Warning: This contains spoilers for the conclusion of Weapons.

What an intense journey that was, right?

Zach Cregger’s Weapons delivers a thrilling and horrifying experience as hinted by the trailers, featuring an ending that answers many questions while leaving some unresolved.

From the vanished children to the “weapons” theme, we’ve attempted to dissect everything below.

What’s Weapons about?

The new film by the Barbarian writer/director presents a compelling premise: A community is thrown into turmoil when an entire class of school children — except for one boy — disappears on the same night at the same time. Doorbell camera footage reveals the children leaving their homes seemingly of their own volition, running into the night with their arms extended at their sides in an eerie flying V formation. No one knows where they’ve gone or why they vanished.

The aftermath sees the townspeople turning on one another as they seek answers. The story follows several troubled individuals, including the class teacher — and now outcast — Justine (Julia Garner); the father of one of the missing boys, Archer (Josh Brolin); school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong); and Alex (Cary Christopher), the sole member of Justine’s class who didn’t go missing.

What occurs at the end of Weapons?

As the narrative unfolds, we discover that the individual accountable for the missing children is a witch named Gladys (Amy Madigan), Alex’s aunt who employs a mysterious potted tree — along with personal belongings and her own blood — to manipulate those around her. Gladys, who is terminally ill upon moving in with Alex’s family, somehow rejuvenates herself using the people she controls. When Alex returns from school with name tags taken from his classmates’ cubbyholes, she incorporates them into a ritual that summons all of the children to her house simultaneously. Gladys keeps them hidden in the basement while continuing to use the tree to conceal her actions, forcing Alex to assist her.

Ultimately, she misjudges those around her. Justine and Archer trace the missing children back to her residence, and Alex turns her own tree against her: he escapes his room and uses the stick controlling his classmates to have them turn on her, with the children pursuing her down the street and literally tearing her apart. Archer saves his son, Alex reunites with his parents, and the town can return to some semblance of normalcy.

Are the kidnapped children safe at the end?

Yes and no. On the brighter side, all of the children are found alive and can go home. However, the vacant expressions on their faces after they’ve killed Gladys indicate they haven’t instantly returned to their former selves. They bear the scars of the trauma from the enchantment they endured.

The movie’s closing voiceover underscores this. We learn that Alex is living with a new family and that his parents still consume soup (the food Gladys compelled him to feed them while under her control), and that the missing children are back with their families.