This post contains spoilers for Trap, now in theaters.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap—a movie that boldly asks the question, “what if a Girl Dad was evil?”—finds the twist master operating with maximum self-aware silliness. The premise: doting father Cooper (Josh Hartnett) takes his tween daughter to a concert for her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (played by Saleka, the director’s musician daughter). But, thanks to a chatty stadium employee, Cooper learns that the entire concert is a set up to catch a big, bad serial killer known as the Butcher. Cops are swarming the premises and won’t let any of the 20,000 attendees out until the Butcher is in cuffs. It’s then revealed that the Butcher is none other than—oh shit—Cooper himself! What follows for the next hour and a half of the thriller is peak Shyamalanian ridiculousness. But the most ridiculous part?
Trap is somewhat based on a true story.
Wait a minute—when, exactly, did the FBI stage a stadium pop concert to catch a serial killer?
“Somewhat” is the key word here. The loose inspiration for Trap is Operation Flagship, a plan hatched by the U.S. Marshals Service’s Fugitive Investigative Strike Team in 1985. They needed to catch a bunch of fugitives in Washington, DC. In order to keep both costs and risks down, they planned an elaborate sting operation to lure in wanted men: F.I.S.T. sent letters to the last known addresses of over 5,000 fugitives, telling them that they had won two free tickets to an upcoming Washington Redskins (now the Washington Commanders) game against the Cincinnati Bengals, plus an opportunity to win additional tickets to the Super Bowl.
What has Shyamalan said about this?
Shyamalan—an Eagles fan, by the way—cited it as a direct influence for Trap in an interview with Empire Magazine. “It was hilarious,” the director said. “The cops were literally cheerleaders and mascots. These guys were dancing as they came in. And they were all caught. It was so twisted and funny.” There’s an ongoing debate about how intentionally funny Shyamalan’s movies are, but that quote reveals a lot—especially about Trap.
So what happened with Operation Flagship?
As with many things in life, there’s a 30 for 30 for that. I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend the 2017 short on Operation Flagship, titled Strike Team, which consists entirely of grainy 80s footage of the planning and execution of the sting. (Some of which played before my showing of Trap, which tipped me off.)
F.I.S.T., which was founded in 1981, had pulled off some bait operations elsewhere in the country. By the time they got to Washington, DC they had a huge list of fugitives to get through—so it was time to attempt their first mass takedown.
They targeted a big upcoming Washington Redskins home game against the Cincinnati Bengals on December 15, 1985. Then, they invented a new TV network, Flagship International Sports Television, that would be giving out free tickets to celebrate their supposed launch. To pick them up, the “winners” were instructed to arrive at the Washington Convention Center the morning of the game for a brunch.
