Taken

PLOT

Former Green Beret and CIA officer Bryan Mills 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 Kim assessed as a singer, which she initially rebuffed when Bryan initially mentioned Kim's ambition. Before Bryan can tell her about the offer, Kim asks him for permission to travel to Paris with her best friend, Amanda. He initially refuses, concerned about her safety, but eventually gives in. At the airport, Bryan learns that Kim lied; the girls are actually planning to follow U2 during their European tour.

Upon arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Kim and Amanda meet Peter, a young Frenchman who offers to share a taxi. Kim and Amanda go to Amanda's cousins' apartment, where Kim finds out that the cousins are in Spain. After answering a call from Bryan, Kim sees men enter the apartment and abduct Amanda. When she 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 go after the kidnappers if they release his daughter, but warns them that he has "a very particular set of skills" that "...make me a nightmare for people like you" and that "...I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you".[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 history, Kim must be found within 96 hours or she will be lost forever. 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, trying to charm a female traveler, and tries to capture him. While fleeing, Peter is struck 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 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, where he improvises her detoxification.

The next morning, the woman tells Bryan of 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 he identifies Marko Hoxha by tricking him into repeating the same phrase, the meeting erupts into a fight which results in the deaths of several gangsters except Marko. After finding several heavily drugged girls and Amanda's body, Bryan tortures Marko with electricity. Marko reveals that virgins like Kim have high value in the black market and are quickly sold, before identifying the buyer as Patrice Saint-Clair. Bryan leaves Marko to die from continuous electrocution and visits Jean-Claude's apartment that evening. Having discovered Jean-Claude's corruption, Bryan wounds the latter's wife to coerce him into disclosing Saint-Clair's location, before knocking him out.

Bryan infiltrates a covert sex slave auction taking place beneath Saint-Clair's manor, where Kim is the subject of the last sale. Bryan forces Ali, one of the bidders, to purchase her. While making his way out, Bryan is knocked out and chained to a pipe, but manages to free himself and eliminate Saint-Clair's henchmen. Saint-Clair reveals that Kim was sold to a sheikh named Raman and taken to his yacht before Bryan murders him. Bryan pursues the yacht and eliminates the bodyguards, including Ali, before he finds 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, Bryan surprises Kim by taking her to see Sheerah.

CAST

Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills

Maggie Grace as Kim Mills

Famke Janssen as Lenore Mills-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 Kostić as Gregor

Nabil Massad [fr] as Raman

Jalil Naciri [fr] as Ali

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Also known as 96 Hours and The Hostage in some countries.