What that killer 'Trap' ending says about a potential sequel (Spoilers!)
Spoiler alert! We're discussing important plot points and the ending of “Trap” (in theaters now), so beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
Father of the year? Hardly. Josh Hartnett’s serial killer in “Trap” might be a loving dad, but whether you’re a family member or a pop star, he’ll complicate your life.
In director M. Night Shyamalan’s new Hitchcockian thriller, mild-mannered Cooper (Hartnett) takes teen daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see her favorite pop singer, Lady Raven (Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka), because she got good grades. Unbeknownst to his kid, Cooper is a serial killer known as “The Butcher,” who keeps tabs on his latest chained-up victim via phone app. He figures out that the concert is itself a trap set to catch him, so he spends the whole show checking on his daughter while also avoiding the authorities.
Ultimately, they get backstage and Cooper uses Lady Raven as their getaway out of the venue and back to his home, though the singer fights back in her own way against the killer.
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Let’s dig into the ending of “Trap,” a rare Shyamalan post-credits scene and the director’s thoughts on a sequel:
What happens in the ending of M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’?
When she winds up in The Butcher’s home, Lady Raven comes in, makes nice by meeting his wife Rachel (Alison Pill) and volunteers to play a song on their piano, delighting Riley. But really it's a ploy for the singer to steal Cooper’s phone. She locks herself in the bathroom, calls the cops and uses her massive social-media presence to crowd-source saving The Butcher’s victim.
Enraged, Cooper takes Lady Raven hostage, which leaves his wife and child reeling as the police arrive, but his plan is foiled and she escapes. He tries to go back home, where he’s poisoned by his wife (who's figured out her spouse is a not-nice guy by this point) and is put through the psychological ringer by an FBI profiler (Hayley Mills) who’s been pursuing him.
Cooper says goodbye to his daughter before he's placed in a police transport, but when the cops aren't looking, he slyly takes a metal spoke off the girl's bicycle in the front yard. And in the vehicle, the killer uses it to free himself from his handcuffs, giving the camera an unsettling grin as the movie ends.
Does ‘Trap’ have a post-credits scene?
Shyamalan doesn’t often utilize mid-credits scenes but he does here for a comedic touch. Early in the film, Cooper makes friends with a merch vendor named Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) to get the scoop on why there’s an FBI and police presence at the arena, and Jamie’s the one who tells him that they’re there to catch The Butcher.
The extra scene catches up with Jamie when he’s at home, watching the news about Cooper’s capture and seeing a familiar face on screen. “That’s Cooper! I helped him!” a worried Jamie says. “I ain’t talking to nobody at work no more.”
Is there going to be a ‘Trap’ sequel?
The “Trap” director has very rarely done follow-ups to his movies: The lone exception has been “Glass,” a sequel to both “Unbreakable” and “Split.” Yet multiple characters would make sense for a sequel. The film teases that Cooper is on the loose again, Lady Raven could return in some other tale, and most Shyamalan fans would totally watch an FBI profiler show starring Mills.
He doesn’t shoot down the idea of a next chapter, especially for his “Trap” antagonist. “I had such joy making this movie,” the filmmaker says. “I haven't really felt this (before): When I finished this movie, I missed all of these characters so much. It was so sad that I wasn't going to see these colors again. I don't know if Cooper is like my Tom Ripley," referring to crime novelist's Patricia Highsmith's literary killer, "(but) his world view, I find kind of titillating and delicious.”
