It’s the summer of serial killers, but Josh Hartnett’s Trap villain is a cut above the rest – and is actually based on people he knows in the industry.
After Nicolas Cage’s Longlegs killer,Josh Hartnettis the next to take up the murderous mantle. That is, of course, if you take theTraptrailer at face value. (This is anM. Night Shyamalan movie, after all.)
Taking place at the concert of a world-famous popstar, Hartnett plays a father whose malicious motives are revealed when the police show up to hunt down a notoriousserial killernicknamed The Butcher.
Anyone who’s seen the trailer will know that Hartnett’s character is the killer in question, though that doesn’t mean there aren’t more twists to come.
Although the events of thenew movieare fictitious, Hartnett has revealed that his character, Cooper, is actually based on real-life people he knows, specifically within the industry.
“There are a lot of CEOs, politicians, people in our business… a lot of people who are at the top,” HartnetttoldEntertainment Weekly.
“They don’t mind stepping over people or doing horrible things to get where they’re going, and not having any empathy is a pretty big sign of being a psychopath.
“Whether or not you’re murdering people, I’ve met people like this, you know what I mean? So it was easy to take it all a step further, make it a little bolder, and make his cover so intense.”
Trap was released in theaters on August 2, and has already reached $6.7 million across Friday and preview screenings. For the record, that’s already beaten Shyamalan‘s last movie, Knock at the Cabin, which earned $5.4 million less.
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As is par for the course with a Shyamalan movie, Trap is already dividing audiences. At the time of writing, it has a 48% score on Rotten Tomatoes, though the Audience Score sits higher at 64%.
Jessica Cullen is a TV and Movies Writer on Dexerto’s UK team. She’s previously written for The Digital Fix, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, Slate and more. Aside from being the residential Yellowstone expert, she also loves Westerns, ’90s action movies, and true crime. You can email her here: jessica.cullen@dexerto.com.
