Taglines: They have taken his daughter. He will hunt them. He will find them. He will kill them.
Taken movie storyline. What could be worse for a father than to sit helplessly on the end of a cellphone connection as his daughter is abducted? That’s the nightmare that becomes reality for Bryan, a former secret agent, who has a only few hours to grab Kim back from a fearsome gang that specializes in selling young women. The first problem Bryan has to solve is that he’s in Los Angeles and Kim was taken in Paris.
Taken is an English-language French action thriller film directed by Pierre Morel, written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, and starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, David Warshofsky, Holly Valance, Katie Cassidy, Xander Berkeley, Olivier Rabourdin, Gérard Watkins, and Famke Janssen. It is the first film in the Taken film series.
Neeson plays a former CIA operative named Bryan Mills who sets about tracking down his daughter after she is kidnapped by human traffickers for sexual slavery while traveling in France. Numerous media outlets have cited the film as a turning point in Neeson’s career that redefined and transformed him to an action film star.
Taken grossed $145 million in the North America and $81.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $226.8 million, against a production budget of $25 million. On its opening day in the North America, the film grossed $9.4 million, scoring the best opening day ever for Super Bowl weekend. It went on to make $24.7 million during its opening weekend playing in 3,183 theaters, with a $7,765 per-theatre average and ranking #1. The film is also the highest grossing among the Taken films in North America. The biggest market in other territories being South Korea, UK, France, Australia and Spain where the film grossed $15.47 million, $11.27 million, $9.43 million, $6.28 million, and $5.46 million respectively.
About the Story
Former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) tries to have a closer relationship with his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace). She lives with her mother, Lenore (Famke Janssen), and her wealthy stepfather, Stuart (Xander Berkeley), in California; he feels embarassed about her stepfather spoiling her, and wishes to spend time with her.
While working as security at a concert with former colleagues, Bryan saves a pop star Sheerah (Holly Valance) from an assailant as she exits the stage and begins for her limo outside of the stadium. Sheerah, grateful about being saved, agrees to tutor Kim after Bryan says she aspires to be a singer. Kim asks Bryan for permission to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy). Bryan balks at the two girls travelling alone, but relents when Lenore -his ex-wife- complains that he is overprotective. He gives Kim an international cellphone, and makes her promise to call every day. At Los Angeles International Airport, he learns that the girls are not staying in Paris, but are following U2 during their European tour.
Arriving in Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Kim and Amanda meet Peter (Nicolas Giraud), a scout for a kidnapping gang, who offers to share a cab with them and so learns where they are staying. Kim believes they are staying with Amanda’s cousins but, upon arriving at the apartment, learns that the cousins are actually in Spain, and becomes slightly nervous. She retains herself in a quiet room while her friend presents loud music on her stereo not too far away.
While talking to Bryan on the phone in the bathroom, Kim sees Amanda being kidnapped by intruders. Bryan instructs her to go to the nearest room and hide under a bed. He explains that when the men find her, she has to shout out their physical descriptions. Kim is pulled out violently from under the bed, and she complies with her father’s instructions before the phone is found. Bryan warns the person over the phone that they have this one chance to release his daughter, or else he will begin hunting them down and killing them. He’s told “good luck” and the connection is terminated.
Bryan informs Stuart and Lenore of Kim’s abduction. Bryan’s former colleague Sam (Leland Orser) tells him that based on the recording, Kim has probably been taken by an Albanian human trafficking ring that has recently begun abducting female tourists. He also says that if she is not rescued within ninety-six hours, she will likely never be found. Bryan travels to Paris, in a private jet paid for by Stuart and finds Peter at the airport attempting to lure another tourist. After a confrontation and chase, Peter is hit and killed by a passing truck before Bryan can interrogate him.
Bryan then seeks out Jean-Claude (Olivier Rabourdin), a former French intelligence officer who now works a desk job. Jean-Claude is relatively unhelpful but does direct Bryan to Porte de Chichy, where an East European gang are rumored to be prostituting women. Jean-Claude afterwards has the police put a tail on Bryan and soon warns Bryan that his vigilante methods will result in him being deported, but Bryan avoids arrest. Bryan follows one gangster to a brothel at a construction site, where he finds a girl wearing Kim’s jacket. He fights off the brothel guards and escapes with the girl. After the girl awakens, she gives Bryan enough information about the house where she met Kim to allow him to find it.
Bryan confronts the Albanians, and identifies the kidnapper on the phone as Marko (Arben Bajraktaraj). He wounds Marko and kills the others. Searching the house, he finds several captive teens, including Amanda, who is dead from an apparent overdose. In the basement of the house, Bryan straps Marko into a makeshift electric chair and tortures him into divulging Kim’s location; as a virgin, she was very valuable on the black market, and was sold to an auctioneer named Patrice Saint-Clair (Gérard Watkins). Bryan leaves Marko to suffer, as he becomes electrocuted to death, leaving him to visit Jean-Claude at home. Having deduced that Jean-Claude is taking kickbacks from the kidnappers, he extracts Saint-Clair’s home address by threatening to kill his wife.
Bryan infiltrates Saint-Clair’s mansion, where a large party is the facade for an auction of girls in the basement. At this time he realizes that he is running out of time, as he runs through the hallways of the building in attempt to reach his destination. He reaches a sophisticated room, where behind glass he can see women being purchased by a man in a leather chair in front of him. After several woman get bought, the ‘final attraction’ enters the room, and Bryan eyes her and notices her hair and innocent face, revealing her identity as his daughter.
Bryan pulls a gun on the man in the chair in front of him, ordering him to purchase his daughter, but is knocked out after he leaves the room. Bryan awakes to find himself chained to a pipe in a boiler room. Several men stand around him, and he is confronted about his identity by Saint-Clair. When he leaves the room, Bryan frees himself and kills Saint-Clair’s henchmen. He finds Saint-Clair in the elevator by the hall where he was recently freed from.
He forces Saint-Clair to reveal where Kim has been taken before shooting him in the head and leaving his body to be found by guests. Bryan races to the luxury yacht owned by a prince named Raman (Nabil Massad) and boards it. There, he kills the boat’s guards, confronts Raman in his boudoir, and shoots him in the head – thus rescuing his daughter. They both return to the U.S. where Kim is reunited with her mother and stepfather. Afterward, Bryan takes Kim to see Sheerah for her first singing lesson.
Taken (2009)
Directed by: Pierre Morel
Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Goran Kostic, Katie Cassidy, Holly Valance, Xander Berkeley, Olivier Rabourdin, Famke Janssen, Arben Bajraktaraj, Radivoje Bukvic, Tamara Witmer
Screenplay by: Luc Besson
Production Design by: Hugues Tissandier
Cinematography by: Michel Abramowicz
Film Editing by: Frédéric Thoraval
Costume Design by: Corinne Bruand, Olivier Bériot
Set Decoration by: Alain Pitrel
Music by: Nathaniel Méchaly
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: January 23, 2009
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