8 / 10
The Taken trilogy consists of three films released across six years: Taken (2008), Taken 2 (2012), and Taken 3 (2014). All three films star Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, a retired Central Intelligence Agency operative whose professional skills are deployed against antagonists across the series. Pierre Morel directed the original. Olivier Megaton directed the second and third installments. Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen wrote all three screenplays. Maggie Grace plays Kim Mills, Bryan’s daughter, across all three films. Famke Janssen plays Lenore Mills, Bryan’s ex-wife, across the series.
Forest Whitaker joined the cast for the third installment as Inspector Franck Dotzler. The franchise produced major commercial success across the three films and effectively redefined Liam Neeson’s late-career trajectory as action lead. The first Taken is a blast. Liam Neeson on a phone, calm and furious at once, is all the setup I need, and the ninety-three minutes that follow barely stop for breath. The 8 is really the original carrying its two sequels on its back, because each follow-up gives me more Neeson and less of what made Paris so gripping.
The trilogy is an escalating examination of one man’s professional skills deployed in progressively expanded circumstances. The original film involves Bryan rescuing his daughter from European human trafficking. The second film involves Bryan and his family targeted by relatives of antagonists from the first film. The third film involves Bryan being framed for his ex-wife’s murder. The escalating scale produces consequences. The original film is a compressed thriller with tight focus. The sequels expand the operational scope while diluting the compressed power that gave the original its particular impact.
The Original Film
At ninety-three minutes, the 2008 Taken is a compressed thriller with structural commitment. The opening twenty minutes establish Bryan’s character as retired operative attempting to reconnect with his teenage daughter and ex-wife. The setup is efficient but not perfunctory. The audience experiences Bryan’s professional anxieties about his daughter’s planned Paris travel before the actual abduction occurs. The kidnapping sequence is among the most accomplished single sequences in contemporary American action cinema.
Bryan’s phone call with the abductors, the intelligence-gathering technique he uses to identify them, and his immediate response establish the franchise’s central appeal in about five minutes of runtime. That stretch is the reason I rate this series as high as I do. Neeson going quiet on that line gives me chills.
The Paris pursuit works with sustained efficiency across the film. Bryan’s investigation produces information that drives specific action sequences. The film doesn’t include subplot diversion or thematic exploration beyond what the immediate plot requires. The compressed structure produces continuous engagement that conventional action runtime can’t maintain.
The film’s commitment to operational competence over character development produces effective genre work. The protagonist is established sufficiently for genre purposes without requiring strong dramatic excavation. This allows the runtime to work at maximum pacing.
For Writers
Compressed action structure requires establishing sufficient character context to support genre engagement without developing the character beyond what the genre requires. The original Taken establishes Bryan Mills efficiently and commits the runtime to the operational consequences of his established competence. The lesson applies to genre fiction with action focus. Establish character context sufficient for genre purposes. Resist the impulse to develop character beyond what the action material requires. The compressed structure produces stronger genre work than expanded character development would have allowed.
The Sequel Decline
Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2014) both follow the usual sequel slide, and Taken 2 is where the series starts to lose me. Moving the threat to Bryan and his family in Istanbul widens the scope, and the wider focus dilutes the single-minded pursuit that gave the original its punch. It’s competent action filmmaking that leaves me cold.
The third film tries to ground the franchise at home in America with a murder mystery, and I like the instinct, because it pulls the scope back in. It also throws away the European setting that gave the original its flavor, and what’s left feels like a generic Liam Neeson vehicle. Forest Whitaker adds the weight the second film lacked, and I enjoy every scene he’s in, but even he can’t fix a story this compromised.
For Writers
Sequel work typically requires either committing to repetition of the original’s specific identity or real departure that justifies the new work. The Taken sequels attempt middle paths that produce neither continuation strength nor departure justification. The lesson applies to series fiction. Identify what made the original work. Either commit to that material across sequels or develop very different work that justifies the franchise extension. Middle paths produce diluted versions of both options.
The Neeson Career Reinvention
It was the Taken franchise that effectively redefined Liam Neeson’s late-career trajectory. The performer’s prior career had emphasized serious dramatic work including Schindler’s List (1993), Michael Collins (1996), and Kinsey (2004). The Taken commercial success produced later action role offers that Neeson accepted across the later decade. The actor has continued primarily within action genre work across his sixties and into his seventies. I can’t think of a more surprising late-career reinvention in contemporary American cinema.
The reinvention matters when judging the franchise. The original works partly on the surprise of seeing Neeson cast against type, and I think that shock is half the fun. By the sequels, the surprise is gone. His later action films, including The Grey (2011), Non-Stop (2014) and Run All Night (2015), extend the pattern, and Taken sits at the foundation of all of them.
Craft Note
The original Taken’s phone call sequence between Bryan and the abductors has become canonical material in later action cinema. The sequence works through structural choices that less successful films have attempted to replicate. The audience hears Bryan’s professional declaration of his skills, the abductor’s specific dismissive response, and Bryan’s commitment to consequences. The sequence runs approximately ninety seconds and accomplishes real character establishment, plot setup, and tonal direction in compressed runtime.
The dialogue including the “particular set of skills” phrase has entered American cultural reference patterns considerably. Compressed character establishment through dialogue can produce more real impact than extended introduction sequences would generate. The sequence is study material for any writer working in compressed action genre.
Is Taken Trilogy (2008-2014) worth watching?
As a trilogy, Taken represents significant commercial achievement in contemporary American action cinema with real quality variation across the three films. The original 2008 work is among the strongest compressed action thrillers of its decade and remains essential viewing. The 2012 sequel is competent action material without the original’s power. The 2014 third film returns to compressed scope but can’t recapture the foundational impact. The franchise effectively established Liam Neeson’s late-career trajectory and produced cultural reference patterns that have outlived the films themselves. The first film is highly recommended.
The sequels are for completists and for anyone who enjoys Neeson action work in general. The 8 belongs to the original, which I’d put on again tonight, and it’s high enough to cover the sequels without pretending they earned it. If you only watch one, make it the 2008 film.
- Taken (2008), IMDb
- Taken 2 (2012), IMDb
- Taken 3 (2014), IMDb
