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Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for 2024’s new movie release Trap can be found ahead. Proceed with caution if you yet to see M. Night Shyamalan’s new film.
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, Trap is a twisty thrill ride, with a surprise ending typical for the suspense director. The movie stars Josh Hartnett as a serial killer who takes his daughter to a pop star’s concert. He soon realizes the entire concert has been set up specifically to catch him, and he is determined to find a way out of there. The Trap trailer was enough to put viewers on the edge of their seats, but the movie itself offers even more of a thrill ride, and fans have already been asking about Trap 2.
Apparently, the director is already thinking about a sequel to the film because of the cliffhanger ending, and first test screening reactions. We’ve seen sequels (of a sort) to his films before, with his trilogy of movies, Unbreakable, Split, and Glass. However, most of those movies can be treated as standalone films, and Shyamalan has yet to create a true follow-up to one of his stories.
Now we’ve learned Trap may actually be the one that will inspire Shyamalan to fully continue a story, and that is thanks to the highly receptive test audience for the film. He told The Playlist in response to being asked about Trap 2:
I’ll tell you two things. My answer to that: we screened this for an audience and they were so excited. And at the end, in a test screening, someone asked the audience, “How many of you wanna see a sequel of this? And every hand in the theater went up and I was hiding. And I saw it, and I was like, “Whoa.”
It’s understandable why audiences would want to see more from this story, as the surprise ending — and again spoilers — really lends to a continuation. There are a lot of reasons to watch Trap, and despite many thinking there are some third act problems, the ending itself works. For context, the movie has Josh Hartnett seemingly cornered by the cops in his house after pop star Lady Raven alerts police of her whereabouts. He is able to escape by pretending to be one of her drivers, and eventually ends up back in his house, with plans of killing his wife for instigating his capture. Before he does so, he is finally caught by the police.
This is where audiences probably assumes the film is over, but of course, Hartnett’s serial killer character has another trick up his sleeve, literally. Before getting in the police vehicle, he puts a toppled-over bike in his lawn upright. He is then finally in police custody, however in the last moment, we see that he took one of the bike spokes when he fixed it and slipped it in his shirt. He uses the spoke to free himself from handcuffs right before the credits roll. After watching Josh Hartnett evade police in creative ways throughout Trap, audiences, especially this test screening one, were seemingly curious about what happens after his successful escape.
M. Night Shyamalan also described his love for making the film and the characters he created, which also makes him want to stay within this world. I totally think audiences would be interested, especially considering the filmmaker has a fanbase of his own that loves his creative conceptual films. On the other hand, Shyamalan has long been a champion of original ideas and drawing inspiration from unexplored stories. It’s nice to have a filmmaker consistently trying something new, usually without IP involved. Making another Trap means we may not get an original idea from the director. However, if box office audiences have the same reactions as test audiences, I’m guessing fans will be OK with this.
You can see if Trap is sequel-worthy yourself by checking out the movie now, which is playing in theaters nationwide.