Gladys Lilly is one of several characters entwined in the chilling story of the 2025 horror movie Weapons. Zach Cregger's new film explores the question of what happened to 17 school children who simultaneously vanish from their homes in the middle of the night, leaving the small town around them crippled with despair. Academy Award nominee Amy Madigan portrays Gladys in the film, the enigmatic aunt of the only child in the class who did not disappear, Alex (Cary Christopher).
Through different point-of-view narratives, Weapons unspools the terrifying mystery at the heart of the Pennsylvania small town (rooted in inspirations from Cregger's personal life). Also appearing in the film are Julia Garner as Justine Gandy, the class teacher and no.1 suspect in the disappearance, Josh Brolin as Archer, a desperate parent of one of the kids, and Paul Morgan, a local police officer who is drawn into the missing children's case. Weapons opened in cinemas on August 8.
Who is Gladys in Weapons?
Warning: The rest of this article contains spoilers for the plot and ending of Weapons.
Gladys is introduced in Weapons as Alex's aging aunt, who becomes his guardian after his parents succumb to consumption. However, the film reveals this is nothing but a cover story, as Gladys is actually the one at the heart of the missing children's disappearance.
Flashbacks reveal that Alex's parents offered a home for Gladys, who was deathly ill and not expected to live much longer. However, when she arrived in their home, bearing a mysterious potted tree, she quickly enacted a plan to take over the household.
Using witchcraft, Gladys possessed Alex's parents, turning them into mindless husks who answered her beck and call. She then blackmailed Alex with his parents' lives, threatening to make them hurt each other unless he brought her a possession of each of his classmates.
Gladys used these belongings to craft a new spell that sent all 17 children in Alex's class to their house, where she kept them dormant in their basement. She then posed as Alex's legal guardian during the police investigation, dressing up in an eccentric wig and outfit to hide her aging and deflect any suspicion from herself and Alex's family.
How Does Gladys' Magic & Possession Work?
The reveal that the children are victims of witchcraft is one of the major twists in Weapons. The history behind Gladys and her magic isn't fully explained in the horror movie, although rules are established around the rituals she conducts and how they impact her victims.
In order to control others, Gladys needs to possess an object of her intended victim. She then entwines it with a stick from her potted tree and combines it with a drop of her blood. From there, once she snaps the stick, the victim's will is no longer their own, and they become a mindless husk that adheres to her bidding. The only way those possessed can be stopped is to be killed or for Gladys to end the spell by dropping the person's stick into a bowl of water. Gladys also uses other traditions of witchcraft throughout Weapons, such as lines of salt to contain spirits.
Gladys uses these possession rituals to maintain her own life, essentially feeding on the life force of others under her control. When she arrives at Alex's family's house initially, she is close to death, but possessing Alex's mom and dad rejuvenates her. Later, when these effects start to wane, she conducts the spell on Alex's 17 classmates, which boosts her energy significantly.
Even when Gladys' control over her victims has ended, they do not return to normal. The end of Weapons establishes that those under Gladys' control were never the same. Both Alex's parents and the abducted children remained lifeless and non-responsive, with the epilogue revealing that most of the kids never spoke after their ordeal. This is seemingly due to Gladys draining them of their life force while they were under her control, leaving them forever changed.
What Happens to Gladys at the End of Weapons?
Gladys is eventually punished for her abhorrent crimes. During the finale, Alex is able to gain access to one of the magic sticks from the potted tree and, combining it with a lock of Gladys' hair, he sets the children upon her.
Just as the title of Weapons suggests, the children become the weapons of Gladys' demise, chasing her through the streets of the town and eventually descending upon her, violently ending her life.
With Gladys dead, the hold she has over the children and Alex's parents is broken, and they are returned to their families. However, they are never the same again.
