Taken (film)

Taken
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Pierre Morel
Produced by	Luc Besson
Written by	Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen
Starring	Liam Neeson Maggie Grace Leland Orser Jon Gries David Warshofsky Katie Cassidy Holly Valance Famke Janssen
Music by	Nathaniel Méchaly
Cinematography	Michel Abramowicz
Edited by	Frédéric Thoraval
Production company	EuropaCorp M6 Films Grive Productions Canal+ TPS Star M6 All Pictures Media Wintergreen Productions Dune Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	27 February 2008 (2008-02-27) (France) 26 September 2008 (2008-09-26) (United Kingdom)
Running time	90 minutes[1]
Country	France[2][3]
Language	English
Budget	$22 million[4]
Box office	$226.8 million[4]

Taken is a 2008 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.

Neeson plays a former CIA operative named Bryan Mills who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter Kim and her best friend Amanda after the two girls are kidnapped by human traffickers for sexual slavery while traveling in France. The film grossed more than $226 million. 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.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} A sequel, Taken 2, was released on 5 October 2012, and a third and final film, Taken 3, was released on 9 January 2015.

Plot

Retired CIA field operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) attempts to build a closer relationship with his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), who lives with her mother, Lenore (Famke Janssen), and her wealthy stepfather, Stuart (Xander Berkeley). While overseeing security at a concert for pop star Sheerah (Holly Valance), Bryan saves her from a violent stalker. As a token of gratitude, Sheerah offers to assess Kim's talent as a singer. Before Bryan can tell Kim, she asks her father for permission to travel to Paris with her best friend, Amanda (Katie Cassidy). He initially refuses, but eventually agrees after Lenore pressures him. At the airport, he learns the girls are actually following Irish band U2 during their European tour, something Lenore knew, but kept from him.

Upon arriving at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Kim and Amanda meet a young man named Peter (Nicolas Giraud), whose taxi-sharing habits act as an opportunity to discover and pass on their details and location. Kim and Amanda go to Amanda's cousins' apartment, only for Kim to find that Amanda's cousins are in Spain. While Kim takes a call to her father, she witnesses Amanda being abducted by strange men in the living room. Kim complies with her father's instructions to hide in a bedroom, but Bryan, knowing she will be found, informs her of it and talks her through the situation. After she is dragged out from underneath the bed, Kim yells the description of her abductor until she is silenced. Her abductor picks up the phone and says nothing to Bryan, who demands that he release his daughter and vows to hunt him down and kill him if he does not. The only response is "good luck", after which the call ends.

Sam (Leland Orser), an old friend of Bryan and former colleague, deduces from the killer's description and voice that he is Marko Hoxha (Arben Bajraktaraj), a notorious member and leader of illegal Albanian sex trafficking operations. Informing Lenore about their operations, he warns Bryan that Kim will disappear for good if not found within 96 hours. Using Stuart's private jet, Bryan travels to Paris and investigates the apartment, and later discovers a picture showing Peter in a reflection using Kim's phone. He finds Peter at the airport and tries to capture him, but during the chase Peter is hit and killed by a truck.

With his only lead now dead, Bryan turns to an old contact, semi-retired French intelligence agent Jean-Claude Pitrel (Olivier Rabourdin), who now works a desk job at the same agency. Jean-Claude informs him of the local red-light district where the Albanian prostitution ring operates, but warns him not to get involved. However, with help from a hired Albanian translator, Bryan trails and infiltrates a makeshift brothel in an abandoned construction yard, where he finds a young girl wearing Kim's denim jacket. After a brief firefight with the mobsters, he takes the girl to a nearby hotel owned by an old friend. Once there, he administers medication to the girl to detoxify her system.

The following morning, after a heated conversation with Jean-Claude, Bryan questions the girl, who then informs him of a safehouse where the Albanians keep the abducted girls. Posing as Pitrel, he enters the house pretending to be interested in business. After a brief conversation with some of the mobsters under the guise of a re-negotiation of their business, he recognizes Marko from Kim's description. After Bryan confirms his identity (making him utter the words "Good luck" and asking him about the phone call), Marko attacks but Bryan subdues him. A violent fight ensues, resulting in the deaths of all the gangsters. After the fight, Bryan makes a quick search of the house, revealing several heavily drugged girls including Amanda, who has died from a heroin overdose.

