History Film / Taken

** An American RetiredBadass puts a whole sex slavery ring operating in Paris on its knees in just three days, while several people from the French authorities are revealed to be complicit in the trafficking. Less of an example than most in that the grudge is personal, and bringing the ring down is more a side effect of Bryan's actual goal of rescuing his daughter.

* OneManArmy: The main character goes through an underground sex-trafficking crime ring (and their relatives in the sequel) the same way [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 Leon Kennedy]] goes through a Spanish peasant village.

* FamilyMan: Bryan is a father who loves his family, that's why he doesn't hesitate to kill every last scumbag who kidnapped [[spoiler:or killed (his ex-wife in the third movie)]] their family members.

* FlippingTheBird: When he takes down one of the warehouses harbouring kidnapped women, while searching for his daughter and finding a girl wearing Kimmy's jacket; he takes the time to flip off the remaining bad guys and the French Police department investigating the explosion, while driving.

* GirlOfTheWeek: While it doesn't last long due to there being three movies, every film from ''Taken 2'' onwards gives Kim a new boyfriend wirh little screentime.

-->'''Bryan''': ''[to Jean-Claude]'' Tell me what I need, or the last thing you'll see before I make your children orphans is the bullet I put between [your wife's] eyes!

* IdiotBall: It's a wonder social services didn't come around to take Kim away from Lenore. It takes a particular kind of parental incompetence to encourage your (recently turned) 17 year old daughter to travel overseas across another continent with only one person she knows along with others she's not even the slightest bit familiar with and call out her [[PapaWolf overprotective father]] for even ''mentioning'' how this could go wrong.
* IllKillYou: Bryan swears to kill the sex traffickers and for '''damned [[PapaWolf good]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil reason]].'''

** Averted with Stuart -- despite his stock role as the husband of the hero's arrogant ex, the filmmakers cleverly resisted the obvious choice of making him a berk, and in the first film he lends his hand to Bryan as best as he can with the situation unlike Lenore. [[spoiler:That's not to say he wasn't going to turn out evil, however. In ''Taken 3'', Stuart is the one who orchestrates Lenore's murder, and he threatens to kill Kim as well.]]

* MeaningfulName: [[Literature/TheRaven Lenore]]. In the first film, she's "lost" in that they're divorced and she's remarried. In the sequel, she's kidnapped and Bryan must rescue her. [[spoiler:In the third she's murdered.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRescue: Both of the first films have this as its premise, as Bryan tears through every bastard in his way to rescue his daughter (in the first film) and his ex-wife (in the second film).

* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: The films fall firmly on Level 3 of the scale, unusually for an action film series spanning between the late 2000s and mid-2010s. The vast majority of male characters are the only ones involved in the fighting and drive most of the plot, with the very few relevant females[[note]]Mainly in the first movie, as Kim and Lenore are actually the two remaining females from ''Taken 2'' onwards.[[/note]] taking the role of DamselInDistress, DisposableWoman or both. By ''Taken 2'', Kim is the only female who outgrows this position, and even then she just provides non-offensive support to Bryan, while merely trying to dodge the bad guys rather than at least fighting them back briefly with the means she has in hand (to say nothing of the fact that she returns to damsel status in ''Taken 3''). Of particular mention is the fact that plenty of Albanian women are seen mourning for their relatives at the opening funeral scene in ''Taken 2'', yet none of them appear in the Albanian families' mission to get revenge on Bryan afterwards.

*** The human trafficking organization runs on the premise that the best women are young girls with rich families that can send them on vacation and who have the diplomatic clout to demand investigations. Better yet, they operate at a post-9/11 airport so that they can be recorded by security cameras talking to the girls at their last known location. Even if Bryan hadn't made his roaring rampage of rescue, the families would be demanding answers, the news media would be having a field day, and the French government would have shut the whole thing down within a week (maybe). Human trafficking only works when nobody cares enough about the victims.

---->'''Bryan''': It was all personal to me! ''([[MultipleGunshotDeath BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!]])''

* TranquilFury; Bryan Mills doesn't do "screaming berserker". Even when he's threatening people he talks loud, but rarely outright shouts. He lets the violence he inflicts speak for him.

