A man takes his daughter to a pop concert and upon arrival discovers that it is an undercover operation by the FBI to catch a dangerous criminal.

Although the concert is real, the hall is swarming with police officers and special agents who watch the audience like hawks in the hope of finally catching the fugitive they have been pursuing for months.

It sounds like something out of a movie – and that’s exactly what it is. Trap is the latest release from M. Night Shyamalan, a director known for his high-concept films with big twists like The Sixth Sense.

But the events of the film are actually inspired by a true case four decades ago known as Operation Flagship.

In the 1985 scheme, over 100 criminals were arrested after being lured by a fake television station into believing they had won free NFL tickets.

Around 3,000 refugees were offered free tickets to a Washington Redskins game and were told they also had a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Super Bowl.

But when nearly 120 of them showed up at the headquarters of a fictional television station, they were arrested. It is an extraordinary story that served as the inspiration for the film.

“I heard about it as a child and thought it was completely absurd that something like that could actually happen,” Shyamalan tells BBC News.

“When it happened, that was what was going through my mind a lot… These were real criminals, FBI and police. They were dressed up as cheerleaders and mascots, dancing around with them and messing around with them.”

He notes: “Today they probably couldn’t do something like that, but back then they were partying with it in the truest sense of the word.”

“They said something like, ‘Come into the room!’ and then checked their names and made sure they were the right people. Then they went around them and said, ‘You are all under arrest.'”

The highlight was that the Washington Redskins were scheduled to play against the Cincinnati Bengals on December 15, 1985.

The fugitives targeted by the US Marshals Service were told they had been randomly selected from a list of Washington DC residents and would receive two free tickets.

The match was due to start at 1pm, but the winners of the competition were asked to come the next morning to collect their tickets. They would then be bused to the match and back home in the afternoon. Or so they were told.

“We invited almost 3,000 refugees to a brunch at the Washington Convention Center,” recalls Toby Roche. in a 2016 documentary about the engraving.

Roche was the Deputy U.S. Marshal at the time, but posed as an usher at an event as part of Operation Flagship.

“My role was to make sure that the fugitives who showed up were actually fugitives,” he said, explaining that agents had code words for the type of criminals.

“A ‘confirmed winner’ was someone who was wanted. A ‘double winner’ was a dangerous person; someone who had committed grievous bodily harm, murder or robbery.”

His colleague Bob Leschorn, the deputy chief of the US Marshals’ Office of Enforcement, posed as the CEO of the fictitious US cable television channel Flagship International Sports Television.

“We had 119 extremely lucky people, all of whom happened to be wanted on arrest warrants,” Leschorn recalls with a smile.

But instead of going to the game, he said, “they won a trip to Washington DC prison.”

The agents used reverse psychology to lure as many criminals as possible to the event.

The winners were informed by phone that if they did not redeem their tickets and did not bring their ID, the prize would be awarded to someone else.

“And that really made them say, ‘Wait a minute, you’re not giving up my Redskin tickets, I’m going to be there,'” Leschorn explained.

After the stage was set up, the US Marshals made sure that everything around the fake television station looked visually authentic.

The marshals wore tuxedos and were instructed to smile politely at the criminals they normally chased. Some of the female officers were even assigned as cheerleaders.

When the fugitives arrived, the cheerleaders showed physical affection toward them, putting their arms around them, etc. In reality, they were frisking them to make sure they were not carrying weapons.

However, the risk of this is not too great, noted Howard Safir, deputy chief of operations for the US Marshals, who posed as a marketing expert for the day.

“Sting operations are a surefire way to arrest fugitives,” he stressed. “They usually don’t come with weapons, they’re distracted and in a party mood.”

After their arrival and confirmation of their identity, the fugitives were led in groups of about 15 people into a hall with a stage.

“We have a big surprise for you,” said the spokesman. “Everyone is under arrest.”

The criminals were surrounded and led out in handcuffs. A total of 101 people were arrested.

“It was a party atmosphere,” Herbert M. Rutherford, U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia, told the Associated Press afterward. “And they fell for it.”

Even after their arrest, some of the fugitives could not understand what had happened.

As the buses carrying the fugitives left, one of them asked: “Can we still go to the game?”

Trap, which hit cinemas in the UK this weekend, is not the story of Operation Flagship – that film is set in the world of music rather than sport – but its premise has the same DNA.

The singer at the concert that forms the backdrop of the film is Lady Raven, played by Shyamalan’s own daughter Saleka.

Although it was a new story, Shyamalan remembered Operation Flagship when he began formulating Trap, saying he was drawn to “the absurdity versus reality.”

“(The authorities) used this absurdity against them because they let their guard down, which I thought was quite brilliant,” he told the BBC.

“That just stuck with me, and I guess when Saleka and I were thinking about a film at a concert, I was wondering why this person couldn’t come out and how could I keep them there?”

He said that “Trap” is similar in spirit to the true case, even though the film is not a direct retelling.

“It was just the spirit of the idea of ​​being caught up in the absurdity,” the director explains. “I thought it would be super funny because if you watch the footage from (Operation Flagship), it’s hilarious.”

Oddly enough, the film was not shown to critics before its US release last week – which is usually a sign that a studio knows its film is a flop.

However, some critics were able to write their reviews even after the film’s release.

Lindsey Bahr of Associated Press described He described it as a “popcorn film” that was “ultimately a pretty entertaining movie.”

However, she added that the film is somewhat “half-baked, a ridiculous journey that doesn’t get under your skin and doesn’t offer much to talk about afterwards.”

The film did not impress Owen Gleiberman of Variety, who said Trap is a “thriller in which every twist is more contrived than the last,” while Benjamin Lee of the Guardian branded the film “a mess”.

William Bibbiani of The Wrap was more moderate, writing: “Trap doesn’t have the depth of Shyamalan’s greatest films or the theatricality of his most memorable, offbeat experiments.

“But it’s one of his best thrillers. A taut, devilishly funny, mean little film that challenges us to look at the serial killer genre from new angles.”