Using a makeshift electric chair in the basement, Bryan tortures Marko for information. Marko explains that virgins have high value in the black market and Kim, being a virgin, was sold quickly. Once Marko gives the buyer's name as Patrice Saint-Clair (Gérard Watkins), Bryan leaves him to die from electrocution. Later that evening, Bryan visits the Pitrels or dinner after discovering Jean-Claude's corruption, he confirms the corruption, and then wounds his wife to coerce him to give him Saint-Clair's location.

Bryan attends the auction beneath Saint-Clair's manor. As soon as Kim comes up for sale, he forces Abil, an Arab bidder, to purchase her. While making his way out, he is detained by security and chained to a pipe, but he manages to escape and eliminate everyone detaining him, including Saint-Clair. Before he is shot dead, Saint-Clair informs Bryan that Kim is being taken to a yacht owned by a sheikh named Raman. Making his way to the harbor, Bryan boards Raman's yacht and takes out his guards, before overpowering and killing Abil in a fist fight. He enters the next room, only to find Raman holding Kim at knife-point. Raman attempts to negotiate, but Bryan shoots him in the face without hesitation. They return to the U.S., where she is reunited with her mother and stepfather. Afterwards, Bryan takes Kim to see Sheerah for her first singing lesson and audition.

Cast

Production

The English-language poster for Taken.

The film was produced by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp.^[11] Pierre Morel had previously worked as a director of photography for Besson, and they had also collaborated on Morel's directorial debut, District B13. Besson pitched the idea of Taken one night over dinner and Morel immediately became attached to the idea of a father fighting to protect his daughter.^[12] Jeff Bridges was first cast as Bryan Mills, but after he dropped out of the project, Liam Neeson accepted the part, desiring to play a more physically demanding role than he was used to. Neeson at first thought the film to be no more than a "little side road" for his career, expecting it to be released directly to video.^[13]

Music

The score of the film was composed by Nathaniel Méchaly and released on 27 January 2009.^[14]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Nathaniel Méchaly except where noted.^[15][16]

Release

A trailer of Taken was released on 20 June 2008.^[17] The film saw its release on 27 February in France, 9 April in China and 26 September in UK in the year of 2008. It was released on 30 January in United States and 22 August in Japan in the year of 2009.^[18] The film was released under the title of 96 Hours in Germany, Io vi troverò (I Will Find You) in Italy and Заложница (Hostage) in Russia.^[18]

Box office

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.^[4]

On its opening day in the North America, the film grossed $9.4 million, scoring the best opening day ever for Super Bowl weekend.^[19] 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, which was the second highest Super Bowl opening weekend, at the time, behind Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour ($31.1 million).^[20] The film is also the highest grossing among the Taken Film series in North America.^[21]

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.^[22]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 58%, based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Taken is undeniably fun with slick action, but is largely a brainless exercise."^[23] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[24]

Richard Corliss of Time said the film "has nothing more on its mind than dozens of bad guys getting beat up and another one turned into instant roadkill."^[25] The Washington Post described the film as "a satisfying little thriller as grimly professional as its efficient hero" and likened the action to the Bourne film series.^[26] Derek Elley of Variety described the film as a "kick ass, pedal-to-the-metal actioner [...] that wisely doesn't give the viewer any time to ponder the string of unlikely coincidences [...] the film has the forward, devil-may-care momentum of a Bond film on steroids."^[27]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described the film's premise as "unintentionally silly at times [...] Obviously, 'Taken' is not the kind of action film to spend much time worrying about its pedestrian script or largely indifferent acting, so it's fortunate to have Neeson in the starring role." Bryan Mills is characterized as "relentless attack machine who is impervious to fists, bullets and fast-moving cars, he uses a variety of martial arts skills to knock out more opponents than Mike Tyson and casually kill those he doesn't KO".^[28]

CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.^[29]

Accolades

Home media

Taken was released as "Taken (Single-Disc Extended Edition)" on DVDs on 12 May 2009 and on Blu-ray on 9 December 2014. The film also saw release of "Taken (Two-Disc Extended Edition)" on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs on 12 May 2009.^[30] As of 5 February 2015, the film has sold 5,388,963 DVDs and 607,073 Blu-ray Discs and grossing $79,798,171 and $10,069,116 respectively totaling $89,867,287 in North America.^[31]

