Taken

It stars Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Katie Cassidy, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser and Holly Valance. In the film, Bryan Mills is an ex-CIA officer who sets to track down his teenage daughter Kim and her best friend Amanda after they are kidnapped by Albanian human traffickers while travelling in France during a vacation.

Taken was released in France on 27 February 2008 by EuropaCorp and was internationally released by 20th Century Fox.

The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a huge financial success, grossing $226 million, and numerous media outlets cited the film as a turning point in Neeson’s career that redefined and transformed him to an action star.

It also launched the Taken franchise, and was followed by two sequels Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2014) as well as a television series that premiered in 2017 on NBC with Clive Standen portraying a younger (and alternate) version of Bryan Mills.

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.

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 attempts to beat the information out of Peter and demand the whereabouts of Kim and Amanda, but is stopped by his partner. Bryan then 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 terrorists.

Searching the house, Bryan finds several heavily drugged girls, including Amanda, who died due to an overdose. Bryan then tortures Marko with electricity, and leaves him to die from continuous electrocution,

But not before the latter confesses that virgins like Kim are quickly sold on the black market and identifying the buyer as crime syndicate leader Patrice Saint-Clair.

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 eliminates them all. A mortally wounded Saint-Clair reveals of 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.