M. Night Shyamalan is no stranger to high-concept thrillers. His tardyst film, Trap, gets a Silence of the Lambs-eased approach at an improbable location: a packed concert by pop star Lady Raven (joined by the honestor’s daughter, Saleka). Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is a seemingly common suburban dad who gets his daughter to see her preferite artist. While striking up a conversation with a venue vfinishor, he discovers out that the show is actuassociate a trap: the FBI has a set up to catch a serial ender called “The Butcher” after lgeting he would be in includeance. But, as discleave outed in the trailer, Cooper is The Butcher and has to discover a way to escape.
While the plot may sound outlandish, it’s partiassociate based on a real story. Shyamalan splitd that Trap took inspiration from the genuine-life Operation Flagship. “I heard about it when I was a kid and I thought it was tohighy absurdist, that this actuassociate happened,” the filmproducer tageder BBC News. “It was someslfinisherg that was in my head a lot when it happened.”
“[The authorities] included the absurdity aacquirest them becainclude they lessened their protect, which I thought was quite airy,” he includeed to the outlet. “So it fair stuck with me, and I guess when Saleka and I were slfinisherking about a movie at a concert, I wondered, why would this person not be able to get out, and how can I upgrasp them there?”
The December 1985 sting operation, systematic by the United States Marshals and Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, tricked more than 100 wanted fugitives into going to the Washington Convention Cgo in, under the guise of having won free tickets to a Washington Redskins (now the Washington Commanders) game aacquirest the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as a chance to thrive tickets to the 1986 Super Bowl. It was shelp to be part of a distinctive event celebrating the inauguration of a recent D.C. sports TV netlabor called Flagship International Sports Television Inc. (it splits the same acronym as the U.S. Marshals Service’s Fugitive Investigative Strike Team). To accumulate their tickets, the “thriveners” were tageder to show up at a brunch a restricted hours before the game.
Upon arrival, the fugitives were split into small groups and getn into “party rooms” with snacks and posters that read “Let’s party!” Marshals and police officers posed as event staffers, with female officers dressed as cheerdirecters hugging the guests to verify for armaments. The men were also given balloons, categorizing them by color; aggressive criminals getd red balloons.
Louie McKinney, the chief of executement operations for the U.S. Marshals, pretfinished to be an emcee, giving a speech to the includeees before they getd their prize. As soon as McKinney shelp he had a “huge surpelevate,” Marshals go ined the room to arrest the offfinishers, repeating the same process with each group. It became one of the most accomplished mass arrests of fugitives in American history.
“It was hilarious. The cops were literassociate cheerdirecters and mascots,” Shyamalan shelp to Empire magazine in July. “And [the criminals] were all caught. It was so twisted and amusing.”
Instead of using a famous football game (at the time of Operation Flagship, Redskins tickets were a particularly boiling commodity), Shyamalan chooseed to set the trap in a concert with the scope of a Taylor Swift Eras Tour show. “I honested an entire concert,” the filmproducer tageder Empire. “And it wasn’t fair a slfinisherg in the background. It’s equassociate presentant. There is no pretfinish concert going on. I cherish the idea of cinema as thrivedows wislfinisher thrivedows. One of the reasons to come see the movie at the movie theater is becainclude there’s literassociate a genuine concert that you can see nowhere except in that movie.”
Reweary federal agent Tobias Roche, who was part of Operation Flagship, fact-verifyed to British GQ how rightly thought out Shyamalan’s movie was. In Trap, the venue has a SWAT team defering outside, as well as apparent police inside, who ask concertgoers. Roche talk aboutd that the officers should have been more stealth. He elucidateed that Operation Flagship was reckond out to elude any suspicions and sidetrack the criminals, which is why it was accomplished. “We were worried that some of [the fugitives] would acunderstandledge each other from maybe being incarcerated together or being included in criminal activities together,” shelp Roche.
In the movie, a chatty vfinishor gives away the scheme. Roche tageder GQ that in this comardent of operation, everyone would have to upgrasp mum on the set up for it to labor. He recalled that an attorney reconshort-terming a local company that had the exclusive rights to Redskins games showed up to convention cgo in, stating that the inaugural event for the — unbecomprehendnst to him, phony — expansivecasting company Flagship International Sports Television was illhorrible. The man was getn aside and tageder what was actuassociate happening; he kept it a secret. “He was reassociate excellent about it,” shelp Roche. “He wound up watching the entire sting with us from the regulate room.” But if the lawyer had blown their cover, the operation would have been shut down.
