Josh Hartnett's Shirtless Trap Scene Is Deeper Than You Think

Spoilers for "Trap" follow.

One of the more surprising aspects of "Trap," M. Night Shyamalan's absurd new thriller, is how much of the movie is still left after Josh Hartnett's character (Cooper) escapes the titular trap. Even after he escapes the concert, after his serial killer identity is revealed to his family, after his attempt to capture Lady Raven fails, the movie keeps going. His last hurrah before the feds catch him for real is a quiet conversation with his wife Rachel (Alison Pill), in which they talk about how Rachel secretly sort of knew he was a serial killer the whole movie, and how Cooper is heartbroken by how his relationship with his kids has been permanently broken. Oh and also, Cooper takes off his shirt.

It's a sequence that's already gotten plenty of buzz online, mainly because Hartnett's been a decades-long Hollywood heartthrob. You might've thought people would stop lusting after him as he's gotten older, but if anything, the thirst for Daddy Era Hartnett has grown even stronger. But while the scene might've have scored well with the horny section of the audience, it also had a clear purpose beyond that. As Hartnett himself recently told PEOPLE: 

"I didn't want to cheat the audience. I wanted it to be as raw and scary and f***ed up as possible. Knowing that he's OCD, and that he's got these sort of qualities about himself that doesn't want to make a mess, I thought 'wouldn't it be interesting if over the course of this he just starts taking his shirt off and it gets really visceral.'"

It's easy to see his point: Cooper is portrayed as a very thorough, meticulous serial killer, someone who managed to hide his true nature from his family for decades. Even the way he got caught was less the result of sloppiness and more the result of him being too good at his hobby; his wife caught onto him because he lied to their neighbors a little too easily, and because she occasionally noticed the faint smell of a disinfectant from him when he came home. A frustrated Cooper remarks that there wasn't a whole lot he could've done about that. The idea that he'd take his shirt off to avoid getting his wife's blood on his clothes checks out, and it also evokes a disturbing image of how he's gone about killing his past victims. 

Maybe more important is the way the visuals of the scene match up thematically with what Cooper's doing. This is the scene where he's finally being open with his wife, letting her see who he truly is without any attempt of concealment. Having him literally take off some of his clothes as he's showing her his true self feels like a fitting thing to do; the fact that he's easy on the eyes is just a fun bonus. And hey, if you're looking for more shirtless Hartnett scenes, man is "Lucky Number Slevin" the right movie for you.