If Cregger gets his way, his desired DC film 'Henchman' could see a Gotham goon rise up after taking down the Batman... or did he?

• Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the movie "Weapons."
• The movie's ending is disturbing and ultra-violent.
• "Weapons" is now playing in theaters.

In Zach Cregger's latest horror movie "Weapons," the writer-director delivers another twisted tale that's as jaw-droppingly bloody as his 2022 sleeper hit "Barbarian."

The film takes place in a sleepy Pennsylvania town where, one night, 17 children all suddenly rise from their beds at 2:17 am, go out their front doors, and run away into the night. No one has seen them since.

With the town on edge, elementary school teacher Justine (Julia Garner) realizes something all the kids who vanished have in common: they were all in her class. Only one child, Alex (Cary Christopher), didn't disappear.

Archer (Josh Brolin), one parent whose child has vanished, demands answers and believes Justine has them. When he's not following her around town and painting "Witch" on her car, he's studying Ring doorbell camera footage from the houses of the kids who ran off in an attempt to triangulate a path they might have taken.

In one scene, as Archer confronts Justine at a gas station, Andrew (Benedict Wong), the principal at Justine's school, appears out of nowhere covered in blood and sprints toward her, attacking her. Archer is able to fight him off of Justine, and she runs away. Andrew later gets hit by a car while chasing Justine. Archer realizes the way Andrew ran was exactly like the way the children ran when he saw them in the doorbell footage.

Archer tells Justine his theory that all the kids were running to the same area of town, and shows her their path on a map. Justine realizes that their route leads to Alex's house.

Now things get really bizarre

"Weapons" is told in small vignettes focused on the main characters: Justine, Archer, Alex, Andrew, and Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), a cop who has a fling with Justine.

Through these, we learn of Alex's aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), an elderly woman who wears a red wig, colorful clothes, and too much red lipstick. She comes to Alex's house with a small tree that looks like it has dead branches. It's revealed near the end of the movie that it's some kind of voodoo tree: when Gladys puts some of her blood on a branch and wraps somebody's belongings or hair around it, that person goes under her spell once she breaks the branch and rings a small bell.

After putting Alex's parents under her spell, she tells Alex to send her the belongings of all 17 of his classmates. She is the one responsible for the kids' disappearance. Gladys, who tells Alex she's ill, believes the children will make her better. They have all been in Alex's basement ever since.

Justine and Archer come to Alex's house hoping to find answers. They are welcomed by Paul, who also stumbled upon what Gladys was doing from a tip from a drug addict. Both Paul and the addict are now under her spell.

The bloody ending all goes down at Alex's house

Once Justine and Archer are in the house, Paul and the addict attack them. Upstairs, Alex's parents chase after him. Justine kills Paul with his own gun and then shoots the addict. Archer discovers the children in the basement, but then is put under Gladys' spell. She makes him go after Justine.

During all the chaos, Alex takes Gladys' voodoo tree, locks himself in the bathroom, and uses a branch to make up his own spell. He has the 17 kids in the basement go after Gladys.

Gladys realizes what's happening and runs out of the house; the 17 kids burst through the front door and windows after her. Gladys runs through neighboring houses and yards, and the kids ram through doors and windows chasing her. They finally catch up to her in a front yard and tear her apart, limb from limb. Gladys screams in anguish until her jaw is ripped from her face.

With Gladys dead, the spell Archer was under is broken. He goes to find his son among the kids surrounding Gladys' remains.

Justine goes upstairs to find Alex hugging his parents. Though they are no longer under Gladys' spell, they are not themselves. Archer's son is also in a glazed-over state.

The movie ends with a child's voiceover explaining that though the 17 kids are back with their families, most of them haven't returned to their normal selves.

'Weapons' opens August 8, and io9 spoke to its writer and director about following up his previous film, 'Barbarian.'

Plus, Billie Piper comments on the 'very last-minute' decision behind her Doctor Who return.

• Ukraine is turning its frontline into a proving ground for the West's newest prototype weapons.
• If firms send in their new tech and train Kyiv's troops to use it, they'll send a combat report back.
• Kyiv hopes this will also pave the way for its local manufacturers to partner with more outside firms.

Ukraine is inviting foreign arms manufacturers to send weapons prototypes for its troops to test in battle against Russian forces.

Its defense innovation unit, Brave1, on Thursday launched "Test in Ukraine," a program that it said would trial the new tech in combat and produce a detailed report for the defense contractor.

"This is an opportunity to gain experience that cannot be simulated in laboratories," said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister for digital transformation, at an arms conference in Wiesbaden.

Among the program's listed top priorities are uncrewed aerial systems, robot ground vehicles, missiles, and laser weapons.

"Test in Ukraine" will require the contractor to teach Ukrainian troops how to use the prototype, though this can optionally be done online, Brave1 said in a statement.

After that, Ukraine will assume control over how the tech is used on its frontline.

"You hand over your product to Brave1, and we take care of the rest," the organization said on its website.

Kyiv also hopes to pair the foreign arms makers with its own manufacturers to produce the tested weapons locally.

Ukraine is already a testbed for many NATO weapons against Russian capabilities, from armored vehicles to long-range missiles to anti-tank munitions.

But the announcement comes amid some concern in the greater arms industry that contractors may be developing new weapons after studying the Ukraine war, but aren't testing them in combat.

"If you are a drone company and you do not have your kit on the frontline in Ukraine, you might as well give up," Luke Pollard, the UK's minister of state for the armed forces, said in May.

One British defense executive, Justin Hedges, told Business Insider earlier this month that drones have to be tested daily in combat to avoid becoming obsolete.

"If your system is not in day-to-day use on the frontline of Ukraine, it becomes very quickly out of date," Hedges told BI's Mia Jankowicz.

Drone warfare has evolved drastically over the last three years of the war. First-person-view UAVs have come to dominate the battlefield, but electronic warfare is increasingly stifling their effectiveness.

As a result, unjammable fiber-optic drones are now on the rise, forcing both sides to rely more on low-tech defensive measures such as 12-gauge shotguns to destroy drones kinetically and fishing nets to entangle them mid-flight.

Last month, Ukraine debuted a new type of rifle bullet that can discharge fragment spreads at greater range to counter incoming FPV drones. Russian troops were producing their own DIY version months ago.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is going all in on bolstering its defense manufacturing industry, offering its local weapons-making experience to Western countries while ramping up production of domestic arms.

Its new testing initiative could also provide additional weapons supplies for its troops fighting against Russia's war of attrition, both in manpower and matériel.

A spokesperson for Brave1 did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Russia's defense and foreign affairs ministries also did not respond to a similar request sent by BI.