# Trap (2024 film)
**Trap** is a 2024 American psychological thriller written and directed by [M. Night Shyamalan](https://www.edgepedia.org/m-night-shyamalan), in which a serial killer accompanying his teenage daughter to a pop concert discovers that the entire event is a police sting operation set up to catch him. It stars [Josh Hartnett](https://www.edgepedia.org/josh-hartnett), Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, and [Alison Pill](https://www.edgepedia.org/alison-pill), and was produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock, and M. Night Shyamalan through Blinding Edge Pictures, with worldwide distribution by Warner Bros. Pictures.[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mps1HbpECIA)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director/writer | M. Night Shyamalan[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mps1HbpECIA) |
| Cast | Josh Hartnett (Cooper), Ariel Donoghue (Riley), Saleka Shyamalan (Lady Raven), Hayley Mills, Alison Pill[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mps1HbpECIA) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024) |
| Release | US wide release August 2, 2024[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024); trailer credits announced theaters nationwide August 9, 2024 and international release beginning August 1, 2024[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mps1HbpECIA) |
| Runtime / rating | 105 minutes, PG-13[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024) |
| Budget / box office | $30,000,000 budget; $83,677,281 worldwide gross[3](https://mdblist.com/movie/2xw4z-trap); $42.7M gross in the United States[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024) |
| Reception | 57% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (249 reviews), 64% Popcornmeter[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024); Metascore 52 from 46 critic reviews[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/trap/critic-reviews/); CinemaScore C+[5](https://movie.guru/trap-movie-review) |
| Streaming | Streaming release August 30, 2024; later available on Prime Video and HBO Max[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/trap-2024) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and plot
Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett), a Philadelphia firefighter, takes his daughter Riley ([Ariel Donoghue](https://www.edgepedia.org/ariel-donoghue)) to a concert by the pop star Lady Raven, played by Saleka Shyamalan, as a reward for her good grades at the fictional Tanaka Arena.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/trap-m-night-shyamalan-tests-our-morality-this-twisted-family-thriller) • [8](https://time.com/7007086/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan/) Cooper is secretly a serial killer known as "the Butcher," a name referring to the dismembered state of his victims. Inside the venue he learns from a merchandise seller that the authorities believe the Butcher has a ticket for that night's show, and that police and SWAT units under the direction of FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant ([Hayley Mills](https://www.edgepedia.org/hayley-mills)) have surrounded the arena.[8](https://time.com/7007086/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan/) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/trap-m-night-shyamalan-tests-our-morality-this-twisted-family-thriller)
The marketing summarized the setup as "30,000 Fans. 300 Cops. 1 Serial Killer. No Escape."[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mps1HbpECIA) Most of the film follows Cooper backstage and around the venue as he tries to leave without being identified, with full-length Lady Raven songs interspersed throughout.[9](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/583f590eff7c50a521b0d8c4/t/69021cf40910b51eaa06d967/1761746164284/10.27.25%2Bcolor.pdf) The film's central identity, that the Butcher is Cooper himself, was revealed in the official trailer rather than held back as a late twist.[10](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/09/m-night-shyamalan-interview-trap-movie/679158/) In the later acts Lady Raven moves from plot device to a more active role in the story.[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/08/02/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan-josh-hartnett/) [Kid Cudi](https://www.edgepedia.org/kid-cudi) has a cameo as a fellow superstar performer called [The Thinker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-thinker).[8](https://time.com/7007086/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan/)
## Origin and the music
Shyamalan described the project's unusual starting point: he and his daughter Saleka discussed how to aim an album toward a narrative so that the songs function as part of the story rather than as background, joining the concert experience to the theatrical one.[12](https://www.moviefone.com/news/trap-exclusive-interview-director-m-night-shyamalan/) Saleka wrote the songs one after another as the script developed, and the music had to work both as pop music and as a score following Cooper's story.[13](https://writingstudio.co.za/in-conversation-with-trap-director-writer-producer-m-night-shyamalan/) • [14](https://www.asos.com/women/fashion-feed/2024_08_07-wed/trap-saleka-shyamalan/) Shyamalan has said the pitch was essentially "What if The Silence of the Lambs happened at a Taylor Swift concert?"[10](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/09/m-night-shyamalan-interview-trap-movie/679158/)
The score beyond the songs is by Herdís Stefánsdóttir, who also worked on Shyamalan's *Knock at the Cabin*; the cinematographer is Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, the editor Noëmi Preiswerk, and the production designer Debbie de Villa.[1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mps1HbpECIA)
