Everything Wrong With Trap’s Version Of A Taylor Swift Concert

Parking at a concert is normally a lengthy ordeal where you have to navigate a maze of occupied spots to find one for yourself. Often, there’s lots of people tailgating or searching for spots. Once you do find one, it’s usually far away from the venue and you have to remember a marker to locate it after the show when the entire audience is also exiting. Many fans even leave early to avoid the post-concert crowd surge. In Trap, Cooper and his daughter just smoothly pull up to an empty spot that is relatively close to the arena. Obviously M. Night Shyamalan wouldn’t want to waste valuable screen time on the nuances of parking, but a longer walk to the arena could’ve been another opportunity for Cooper to notice the heightened security.

When Cooper and his daughter Riley arrive, the doors are already open. The line is rather chill and moves quickly, with no fussing over bag sizes or stopping to go through metal detectors. Cooper and Riley even manage to see Lady Raven arrive with her tour bus, despite it being so close to showtime. Does Lady Raven not do sound checks?

Broadway shows and movie theaters have matinees, but not huge arena concerts. Not only would the clean-up and set-up in between be a logistical nightmare, but the tailgating, line-waiting, and other concert rituals would be rushed and impossible to execute. There’s an offhanded explanation that Lady Raven decided to add another concert in Philadelphia after the first one sold out, but second shows are almost always scheduled for a different night. Maybe M. Night Shyamalan wanted to use the day-to-night transition to symbolize the two halves of Cooper’s lives meeting in the middle. But it would have been equally cool (and made more sense) to have the concert occur at night, with the tense events at Cooper’s home bleeding into the next day.

It’s not unusual for a concert to have an intermission. Even the Eras Tour, which is three hours and goes through Taylor Swift’s entire discography, has brief pauses marked by on-screen interludes. But the intermissions in Lady Raven’s concert are so long that fans can meander through the concourse multiple times. This makes me wonder just how robust Lady Raven’s catalog is. How early did she have to start this concert if she’s taking so many breaks? When is the next concert supposed to start?

So often the concert feels like a backdrop for the fans to do other things. We see them wandering the arena, buying snacks, and purchasing merchandise. Of course, this isn’t out of the ordinary, but the fact that so many concertgoers are doing this in the middle of the headliner’s set is weird. Even Riley, who is obsessed with Lady Raven, sometimes seems more focused on getting snacks than on watching the show. (No hate on snacks, but personally, when I see my favorite musician, my eyes are glued to them.)

This had to happen to put the second half of Trap into motion, but it’s baffling how easily Cooper was able to approach Lady Raven’s team and persuade them to let Riley become the “Dreamer Girl,” a fan plucked from the audience to share the stage with the glamorous pop star. At concerts, a musician’s inner circle is usually behind some sort of barrier, making it difficult to strike up a conversation, let alone convince them that you should be the one to go on stage. If only!

This plot device is necessary for the thrilling climax, but there should have been some throwaway line or brief explanation for why no one else would join Lady Raven, Riley, and Cooper when she visits Riley and Cooper’s home. Did Lady Raven’s team assume the limo driver was enough security? Typically, famous musicians have bodyguards or entourage members with them for public events, but especially for impromptu private meetings with fans at their homes.