Taken (film)

Infobox Film
name = Taken


caption = French theatrical poster
writer = Luc Besson
Robert Mark Kamen
starring = Liam Neeson
Famke Janssen
Maggie Grace
Xander Berkeley
Holly Valance
Katie Cassidy
director = Pierre Morel
producer = Luc Besson

music = Nathaniel Mechaly
cinematography = Michel Abramowicz
editing = Frédéric Thoraval
distributor = 20th Century Fox
Europa Corp.
released = France:
February 27, 2008
Australia:
August 14, 2008
runtime = 93 min.
rating = n/a
country = France
language = English
budget = $45,000,000
gross = $29,423,054
amg_id = 1:391752
imdb_id = 0936501

"Taken" is a 2008 thriller/action film starring Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace. It is directed by Pierre Morel and written & produced by Luc Besson.

Plot

The film follows an ex-CIA "preventer" faced with recovering his daughter after she is kidnapped by sex-traffickers in Paris, France.

Bryan (Liam Neeson) is a divorced, former US intelligence agent whose 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) lives with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and her new husband Stuart (Xander Berkeley). The nature and dispositions of the major characters are established early in the film: Kim is a happy, affectionate girl who loves horses and has aspirations of being a singer, while her mother maintains a frosty, somewhat antagonistic demeanour towards her ex-husband. Bryan’s skill and quick-thinking are demonstrated when he agrees to escort a pop diva (Holly Valance)—the diva is attacked, but Bryan efficiently disables a knife-wielding assailant and gets her safely out of danger. Thankful, the diva expresses some interest in Bryan’s daughter and furnishes him with some contacts to get Kim’s career started.

The next day we discover that Kim wants to take a vacation in Europe with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy) to follow U2’s European tour. Kim’s mother has no objections, but Kim also needs permission from her father. Fearing that the over-protective Bryan will not consent, Kim pretends (with her mother’s implicit agreement) that they will only stay in Paris to visit museums. Reluctantly, Bryan agrees, and only discovers their real itinerary at the airport.

Arriving in Paris, a seemingly friendly young man named Peter (Nicolas Giraud) proposes to share a taxi with Kim and Amanda to the house where they are staying; the girls agree gladly. However, the man works for an Albanian criminal organization to which he reports the address out of earshot.

In the house, Kim receives a phone call from her father which she answers in the bathroom. From the bathroom window she sees men entering the main room and abducting Amanda. Bryan is able to gain critical information about the kidnappers in the final moments after Kim is kidnapped by telling her to shout out everything about them that she notices. Briefly, Bryan talks to one of the kidnappers, warning him that unless Kim is released, he will pursue him and kill him; the kidnapper wishes him "good luck" before smashing the daughter’s phone.

Exploiting his contacts in the CIA and the business connections of his ex-wife’s husband, Bryan travels to Paris to find her, informed that the kidnappers are sex-slavers and that he has only 96 hours to recover his daughter before she will disappear forever. The particular kidnapper he talked to is revealed to be an Albanian named ‘Marco’.

Under the eye of Jean-Claude, himself a former operative and now deputy director of Internal Security, Bryan pursues the kidnappers. He uses digital photos from the smashed remains of Kim’s phone to locate Peter, who is hit by a truck while trying to escape. By hassling prostitutes Bryan gets himself threatened by an Albanian mobster, and is able to plant a covert listening device on him. With the help of a translator he discovers that the kidnappers have a brothel in a nearby construction site; before leaving, Bryan obtains an Albanian–English dictionary from the translator.

On arrival, Bryan acts like a customer; once inside he begins to search for Kim. Unfortunately, he finds only her jacket on another woman. He is then discovered, and escapes under fire with the semi-conscious woman.

Nursing the girl back to health from an involuntary drug addiction, Bryan finds out where the kidnappers took her after she was abducted. Bryan heads to the address and poses as an official negotiating a new "rate" (i.e. a bribe) to overlook the illegal activities going on within. Before leaving he asks the apparent leader to translate from Albanian the words "good luck," which confirms his identity as Marco; he quickly subdues Marco and kills most of the kidnappers. He searches for Kim, but instead finds Amanda, handcuffed to a bed and dead of a heroin overdose. Later, through torturing Marco, Bryan ascertains that Kim was sold to a man named Saint Clair.

Bryan visits Jean-Claude’s home and chats amicably with his wife while she prepares dinner. Jean, however, failing to have Bryan arrested for the mess he has caused at Paris, brings his gun to the dinner table. Jean angrily points the gun at Bryan when accused of complicity in Kim’s abduction, but to no avail: Bryan unloaded it earlier. To demonstrate that he is serious Bryan shoots Jean’s wife on her arm and, by holding Jean’s family hostage, extracts Saint Clair’s location from Jean.

By impersonating a police officer, Bryan gains entry to the building where new girls are being sold, and secures entry to one of the buyers’ viewing booths. When he sees his daughter being sold, he forces the to bid for her, but is captured and knocked unconscious moments later. Suspended from the ceiling, Saint Clair questions his identity before leaving his security guards to execute him. Bryan escapes and kills the guards before finding Saint Clair, whom he kills after learning that his daughter is being taken by Arab clients. Bryan manages to follow the car his daughter is being taken in to see her being taken away on a large motorboat. He jumps on to the ship from a bridge and eliminates all the people inside, finally killing the client and freeing his daughter.

Back in the US, Kim is reunited with her mother. Bryan introduces Kim to the diva he saved at the beginning of the film, having arranged an audition with her vocal coach.

Cast

*Liam Neeson as Bryan
*Maggie Grace as Kim
*Famke Janssen as Lenore
*Xander Berkeley as Stuart
*Katie Cassidy as Amanda
*Olivier Rabourdin as Jean Claude
*Leland Orser as Sam
*Jon Gries as Casey
*David Warshofsky as Bernie
*Holly Valance as Diva
*Nathan Rippy as Victor
*Camille Japy as Isabelle
*Nicolas Giraud as Peter
*Gérard Watkins as Saint Clair

Marketing

An official (French language) website is online - [http://www.europacorp.com/dossiers/taken/ link] .

External links

*imdb title|id=0936501|title=Taken
* [http://uk.player.playnetworks.net/popup.php?mid=982&version=2.0&channel_user_id=441100018-1&width=640&height=380&bgcolor=000000 English language trailer]