History Film / TakingLives

** The mother of the serial killer was neglectful and clearly favored his twin brother. She even made him stay in a filthy room that was more of a prison.

* AssholeVictim:
** Rebecca Asher was an abusive mother to the killer and [[spoiler:was killed by him.]]
** [[spoiler:Martin, the serial killer, ends up killed by Scott]].

* RightThroughHisPants: During a sex scene, Angelina Jolie wears only an open robe but Ethan Hawke keeps his suit on.

The film is a relatively by-the-numbers crime thriller, taking heavy cues from ''Film/{{Se7en}}'' in terms of tone and style (the opening credits are almost plagiarised), but is still an enjoyable watch. Critical reception was negative. The consensus seems to be that it's nothing new into the genre, with the biggest criticism seems to be how easy it is to spot TheReveal even from the start of the film.

* DrinkOrder: Costa notes Scott's love of coffee.

* [[DidntSeeThatComing Didn't See That Coming]]

* HeroicBSOD

* DestructoNookie: The natural progression from wall-banging.[[note]] Varies depending on which version your watching. The M-rated version features a fairly ordinary sex scene where Hawke gently lifts Jolie on to the dresser and she merely brushes against the set of glasses on top, causing them to "clink" together. In the unrated version, though he forces Jolie on to the dresser with considerably more force, breaking some of the glasses. Soon after, he deliberately pushes the whole set off the dresser so that he can get Jolie on there, destroying everything. As you might expect, the unrated scene is generally wilder, with more gratuitous nudity and even some biting that that the other version misses out on. It's also the only version where anything gets trashed.[[/note]]

* PillowPregnancy: Creator/AngelinaJolie does it, though she uses a more convincing prosthetic to convince Ethan Hawke that she's eight months pregnant with his child, so that he'll think she's unable to fight back when he attacks her. [[spoiler:In the end, she shoots him dead, and then finally removes the prosthetic to show the audience that she had been faking her pregnancy for nine whole months, simply to bait him.]] This also creates an opportunity for a particularly disturbing KickTheDog moment on the part of Ethan Hawke's character, who [[spoiler:stabs her "pregnant" belly with a pair of scissors, evidently willing to kill her even though he believed her pregnant with his own twins...]]

Jolie plays FBI Agent Illeana Scott, flown (for puzzling reasons not well explained--although most likely the writers' ignorance of CSIS, the Canadian equivalent of the CIA, or Mountie procedures) into Montreal to assist with the local police's investigation of a murderer. Hawke plays a witness to the crime, whom she must protect. The case gets interesting when she deduces that the killer is actually stealing the identities of his victims, making him harder to track. Tchéky Karyo, Olivier Martinez and Jean-Hugues Anglade also star as Montreal police detectives assigned to the case.

* WallBangHer: It's Angelina Jolie, so a rather hot example.

* PillowPregnancy: AngelinaJolie does it, though she uses a more convincing prosthetic to convince Ethan Hawke that she's eight months pregnant with his child, so that he'll think she's unable to fight back when he attacks her. [[spoiler:In the end, she shoots him dead, and then finally removes the prosthetic to show the audience that she had been faking her pregnancy for nine whole months, simply to bait him.]] This also creates an opportunity for a particularly disturbing KickTheDog moment on the part of Ethan Hawke's character, who [[spoiler:stabs her "pregnant" belly with a pair of scissors, evidently willing to kill her even though he believed her pregnant with his own twins...]]

''Taking Lives'' is a crime thriller that was released in 2004 staring Creator/AngelinaJolie, Creator/EthanHawke and Creator/KieferSutherland.

* FakeNationality: French actors Jean-Hugues Anglade, Olivier Martinez and Tchéky Karyo, playing French-Canadian detectives. Not only are their accents wrong, but also some expressions they use, as with their curses (Québécois profanity is ''very'' different from that of French, based on blasphemous references to Catholic icons). The rest of the cast playing Canadians is straight.

''Taking Lives'' is a crime thriller that was released in 2004 staring Creator/AngelinaJolie, Ethan Hawke and Creator/KieferSutherland.

The film is a relatively by-the-numbers crime thriller, taking heavy cues from ''Film/{{Se7en}}'' in terms of tone and style (the opening credits are almost plagiarised), but is still an enjoyable watch. Critical reception was mixed, though generally positive. The consensus seems to be that it's nothing new into the genre, but it's entertaining nonetheless. The biggest criticism seems to be how easy it is to spot TheReveal even from the start of the film.

* DestructoNookie: The natural progression from wall-banging.

''Taking Lives'' is a crime thriller that was released in 2004 staring Creator/AngelinaJolie, Ethan Hawke and Creator/KeiferSutherland.

