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| “ | I think you're looking for me. | „ |
| ~ Cooper revealing his identity to Lady Raven. |
| “ | I’m in control. Never let two lives touch. | „ |
| ~ Cooper's most famous quote as his murderous nature is revealed. |
Cooper Abbott, also known as The Butcher, is the main protagonist of M. Night Shyamalan's 2024 psychological thriller film Trap.
Initially introduced as a devoted father taking his daughter, Riley, to see her favorite singer, Lady Raven, in concert, Cooper’s true nature is gradually revealed. Beneath his facade lies the terrifying identity of a dangerous serial killer, driven by warped beliefs about the nature of good and evil that fuel his heinous acts of abduction and murder.
He was portrayed by Josh Hartnett, who also portrayed Hugo Goulding in O, The Colonel in Sin City and David Ross in Black Mirror.
Personality[]
Cooper Abbott is a profoundly complex and chilling character, defined by his cunning, manipulative, and sociopathic nature. He operates with meticulous precision, employing strategic thinking that makes him a formidable adversary for anyone seeking to stop him. One of Cooper’s most defining traits is his unnerving ability to remain calm under extreme pressure. Even when faced with the threat of capture, he maintains a composed and calculated demeanor, enabling him to make quick, decisive moves in high-stakes situations.
His duplicitous nature is reflected in his interactions with others, where charm and deception become his most potent tools. Cooper is a masterful liar, capable of creating and adopting false identities to seamlessly blend into different environments. These skills not only aid him in evading law enforcement but also allow him to manipulate those around him, often convincing them to unknowingly assist in his schemes or facilitate his escape.
Despite his heinous actions, Cooper exhibits a twisted sense of loyalty and protection toward his daughter, Riley. He actively participates in activities she enjoys, creating an illusion of care and devotion. However, these seemingly genuine acts are ultimately self-serving, as they often align with his own agenda. This duality—being both a loving father and a ruthless killer—adds disturbing depth to his character, making him simultaneously terrifying and oddly human.
Cooper’s intelligence is a key element of his sinister persona, and his role in the Fire Department adds utility to his methods. His position provides him with a certain level of authority and unique access to emergency scenes, allowing him to study law enforcement responses and familiarize himself with tactical protocols. This insider knowledge enables him to anticipate his pursuers' strategies and stay several steps ahead.
Furthermore, his outside job possibly grants him access to specialized tools, equipment, and even critical information about local infrastructure—resources he manipulates with deadly precision in the film. Coupled with his sharp psychological insight, Cooper is adept at exploiting trust and blending into high-pressure situations where few would suspect him. His resourcefulness is unmatched, as he uses his surroundings and available tools to adapt on the fly—whether picking a small lock using the most basic of thin metal rods, orchestrating distractions at public events, or leveraging his authority to evade suspicion.
At his core, Cooper Abbott is a cold and calculating predator, defined by a chilling lack of empathy and an insatiable need for control. Every move he makes is meticulously planned, reflecting a mind that values precision over compassion. To him, people are little more than pieces on a chessboard, tools to be manipulated in service of his broader schemes.
This ruthless pragmatism, combined with his sharp intellect, makes Cooper a formidable adversary, capable of outwitting even the most experienced opponents. Yet, beneath his icy exterior lies a distorted sense of loyalty, one that only deepens his complexity. This blend of brilliance, brutality, and twisted devotion creates a character who is as captivating as he is terrifying, embodying a deeply unsettling force of cunning malice.
Biography[]
Cooper was likely born in the late 1970s or early 1980s. As a child, he had a tumultuous and scarring relationship with his mother, who was likely the first person to notice his peculiar behavior. He struggled academically, never achieving good grades, which often led to punishment throughout his childhood. Apparently, Cooper occasionally performed good deeds in an effort to be perceived as "good." Supposedly, his mother abused him because she didn’t know how else to make him behave like a "normal" person. And although the movie heavily implies that this abuse was mostly verbal up to a certain point, it seemed to escalate if he failed to follow his mother’s instructions. The exact nature of these punishments remains unclear, but they contributed significantly to the difficulties of the Butcher's formative years.