## Production of the concert
Shyamalan chose to stage the concert for real rather than simulate it. "I'm not a big CGI guy, so when I decided to do the concert, I kept telling everybody, 'We're going to put on and shoot a real concert, and we're not going to cheat,'" he said.[13](https://writingstudio.co.za/in-conversation-with-trap-director-writer-producer-m-night-shyamalan/) The production filmed a live concert with what Josh Hartnett estimated as "thousands" of extras, whose enthusiasm, he said, built over the course of the production.[15](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/drama-movies/m-night-shymalan-trap-concert-filming-interview/) • [16](https://www.capitalfm.com/news/tv-film/josh-hartnett-trap-concert-scenes/) Shyamalan tied the staging to the story beat by beat, coordinating the moment in the song, Saleka's performance, the crowd's reaction, and the dancers' movement with the dialogue.[15](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/drama-movies/m-night-shymalan-trap-concert-filming-interview/)
## Reception
Warner Bros. held the film back from critics before release, which *The Guardian* noted as a rarity for a film of its scale.[17](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/02/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan) The reviews that followed were mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 57% Tomatometer from 249 reviews, with a critics consensus calling it "an arch thriller given some grounding by Josh Hartnett's committed performance," and a 64% audience Popcornmeter.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024) Metacritic assigned a score of 52 out of 100 from 46 critics, in its "Mixed or Average" band.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/trap/critic-reviews/) Opening-night audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore.[5](https://movie.guru/trap-movie-review)
**Praise and criticism.** Hartnett's performance drew wide notice. *Time* wrote that he "makes a great doting, ridiculous dad" while also navigating the shift into darker territory, and singled out Hayley Mills's profiler as one of the film's pleasures.[8](https://time.com/7007086/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan/) Positive reviews called it among Shyamalan's best-engineered recent work and praised its craft; *Entertainment Weekly* described it as masterfully shot with strong use of wide angles and cropped frames.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/trap/critic-reviews/) Critics repeatedly flagged the third act: *Looper* wrote that it "falls apart slightly in the third act," and the RogerEbert.com review argued that once the concept leaves the arena, scenes make increasingly little sense.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/trap/critic-reviews/) • [18](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/trap-shyamalan-film-review-2024) *The Guardian* called the film a suspense-free vehicle that functions as promotion for the director's daughter, while the *Sight and Sound* review read it as a taut puzzle box that deliberately confounds audience loyalties between the doting father and the killer.[17](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/02/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan) • [7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/trap-m-night-shyamalan-tests-our-morality-this-twisted-family-thriller) *The Washington Post* placed it in the middle of Shyamalan's filmography, neither among his best films nor his worst.[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/08/02/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan-josh-hartnett/)
## Box office and release
Made on a $30,000,000 budget, the film grossed $83,677,281 worldwide, including $42.7 million in the United States.[3](https://mdblist.com/movie/2xw4z-trap) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024) It reached streaming platforms on August 30, 2024, and later became available on Prime Video and [HBO Max](https://www.edgepedia.org/hbo-max), with rental and purchase options on other services.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/trap-2024)
## References
1. [Trap | Official Trailer 2, Warner Bros. (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mps1HbpECIA)
2. [Trap (2024), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trap_2024)
3. [Trap (2024), MDBList](https://mdblist.com/movie/2xw4z-trap)
4. [Trap critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/trap/critic-reviews/)
5. [Trap (2024), movie.guru](https://movie.guru/trap-movie-review)
6. [Trap streaming: where to watch movie online?, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/trap-2024)
7. [Trap: M. Night Shyamalan tests our morality in this twisted family thriller, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/trap-m-night-shyamalan-tests-our-morality-this-twisted-family-thriller)
8. [Trap Still Offers a Few Pleasures Even If You Know Exactly Where It's Going, Time](https://time.com/7007086/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan/)
9. [Student review of Trap (2024), squarespace PDF](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/583f590eff7c50a521b0d8c4/t/69021cf40910b51eaa06d967/1761746164284/10.27.25%2Bcolor.pdf)
10. [How M. Night Shyamalan Came Back From the Dead, The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/09/m-night-shyamalan-interview-trap-movie/679158/)
11. ['Trap' is a prisoner of M. Night Shyamalan's shortcomings, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/08/02/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan-josh-hartnett/)
12. ['Trap' Exclusive Interview: Director M. Night Shyamalan, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/news/trap-exclusive-interview-director-m-night-shyamalan/)
13. [In conversation with TRAP director / writer / producer M. Night Shyamalan, The Writing Studio](https://writingstudio.co.za/in-conversation-with-trap-director-writer-producer-m-night-shyamalan/)
14. [We Met Trap's Saleka Shyamalan, ASOS](https://www.asos.com/women/fashion-feed/2024_08_07-wed/trap-saleka-shyamalan/)
15. [M. Night Shyamalan explains why he filmed Trap's concert for real, GamesRadar+](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/drama-movies/m-night-shymalan-trap-concert-filming-interview/)
16. [Josh Hartnett Shares How New Movie 'Trap' Concert Scenes Were Really Filmed, Capital](https://www.capitalfm.com/news/tv-film/josh-hartnett-trap-concert-scenes/)
17. [Trap review – M Night Shyamalan's concert thriller is a mess, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/02/trap-review-m-night-shyamalan)
18. [Trap movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/trap-shyamalan-film-review-2024)
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