The real horror in M. Night Shyamalan‘s Trap isn’t the psychopathic serial killer named The Butcher or even the cat-and-mouse chase between the killer and the FBI — it’s having to choose which song would be the best mid-set break in order to go to the mile long merch line only to find out that the shirt you want is sold out. That’s the terrifying stuff.
In Trap, Josh Hartnett plays the enthusiastic father/part-time murderer taking his teen daughter to see her pop idol Lady Raven. Why the concert started at 1 p.m. and was over by 4:30 p.m. is still unclear, but Shyamalan is famously mysterious.
While some of the concert scene might have seemed over-the-top, Hartnett learned first-hand that Lady Raven’s fans are actually nothing compared to the Swifties. “I became well-versed after the movie, but before I really didn’t know,” Hartnett said of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Harnett took his daughters to see Swift at Wembly Staduim in June. “It was wild,” Hartnett recently told People Magazine.. “I’ve never experienced anything like it: 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium losing their minds, including my two daughters.”
Hartnett might have thought that the fans in the film were exaggerating, but once he went to the tour, he got it. “Some of the stuff, while we were filming, I was thinking, ‘God, this is a little over the top. The amount of the fervor of the audience, and they know every word.’ Then I went to the concert. I was like, no, it’s exactly right.” It’s really hard to replicate the power of the Swifties when they all align into one conglomerate, but it’s similar to the inner workings of an ant colony. It’s good that Hartnett was able to see that in play out.
Obviously, Hartnett could not go to a Taylor Swift concert without doing his research, which included his favorite album. “The thing is, my kids weren’t really into pop music so much last year when we shot [Trap],” he explained. “Then when they heard the Eras Tour was coming because their friends at school were all into the concept, they just immediately became Swifties — and really hardcore Swifties. We listened to that music for six months nonstop in the car before we went to the show,” he said.
So which Era is Hartnett? While he might look like a Reputation stan, he prefers the classics. “The album that they play a lot at our house is 1989, and I like that album. It’s a good album.” Hopefully this revelation won’t start a social media war between the Swfities and the Lady Raven fans.
Trap is now in theaters.
