Taken 2 (2012)
Taken 2 is a 2012 English-language French action-thriller film directed by Olivier Megaton and starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Šerbedžija, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, D.B. Sweeney and Luke Grimes. It follows Bryan Mills taking his family to Istanbul, only to be kidnapped, along with his ex-wife, by the father of one of the men he killed while saving his daughter two years prior. It is the sequel to the 2008 film Taken and the second installment in the Taken trilogy. Released on 3 October 2012 in France by EuropaCorp and 5 October 2012 in the United States by 20th Century Fox, the film grossed over $376 million at the box office, but received mixed reviews from critics. A third film, Taken 3, was released on 9 January 2015.
Plot.
At the funeral of his son Marko and associates in Tropojë, Albanian mafia head and freelance terrorist Murad Hoxha vows to seek vengeance on his son’s killer. Travelling to Paris with his men, he interrogates and tortures ex-French DGSE agent turned corrupt National Police officer Jean-Claude Pitrel, whose business card was found at the scene of Marko’s death, but finds no information. He then bribes a corrupt police official for Pitrel’s files and deduces that Pitrel’s old friend, Bryan Mills, was responsible and is vacationing in Istanbul. Meanwhile, Bryan has just finished his three-day security job for a wealthy Saudi Arabian sheikh in Istanbul and is surprised by his ex-wife, Lenore, and daughter, Kim, turning up to visit him. While going out for lunch with Lenore the next day, Bryan spots Murad’s men following them. He tells Lenore to run and tries to outrun the Albanians, but finally surrenders when they capture Lenore. Realising that Kim is also a target, Bryan calls her at the hotel and tells her to hide, but then is captured and knocked unconscious. She narrowly avoids capture when the kidnappers are forced to flee after they shoot two security guards.
Regaining consciousness, Bryan finds himself zip tied to a pipe over his head in an empty basement. He uses a concealed miniature cellphone hidden in his sock to contact Kim and instructs her to alert the American embassy; instead, she convinces him to let her help. Opening her father’s equipment case, Kim takes a grenade and detonates it on a nearby rooftop; the resulting sound allows Bryan to instruct her on triangulating his location.
The mobsters bring in Lenore, make a small incision in her neck, and hang her upside down to bleed out. As soon as they leave, Bryan frees himself and then her. He next has Kim detonate two more grenades and releases some steam through a chimney to guide her to his location. Kim tosses a gun down the chimney, which Bryan uses to kill the guards holding him captive. He rescues Kim, but watches Lenore get recaptured. Stealing a taxi, Bryan and Kim pursue the kidnappers’ van, and an SUV, driven by one of the kidnappers’ henchmen, arrives to distract them.
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Production, Release.
Filming took place throughout early 2012; Neeson and Grace shot their scenes in January in Los Angeles. The Istanbul scenes were shot in November 2011. Some scenes were filmed during a week at the new film studios of the Cité du Cinéma founded by Luc Besson in Saint-Denis in France. Taken 2 was screened on 7 September 2012 at the 38th Deauville American Film Festival. It was theatrically released in more than 25 international markets, including North America, on 5 October 2012. The film was released under the title of “Busca Implacável 2” in Brazil, “Venganza: Conexión Estambul” in Spain, “Taken – La vendetta” in Italy and “Заложница 2” in Russia.
Home media.
Taken 2 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 16 January 2013. The Blu-ray version was released with both the theatrical and unrated extended editions. As of 5 February 2015, the film has sold 2,823,133 DVDs and 1,053,690 Blu-ray discs, grossing $44,136,725 and $19,915,776 respectively and totaling $64,052,501 in North America.