Josh Hartnett Is A Cornered Animal In The New Trailer For M. Night Shyamalan's Trap

The first trailer for legendary director M. Night Shyamalan's newest thriller, "Trap," appeared to spill the beans about the movie's biggest twist. Josh Hartnett, seemingly playing a nice and caring father, takes his teen daughter (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert where fictional pop superstar Lady Raven (real-life singer Saleka Shyamalan) is performing. Hartnett's character quickly learns that the entire concert is actually an elaborate trap orchestrated by the police to capture a serial killer named The Butcher, who they suspect will be in attendance.

Oh yeah, and Hartnett's character? He's The Butcher.

As we continue to wonder whether Shyamalan is hiding an additional story surprise up his sleeve here (he has to be, right?), Warner Bros. has released a brand new trailer for the movie that showcases more of what happens after The Butcher discovers he's been cornered like an animal. I initially wondered if the concert might just be the setting for the first act of the movie, but this trailer seems to confirm two things: An awful lot of time will be spent at that location, and this is a process movie at heart. In this case, the process seems to be "How the heck does a killer outsmart the cops and get out of a high-security situation?" That's a compelling premise even if there are no hidden turns in this story, and this is another slam-dunk "Trap" trailer. Check it out above.

Hayley Mills, whom you may recognize as the star of the original "The Parent Trap" or from her role as one of the teachers, Miss Bliss, in the early seasons of "Saved By The Bell," plays a woman who seems to be organizing this elaborate ruse to catch Hartnett's character. I suspect there's a deeper relationship going on between The Butcher and this woman — could she be his former therapist, or maybe an FBI profiler who's let him slip through her fingers in the past? Either way, watching Hartnett slink through this situation, right amid the officers who are trying to capture him, while he tries to sow chaos and potentially escape is riveting. I also love the vertical lines motif that runs throughout this trailer — they look like blinds, and in the montage near the end, two images play out at once, displayed on the alternating slats. Is that visual a tease from M. Night Shyamalan that the audience is "blind" to what's really going on in this story?

We'll find out when "Trap" arrives in theaters on August 2, 2024.