M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap stood out for revealing its villain's identity right away and not having a big twist, but to make it feel more like a Shyamalan movie, a theory links it to three previous movies while answering a big question. M. Night Shyamalan’s horror movies and thrillers have become known for having plot twists and big reveals. It all started with The Sixth Sense in 1999, and since then, most of his movies have had big twists, though not all of them had the desired effect. Trap was expected to follow this, but its twist was that it didn’t have one.

Trap follows Copper (Josh Hartnett), who takes his teenage daughter, Riley, to the concert of Shyamalan movies.

1 Theory Suggests Trap Is Part Of Shyamalan’s Unbreakable Universe

Trap Might Have Some Subtle Links To The Unbreakable Universe

Throughout Trap, Cooper shows he’s a highly intelligent man, proving why he has been so hard to catch. Cooper comes up with different ways to avoid security filters and more (though some are borderline unbelievable), and he makes it out of the concert safely by privately revealing himself as the Butcher to Lady Raven and using her to escape without the police noticing him. After Lady Raven alerts her fans on a livestream and escapes from Cooper, he returns home to confront his wife, Rachel (Alison Pill), who anonymously alerted the police about Cooper being the Butcher.

Rachel drugs Cooper with a piece of pie, making him hallucinate his mother, but it’s actually FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills) who’s talking to him. Grant’s SWAT team then tases Cooper to incapacitate him, but even though he’s already drugged, he’s still standing strong and even attacks one of Grant’s men. Cooper is tased again by Grant and another of her men until he finally falls and they can take him away – and yet, when they take him away, he is unscathed.

It’s Cooper’s unbelievable resistance in that scene that led a Reddit to share their theory about Trap being part of the Unbreakable universe. Shyamalan’s 2000 superhero thriller Unbreakable introduced the audience to a world where people with superhuman abilities exist, but they do their best to live normal lives. 2016’s Split was revealed to be part of the world of Unbreakable right at the end, and closing the trilogy was 2019’s Glass. Trap could secretly be part of this world, but some details need to be polished.

What Could Cooper’s “Superpower” Be In Trap?

Cooper Might Have A Couple Of Very Special Skills

Perhaps the biggest detail that needs polishing in this theory is what exactly Cooper's "superpowers" would be. In the above-mentioned scene with the SWAT team, Cooper displays almost superhuman resistance, but he eventually succumbs to the effects of the tasers – however, the drugs in the pie should have had a stronger, more lasting effect on him, and yet, when he was taken away, he was perfectly fine. Cooper’s superpowers could be strength and resistance, which, combined with his high intellect and strategic mind, made him a huge threat and also a villain so hard to catch.

Where Would Trap Fit Into The Unbreakable Trilogy Timeline?

Fitting Trap Into The Unbreakable Trilogy Might Be Tricky

If Trap truly is part of the Unbreakable trilogy and Cooper has a couple of superpowers, the next big question is when Trap could be set within the trilogy. The movies in the Unbreakable universe are set in the order they were released, beginning with Unbreakable. In it, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) were introduced: Dunn had superhuman strength and invulnerability (thus making him “unbreakable”), and Price had brittle bone disease, thus being the villain and opposite to Dunn.

Next was Split, which introduced Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man with dissociative identity disorder with 23 distinct identities, some more dangerous than others. Glass brought them all together, and they all met their fates – however, Price arranged for footage of their fight to be livestreamed to a private website, thus defeating the organization that wanted to suppress the existence of superhumans and kill them. At the end of Glass, Price’s mother, Dunn’s son, and Kevin’s only friend released the footage, exposing the existence of superhumans.

If it’s set after Glass, this would explain why there was no mention of Cooper’s superhuman strength and resistance, as everyone now knows that superpowered people exist.

Now, taking all this into , Trap could either be set after Glass or between Split and Glass. If it’s set after Glass, this would explain why there was no mention of Cooper’s superhuman strength and resistance, as everyone now knows that superpowered people exist, but it could also be set in a world where the existence of superhumans isn’t public knowledge.

This is why the SWAT team wasn’t prepared for how tough it would be to incapacitate Cooper, but the modern technology seen in Trap doesn’t let it fit between Split and Glass. Whether Trap is part of the Unbreakable trilogy or not is unknown, but there was definitely something strange in Cooper’s resistance.

Source: Reddit.