This Recommendation of M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap
This recommendation of M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap was originally published in conjunction with the film’s premiere on Max. It has been updated and republished for the film’s Netflix debut.
Seeing the Similarities Between Trap and Hitman
Something started to feel oddly familiar to me about 19 minutes into watching Trap, the latest horror thriller from director M. Night Shyamalan, now on Netflix. The film stars Josh Hartnett as Cooper, a seemingly regular dad that happens to have a secret life as a notorious serial killer, who discovers that the pop idol concert he’s at with his daughter is in fact an elaborate… uh, trap designed by the FBI to arrest him. Having been tipped off to the plot by an overly eager concert vendor, Cooper proceeds to look for every and any way to escape the venue without eliciting his daughter’s suspicions.
Hitman: A Game of Strategy and Creativity
If you’re unfamiliar with the premise of the games, here’s the gist: In Hitman, you play as Agent 47, a bald, suave contract killer who travels the world performing assassinations of high-profile targets on behalf of a clandestine organization that works for the highest bidder. Nearly every mission of nearly every game in the Hitman series plays out the same way: You infiltrate a location, track down your target, execute them in any way you see fit, and then promptly exfiltrate without either being seen, captured, or killed in the process.
Trap: A Cinematic Parallel to Hitman
Of course, as anyone who’s played a Hitman game will tell you, there’s more to the game than just the killing. Hitman: World of Assassination is a stealth game, yes, but it’s also a goofy puzzle game. The premise of every mission is the same, but the variability of locations and the nature of each individual target demands something else on the part of the player besides ruthless execution: situational awareness, an aptitude for improvisation, and most importantly of all, a sense of creativity that plays into the series’ brand of dark humor.
The Connection Between Cooper and Agent 47
Cooper is not a contract killer; he’s a high-functioning sociopath and serial killer. Even if the differences are slight, the two are not the same. Where Cooper and Agent 47 might differ in their respective occupations, they have a surprising amount in common in terms of their modus operandi, as can be seen throughout much of the run time of Trap.
A Mix of Tension and Humor in Trap
There have been two movie adaptations of the Hitman series to date: 2007’s Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant, and the 2015 reboot Hitman: Agent 47, starring Rupert Friend. While both had unique interpretations of the game’s aforementioned master assassin, neither of them quite hits the mark in tapping into one of the more understated yet essential components of the series’ overall tone: its dark sense of humor.
The Persistence of Cooper and Agent 47
Every action that Cooper took in attempting to escape from Lady Raven’s concert felt like watching back my own panicked improvisations as I fail at one of Hitman’s many “Mission Stories,” emergent prompts that Agent 47 contextually happens upon during the course of a mission that allow him an opportunity to more expeditiously (and often ridiculously) execute his target.
Conclusion
Despite Cooper’s frequent missteps, there’s yet one more trait that he and Agent 47 have in common: persistence. No matter what happens, no matter how spectacularly the shit hits the fan, Agent 47 never gives up until the job is done — a fact that often creates some of Hitman’s funniest and most memorable moments. With that in mind, a serial killer attempting to escape a pop idol concert without being caught by the police sounds exactly like the type of scenario that would play out in a mission of Hitman.
He may not be as cool and collected as his video game counterpart when the odds are stacked against him, but Cooper somehow always finds a way to come out on top. He really missed his calling as a globetrotting killer for hire. Oh well; maybe he’ll consider a career change if Trap 2 ever happens.
Trap is available to stream now on Netflix.