‘Trap’ Leaves Reason and Logic on the Cutting Room Floor

Trap

★ ½

I’m going to dismantle the plot of this film by pulling on the logic of one thread. It’s a thread that, until revealed, had a halfway decent film surrounding it. Without that thread, this film completely falls apart.

This review contains a lot of spoilers. If you haven’t seen it yet, please refrain from reading until you have.

Josh Hartnett as Cooper Adams
© 2024 Warner Bros.

Before I pull the plot thread, let’s start with a quick synopsis of the film.

A dad named Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) takes his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert to see her favorite artist, Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalen). Riley is probably in middle school or perhaps early high school and is out-of-her-mind excited to be there. Cooper seems like the perfect dad; the concert is a reward for her good grades.

Cooper notices a heavy police presence as Riley and he enter the concert venue. Workers are installing security cameras, which is somewhat strange given the crowds going through the arena. We see a SWAT team surrounding the outside of the arena standing at the ready.

Cooper and Riley at the Lady Raven concert
© 2024 Warner Bros.

During a concert break for a set change, Cooper takes Riley to buy a souvenir t-shirt from a clerk named Jamie (Jonathan Langdon). Cooper takes the opportunity to ask Jamie about the police presence. Jamie tells Cooper there was a “tip” that The Butcher, a serial killer, will be at the concert.

From the trailer, we go into this film with the knowledge that Cooper is The Butcher.

It’s important to note that none of the FBI, SWAT or anyone in authority knows what Cooper looks like. To this point, they have descriptions of five possible suspects they’re looking for at the concert. This allows Cooper to play a bit of cat-and-mouse and charm information out of pretty much whomever he wants.

Jamie knows a surprising amount about an intricate FBI and police operation for a t-shirt salesman. But that’s the absolute least of this film’s problems.

From here, Cooper is planning his escape, stealing an access control badge and a police radio where he listens in as Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), an FBI profiler, narrates her expertise on what he’ll likely do next. She seems to be in command of the op as she’s the only one giving orders.

Every time Grant speaks, it comes off forced and unauthentic. Honestly, it felt like she was about to follow up with a lecture on proper posture or good hygiene.

Cooper does manage to get out of the arena and back home to his family. His escape eventually involves forcing Lady Raven to escort him and Riley out of the arena in her limo. At this point, it at least makes sense in the cinematic universe we’re presented.

Lady Raven about to reveal a secret
© 2024 Warner Bros.

Lady Raven manages to prove to Cooper’s wife, Rachel (Allison Pill), Riley, and son Logan (Lochlan Miller) that Cooper is The Butcher.

Cooper takes Lady Raven hostage again, escapes, and returns home after Rachel has sent the kids to be with her sister. You’d think bad guys in films would know that the kids are either at the mother or sister’s house, but I digress.

When Cooper arrives at home, Rachel is alone and apparently expecting him.

Okay, I’m going to pull the thread now. Ready?

Cooper confronts Rachel in the kitchen and tells her he figured it all out. Rachel discovered, or at least suspected, who he was. Rachel, of course, confirms this. She heavily suspected him, at first thinking he was having an affair and then realizing things were much worse than her suspicions.

Rachel followed him to one of the vacant, condemned houses where he keeps his victims. She left a portion of the concert receipt inside the house on the floor and called in a tip about the house, which eventually leads to the FBI’s elaborate sting operation.

Here’s the problem with that. Rachel is, by all accounts, a loving and caring mother. What woman in her right mind would allow someone she has fairly clear evidence to be a serial killer ever to be alone with one of her children? Am I the only one who doesn’t think this makes sense?

Why on earth would she leave a clue for the authorities, call in a tip and pray they find him when she could just make a phone call and present her findings? Without a good explanation why, we’re left to assume she did this just so there’d be a plot in the script.

Without Rachel doing this, we don’t have “Trap.” And that doesn’t work because a mom like Rachel wouldn’t endanger her daughter in such a manner.

The devastated Adams family
© 2024 Warner Bros.

Sadly, this has become M. Night Shyamalan’s modus operandi: characters, plot points and storylines that make little logical sense. I suspect he keeps trying to recapture the masterful twist in “The Sixth Sense” that had critics comparing him to Alfred Hitchcock and other masters of suspense.

Here are a few other dumb examples in “Trap.”

Upon final arrest, Cooper is tasered several times by SWAT officers. It takes several attempts to take him down. Yet, as he’s escorted out of his house, he’s allowed to bend down and stand up a bicycle in the front yard. There’s no way this would be allowed, especially given the danger Cooper presents.

For some reason, Rachel’s sister brings the kids back to the house as Cooper is arrested. They’re allowed to give him a hug before he’s hauled off. Pretty sure this would be frowned upon as police procedure.

In the final scene, he’s riding in a heavy SWAT truck. He must be alone because, just after he is hauled away, we’re shown the bike wheel in the front yard. It’s missing a spoke. Which Cooper pulls out from his sleeve and begins to pick the lock to his cuffs right out in the open. If an officer were in that truck, this wouldn’t have happened. And they wouldn’t haul him off without at least one cop watching him.

“Trap” requires a great deal of “willing suspension of disbelief,” and by the time the credits rolled, I plumb ran out.

The final scene with Cooper popping off his cuffs sets us up for a sequel. Maybe I’ll have built up some suspension by then, but I doubt it.

Mystery & Thriller