Taken (2008)

A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.

Director:

Pierre Morel

Writers:

Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

Stars:

Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Liam Neeson	...	Bryan Mills
Maggie Grace	...	Kim
Leland Orser	...	Sam
Jon Gries	...	Casey
David Warshofsky	...	Bernie
Holly Valance	...	Sheerah
Katie Cassidy	...	Amanda
Xander Berkeley	...	Stuart
Olivier Rabourdin	...	Jean-Claude
Gérard Watkins	...	St-Clair
Famke Janssen	...	Lenore
Marc Amyot	...	Pharmacist
Arben Bajraktaraj	...	Marko
Radivoje Bukvic	...	Anton (as Rasha Bukvic)
Mathieu Busson	...	Undercover Agent

Storyline

Seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father Bryan Mills. Bryan is a retired agent who left the Central Intelligence Agency to be near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. Kim manages to convince her reluctant father to allow her to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When the girls arrive in Paris they share a cab with a stranger named Peter, and Amanda lets it slip that they are alone in Paris. Using this information an Albanian gang of human traffickers kidnaps the girls. Kim barely has time to call her father and give him information. Her father gets to speak briefly to one of the kidnappers and he promises to kill the kidnappers if they do not let his daughter go free. The kidnapper wishes him "good luck," so Bryan Mills travels to Paris to search for his daughter and her friend.

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Plot Keywords:

france | rescue | sex trafficking | revenge | woman in jeopardy | 

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Taglines:

They've taken his daughter. Now, he's taking them down.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Maggie Grace was reportedly trained by world-renowned running coach Alberto Salazar in order to learn the finer points of running like a 12-year-old girl.

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Goofs

After Bryan Mills saves the girl from the construction area brothel, he drives away in a white SUV. The pursuing bad guys shoot out the back window. The same window is intact in several following scenes.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Singh: Mr. Mills, how are you?
Bryan: I'm fine. How are you?
Singh: Very fine. I suppose you want to see it again?
Bryan: If you don't mind.
Singh: You know where it is.
Bryan: Oh yeah.

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Alternate Versions

Some of the shoot outs, the torture scene and some fisticuffs have been shortened in length for the film's US release to secure a PG-13 rating. The run time difference to the international version is about three minutes.

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Connections

Referenced in The Player (2015)

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Soundtracks

Happy Birthday
Written by Patty S. Hill (as Patty Hill), Mildred J. Hill (as Mildred Hill)
(c) 1935 Summy Birchard Music Company
Courtesy of Warner Chappell Music France

User Reviews

Never Boring, Always Exciting

This movie had me excited from since I had read reviews on IMDb about it, and it did not disappoint. This is a fast paced thriller that had me gripped till the end, with great elements of action, a bit of gore, a lot of suspense, and all in all a fun movie that was completely worth the 90 minutes.

Liam Neeson once again proves himself to be up there among the best with another brilliant performance and this one has really made me a big fan of his work, especially after great performances recently in Batman Begins, and voice roles in Narnia and Fallout 3. All through the movie he gives you the impression that he is not one to be messed with, and makes the action sequences look absolutely fantastic. The next Bond? Although a bit old, he would fit into the role brilliantly seeing as how easily he carried it through in Taken.

All in all, a great movie, and one I'd recommend to anyone who loves a good action thriller... Nine out of Ten

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [United States]

Country:

France USA UK

Language:

English French Albanian Arabic

Release Date:

30 January 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Taken

Filming Locations:

Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris 8, Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$24,717,037, 1 February 2009

Gross USA:

$145,000,989

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$226,837,760

Company Credits

Production Co:

EuropaCorp, M6 Films, Grive Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min 93 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1