This small detail everyone missed in Weapons is a big hint at just how old Gladys really is

If there’s one character in the exceptional Weapons, the latest terrifying horror film from Zach Cregger, that’s turning every head and wagging every jaw – it’s Amy Madigan’s role of Gladys. Barbarian from Cregger was a beast of a horror film, but Gladys is fascinating in all new ways. Weapons has been a huge success with audiences, it’s the number one film in cinemas right now, and has a whopping 94 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes which is honestly practically a miracle for horror. A lot of this is down to its central villain, the formidable Aunt Gladys, and her nefarious actions. The film leaves it open to interpretation a lot about what Gladys was up to before the events of Weapons, but this clue that everyone honestly missed when watching the film reveals so much more about the character.

Weapons spoilers ahead. 

Did you miss this one weird line?

@such.polina How old do we think Gladys is in Weapons? #weapons #weaponsmovie #whattowatch #filmtok #horror #horrormovie ♬ original sound – Polina | Film & TV Girl 🍿

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So, obviously it is revealed about two thirds of the way through Weapons that it is Alex’s Aunt Gladys who is behind all the missing kids in Maybrook. We see through Alex’s backstory chapter that Gladys is apparently his mother’s aunt, but he’s never met her and nor has his dad – and his mum barely knows her either. Gladys arrives really frail and old, but quickly starts to rejuvenate herself by using magic to seemingly drain the life-force of those under her spells. She’s what’s known as a parasitic witch.

When Marcus, the school principal, tries to get Alex’s parents to come into the school for a welfare check after Justine Gandy raises the alarm when she snoops on Alex’s home – he instead must speak to Gladys. Gladys tells Marcus that she is running the household because Alex’s mum and dad are suffering from “consumption”. Marcus, and all of us of course, has no clue what consumption is.

But this is actually a major clue that has people thinking Gladys might not be the aunt at all, and instead a witch who got rid of the aunt in order to continue preserving her life-force in the methods we see in Weapons. When researching, consumption is actually an old word for tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis was called consumption between the 1600s to the 1800s – before it changed to the name we know it as now. This could be a hint that Gladys has actually been doing this for years before she finally got her comeuppance in Weapons.

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