''Taking Lives'' is a crime thriller that was released in 2004 staring AngelinaJolie, Ethan Hawke and Keifer Sutherland.

Jolie plays FBI Agent Illeana Scott, flown (for puzzling reasons not well explained--although most likely the writers' [[DidNotDoTheResearch ignorance]] of CSIS, the Canadian equivalent of the CIA, or Mountie procedures) into Montreal to assist with the local police's investigation of a murderer. Hawke plays a witness to the crime, whom she must protect. The case gets interesting when she deduces that the killer is actually stealing the identities of his victims, making him harder to track. Tchéky Karyo, Olivier Martinez and Jean-Hugues Anglade also star as Montreal police detectives assigned to the case.

Jolie plays FBI Agent Illeana Scott, flown (for puzzling reasons not well explained) into Montreal to assist with the local police's investigation of a murderer. Hawke plays a witness to the crime, whom she must protect. The case gets interesting when she deduces that the killer is actually stealing the identities of his victims, making him harder to track. Tchéky Karyo, Olivier Martinez and Jean-Hugues Anglade also star as Montreal police detectives assigned to the case.

The film is a relatively by-the-numbers crime thriller, taking heavy cues from {{Se7en}} in terms of tone and style (the opening credits are almost plagiarised), but is still an enjoyable watch. Critical reception was mixed, though generally positive. The consensus seems to be that it's nothing new into the genre, but it's entertaining nonetheless. The biggest criticism seems to be how easy it is to spot TheReveal even from the start of the film.

* YouFailGeographyForever - On a three-hour train ride from Montreal to Fredericton. Which IRL takes 22 hours!
** TheMountainsOfIllinois -- Or the establishing shot that shows us we're in Montreal by showing us... the Château Frontenac, the most famous building in ''Quebec City.''

* FakeNationality: French actors, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Olivier Martinez and Tchéky Karyo, playing French-Canadian detectives. Not only are their accents wrong, but also some expressions they use, as with their curses (Québécois profanity is ''very'' different from that of French, based on blasphemous references to Catholic icons). The rest of the cast playing Canadians is straight.

** TheMountainsOfIllinois -- Or the establishing shot that shows us we're in Montreal by showing us... the Château Frontenac, the most famous building in ''Quebec City.''
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Illeana gets quite a belly from her one night stand. Of course, [[spoiler: it turns out the pregnancy was faked to lure her fugitive serial killer baby-daddy into an FBI trap. Good thing, too, as he [[{{Squick}} stabs her in her (fake) stomach]]]].

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Illeana gets quite a belly from her one night stand. Of course, [[spoiler: it turns out the pregnancy was faked to lure her fugitive serial killer baby-daddy into an FBI trap. Good things, too, as he [[{{Squick}} stabs her in her (fake) stomach]]]].

* FakeNationality: French actors, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Olivier Martinez and Tchéky Karyo, playing French-Canadian detectives. Not only are their accents wrong, but also some expressions they use, as with their curses (Quebecois profanity is ''very'' different from that of French, based on blasphemous references to Catholic icons). The rest of the cast playing Canadians is straight.

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Illeana gets quite a belly from her one night stand. Of course, [[spoiler: it turns out the pregnancy was faked to lure her fugitive serial killer baby-daddy into an FBI trap. Good things, too, as he [[{{Squick}} stabs her in her (fake) stomach]]]].

Jolie plays FBI Agent Illeana Scott, flown (for puzzling reasons not well explained) into Montreal to assist with the investigation of a murderer. Hawke plays a witness to the crime, whom she must protect. The case gets interesting when she deduces that the killer is actually stealing the identities of his victims, making him harder to track. Tchéky Karyo, Olivier Martinez and Jean-Hugues Anglade also star as detectives assigned to the case.

* BilingualBackfire: Done over the course of a few scenes. The two detectives speak French, insulting Illeana (and the viewers, since they had to import French actors...into Quebec...Wrong accent!). She reacts at the time, although it also looks like she might just be a bit unsettled by their using a different language to her. Then two scenes later she calls them out on it.

* FakeNationality: French actors, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Olivier Martinez and Tchéky Karyo, playing Canadian cops. Not only are their accents wrong, but also some expressions they use, as when they curse. The rest of the cast playing Canadians is straight.

** TheMountainsOfIllinois -- or the establishing shot that shows us we're in Montreal by showing us... the Château Frontenac, the most famous building in ''Quebec City.''
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: Illeana gets quite a belly from her one night stand. Of course, [[spoiler: it turns out the pregnancy was faked to lure her fugitive serial killer baby-daddy into an FBI trap.]]