Taken (film)

Bryan Mills is a former Green Beret and CIA officer who attempts to build a closer relationship with his 17-year-old daughter Kim, who lives with her mother (his ex-wife) Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. While overseeing security at a concert for pop star Sheerah, Bryan saves her from a knife-wielding attacker. Out of gratitude, Sheerah offers to have a vocal coach assess Kim as a singer. Before Bryan can tell her about the offer, Kim asks him for permission to travel to Paris with her best friend Amanda. Bryan initially refuses due to concern about her safety, but eventually accepts. At the airport, Bryan learns that Kim lied to him and that the girls are actually planning to follow U2 during their European tour.

Upon arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Kim and Amanda meet a handsome young stranger named Peter who offers to share a taxi. Kim and Amanda go to Amanda's cousins' apartment, where Kim learns that the cousins are in Spain. After answering a call from Bryan, Kim sees men enter the apartment and abduct Amanda. When Kim is dragged out from hiding, she yells a description of her abductor, following her father's instructions. Bryan hears someone breathing on the phone and tells the listener that he will not pursue the kidnappers if they release his daughter, but warns them that refusing to accept his offer will result in their deaths.[8] The listener only replies "good luck" and terminates the call. Sam, an old friend and former colleague of Bryan, deduces that the kidnappers are part of an Albanian sex trafficking ring and identifies the listener as mob boss Marko Hoxha. Based on previous abductions, Kim must be found within 96 hours or she will likely be lost forever.

Bryan flies to Paris, where he breaks into the apartment and finds Peter's reflection in a picture on Kim's phone. He finds Peter at the airport, trying to lure a female traveler. Bryan gives chase in a stolen taxi. While fleeing, Peter is suddenly killed by an oncoming truck. With his only lead dead, Bryan turns to an old contact, ex-DGSE agent turned National Police officer Jean-Claude Pitrel, who now has a desk job. Jean-Claude warns him not to get involved, but informs him of the local red-light district where Bryan plants a listening device on an Albanian pimp. Bryan searches a makeshift brothel in a construction yard and rescues a drugged young woman who has Kim's denim jacket.

After a gunfight and high-speed chase with the brothel's operators, Bryan takes the woman to a hotel and improvises her detoxification. The next morning, the woman tells Bryan about a house where she and Kim were kept. Posing as Jean-Claude, Bryan enters the house under the pretense of renegotiating the police protection rate. When Bryan identifies Marko by tricking him into saying "good luck," the meeting erupts into a fight which results in the deaths of several gangsters. Searching the house, Bryan finds several heavily drugged girls, including Amanda, who died due to overdose. Bryan then tortures Marko with electricity, forcing him to confess that virgins like Kim are quickly sold on the black market. Marko identifies the buyer as crime syndicate leader Patrice Saint-Clair before Bryan leaves him to die from continuous electrocution.

At Jean-Claude's apartment, Bryan confronts him over his corruption and shoots his wife, wounding her to coerce him into disclosing Saint-Clair's location before knocking him out. Bryan infiltrates a secret sex slave auction taking place beneath Saint-Clair's mansion, where Kim is the subject of the last sale. Bryan forces one of the bidders named Ali to purchase her, but is subsequently caught and knocked out. Learning about Bryan's identity, Saint-Clair orders his henchmen to kill him, but Bryan breaks loose and kills them all. Saint-Clair reveals that Kim was taken to a yacht owned by a sheikh named Raman before Bryan murders him. Bryan pursues the yacht and eliminates the bodyguards, including Ali, before he finds Raman holding Kim at knifepoint. When Raman attempts to negotiate, Bryan kills him and Kim is rescued. Back in the US, Bryan surprises Kim by taking her to visit Sheerah.

The film was produced by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp.[9] Pierre Morel had previously worked as a director of photography for Besson, and they had also collaborated on Morel's directorial debut, District 13. 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.[10] 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. Instead, the film went on to define Neeson's career and establish him as an action star.[11]

The score of the film was composed by Nathaniel Méchaly and released on 27 January 2009.[12]

A trailer of Taken was released on 20 June 2008.[15] 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.[16] 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.[16]

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.[33] 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.[34]

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.[35][36][37] A third Taken film was released 16 December 2014.[38]

In September 2015, NBC ordered a TV 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, Scott, Dave, 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. Alexander Cary is a writer, executive producer and showrunner for the series and Alex Graves directed the pilot.[39][40] The show lasted two seasons, beginning in February 2017 and ending in June the following year.

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