First Trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap” Reveals Josh Hartnett as a Killer Dad at a Pop Concert

Josh Harnett is about to break some hearts, and not in the way we’re used to him doing, in M. Night Shyamalan’s new mystery thriller Trap.

Harnett joins Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, and Marnie McPhail in Shyamalan’s latest, which finds a father and teen daughter’s trip to a pop concert devolving into a nightmarish event.

The trailer reveals Hartnett’s dad and his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) arriving at the event to see Lady Raven, in some pretty choice seats, too. “This is literally the best day of my life,” Riley enthuses to her pop. As the show’s underway, dad heads off to the bathroom where he finds out that there’s a suspected lunatic on the premises—the Butcher, a “nutjob that goes around chopping people up,” one of the vendors confides in Harnett’s dad. It turns out, the Feds have set up a trap at the concert for the Butcher. In fact, the whole concert is one big trap. The Butcher, whoever he is, is a rat in a cage.

Only the Butcher—by now you’ve surmised it’s Hartnett—is a smart guy, and he’s not going to go down without a fight.

When speaking about Trap at an event this week in Los Angeles called “The Summer of Shyamalan,” the director spoke about his project, as well as his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan’s upcoming feature The Watchers, which she wrote and directed. And, the pop star in Trap, Lady Raven, is played by Shyamalan’s other daughter, Saleka, who is a singer/songwriter and wrote songs for the film.

At the event, Shyamalan said the appeal of making Trap was getting to tell the story from the perspective of Harnett’s killer. “It kind of led more and more to this dark humor angle that Servant has and The Visit and Split had,” he said. 

As for casting Harnett, who is recently coming off a pretty meaty role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Shyamalan said he’s looking for someone willing to take risks, and that often means finding someone at just the right time in their own lives.  “What I’m looking for is someone that’s willing to just let go completely, give themselves over like a play to the movie, and leap, leap, leap — don’t protect yourself. That beautiful electricity that requires the right actor at the right time in their life. And that’s where Josh was when when I met him.”

Check out the trailer via Shyamalan’s tweet here. Trap is due in theaters on August 9.

Are you ready for a new experience? #TrapMovie pic.twitter.com/KE1AhrIogo

— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) April 18, 2024

For more on Warner Bros., Max, and more, check out these stories:

James Gunn’s “Superman” Finds its Martha Kent in Neva Howell

James Gunn’s “Superman” Casts Crucial Role of Jonathan Kent

First “Joker: Folie à Deux” Trailer Unleashes a Twisted Duet

Bong Joon Ho Reveals a Multiplicity of Robert Pattinsons in First “Mickey 17” Trailer

Featured image: The poster for M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap.” Courtesy Warner Bros.