Taken (I) - 2008

Title: Taken (I)

Year: 2008

Genre:Action /Thriller
Rating:7.9

Director:Pierre Morel

Releas Date:30 January 2009 (USA)
Runtime: 93 min
Star:  Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen

Former CIA operative Bryan Mills wants to have a closer relationship with his teenage daughter Kim. She lives with her mother, Lenore and her wealthy step-father, Stuart. During Kim's 17th birthday, he buys her an expensive karaoke machine only to be upstaged by Stuart, who surprises her with a horse.

While working as security, Bryan saves pop star Sheerah from a knife-wielding assailant after a concert. Sheerah, grateful, agrees to tutor Kim after Bryan says she aspires to be a singer. At a lunch soon after, Kim asks Bryan for permission to travel to Paris with her older friend Amanda. Bryan balks at the two girls travelling alone, but relents when Lenore complains that he is overprotective after being absent for most of Kim's life. He gives Kim a new cellphone that can work internationally, and makes her promise to call every day. At Los Angeles International Airport, he is dismayed to discover the girls aren't staying in Paris, but are actually following U2 during their European tour, something Lenore knew but kept from him.

Arriving in Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Kim and Amanda meet Peter, who offers to share a cab with them and invites them to a party. This is a ruse to gather information about where they are staying. At the apartment, Kim discovers that Amanda's cousins, with whom they are staying, and who are meant to be keeping an eye on them, are in fact in Spain. While talking to Bryan on the phone, Kim sees Amanda being kidnapped by intruders. Bryan instructs her to go to the nearest room and hide under a bed. He explains that when the men find her, she has to shout out their physical descriptions. Kim is pulled out from under the bed, and she complies with her father's instructions. When a kidnapper picks up the phone, Bryan tries to bargain with him, threatening to kill him if he doesn't let her go. The kidnapper replies only "good luck" and hangs up.

Bryan shows up at Stuart and Lenore's house, and tells her about their daughter's kidnapping. Bryan's former colleague Sam tells him that based on the recording, Kim has probably been taken by an Albanian human trafficking ring that has recently begun abducting female tourists. He also says that if she is not rescued within ninety-six hours, she will likely never be found. Bryan travels to Paris on one of Stuart's private jets and finds Peter at the airport. After a confrontation and chase, Peter is hit and killed by a passing truck before Bryan can interrogate him.

Bryan then seeks out Jean-Claude, a former French field agent who now works a desk job. Jean-Claude is relatively unhelpful but does direct Bryan to a district where an East European gang are prostituting women. Bryan follows one gangster to a makeshift brothel at a construction site, where he finds a girl wearing Kim's jacket. He fights off the brothel guards and escapes with the girl.

After the girl awakens, she gives Bryan enough information about the house where she met Kim to allow him to find it. Bryan is let inside after he claims to be from the government, sent to renew its extortion "contract" with the brothel. He tricks the thugs inside into saying a few words and phrases, and recognizes a voice: Marko, the kidnapper he spoke to on the phone. He wounds Marko and kills the rest. Searching the house, he finds several captive teens, including Amanda, who is dead from a heroin overdose. In the basement of the house, Bryan straps Marko into a chair and tortures him with electric current until he talks: Kim, being a virgin, was very valuable on the black market, and was sold to an auctioneer named Patrice Saint-Clair. Bryan leaves Marko to die from electrocution and visits Jean-Claude at home. Having deduced that Jean-Claude is corrupt, Bryan shoots Jean-Claude's wife in the arm and threatens to kill her unless Jean-Claude gives up Saint-Clair's address.

Bryan infiltrates Saint-Clair's mansion, where a large party is the facade for an auction of girls in the basement. His daughter is the last offering. Bryan forces a Middle Eastern bidder to purchase her, but is captured after they exit the room. Bryan frees himself and kills Saint-Clair's henchmen. He forces Saint-Clair to reveal where Kim has been taken before killing him. Bryan races to a luxury yachtowned by a sheikh. Jumping aboard, Bryan kills the boat's guards, and finally confronts the sheikh in his boudoir. Despite the sheikh holding a knife to Kim's throat, Bryan shoots him in the head and rescues his daughter. They return to the U.S. where she is reunited with her mother and stepfather. Afterward, Bryan takes Kim to see Sheerah for her first singing lesson.

Movie Trailer

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