Taken is a 2008 French action thriller film starring Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace. It is based on a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and was directed by Pierre Morel. Neeson plays a retired Central Intelligence Agency operative who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped by slave traders while traveling in Europe.
The film follows an ex-CIA "Preventer" skilled in hand to hand combat who must rescue his daughter after she is kidnapped during her Paris vacation by sex-traffickers.
Bryan (Liam Neeson) has retired from the Agency to live full-time in the US to be near his beloved 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Kim lives in luxury with her mother Lenore (Famke Janssen) and the mother's wealthy new husband Stuart (Xander Berkeley). Bryan picks up some quick cash working security with some old CIA buddies escorting a local female rock star to a nearby concert. Before the concert, Bryan asks Sheera (Holly Valance) for career advice for his daughter, an aspiring singer. Sheera answers "Tell her to find a new career." Bryan earns his money as he saves Sheera from a murderous fan. In gratitude, Sheera promises to let Kim meet with her vocal coach to determine if she has the talent to sing professionally.
Bryan is failing to rebuild his relationship with Kim due to Lenore's sabotage and Stuart's upstaging of Bryan. Bryan is ecstatic when Kim invites him to have lunch together. Lenore is also there and it is made plain he was only invited to sign the parental consent Kim needs to take a vacation in Paris with just her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy). Bryan is reluctant to agree, knowing of the dangers of the wrong parts of Paris, but Kim explains she'll be staying with Amanda's cousins and spend most of her time in museums. Bryan says he will consider the matter which Kim takes as a no. Thus Kim is wonderfully surprised when Bryan later shows up at Stuart's home with the signed consent, an international cell phone, and some conditions. Bryan must take her to the airport. She is to call him when she lands in Paris. She is to call him every night and tell him the address and phone number of any new place at which she will be sleeping. At the airport Bryan sees a map of Europe with several cities circled in a pocket of Kim's luggage. He confronts Lenore who tells him the girls are going to follow U2's European tour, not just stay in Paris. Bryan is angry but it is too late to do anything about it. Standing in the line for taxis outside the French airport, the two teens meet a friendly, handsome young European named Peter (Nicolas Giraud). He suggests the girls share a taxi with him to save on the cost. When they arrive at Amanda's cousin's house, she decides to tell him that her cousins are actually in Madrid for the summer so it is just a 17 year old and 19 year old for the whole summer. Peter tells the girls that his friend is having a party and for more information about the apartment. Peter then calls his partner and relays his information about the new girls.
Back in the US, Bryan checks the arrival information and finds out Kim has already landed. Amanda has cranked the music in the apartment to such a volume that neither girl hears Kim's phone ring when Bryan calls. Finally, Bryan gets a hold of Kim. While they talk, Kim can see Amanda across the courtyard. She sees two men grab Amanda and carry her body away from view while Amanda kicks and fights. Kim tells Bryan who immediately takes control and orders her to go into the nearest bedroom and hide under the bed, and tell him when she's there. She says she's there, he tells her the second most important step, "They are going to take you, and you need to leave the phone on the floor and scream out any physical appearances on them, eye color, hair color, tatoos, piercings, markings. He asks how many men she saw and she thinks four. Bryan hooks up a tape recorder to his phone. Two men enter the bedroom and are puzzled they haven't found the second girl. They converse in a foreign language. Bryan tells Kim to hold the phone towards the men so he can hear their conversation. Bryan tells Kim that the men are going to take her and, when they do, she needs to scream out anything she can to describe their physical appearance. Bryan hears heavy breathing on the phone and tells the kidnapper that he has no money for ransom but that he has a certain set of skills developed over the course of long career that make him a nightmare for people like the kidnappers. If the kidnappers let Kim go, he will not pursue them. If they take her, he will find them and kill them. The kidnapper responds with an accented "good luck" and smashes Kim's phone.
Bryan sends the taped conversation to a contact, and goes to Stuart and Lenore's home to tell them what has happened. His contact calls him back and identifies the language as Albanian and even narrows it down to one particular area of Albania. Bryan gets another CIA buddy to give him background information on Albanians in Paris. They are human traffickers and Bryan has at most 96 hours to find Kim or she could be lost forever. Bryan confronts Stuart about possible business enemies arranging Kim's kidnapping. Stuart and Lenore are surprised about how much of Stuart's business Bryan knows. Satisfied with Stuart's answers, Bryan tells Stuart he needs a jet to Paris immediately.
Under the eye of Jean-Claude, a former operative now deputy director of Internal Security, Bryan locates the kidnappers. Bryan first gains access to the apartment of Amanda's cousins. Bryan rescues the digital photos from the smashed remains of Kim's phone. He finds a reflection of Peter in the photo Peter took of the girls outside the airport. Bryan returns to the airport and assaults Peter. Unfortunately, Peter has a partner who attacks Bryan. Peter runs away. Bryan disposes of the partner and gives chase. Peter runs into traffic and is killed while the partner disappears. Bryan locates an area controlled by the Albanians. Bryan hires an Albanian translator and drives him to that area. Bryan leaves the translator in the car and starts window shopping with the street walkers. Their Albanian pimp roughs up the unprotesting Bryan and takes twice the prostitute's normal fee from him. The pimp is unaware that Bryan has planted a listening device on him. Bryan has the translator listen to the bug from his car and translate the pimp's conversations. They talk about having trouble with some new merchandise at a nearby construction site. Bryan excuses the translator after getting the Albanian-English dictionary Bryan had asked him to bring.
