Story of movie Taken Film :
Taken is a 2008 French action thriller film written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, and directed by Pierre Morel. It stars Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Katie Cassidy, Leland Orser, and Holly Valance. Neeson plays Bryan Mills, a former CIA operative who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter Kim (Grace) and her best friend Amanda (Cassidy) after the two girls are kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers while traveling in France during a vacation.
| Taken | |
|---|---|
French theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Pierre Morel |
| Produced by | Luc Besson |
| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Nathaniel Méchaly |
| Cinematography | Michel Abramowicz |
| Edited by | Frédéric Thoraval |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox (US) EuropaCorp International (International) |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $226.8 million |
Taken 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. The film was followed by two sequels—Taken 2 and Taken 3—released in 2012 and 2014, respectively. A television series for the series premiered in 2017 on NBC, with Clive Standen portraying Bryan Mills.
Screenplay
Retired CIA field agent Bryan Mills attempts to build a closer relationship with his 17-year-old daughter Kim, who lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. While overseeing security at a concert for pop star Sheerah, Bryan saves her from an armed attacker. Out of gratitude, Sheerah offers to have Kim assessed as a singer. Before Bryan can tell her about the offer, Kim asks her father for permission to travel to Paris with her best friend Amanda. As he's wary about Kim's safety since she wants to go on without him, he initially refuses, but eventually agrees. At the airport, Bryan learns the girls are actually planning to follow U2 during their European tour.
Upon arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Kim and Amanda meet Peter, an attractive young Frenchman who offers to share a taxi. Kim and Amanda go to Amanda's cousins' apartment, only for Kim to find that they are in Spain. While she makes a call to Bryan, Kim sees men enter the apartment and abduct Amanda. Kim follows her father's instructions to hide and listen closely. After she is dragged out from underneath a bed, Kim yells a description of her abductor. Bryan hears a person breathing heavily and, realising one of the abductors has picked up the phone, tells him that he will not go after the kidnappers if they release his daughter, but warns them that failure will result in their deaths. A man tersely replies, "Good luck."
Sam, an old friend and former colleague of Bryan, deduces that the kidnappers are part of an Albanian sex trafficking ring and identifies the man as Marko Hoxha. Based on previous history, Kim will disappear for good if not found within 96 hours. Bryan flies to Paris, breaks into the apartment and finds Peter's reflection in a picture on Kim's phone. He finds Peter at the airport and tries to capture him. While fleeing, Peter gets rammed by a truck. With his only lead dead, Bryan turns to an old contact, former French intelligence agent Jean-Claude Pitrel, who now has a desk job. Jean-Claude informs him of the local red-light district where the Albanian prostitution ring operates, but warns him not to get involved. Bryan enters a makeshift brothel in a construction yard, where he 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 where he treats her with improvised detoxification.
The next morning, the woman tells Bryan of a safe house where she and Kim were kept. Posing as Jean-Claude, Bryan enters the house under the pretense of re-negotiating the police protection rate. When he identifies Marko Hoxha by making him repeat the same phrase as on the phone, the meeting erupts into a fight that results in the death of all gangsters except Marko. A quick search reveals several heavily drugged girls, including a dead Amanda. Bryan ties Marko into a chair and interrogates him using parrilla. Marko reveals that virgins like Kim are sold quickly due to their prized value, and identifies the buyer as Patrice Saint-Clair. Bryan leaves him to die from continuous electrocution and visits Jean-Claude's apartment that evening. Having discovered Jean-Claude's corruption, Bryan injures the latter's wife to coerce him into disclosing Saint-Clair's location.
Bryan infiltrates a covert sex slave auction underway beneath Saint-Clair's manor, where Kim is the subject of the last sale. Bryan forces Ali, an Arab bidder, to purchase her. While making his way out, Bryan is knocked out and chained to a pipe, but manages to escape and eliminate Saint-Clair's henchmen. Saint-Clair reveals a yacht owned by a sheikh named Raman before Bryan murders him. Bryan pursues the yacht and eliminates the bodyguards, including Ali, before encountering Raman in his suite where he is holding Kim at knifepoint. When Raman attempts to negotiate, Bryan kills him with a headshot. Back in the United States, Kim is reunited with Lenore and Stuart. Lenore reconciles with Bryan and allows him to bond with Kim by visiting Sheerah together.
- Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills
- Maggie Grace as Kim Mills
- Famke Janssen as Lenore St John
- Katie Cassidy as Amanda
- Leland Orser as Sam Gilroy
- Jon Gries as Mark Casey
- David Warshofsky as Bernie Harris
- Holly Valance as Sheerah
- Xander Berkeley as Stuart St John
- Olivier Rabourdin as Jean-Claude Pitrel
- Gérard Watkins as Patrice Saint-Clair
- Arben Bajraktaraj as Marko Hoxha
- Camille Japy as Isabelle
- Nicolas Giraud as Peter
- Goran Kosti? as Gregor
- Nabil Massad as Raman
- Jalil Naciri as Ali
The film was produced by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp. 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. 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.
The score of the film was composed by Nathaniel Méchaly and released on 27 January 2009.
| Taken: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
|---|---|
| Film score by Nathaniel Méchaly | |
| Released | 29 January 2009 |
| Recorded | 2008 |
| Genre | Film score |
| Length | 45:50 |
| Label | Razor & Tie |
Soundtrack
All songs written and composed by Nathaniel Méchaly except where noted.
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