The $226M Thriller That Completely Changed Liam Neeson's Career Is Now On Streaming

Summary Liam Neeson's role in Taken transformed him from a respected dramatic actor to a beloved action star.

Taken struck a chord with audiences by showcasing a parent's quest to save their child under extreme circumstances.

Despite mixed reviews from critics, Taken remains one of the high points in Neeson's action career, often imitated but rarely bettered.

The classic 2008 thriller that turned Liam Neeson from a respected dramatic actor into a beloved action star is now streaming on Max, and it’s still one of the high points of his career. After landing early roles in Excalibur and The Dead Pool, Neeson first rose to fame with his turn as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s harrowing Holocaust drama Schindler’s List in 1993, which earned him a much-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor. This led to other leading roles in historical biopics, like 1995’s Rob Roy and 1996’s Michael Collins.

Neeson first broke into the blockbuster realm with his fan-favorite performance as Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999. He went on to play Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins and Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy. But Neeson still wasn’t done evolving his career and surprising audiences. In 2008, he starred in a tiny low-budget thriller about a desperate father searching for his kidnapped daughter, and it unexpectedly became a global hit. It turned him into an iconic action hero and led to a whole new career renaissance for the actor.

Taken Is Now Streaming On Max – What To Know About The Movie

Neeson stars as a father trying to find his kidnapped daughter in Paris

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Neeson’s first straightforward action thriller, Taken, originally released in 2008, is now streaming on Max. Neeson plays an ex-CIA agent and single father named Bryan Mills, who’s now more interested in building a relationship with his 17-year-old daughter Kim than protecting national security. When Kim and her friend go on a trip to Paris, they’re abducted by a sinister band of Albanian human traffickers. Mills determines he has 96 hours to find her before she’s lost forever, and heads to Paris to track her down. He draws on his very particular set of skills to bring the traffickers to justice.

Neeson’s co-stars include Maggie Grace as Kim, Famke Janssen as his ex-wife Lenore, Xander Berkeley as Lenore’s new husband, and Leland Orser as an old CIA colleague who helps Mills track down Kim’s kidnappers. When it first arrived in 2008, Taken was met with mixed reviews from critics. It’s sitting right on the verge of a “rotten” verdict on Rotten Tomatoes with the just-about-fresh score of 60%. Critics praised Neeson’s performance, but criticized the implausible logic of the film’s plot.

But in spite of those mixed reviews, Taken really struck a chord with audiences. Everyone can relate to Mills, because he just wants to save his daughter from the worst people in the world. A parent’s quest to keep their child safe is universal, and Taken puts that universal parental feeling under the most extreme circumstances for an action thriller that’s both hugely entertaining on a visceral level and deeply engaging on an emotional level.

Taken grossed $226.8 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million.

How Taken Transformed Liam Neeson's Career

Taken turned Neeson into an action star

Although Neeson didn’t think much of Taken when he was shooting it, it ended up completely redefining his career. He went from being the Oscar nominee best known for his role in Schindler’s List to being the action star best known for his role in Taken. Taken started a trend of action movies starring older actors – it was promptly followed by RED, The Gunman, The Expendables, Escape Plan, and A Good Day to Die Hard – and created a whole subgenre dubbed “geriaction.” What was expected to be a forgettable straight-to-DVD thriller ended up being a game-changer in the action genre.

Neeson has done a handful of non-action movies in the years since he starred in Taken (Silence, The Lego Movie, A Million Ways to Die in the West), but most of his post-Taken films have been attempts to recapture Taken’s success. Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night, The Commuter, Cold Pursuit, Honest Thief, The Marksman, and The Ice Road were all shallow attempts to replicate the success of Taken. Neeson even starred in two sequels to Taken that were just as successful at the box office but didn’t resonate nearly as much.

Taken Is Still One Of The High Points Of Liam Neeson's Action Career

Taken is often imitated but rarely bettered

Given that it’s often imitated but rarely matched (and even more rarely improved upon), Taken remains one of the high points of Neeson’s action movie career. Out of the post-Taken bunch of Neeson-starring actioners, there are only a small handful that are worthy of basking in Taken’s legacy. The Grey is a nail-biting thriller that pits Neeson against a pack of wolves in the harsh wilderness. Cold Pursuit subverted expectations with a pitch-black sense of humor. Liam Neeson has made some great action movies since Taken, but they’re sadly few and far between.