# Taken (franchise)

Taken is a series of English-language French action films, beginning with Taken in 2008, created by producer Luc Besson and American screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen. The dialogue of all three films is primarily English, and all three feature Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills. The first film received mixed reviews from critics but a positive response from audiences with commercial success. The series grossed a combined $929,451,015 worldwide.
The series has also experienced diminishing critical reception with each successive film.
A prequel television series based on a similar storyline and starring Clive Standen and Jennifer Beals premiered in February 2017.

## Films
### Taken (2008)

A retired CIA operative named Bryan Mills crosses the globe to rescue his 17-year-old daughter after she is kidnapped by a group of Albanian smugglers while traveling in France.

### Taken 2 (2012)

Mafia boss and terrorist Murad, the father of Marko, whom Bryan had killed by electrocution in the first film of the trilogy, plans to capture Bryan, who is vacationing with his family in Istanbul, and avenge his son's death.

### Taken 3 (2014)

Bryan has been framed for the murder of his ex-wife, Lenore. He then sets out to clear his name by going after the real killers, while also eluding capture from U.S. authorities for whom he formerly worked.

## Television
### Taken (2017–2018)

In September 2015, NBC ordered a Taken television series depicting a young Bryan Mills. In February 2016, Vikings actor Clive Standen was announced to play the young Bryan Mills, with Alex Carey as the showrunner.

## Cast and crew
### Cast

| Characters | Films | Films | Films | Television series | Television series |
| Characters | Taken | Taken 2 | Taken 3 | Taken | Taken |
| Characters | Taken | Taken 2 | Taken 3 | Season 1 | Season 2 |
| Characters | 2008 | 2012 | 2014 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Bryan Mills | Liam Neeson | Liam Neeson | Liam Neeson | Clive Standen | Clive Standen |
| Kimberly "Kim" Mills | Maggie Grace | Maggie Grace | Maggie Grace | | |
| Lenore "Lenny" Mills-St. John | Famke Janssen | Famke Janssen | Famke Janssen | | |
| Sam "Scott" Gilroy | Leland Orser | Leland Orser | Leland Orser | Michael Irby | |
| Mark Rem Casey | Jon Gries | Jon Gries | Jon Gries | James Landry Hébert | |
| Bernie Dave Harris | David Warshofsky | D. B. Sweeney | David Warshofsky | Jose Pablo Cantillo | |
| Jean-Claude Pitrel | Olivier Rabourdin | Olivier Rabourdin | | | |
| Marko Hoxha | Arben Bajraktaraj | Arben Bajraktaraj | | | |
| Stuart St. John | Xander Berkeley | Mentioned | Dougray Scott | | |
| Sheerah | Holly Valance | | | | |
| Amanda | Katie Cassidy | | | | |
| Patrice Saint-Clair | Gérard Watkins | | | | |
| Murad Hoxha | | Rade Šerbedžija | | | |
| Jamie Conrad | | Luke Grimes | | | |
| Inspector Durmaz | | Kevork Malikyan | | | |
| Inspector Franck Dotzler | | | Forest Whitaker | | |
| Oleg Malankov | | | Sam Spruell | | |
| Jimmy | | | Jonny Weston | | |
| Detective Smith | | | Dylan Bruno | | |
| Detective Garcia | | | Don Harvey | | |
| Detective Johnson | | | Al Sapienza | | |
| Christina Hart | | | | Jennifer Beals | Jennifer Beals |
| Asha Flynn | | | | Brooklyn Sudano | |
| John | | | | Gaius Charles | |
| Becca Vlasik | | | | Monique Gabriela Curnen | |
| Cali Mills | | | | Celeste Desjardins | Celeste Desjardins |
| Harry Ward | | | | Dominic Fumusa | |
| Riley | | | | Jennifer Marsala | |
| Faaron | | | | Simu Liu | |
| Marzoki | | | | Ali Kazmi | |
| Elena Morales | | | | Layla Alizada | |
| Harden Kilroy | | | | | Adam Goldberg |
| Santana | | | | | Jessica Camacho |
| James Casey | | | | | Peter Outerbridge |
| Krystiyan | | | | | Christian Bako |

### Crew

| Crew | Film | Film | Film |
| Crew | Taken | Taken 2 | Taken 3 |
| Director | Pierre Morel | Olivier Megaton | Olivier Megaton |
| Writer | Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen | Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen | Luc Besson Robert Mark Kamen |
| Producer | Luc Besson | Luc Besson | Luc Besson |
| Music | Nathaniel Méchaly | Nathaniel Méchaly | Nathaniel Méchaly |
| Distributor | EuropaCorp (France) 20th Century Fox (US) | EuropaCorp (France) 20th Century Fox (US) | EuropaCorp (France) 20th Century Fox (US) |

## Reception
### Box office performance

| Film | Release date | Box office gross | Box office gross | Box office gross | Box office ranking | Box office ranking | Budget | Reference(s) |
| Film | United States | North America | Other territories | Worldwide | All time North America | All time worldwide | Budget | Reference(s) |
| Taken (2008) | January 30, 2009 (2009-01-30) | $145,000,989 | $81,829,579 | $226,830,568 | #292 | #500 | $25,000,000 | |
| Taken 2 (2012) | October 5, 2012 (2012-10-05) | $139,854,287 | $236,287,019 | $376,141,306 | #318 | #219 | $45,000,000 | |
| Taken 3 (2014) | January 9, 2015 (2015-01-09) | $89,256,424 | $237,222,717 | $326,479,141 | #697 | #357 | $48,000,000 | |
| Total | Total | $374,111,700 | $555,339,315 | $929,451,015 | | | $118,000,000 | |

### Critical and public response

| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore |
| Taken (2008) | 60% (178 reviews) | 51 (32 reviews) | A− |
| Taken 2 (2012) | 22% (173 reviews) | 45 (35 reviews) | B+ |
| Taken 3 (2014) | 13% (124 reviews) | 26 (30 reviews) | B+ |

## In popular culture

* On January 15, 2015, to promote the American release of Taken 3, Liam Neeson starred in a short film on the show entitled Taken 4: A-Paco-Lypse on American talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!; the short revolved around Bryan Mills helping his old friend Guillermo rescue his kidnapped dog, Paco from "Kimmel".
* In 2017, Bryan Mills was featured in the fifth season of the web television series The Most Popular Girls in School, in which he is searching France for his daughter Kim, after she was kidnapped by a rival group of French models while representing the United States as a model herself. Liam Neeson reprises his role as Mills.