M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap Is Worth Seeing, But I Have Some Big Issues With Its Third Act
Warning: HEAVY SPOILERS for Trap are in play, especially when it comes to the last act of the film. If you haven’t experienced M. Night Shyamalan’s latest just yet, you’ve been warned.
For most of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s 2024 movie Trap, I was able to dig what was going on. I mean, a whole movie focused on Josh Hartnett being the zaddy equivalent of Patrick Bateman at a pop concert? How was I supposed to turn that down in any way, shape or form? And yet, there’s a very specific pivot point that the entire picture revolves around, as one major decision left me with some big issues with the third act.
So now it’s time for me to make like The Butcher and dissect Trap’s issues, while also telling you why it’s worth seeing. And believe me, this is absolutely worth fitting into your schedule if you’ve already crossed the biggies off your list.
The spoiler-adverse should figure out when they’re going to see the film, and check out the Trap trailer again if they want to make that judgement call. Otherwise, it’s time to dive into the tangled web that is this new horror movie, starting with the ending proper.
What Happens At The End Of Trap?
The entire third act of Trap is basically a game of hide and seek, with the charming Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) unraveling his family, his side hustle as a serial killer and his mask of calm demeanor. Several times the man is backed into a corner and captured, only for his skills as a sociopathic escape artist to pull him out of one sticky situation after another.
And this is after the pretty keen move of blackmailing pop star Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) into giving him and his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) safe passage out the titular Trap. The final straw is when the man, finally handcuffed and in FBI custody, uses a spoke from his daughter’s bike to pick his handcuffs.
Fixing his hair, and laughing to himself, ol’ Cooper looks like he’s gonna get away into the night after all. And while I think that’s a perfectly dark and sick ending, it comes after a chain of mistakes that convolute what the movie wants to be its true ending.
Leaving The Lady Raven Concert Is The First, Most Substantial Mistake
Seeing the trailers for Trap, my impression was that most of the action would be centered at the Lady Raven concert. We’ve been advertised a movie where the awkward, but compelling Cooper Adams, a.k.a. “The Butcher,” uses some serious skills to stay five steps ahead of his would-be captors. And for the first two thirds, that’s exactly what we get.
Now, blackmailing Lady Raven into choosing to either save Cooper or sacrifice his next victim was, again, a pretty genius move that allows this mastermind to essentially “win” in the end. At this point in the movie, I was rooting for him to escape simply because Josh Hartnett was doing that good of a job in this role that feels custom made for him.
But then Lady Raven tries to turn the tables and invites herself to Cooper’s house. This leads to a chain of events where Trap’s supposed villain applies pressure to get her to leave, only for our pop star to use Riley’s adoration as a crutch to keep the game in play. That only further muddies this last third of the movie, because of what’s supposed to be the “final act confrontation.”
Trap Seems To Be Confused On Just How Bad Cooper Really Is
Lady Raven gets herself cornered in the Adams family bathroom, all thanks to stealing Cooper’s phone. Frantically trying to save potential victim Spencer (Mark Bacolcol) through the power of social media, her pursuer bangs frantically on the bathroom door and flips out on his family. So surely by the time a somewhat composed Josh Hartnett opens the door, you think he’s killed his family, right?
Wrong. In fact, Trap doesn’t seem to know how “bad” our serial killer in question happens to be. We’re given a messy backstory of a childhood where his mother was the only one who understood that there was still good in him, but nothing ever comes of that “good.” As for the family, they’re just standing outside by time Cooper Adams tries to abscond with Lady Raven in the name of revenge.
As I previously stated, the charming killer we’ve been watching this whole time is about to get away again! I want to say that this movie forces us to confront the charming facades that lure us all into false senses of security, and really grapple with the fact that we want Cooper to escape. But there’s not enough backing to support that theory, and it just points a blinking sign towards the largest problem Trap’s finale has in store.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Movie Doesn’t Know Where To End
If Trap has ended with Cooper and Riley Adams getting back into their car, with Lady Raven wondering if she’s somehow an accessory to murder, that would have been a much more effective ending that asks those questions I mentioned a couple moments ago. Trap would have had a seriously dark finale that put a fine point on a moral dilemma we as an audience would have been invited to engage in.
Instead, we’re put through what feels like a handful of different endings that feel like they were tacked on to include more characters in the cast of characters. We should have never met the rest of Cooper’s family because the plot barely justifies the existence of his son (Lochland Miller) and wife (Allison Pill). To further dig into that point, wasting Ms. Pill’s performing skills is another great sin committed by this subpar ending.
Josh Hartnett’s Performance Makes Trap Worth Seeing, Even With A Weak Ending
So how in the name of Lady Raven am I still sitting here, encouraging you to see Trap? Well, quite honestly, it’s because of one Joshua Daniel Hartnett. For those first two thirds of this murderous mystery, we’re actually buying into the tension set by the enclosed setting and the game at work.
It’s only in the post-concert shenanigans that the experience starts to fall apart, and by then I was committed to finding out how it all ended. I totally chalk that up to Mr. Hartnett firing on all cylinders once his protagonist’s world starts to fall apart. Walking the line between charm and menace oh so perfectly, there are two reasons I believe the man is indeed the firefighter he claims to be.
One reason is, thanks to a semi-gratuitous shirtless scene of drama, Josh Hartnett clearly has the physique to save people’s lives… or take them with a smile. The second, more important reason is that much like an emergency responder, Mr. Hartnett carries this crumbling ending on his back, like a child he’s pulling out of a burning building, and he drives the final act home in a way that actually did make me want a sequel.
If you listen to our ReelBlend interview with M. Night Shyamalan, he confirmed that test audiences were just as eager to see Cooper Adams cut to the point in another round of horror. So yes, even with my disdain for tripping on its own ambitions throughout its flawed third act, I can still say that Trap is worth seeing.
I’ve had my issues with M. Night Shyamalan’s work in the past, and that’s even with me really digging the work he’s put out with films like Old and Knock at the Cabin, as well as the Apple TV+ subscription-driver known as Servant. But at this moment in time, Trap doesn’t work as well as it should in my eyes.
Who knows? Maybe in a couple of years, I’ll revisit the picture and change my tune. It worked for my views on The Village’s ending, so maybe this is another waiting game that sits in my future. However, I will say that while Trap’s ending disappointed me, M. Night Shyamalan continues to prove himself as a director who has a knack for casting seemingly unlikely leads, and getting strong performances out of them in the end.
Much like the decision to cast Bruce Willis in both The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, the writer/director hasn’t lost his touch in that respect. Which is why if you’re still amped for Josh Hartnett’s killer antics in Trap, you should be able to head to a theater near you and enjoy the show. Perhaps with your expectations properly calibrated, you might be able to have more fun with the last act of the story than I did.
