M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap is a crime thriller built on a simple trick: Cooper Abbott, a Philadelphia firefighter, shows up at a pop concert with his teenage daughter Riley, and nobody realizes he is the Butcher, a serial killer wanted by the FBI. The film wants to be a tense, claustrophobic game of cat and mouse. Mostly, it succeeds at being a movie about a dad trying to get his kid out of a stadium.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
The Setup
Cooper takes Riley to a concert starring Lady Raven as a reward for her good grades. There is a strange number of police around the venue. A vendor named Jamie tells Cooper the FBI knows the Butcher will be there. Cooper, who is the Butcher, checks video of his latest captive, Spencer, whom he is holding in a basement. He steals Jamie’s ID, learns the code that proves he is an employee, and gains entry to a back room to grab a police radio.
The setup is clever. Shyamalan plants the audience in the Butcher’s position, watching Cooper move through a crowd that has no idea who he is. That is the hook. The execution leans on the audience’s patience.
The Concert
The film unfolds in real time. Cooper watches a woman on the radio predict his moves. He sets off an explosion in a food stand’s kitchen to create a distraction, then climbs to the roof to learn from a police officer that the hunt is led by Dr. Josephine Grant, an FBI profiler. Riley asks him to stay with her. She says she wants to be chosen as Lady Raven’s “Dreamer Girl,” who dances on stage with the singer and gets backstage access.
Cooper lies to Lady Raven’s uncle, one of the spotters, saying Riley recently recovered from leukemia. That gets Riley picked for the role. The plan is to slip out through the backstage exit once the concert ends. But the police guard that too.
The Big Reveal
After the concert ends, Cooper admits to Lady Raven that he is the Butcher. He threatens to kill Spencer remotely if she does not help him and Riley escape in her limousine. She agrees but asks to come to Riley’s house. There, she explains the FBI operation to the family, unsettling Cooper by describing Grant’s profile of him as someone with maternal issues and obsessive-compulsive traits.
The reveal is the film’s climax. It should land with force. Instead, it drags because the film has spent so long establishing the setup that the twist loses some of its impact by the time it arrives.
The Performances
Josh Hartnett plays Cooper as a calm, collected man who is clearly unhinged. Ariel Donoghue plays Riley as a teenager caught between fear and curiosity. Saleka Night Shyamalan plays Lady Raven with a commanding presence. Hayley Mills plays Dr. Josephine Grant with a quiet intensity.
The supporting cast includes Jonathan Langdon as Jamie, Alison Pill as Rachel, Mark Bacolcol as Spencer, Marnie McPhail as Jody’s mom, Kid Cudi as The Thinker, Russ as Parker Wayne, Marcia Bennett as Cooper’s mother, and Vanessa Smythe as the tour manager. They fill out the world around Cooper without ever becoming the focus.
The Problem
The problem is pacing. Trap runs 105 minutes, and it feels longer. The film spends too much time on Cooper’s preparations — stealing the ID, learning the code, grabbing the radio — before the stakes actually rise. By the time the chase begins, the tension has cooled.
The film also struggles with its tone. Shyamalan wants the audience to root for Cooper while knowing he is a monster. That is a hard balance to strike, and the film wavers between horror and drama without settling on either. The result is a thriller that never quite commits to being scary or compelling.
The Verdict
Trap is a competently made thriller with a clever setup and a solid cast. It is not a great movie. It is a middling one that gets better ideas than it knows what to do with.
- The setup is strong.
- The performances are solid across the board.
- The pacing drags in the middle.
- The tone shifts uncomfortably between horror and drama.
- The reveal lands with less force than it should.
The film grossed $83 million on a $30 million budget, which is a modest success. It was shot in Canada in late 2023, premiered in New York City on July 24, 2024, and opened in theaters in the United States on August 2, 2024.
Key facts:
- Runtime: 105 minutes
- Budget: $30 million
- Gross: $83 million
- Score: 6.2/10
Trap is a film that understands its own premise but cannot execute it with urgency. The setup is clever, the cast delivers, and the final act tries to deliver a payoff. It mostly fails.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
