Rachel's Role In M. Night Shyamalan's Trap Twist Didn't Make Any Sense

As usual, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller Trap culminates in a shocking twist — but the part that Cooper’s wife Rachel plays in that twist doesn’t actually make sense. Trap takes place at the concert of a major pop star called Lady Raven, where police are sure a notorious local serial killer known as “The Butcher” is in attendance. The story is told through the eyes of Cooper, a goofy dad played by Josh Hartnett, who brought his tween daughter to the show. Cooper is alarmed to see police swarming the place, because, as it turns out, he’s the Butcher.

As soon as the first Trap trailer dropped and revealed that Cooper is the serial killer, it seemed pretty obvious that there would be a second twist in the movie. Shyamalan isn’t in the business of giving away his twists unless there’s another twist around the corner. Sure enough, the movie’s third act is full of unexpected turns. The story departs from the concert, the cops close in on Cooper, and the final kicker is that his wife is the one who orchestrated the trap. But the logic of that last part doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny.

Rachel Knew Cooper Was The Butcher In Trap Before He Was Caught

Rachel Is The One Who Led The Police To The Concert

After Cooper escapes from the FBI in a fresh set of civilian clothes, he returns home to confront Rachel. She confesses that she had suspected he was the Butcher based on the smell of his clothes, so she started following him. Earlier in the film, Cooper learned that the police first discovered he’d be attending the concert when they found a receipt for his ticket at one of his safe houses, which was anonymously reported to them. Rachel admits that she’s the one who left the receipt in the house. This receipt led the police to set up the trap.

Turning Cooper In Would Have Prevented Putting A Concert Full Of Innocent People In Danger

Rachel's Plan Was Needlessly Elaborate

Rachel’s plan for leading the police to Cooper was needlessly convoluted. Instead of just reporting her suspicions and handing over the evidence, she led the cops on a wild goose chase. Not only did she pull dozens of cops away from other work they could be doing to guard all the exits of an arena; she also put the other concertgoers at risk. Rachel could’ve prevented Cooper from going to the concert at all by reporting him, but instead, she put an arena full of people — mostly young girls — in danger in the presence of a serial killer.

And even after putting a concert full of children at risk and pulling almost every cop and S.W.A.T. officer in the city away from their regular duties, this plan still failed. During Cooper’s attempts to escape from the concert, he pushed a woman down a flight of stairs and caused a horrific burn by setting off an explosion in the fryer of a food stand. All these injuries could’ve been prevented if Rachel just called the police instead of coyly leaving a receipt at a crime scene. The only reason Rachel did it this way was to facilitate the premise.

The movie does go some way towards explaining why Rachel didn’t just use a simpler tactic to turn Cooper over to the police. When she began to suspect that her own husband was the Butcher, she didn’t want to believe it. If she’d been more willing to accept that she married a monster, she would’ve called the police straight away. But she left behind a subtler trail of breadcrumbs because she was holding out hope that Cooper was innocent. Still, she’d seen way too much evidence of Cooper’s killing spree for that excuse to hold any water.

How Trap Wasted An Even Better Twist For Rachel

It Would've Been Amazing If Rachel Was Cooper's Partner-In-Crime

When Cooper came home to confront Rachel, it almost seemed like it was alluding to Rachel being in on it with him. But of course, that wasn’t the case. This final confrontation was really about Cooper realizing that his wife was the one who tipped off the cops as to his whereabouts. Still, it would’ve been a much better twist if Rachel was the real Butcher and Cooper was just her assistant, or if Rachel had been Cooper’s partner-in-crime in some capacity. Maybe torturing and killing people like poor Spencer was their twisted way of expressing love.

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I'm Sad Trap Didn't Fully Commit To Its Most Killer Concept

Trap has a great concept, but I'm bummed out that the film couldn't maintain that momentum and keep to its single best element.

The problem is that Shyamalan started with the idea of a serial killer being surrounded by cops at a pop concert and worked backwards from there. The twist ending doesn’t make sense because it’s only there to explain a premise that was nonsensical to begin with. Trap is a really fun movie, with a wonderfully dark sense of humor, but its plot has a bunch of fridge-logic issues — and this is the most glaring one.

Trap is a film by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan under his Blinding Edge Pictures label. The film is part of a deal struck with Warner Bros for him to direct and produce several films under their banner. 

Cast Josh Hartnett , Hayley Mills , Marnie McPhail , Vanessa Smythe , Saleka Shyamalan , Malik Jubal , Jonathan Langdon , Peter D'Souza , Ty Pravong , Kaitlyn Dallan