The Creepy Reason Why Gladys Needed the Kids in ‘Weapons,’ and How the Story Ends (SPOILERS)

Spoiler alert: This article contains massive spoilers for the movie Weapons.

If you watched Weapons and walked away wondering what was up with the witch lady, you aren’t the only one. Zach Cregger’s follow-up to Barbarian is packed with layers.

Here’s how things unfolded: 17 children from the same third-grade class all leave their homes at the exact same time — 2:17 a.m. — without warning. The only one who doesn’t? A quiet boy named Alex Lilly. From there, the town spins into panic, the parents spiral, and Gladys starts popping up all over the place, smirking behind layers of clownish makeup.

Watching these 17 children wake from slumber and leave their homes in the middle of the night has everyone asking the same question: Why did Gladys need the kids in Weapons?

The answer? It’s creepy. It’s complicated. It’s everything you’d expect of a parasitic witch.

Gladys, played by Amy Madigan, is introduced as Alex’s long-lost great-aunt. She shows up claiming to be deathly ill and moves in with Alex’s parents. They haven’t seen her in 15 years. She brings a strange potted tree with her and says very little about where she’s been.

From there, things go downhill fast.

Alex soon realizes his parents are no longer themselves — frozen at the dinner table, completely silent, under some kind of spell. Gladys threatens to kill them if he tells anyone what’s happening. Then, she tells him to start feeding them, like they are children again.

Eventually, she gives Alex another task: collect personal items from each of his classmates. He does it. Unfortunately, that’s all she needed to pull off the central ritual of the movie — a mass spell that pulls 17 children out of their homes and into her control.

They weren’t kidnapped in the usual sense. They were weaponized.

So, what does “weaponized” actually mean in this movie? It’s not just creepy terminology.

According to her profile on Villains Wiki, Gladys is a witch who uses sympathetic magic — meaning she casts spells using things like people’s hair, personal items, blood, or saliva. Most of her spells involve a thorny stick from her tree, which she wraps with something from the person she wants to control. Then she pricks her finger, rings a special bell, and that person becomes a “weapon” — blank, catatonic, and totally under her power.

Once someone’s been turned, they don’t talk. They can’t make choices. They follow whatever Gladys wants — whether that’s serving as bodyguards, attackers, or just sitting silently in her basement while she feeds off their energy. The longer they’re in that state, the more damage is done. Some characters snap out of it. Others never really come back.

The more “weapons” she has active, the stronger and healthier Gladys becomes. That’s why she needed the kids — not to hurt them directly, but to use them to extend her life.

In the final stretch, Alex locks himself in the bathroom, grabs one of Gladys’ sticks, and wraps it with her hair from the floor. When he breaks it — boom. The spell shatters.

All 17 kids break free, tear through the house, and chase Gladys through the neighborhood like a pack of wild animals. It’s chaotic, brutal, and weirdly satisfying. They corner her. And they tear her apart.

As soon as she dies, every spell ends. Her power fades. The surviving kids are finally released, though some remain silent and traumatized.

Alex’s parents are institutionalized. The town tries to heal. And Alex moves in with a different aunt — one who doesn’t bring a murder tree with her.