* WorfHadTheFlu: Bryan starts to run on fumes by the end (in addition to his hurry to finally get to Kim) which results in some tougher fights. Despite getting hurt a bit more, he doesn't stop. The same goes for the sequel.
* WouldHitAGirl: Bryan is not afraid to shoot someone's innocent wife in order to get the information he needs. He does have the courtesy to give her a [[OnlyAFleshWound flesh wound]] instead of outright killing her though.

* AnywhereButTheirLips: After Bryan defends Sheerah against a LoonyFan who tried to kill her, she thanks him afterwards by giving him a talent scout's name for Kim and kisses him on the cheek. While she's slightly older than Bryan's actual daughter, he's still old enough to be her father. In the previous scene, she already cried into his chest the way a distressed daughter might [[spoiler:and Kim herself also does later on.]]

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Sheik Raman's [[TheDragon Dragon]], Ali, is probably the only person in the entire film to be on equal footing with Bryan in a fight... or the only person who lasts more than 30 seconds against him, anyway.

* FanDisservice: One late scene has Kim in a bikini. Of course, she is underage[[note]][[DawsonCasting her actress wasn't]], thankfully[[/note]], she is drugged-up, she is being exhibited at a slave auction and her father is technically being ForcedToWatch.

* ForWantOfANail: See ContrivedCoincidence. Bryan calls Kim shortly after she and Amanda arrive in Paris, and during the call Kim and Amanda are kidnapped by the Albanians. Thank God Bryan called at the time he did, since if he hadn't, the plot wouldn't have gone ahead and Bryan almost certainly wouldn't have found out the girls had been kidnapped until it was way too late.

Not related to the AlienAbduction MiniSeries ''[[Series/{{Taken}} Steven Spielberg Presents Taken]]''. Or with the Taken from ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' or ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}''. Or with ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' (or with [[Film/{{Tekken}} its film adaptation]]).

* GunsAkimbo: Conspicuously subverted. Brian acquires a pair of handguns in the climactic gunfight, but he tucks the second one into his waistband and does not draw it until after the first pistol has been emptied and discarded.
** This could be because in real life, dual wielding pistols is known for being [[AwesomeButImpractical inaccurate and impractical.]]

* GenreBlind: Despite having a pretty good idea of what Bryan is capable of, Murad still insists on prolonging his suffering and [[AndYourLittleDogToo explaining what he intends to do to Bryan's family]], then proceeds to ''not'' have a few dozen mooks with guns trained on him at all times. This turns out to be exactly as bad a plan as it sounds.

*** Jean-Claude has a wife and children.

** This goes to cause problems galore for Bryan in the sequel -- a lot of the Albanian men he previously killed have families and friends also working in criminal businesses, and they are ''pissed off'' about their deaths.

** In the first movie, Patrice St. Clair mentions to Bryan that he has children.

-->'''Murad:''' You recognize none of them. To you, they were nothing, but to other people, they are... sons and grandsons, fathers and husbands, and you killed them all, like they were so many nothings. ''(shows Bryan a photo of Marko)'' And this one? You recognize him? You do recognize him. Him, you didn't just kill; him, you strapped to a chair, you attached electric cables to the chair, you turned the current on, and you left it on... until his heart burst.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Bryan is an ex-special forces soldier who tortured people in the past (which is where he learned his [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique "technique"]]), is merciless toward his enemies, and carries through threats on innocent people on more than one occasion (especially in ''Taken 3''). His main opponents include sex-slavers and terrorists, a pair of professions [[AcceptableTargets not exactly known for being all that sympathetic]].

* BigBad: Marko Hoxha, the leader of the kidnappers, [[BigBadDuumvirate and]] Patrice Saint-Clair, the man who auctions off the kidnapped girls. Sheik Raman's [[TheDragon bodyguard]] Ali serves as a FinalBoss of sorts, while Sheik Raman himself, as the man who ultimately purchased Kim, is [[PostFinalBoss the last person Bryan confronts]].
* BullyingADragon: Marko had no way of knowing exactly who Bryan is, but an organized crime boss should ''probably'' recognize a monotone death threat instead of hysterical pleading (e.g. "I'll pay anything you want!") is going to be trouble, rather than shrug it off like it was nothing important.

