Taken | |
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![]() French theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Pierre Morel |
Written by | |
Produced by | Luc Besson |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Michel Abramowicz |
Edited by | Frédéric Thoraval |
Music by | Nathaniel Méchaly |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | EuropaCorp Distribution (France) 20th Century Fox (International) |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes[1] |
Country | France[2][3] |
Language | English |
Budget | $25 million[4] |
Box office | $226.8 million[4] |
Taken is a 2008 English-language French action-thriller film directed by Pierre Morel and written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It stars Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Katie Cassidy, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser and Holly Valance. In the film, Bryan Mills, an ex-CIA officer, sets to track down his teenage daughter Kim and her best friend Amanda after they are kidnapped by Albanian human trafficking terrorists 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.[5][6][7] It also launched as a franchise and was followed by two sequels Taken 2, Taken 3 and a television series that premiered in 2017 on NBC with Clive Standen portraying a younger yet alternate version of Bryan Mills.