At the construction site, there is a long line of men waiting to get into a trailer. Bryan acts like a customer and joins the line. When Bryan reaches the head of the line, he hands the "doorman" his money and receives a scrap of paper with a single digit on it. Inside the trailer ropes have been strung with blankets draped over them to form rooms on either side of a center aisle. As he walks down the aisle he sees each "room" has a sign with a number on it. He enters the "room" that matches his number and finds a cot with a drugged woman lying on it. She isn't Kim. She beckons him to come to her, but instead he starts pulling blankets aside to check the other "rooms". Since each room has a customer, this invasion of privacy starts a ruckus. Bryan has to deal with a couple bouncers as he makes his way a long the length of the trailer. In the last room, he finds a young woman who resembles Kim and was wearing the jacket Kim wore to the airport. Bryan tries to question this woman, but she is so drugged she can't talk. Bryan takes her to his car and with difficulty makes his escape from a swarm of angry Albanians.
Jean-Claude demands a meeting with Bryan out in the open by the river. When Jean-Claude arrives, his cell rings. It is Bryan saying he doesn't trust meeting Jean-Claude (until he gets Kim back). Jean-Claude tells Bryan that his boss is furious over the incident at the construction site and wants Bryan arrested. Jean-Claude has convinced him to authorize a ticket back to the U.S. Bryan refuses. Jean-Claude's men have been triangulating the source of Bryan's phone call and a squad of men burst onto a nearby rooftop. There they find a cell phone rigged to call a third phone. Bryan escapes.
Nursing the girl back to health from an involuntary drug addiction, Bryan finds out where the kidnappers took her when she was abducted. Bryan heads to the address and presents Jean-Claude's business card as his own. Bryan is led past several thugs to a dirty kitchen. Four Albanians are seated around a table. Bryan tries to ascertain who is the leader but they all claim to be Marco and all from the town Bryan's language expert had identified. Bryan gives them a story about their old police contact had been transferred and now "Jean-Claude" will be collecting the bribes which have just gone up. After some hard bargaining, a deal is reached and Bryan thinks he has identified the leader. As he leaves, Bryan stops and says a friend gave him a note in Albanian. Bryan says he is wondering if the note is a joke, hands it to the apparent leader, and asks him to translate it. The real Marco tells Bryan the note says "good luck." Bryan matches Marco's voice to the voice on the telephone and begins shooting. Bryan has killed all of them but Marco. Bryan searches for Kim in all the rooms of the building. He finds several women, in different rooms, he also finds Amanda, handcuffed to a bed, dead from an overdose. Bryan tortures Marco. Marco tells Bryan Kim was sold to a man named Saint Clair.
Jean-Claude comes home for a late supper with his wife to discover Bryan is visiting. Jean-Claude stops at his desk for a pistol he tucks into the back of his waistband. Bryan accuses Jean-Claude accepting bribes from the Albanians and demands Jean-Claude locate Saint Clair. Jean-Claude pulls the pistol. Jean-Claude talks about the gap between his meager pay and the cost of maintaining his family in the style they deserve. Bryan tells Jean-Claude that he has been behind a desk too long if he can't tell the difference in weight between a loaded gun and an unloaded one. Bryan has several bullets in his hand and the gun is empty. Bryan pulls his own pistol and repeats his demand. Jean-Claude refuses. Bryan shoots Jean-Claude's wife in the arm. Jean-Claude uses his computer to access police files that locate Saint Clair.
Again posing as Jean-Claude, Bryan gains access to a party Saint Clair is hosting. Bryan discovers Saint Clair is hosting a much darker "party" on a lower level. Bryan assumes the guise of a waiter and gains access to a darkened room. It is one of a series of darkened rooms encircling an enclosed stage. On the stage is a young woman with the auctioneer. In each darkened room is a bidder buying women. The final auction item of the evening is Kim. Bryan forces the buyer in this darkened room to outbid the others to purchase her, but Bryan is captured and knocked unconscious. He awakens suspended from a pipe just below the ceiling, Saint Clair identities him as Kim's father and leaves his security guards with orders to execute Bryan quietly so as not to disturb the guests upstairs. Bryan escapes while killing the guards. Bryan runs into Saint Clair returning to object to the noise of a gunshot. Saint Clair says Kim has been bought by Arab clients and pleads unsuccessfully for his life by saying "it was just business". Bryan tracks his daughter to a sheikh's yacht sailing down the Seine. Bryan jumps on to the ship from a bridge and murders everyone on board, freeing his daughter.
Back in the US, Kim is reunited with her mother. Lenore even hugs Bryan in thanks. Later, Bryan mysteriously collects Kim and takes her to a very nice home Kim has never seen before. As Kim knocks, Bryan steps back. Sheerah opens the door and invites Kim into the house for her audition with the vocal coach.
KILLS If you count Peter, the spotter at the beginning of the movie (1), the first man he chokes in the construction site (2), the man he shoots at the construction site (3), the two men that are in the Jeep he hits and rolls down the hill (4 & 5), the man who drives into the big tractor and is decapitated (6), the 8 men in the house on Paradise (7 through 14), the man he tortures and leaves the switch on (15), the 6 men in the prostitution club (16 through 21), and the 9 men he kills on the boat, (22 through 30), Liam Neeson kills 30 people in the movie Taken.
Recommendation: 4/5
Caught this show on the plane when I was on my way to HK. It's rare to watch such a nice film which had little or no publicity. What a super surprise! A great story, action a bit over the top but how entertaining! Well done