* BigBad: Murad Hoxha, the leader of the Albanians seeking revenge on Bryan for killing their relatives in the first film. Specifically, Murad is the father of Marko, one of the first film's two Big Bads.

* GenreBlind: Despite having a pretty good idea of what Bryan is capable of, Murad still insists on prolonging his suffering and [[AndYourLittleDogToo explaining what he intends to do to Bryan's family]], then proceeds to ''[[BondVillainStupidity not]]'' [[BondVillainStupidity have a few dozen mooks with guns trained on him at all times]]. This turns out to be exactly as bad a plan as it sounds.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Murad. There's a trope-defining scene where Lenore is talking to him, and Murad mentions how he admires her, how he thinks she's a innocent woman who had nothing to do with his son's death, and then he says for such respect he'll send her back home...''in pieces.''

* [[AvengingTheVillain Avenging the Villains]]: The film's premise is the families of the antagonists from the first movie attempting to get revenge on Bryan for killing them.

* VillainOpeningScene: The second and third movies open with Murad Hoxha visiting the funeral of his son and his associates and vowing revenge, and with Oleg Malankov killing a man after finding an empty safe respectively.

* CycleOfRevenge: Bryan discusses about this to Murad in their final confrontation. Murad tells Bryan that if he kills him, then his other two sons will seek revenge too, to which Bryan ensures him that they'll die the same way. Bryan mentions, however, that Murad can instead go home and spend time with his sons and grandchildren; his killing of Marko is merely the price of being in a criminal business like human trafficking, and echoes the loss of all the lives Marko ruined.

* CycleOfRevenge: Bryan tells Murad about this when they finally confront each other. Bryan knows that if he kills Murad, then his other two sons will just seek revenge for the death of their father, and will die the same way. Bryan mentions, however, that he can instead go home and raise his sons and grandchildren. The loss of his son is merely the price of being in human trafficking and echoes the loss of all lives his son ruined. [[spoiler:Murad tries to kill Bryan, leading Bryan to kill him instead.]]
* DelayedReaction: At the television room where several Albanians are watching soccer, one of the Albanians who decides to exit takes a while to properly react to Bryan suddenly appearing with a gun at his face, only walking back while dropping his things and then screaming just before Bryan shoots him dead and the other Albanians realize they're in danger right at that moment.

*** And the other way around too: Did said families ''seriously'' think that Bryan just takes things lying down? That he won't [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge just rip through all]] of the {{Mooks}} just to find Lenore?

*** Did Bryan ''seriously'' think that the Albanian scumbags in the first film ''wouldn't'' have families who would want to avenge their deaths?
*** And the other way around too: Did the Albanians ''seriously'' think that Bryan just takes things lying down? That he won't [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge just rip through all]] of the {{Mooks}} just to find Lenore?

** In the sequel's living room fight, one of the Albanians throws a bottle he was drinking from a Bryan.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ABC's ''Missing'', starring Ashley Judd, is about a former CIA agent MamaBear looking for her abducted son and stumbling onto some sort of larger plot. However, Becca Winstone has more backup and friends than Mills.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To Film/{{Commando}}, wherein another retired old warrior races against time to rescue his little girl.

* AntiHero: Bryan Mills, who is an UnscrupulousHero.

* GirlOfTheWeek: While it didn't last long due to there being three movies, every film from ''Taken 2'' onwards gives Kim a new boyfriend wirh little screentime.

* GoodIsNotSoft: Bryan Mills is polite, well-mannered, and doesn't like confrontation, but will rip your fucking head off if you mess with his family. It gets to the point that some of the methods Bryan employs to achieve his goals would make him an AntiVillain if not for the righteousness of his cause.

* CallBack: When Lenore tells Bryan not to go looking into Kim's boyfriend he just found out about, he tries to protest that he doesn't even know his name. She reminds him that he found his daughter in a city of 12 million people in less than 72 hours.