Controversy

In 2011, a self-proclaimed counter-terrorism expert who claimed the film was based on a real-life incident in which his daughter was killed was convicted of wire fraud. William G. Hillar, who pretended to be a retired Green Beret colonel, claimed to have spent more than 12 years lecturing US government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation on security issues. However, records revealed he had actually been a radar operator in the Coast Guard Reserve between 1962 and 1970, and had never been in the US Army. Nevertheless, his website claimed Taken was based on events involving him and his family. Hillar, who admitted the charges, was sentenced to 500 hours of community service at Maryland State Veteran Cemetery. He also agreed to repay $171,000 in speaking fees that he had received from various organizations to which he had presented himself as an expert in terrorism and human trafficking.^[32]

In other media

• The plot of "Leggo My Meg-O", the twentieth episode of the tenth season of the TV series Family Guy, is based on Taken.^[33] In "Brian's a Bad Father", Brian mentions that having Zooey Deschanel cast as the daughter in Taken would be thinking outside the box. A cutaway gag then depicts Bryan Mills (reprised by Liam Neeson) instructing the kidnappers to send him the head of Zooey Deschanel.
• In "Hunt", a fifth season episode of the TV series Castle, when Richard Castle's daughter Alexis is kidnapped and taken to Paris, Castle follows and Det. Kevin Ryan asks, "Who does he think he is, Liam Neeson?"
• A Saturday Night Live opening sketch in March 2014 featured Liam Neeson reprising his character from the film in response to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and in defense of President Obama.^[34]
• In the animated Cartoon Network series, The Amazing World of Gumball in the episode "The Kids", Gumball calls Mr. Fitzgerald and asks if he can talk to Penny, Mr. Fitzgerald thinks Gumball is being disrespectful to him due to his changing voice, and threatens Gumball by repeating Bryan Mills' phone speech in a scary voice. Later in the episode, Mr. Fitzgerald drives up to Gumball from his car and says the Bryan Mills line to him once more, but Gumball quickly cuts him off when he rolls up his car window, locks the door, and slams it shut in his face.
• In Lego Dimensions, when Bad Cop interacts with Unikitty, Unikitty says she has a particular set of skills. Taken featured Bad Cop's voice actor Liam Neeson in the lead role.
• One of the most popular^[35] and best-received^[36] commercials of Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015, an ad by Finnish game developer Supercell for its popular game Clash of Clans, featured Neeson parodying his character from Taken.^[37]
• In "Red Means Stop", the finale episode of the sixth season of The Venture Bros, The Monarch and Henchman 21 trick Red Death's family into going to his mother-in-law's and call him claiming to have kidnapped them. Before he could finish his speech, Red Death quotes Neeson's "I will find you" speech. The Monarch apologises and slowly hangs up then start to cower for a few seconds.

Sequels and television series

In November 2010, Fox announced that EuropaCorp would produce a sequel directed by Olivier Megaton. Taken 2 was subsequently released in France on 3 October 2012, with Neeson, Janssen, Grace, Gries, Rabourdin and Orser reprising their roles from the first film.^[38][39][40]

A third Taken film was released 16 December 2014.

In September 2015, NBC ordered a prequel series depicting a younger Bryan Mills with Clive Standen portraying Mills, Gaius Charles, Monique Gabriela Curnen, James Landry Hebert, Michael Irby, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Jennifer Marsala and Simu Liu are cast as John, Vlasik, Casey, Sam, Bernie, Riley and Faaron, members of OPCON. Brooklyn Sudano is cast as Asha, an attractive, well-educated young student from an upper-middle-class family who is furthering her education when she first meets Bryan and Jennifer Beals is cast as Christina Hart, the Special Deputy Director of National Intelligence who has taken Mills under her wing. Cultured and powerful with a wealth of field experience, her current government position has her overseeing an elite team of operatives who take care of America’s national security emergencies. Alex Cary will be the writer, executive producer and showrunner for the series and Alex Graves directing the pilot.^{[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]}

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taken (film).

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Taken

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