Trap Plot Summary
In M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) is a serial killer with plans to see popstar Lady Raven (Saleka) in concert with his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue). However, his day is unpleasantly interrupted when the FBI tracks the murderer, known to them only as “The Butcher,” to that very event. Cooper is then pushed to find ways of escaping the unexpected trap, all while keeping up the facade of a loving dad.
How does Cooper escape?
After several unsuccessful attempts at finding unguarded exit points, Cooper comes up with a way to get himself and Riley backstage. When Riley tells him about Lady Raven’s concert tradition of bringing up a girl from the audience to dance onstage with her, Cooper ingratiates himself with the popstar’s uncle so that Riley is chosen for this honor.
After the concert, both of them are brought backstage, where Cooper convinces Lady Raven to give him a moment of her time. He tells her he’s The Butcher, showing her video footage of his latest captive and threatening to press the button that would kill him if she gives him away. He demands that she get him and Riley past the cops and give them a ride in her limo, and she complies.
How is Cooper caught?
Once at their house, Lady Raven gets Cooper’s family to invite her inside, where she manages to take his phone and lock herself in the bathroom. She talks to Cooper’s captive, Spencer, to get a few minor details as to where he could be held. Then she live streams, asking her fans to find Spencer based on the information he gave her.
By the time Cooper gets into the bathroom, Spencer has been found and freed. Cops arrive, but he escapes through a tunnel in the house. He then puts on a SWAT uniform, traps Lady Raven in her own limo, and drives away.
Lady Raven is able to escape thanks to swarms of fans, but so does Cooper. He’s finally caught after he surprises his wife Rachel at home. She drugs him with his own pills, causing him to hallucinate his mother. It’s not his mother with him, but Dr. Josephine Grant with the FBI, who arrests him.
What led the cops to Lady Raven’s concert?
While talking with Rachel before being caught, Cooper learns how the FBI was able to track him down to the concert. Rachel tells him she suspected he was The Butcher due to his frequent absences and the fact that he often came home smelling like cleaning fluid. She recently followed him to one of his safe houses, where she planted his receipt for the concert tickets. She then tipped off the police to the safe house.
How does Trap end?
Trap ends with Cooper being arrested. His daughter runs up to him for one last hug. Before being led to the police van, he stops to adjust Riley’s bike.
While in the van, he smiles while pulling out a bicycle spoke he obtained covertly. He successfully picks the lock on his handcuffs.
In a mid-credits scene, a concert vendor named Jamie watches a news report about Cooper’s arrest. His jaw drops when he realizes he unknowingly helped the Butcher by giving him confidential intel at the concert.
Hey Anthony, thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it. We generally tend to tailor our articles around whatever people search and what they’re interested in. As far as movies go, we do write up a review and an ending article separately. Generally speaking, our writers tend to do the ending explained article first because it’ll be fresh in their mind after walking out the cinema and then the review usually follows a few days later, once we’ve collected our thoughts on the movie.
It also depends on the writer too as to how quickly these reviews go live compared to the ending articles. TV shows have always been the same way. We’ll get recaps up on the day or within a few days and then circle back and get a full season review up.
Rest assured, a movie review for Trap is coming but it’s just slightly delayed.
Thank you for all your support with the site though, it’s massively appreciated Anthony!
-Greg W
How about you do a review of the movie before you tell us how the movie ends. It seems to be a constant trend. It seems redundant that you want us to look at a post on the conclusion of the movie without giving a summary and opinion on the movie first. This is frustrating and seemingly pointless because who having not seem the movie would want only to know how it ended? I have followed this website from the beginning and this trend has seemed to pop up for a while now but is not welcome addition. Why not write a review instead of the pointless plot spoiler post?