Robert Pattinson's To Catch a Predator film shot several different endings
Primetime’s last scene was almost something else entirely — an alternative on the table would’ve changed the send-off’s tone.
If you thought Primetime was just another dark TV drama, you should know it doesn’t so much play with fire as chuck itself straight into it. This is a film that draws straight from one of the most controversial moments in American television: the infamous 2006 'To Catch a Predator' sting.
Skyler Gisondo told MovieWeb after the film's release: "We did versions of it where we said, 'Are you an actor?' [and] I said yes. Versions where I said no, not anymore. Versions where I said nothing, and we talked and talked about [it], and I'm really happy they came to the decision they did. I think it's the most interesting one."
Right from the off, Primetime doesn’t sugarcoat. If you’re after easy answers about morality in tabloid TV, this will tie you in knots. The actual sting operation it fictionalises ended in disaster: a televised confrontation, a suicide, and plenty of hand-wringing both on-screen and off. The real-life aftermath — a ruined show, an industry scarred — is ancient history by now. The film, though, zooms in on the collateral, focusing on the people actually stuck in that media meat grinder. Chief among them is aspiring actor Dan Plumb, who practically stumbles into a moral quagmire just for a nibble at stardom.
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A New Side to Skyler Gisondo
If you only know Skyler Gisondo from his comedic work in 'Vacation' or his wholesome stint in 'Licorice Pizza', his turn in Primetime is going to catch you out. Here, Gisondo ditches the puppy-dog charm to become Dan Plumb, a struggling musical-theatre talent with no clue just how ugly TV can get. Dan is picked to pose as underage bait in an A24-fuelled, feverish reimagining of those infamous sting operations. He’s meant to be the trap — except he’s the one being trapped by network execs out for ratings at any cost. Gisondo keeps Plumb human: battered but never truly broken, even when things get properly grim.
Asked about Plumb’s fate, Gisondo added: "Dan is, I think, pretty disillusioned immediately. I think he has a sense, but it clashes with something he's wanted for so long. Now he feels like he's feet from it, and so he's able to [do] the compartmentalization of like this and that. I think it's ongoing until you see him by the end of the film, he's done. But then, like you said, as soon as he gets that SAG card, who's to say?"
The Ending: No Answers, Just Fallout
The film ends one year after the real-life disaster that sunk 'To Catch a Predator': the televised ambush of Bill Conradt (here played by Alex Winter). In reality, Conradt’s suicide destroyed the show’s reputation overnight. In the film, Plumb himself is roped into the network’s reckless decision to bring the entire sting crew right to Conradt’s front door. Predictably, it all goes off the rails. Plumb is wracked with guilt, gives up on Hollywood, but then receives a final kick in the teeth: one year on, his hours spent pretending to be bait have earned him an official SAG card. The existential joke is sharp — after being chewed up and spat out by television, he’s suddenly ‘made it’ as an actor, at least on paper. The film refuses to say whether that’s salvation or damnation.
- Primetime adapts the lead-up and the fallout of the disastrous 2006 TV sting, but focuses on personal cost rather than melodrama.
- Skyler Gisondo delivers a breakout performance as Dan Plumb, charting the character’s journey from eagerness to utter disillusionment.
- The real event saw Bill Conradt die by suicide after the show’s team brought its spectacle to his home, sparking years of backlash.
- Dan’s arc ends with him getting his ‘big break’: a SAG card as the dark prize for his involvement, but with his future left up in the air.