M. Night Shyamalan has long been known for his twists, but those twists are normally reserved for the ends of his movies, not the trailers. But it seems like he’s branching out into unexplored territory with his new thriller Trap, which has a first trailer that feels worthy of the Shyamalan name.
The trailer starts out with a daughter (Ariel Donoghue) rushing her father (Josh Hartnett) into a stadium where his favorite pop star (played by M. Night’s daughter Saleka Shyamalan) is about to perform. The concert has all the hallmarks and visual signifiers of an Eras-style mega-tour. But when the dad takes a break from the singing to go to the bathroom, he suddenly notices that cops and S.W.A.T. teams have the entrances to the building locked down, and things start to spiral into some very surprising directions. But you’ll have to watch the trailer to get the full effect.
In M. Night’s presentation of the trailer at CinemaCon 2024, he said he developed the idea for the movie over several years with his daughter Saleka, who is a real-life concert pianist. Over the years, M. Night and Saleka frequently discussed how to combine their love of music and thrillers into one movie, and Trap finally helped them hit on just the right idea.
Of course, even with all the details that the trailer gives away, it’s likely that there are plenty more surprises in store for the rest of Trap — after all, M. Night wouldn’t give up his only twist in the trailer. But we’ll have to wait until Trap hits theaters on Aug. 9 for the full story.
