Gladys, June Diane Raphael as Paul’s wife, Clayton Farris as Terry, Whitmer Thomas as Alex’s father and Toby Huss as Ed, among others.

“The script was so unpredictable, but that’s also the reason why I wanted to do it, and I’ve never read anything like it to this day,” Garner told TMS in July 2025. “It’s unlike anything you will ever see.”

Is there a trailer for Weapons?

The first official trailer for the twisty horror thriller was released on April 29. The gripping teaser starts with a female child narrating, “This is a true story that happened in my town. So this one Wednesday is like a normal day for the whole school … but today was different.”

“Every other class had all their kids, but Mrs. Gandy’s room was totally empty. And do you know why? Because the night before, at 2:17 in the morning, every kid woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs and into the dark,” she adds. “And they never came back.”

Meanwhile, the second trailer, released on June 23, focuses on both Brolin and Garner’s frustrated characters trying to unravel the mystery while watching footage of kids running out of homes in the middle of the night.

Warner Bros. Pictures also released a teaser on April 21 that showed Brolin’s character telling someone, “Those kids walked out of those homes. No one pulled them out. No one forced them.”

In addition to the two teasers, Weapons also launched an eerie website that coincides with the film, maybrookmissing.net. The website reads, “17 Local Children Leave Home Simultaneously at 2:17AM.”

“Authorities are baffled by the inexplicable disappearance, which has shaken the community to its core,” the website continues. “Upon investigation, front door camera footage showed the children leaving their homes at 2:17am Wednesday morning without any signs of force. Since then, little information has surfaced.”

Who directed Weapons?

Cregger wrote, produced and directed Weapons. The comedian and actor got his big break when he directed the hit 2022 horror film, Barbarian. Cregger previously explained that Weapons was partially inspired by his own life.

“It’s a personal movie — this movie’s really kind of autobiographical in many ways,” he told The Next Best Picture podcast in July 2025. “You know, someone really close to me died, and I’m kind of feeling all of these emotions that you get when you lose somebody. I was able just to write these characters that had the same emotions, you know? About these kids leaving and this community left in the wake of that.”

When will Weapons be released?

Weapons will be released in theaters on Aug. 8, 2025. In addition to traditional screening times, select theaters are offering shows at 2:17 p.m. to reference the significant time in the film.

Read the original article on People