'Weapons' has one surprising thing in common with 'The Last of Us'
Despite seemingly being in every movie out right now, Pedro Pascal isn't in Zach Cregger's horror film Weapons. However, he almost was! Pascal would have played grieving father Archer (Josh Brolin), but scheduling conflicts forced him to bow out. However, Weapons still features a surprising similarity to a major Pascal project: The Last of Us.
The film centers on the disappearance of 17 children, all from the same third grade class at Maybrook Elementary. One night, at 2:17 a.m., they all left their homes and ran off into the darkness, leaving the Maybrook community shaken.
In one scene, Maybrook Elementary principal Marcus (Benedict Wong) takes a much-needed break from his job and sits down for a TV meal with his husband Terry (Clayton Farris). They're watching a nature documentary about the Cordyceps fungus. More specifically, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis or zombie-ant fungus, a parasitic fungus which takes over the brains of ants and forces them to move to locations where the fungus can grow. (It then sprouts from the dead ant — spooky!)
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Real-life Cordyceps inspired The Last of Us' terrifying fungal infection. However, in Weapons, it also clues us into how the film's main antagonist operates, serving as a chilling reminder of what's to come. Spoilers ahead, so if you haven't seen the movie, you should make like Weapons' children and run far, far away.
Why is Weapons so obsessed with Cordyceps and parasites?
The Cordyceps documentary scene isn't the only time Weapons mentions a frightening parasite. In one of the film's many nightmare sequences, teacher Justine (Julia Garner) walks into her classroom and sees all of the lost children back at their desks. On the whiteboard behind her, there's a list of parasites.
Later, when Weapons turns its focus on Alex (Cary Christopher), the one child from the class who didn't disappear, we hear Justine teaching the class about parasites, asking for examples like tapeworms. Between those classroom scenes and the Cordyceps documentary, it's clear Weapons has a parasite fixation. Why?
These parasite mentions subtly clue us into the methods of Weapons' main villain: witch Gladys (Amy Madigan). She performs rituals to bring people under her spell, using a magical tree, her own blood, and her victims' personal belongings to get the job done.
Her first victims in the movie are Alex's parents (Whitmer Thomas and Callie Schuttera), whom she ensnares in the hopes that siphoning their life force will cure her of her terminal illness. But when Alex's parents aren't enough, she pivots to the 17 children.
Gladys' treatment of Alex's parents and the children is textbook parasitism. She drains from them in order to cure herself, but in doing so, she keeps them trapped and unresponsive.
Like the real-life Cordyceps fungus, Gladys also hijacks her victims' bodies and minds and makes them do her bidding. She forces Alex's mother to cut a lock of Justine's hair for a ritual, and she turns Marcus, Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), and James (Austin Abrams) into murder machines to take out her opponents. Their herky-jerky movements are reminiscent of those of ants overtaken by Cordyceps: They're not in control, Gladys is.
All these background mentions of parasites throughout Weapons peel back the truth of Gladys. She's not just a witch, she's a leech — and she'd drain the entire town of Maybrook, even children, in order to survive.
Topics Film
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
