Starring Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, and Alison Pill, it follows a serial killer evading a police blockade while attending a concert with his daughter.

Philadelphia firefighter Cooper takes his teenage daughter, Riley, to pop star Lady Raven's concert as a reward for her good grades.

Hearing a woman predicting his movements over the radio, Cooper sets off an explosion in a food stand's kitchen and uses the chaos to access the roof where he learns from a police officer that the manhunt is led by Dr. Josephine Grant, an FBI profiler.

She talks about being chosen as Lady Raven's "Dreamer Girl" who gets to dance on stage with the singer and receives backstage access, which Cooper believes contains the only exit not covered by the police.

She complies but asks to come to Riley's house, where she stalls for time by explaining the FBI operation to the family, unsettling Cooper by describing Grant's profile of him as someone with maternal issues and obsessive–compulsive disorder.

She also explains that the police discovered details about the Butcher's attendance at the concert via a torn ticket receipt left in a vacant house that was reported anonymously.

The police arrive and Cooper flees the house through a secret tunnel before disguising himself using a SWAT uniform and driving the limousine off with Lady Raven.

[5] In February 2023, the film was revealed to be titled Trap when it changed distributor, as Shyamalan and his production company Blinding Edge Pictures entered a first-look deal with Warner Bros.

[11][12] Shyamalan pitched Trap as setting The Silence of the Lambs (1991) at a Taylor Swift concert, in reference to her Eras Tour, and wrote the screenplay in five-and-a-half months, a personal record for him.

[18][19] Saleka also noted Bollywood cinema, in which music often plays a key role in the storytelling, as an influence, and listed Adele, Billie Eilish, Rihanna, Rosalía, and Taylor Swift as inspirations for her performance.

[7][20][21] She described Trap as a "Shyamalan American version of a Bollywood movie that is grounded and the songs make sense — not necessarily a musical, but completely music-centric.

[22][23][24]: 14:38  Shyamalan originally intended to frame the film in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but after a discussion with cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, they agreed it limited their ability to shoot the movie and was "too much work" to create a feeling of claustrophobia.

[22] Josh Hartnett did not watch any media in preparation for the role of "Cooper" to make the character his own and researched psychopathy, including books about serial killers.

[28]: 7:09 Principal photography was originally scheduled to begin in Cincinnati, Ohio, in August 2023, where it would have received over $9 million in tax credits from the state to film there.

[49] Regarding marketing results, RelishMix described social media buzz as "mixed-positive" and Deadline Hollywood reported low awareness but high interest similar to that received by Longlegs earlier in the year.

The website's consensus reads: "An arch thriller given some grounding by Josh Hartnett's committed performance, Shyamalan's Trap will ensnare those who appreciate its tongue-in-cheek style while the rest will be eager to wriggle out from it.

[2] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 2/5 stars, writing, "Trap is a thriller that incorrectly thinks it's fiendishly smart.

"[62] Peter Travers of ABC News wrote, "Hartnett performs miracles in making Cooper a serial butcher and a devoted family man living in the same body.

"[63] Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson said that Shyamalan "has built a solid foundation, as he tends to do: clever setup, appealing lead actor, and an interesting (and quite relevant) cultural milieu.

Club gave the film a B+ grade, writing that it "may cook more purely and entertainingly than anything in [Shyamalan's] last decade of self-styled pop hits.

"[65] IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio gave it a B grade, calling it "too plausibility-stretching to be actually scary, but Hartnett's well-calibrated performance as a psycho dad, the type who sends PTA moms all aflutter, is too dangerously charismatic to ignore.