M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie, Trap, takes place mostly during a pop star’s concert, which is certainly a unique gimmick. The throngs of screaming girls, booming music, and shuffling crowds create a tense and frustrating atmosphere as Josh Hartnett’s character (a father who is secretly a serial killer) tries to evade the police who are monitoring the event and find a way to escape. While Shyamalan’s films often require a suspension of disbelief (why do the aliens in Signs whose weakness is water invade a planet that is covered in it?), Trap introduces us to a truly bizarre concert that would never exist in real life.
Ironically, M. Night Shyamalan prides himself on the music event’s authenticity, telling Entertainment Weekly, “We did make a real concert, and that was part of the joy of it and the complexity. Behind Josh, there’s a real concert going on, and the extras are reacting to that. It took months and months to think about that, with Saleka [his real-life daughter who plays singer Lady Raven] and I analyzing who this woman is and how she would put on a show.”
But for all this meticulous planning, the final portrayal of this very public and chaotic setting feels nothing like a real-life concert. Usually we can chalk it up to Hollywood contrivances and just have fun and go along for the ride, but so much of Trap relies on this concept that’s difficult to buy into. This list breaks down all the strange parts of Lady Raven’s concert that left us scratching our heads.
An easy, breezy parking job
Parking at a concert is normally a lengthy ordeal where you have to navigate a maze of occupied spots to find one for yourself. Often, there’s lots of people tailgating or searching for spots. Once you do find one, it’s usually far away from the venue and you have to remember a marker to locate it after the show when the entire audience is also exiting. Many fans even leave early to avoid the post-concert crowd surge. In Trap, Cooper and his daughter just smoothly pull up to an empty spot that is relatively close to the arena. Obviously M. Night Shyamalan wouldn’t want to waste valuable screen time on the nuances of parking, but a longer walk to the arena could’ve been another opportunity for Cooper to notice the heightened security.
A quick entry process
When Cooper and his daughter Riley arrive, the doors are already open. The line is rather chill and moves quickly, with no fussing over bag sizes or stopping to go through metal detectors. Cooper and Riley even manage to see Lady Raven arrive with her tour bus, despite it being so close to showtime. Does Lady Raven not do sound checks?
A matinee concert
Broadway shows and movie theaters have matinees, but not huge arena concerts. Not only would the clean-up and set-up in between be a logistical nightmare, but the tailgating, line-waiting, and other concert rituals would be rushed and impossible to execute. There’s an offhanded explanation that Lady Raven decided to add another concert in Philadelphia after the first one sold out, but second shows are almost always scheduled for a different night. Maybe M. Night Shyamalan wanted to use the day-to-night transition to symbolize the two halves of Cooper’s lives meeting in the middle. But it would have been equally cool (and made more sense) to have the concert occur at night, with the tense events at Cooper’s home bleeding into the next day.
Multiple intermissions
It’s not unusual for a concert to have an intermission. Even the Eras Tour, which is three hours and goes through Taylor Swift’s entire discography, has brief pauses marked by on-screen interludes. But the intermissions in Lady Raven’s concert are so long that fans can meander through the concourse multiple times. This makes me wonder just how robust Lady Raven’s catalog is. How early did she have to start this concert if she’s taking so many breaks? When is the next concert supposed to start?
A distracted audience
So often the concert feels like a backdrop for the fans to do other things. We see them wandering the arena, buying snacks, and purchasing merchandise. Of course, this isn’t out of the ordinary, but the fact that so many concertgoers are doing this in the middle of the headliner’s set is weird. Even Riley, who is obsessed with Lady Raven, sometimes seems more focused on getting snacks than on watching the show. (No hate on snacks, but personally, when I see my favorite musician, my eyes are glued to them.)
A superfan’s dream coming true
This had to happen to put the second half of Trap into motion, but it’s baffling how easily Cooper was able to approach Lady Raven’s team and persuade them to let Riley become the “Dreamer Girl,” a fan plucked from the audience to share the stage with the glamorous pop star. At concerts, a musician’s inner circle is usually behind some sort of barrier, making it difficult to strike up a conversation, let alone convince them that you should be the one to go on stage. If only!
No bodyguards in sight
This plot device is necessary for the thrilling climax, but there should have been some throwaway line or brief explanation for why no one else would join Lady Raven, Riley, and Cooper when she visits Riley and Cooper’s home. Did Lady Raven’s team assume the limo driver was enough security? Typically, famous musicians have bodyguards or entourage members with them for public events, but especially for impromptu private meetings with fans at their homes.
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