Years passed, and nothing came of Cooper's childhood traumas. Presumably, sometime after his mother’s death, Cooper became a firefighter in his hometown of Malvern, Pennsylvania, dedicating himself to serving the community. He also married a woman named Rachel, likely in the late 2000s or early 2010s. Together, they had two children: Riley, born in 2012, and Logan, whose birth date remains unknown.
Despite leading a seemingly happy life, Cooper struggled to confront his internal traumas. In his mind, he felt fractured, unable to move past his painful upbringing or forgive his mother. This unresolved pain left him feeling hollow inside—a void that he would later come to resent Lady Raven for exacerbating.
By the mid-2010s, Cooper had begun to develop dark urges to kill innocent people. While at work, he often found himself fixated on how buildings that violated fire codes remained vacant for years. He also drew sinister analogies from his knowledge of carbon monoxide, believing that just as the human body craves the poison as much as oxygen, it ultimately kills us from within. These twisted thoughts fed into his growing resentment toward people he perceived as "pretending to be whole."
Fueled by these ideas, Cooper began identifying abandoned houses scattered throughout Malvern, secretly preparing their basements as "murder rooms" for his future victims. His family remained unaware of his activities—at least initially. Cooper even modified his own home at 108 Monk Road. He installed several trapdoors, including one in his garage to hide his murder tools in a leather bag, and another inside of a closet by the kitchen that led to a secret tunnel. The tunnel connected to a backyard adjacent to his house, which supposedly led to another of his decoy properties.
Cooper meticulously planned and executed these alterations over the years, perfecting his designs for binding, torturing, and eventually murdering his victims. By the time these preparations were complete, his disturbing vision had fully taken shape.
Around 2017, the Butcher claimed his first victim. One of the earliest presumed victims was a jogger whose remains were discovered on a bridge. The body had been dismembered, and the police were forced to quickly cover up the scene before the public arrived. Over time, the Butcher would claim eleven more victims, though only two of them are well-documented: a highly respected professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an unidentified individual whose body was found in pieces at a local playground.
It appeared that the Butcher specifically targeted white-collar, well-to-do members of society, possibly because his urges intensified around individuals who seemed to lead happy, fulfilled lives—something he himself felt he lacked. These gruesome, sequential murders sparked a massive seven-year-long manhunt as the town grappled with fear and the uncertainty of who this killer was.
Trivia[]
- In the trailers, a character states that The Butcher has claimed 18 victims so far. However, in the final cut of the film, this number was reduced to 12, subtly altering the narrative's scope.
- Interestingly, Josh Hartnett, who portrays Cooper/The Butcher in the film, has previous experience with horror-themed roles. He notably played John Tate in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), where his character grapples with the legacy of his infamous uncle, Michael Myers, one of cinema's most iconic serial killers.
- Similar to Dennis from Split, Cooper has an OCD; his obsession with cleanliness and order. He is also a master of disguise. Both characters endured mental abuse during their childhoods, which eventually shaped their dark paths (in Dennis’s case, leading to the emergence of his identity). Additionally, both are notably strong individuals compared to the average person—Cooper is a firefighter, while Dennis is physically the strongest personality among the 23 identities residing in Kevin Wendell Crumb's body. Ultimately, both become serial killers who abduct and murder innocent people.
- During the film, Cooper is momentarily apprehended but manages to escape by using a part of a spoke he had secretly taken from Riley's bike to pick the lock on his handcuffs. This may be a deliberate homage to a scene in the Silence of the Lambs, where Hannibal Lecter uses a makeshift key crafted from a pen to free himself from his restraints.
- At the end of the film, during a mid-credits scene, the Vendor is shown in his apartment watching a news broadcast about the capture of the brazen killer. It is in this moment that the audience learns the full name of The Butcher — Cooper Abbott. The name "Cooper Abbott" may serve as a clever Easter egg, potentially functioning as an anagram for "trap" or "entrapment," aligning with the title of M. Night Shyamalan's film.