Netflix Losing Legendary Action Star’s Most Thrilling Movies

The first film in the Taken franchise marks Liam Neeson’s introduction to the action-thriller genre. The role of Bryan Mills, the franchise’s primary protagonist, was originally offered to Jeff Bridges, who eventually dropped out of the project. When Liam Neeson was offered the role, he graciously accepted because he wanted to be involved with a project that was more physically demanding than what he was used to. In other words, Liam Neeson starred in his first action blockbuster film at the at age of 56. Normally, actors who are approaching their 60s look for more subdued roles, but surprisingly, Neeson was just beginning to get his feet wet. Funnily enough, Neeson accepted the lead role in Taken under the assumption that the film would be a one-off and released directly to video.

But the first film was so successful that it spawned a trilogy and marked the beginning of Liam Neeson’s career as an action movie star 30 years after he started acting professionally.

The premise for Taken is a simplistic but effective one. Liam Neeson portrays Bryan Mills, a former Green Beret and CIA officer who needs to locate and rescue his 17-year-old Daughter, Kim, from an Albanian sex trafficking ring that abducted her while she was visiting Paris.

Knowing nothing about Kim’s kidnapper aside from the brief description that she gave him over the phone while she was being abducted, Bryan has to take matters into his own hands.

Liam Neeson didn’t know it at the time, but his “very particular set of skills” speech would become an iconic and highly quotable line that would define his career for years to come. And this came to him as a surprise, as he told Vanity Fair that he went into the project thinking that the line was extremely corny.

But upon Taken’s 2008 release, Liam Neeson would be surprised yet again because the film dominated at the global box office, earning $226 million against its reported budget of $25 million. Given the film’s resounding success, it wouldn’t take long before its sequel, Taken 2, would be green-lit. 2012’s Taken 2 boasts a very similar premise, but this time around, Bryan’s ex-wife, Lenore, gets kidnapped by an Albanian mafia leader who wants revenge after his son was killed by Bryan in the preceding film. Bryan’s daughter, now older and wiser, plays a significant role in tracking down Lenore’s captors.

At this point in time, Liam Neeson had more experience as a late-in-life action hero after starring in films like The A-Team, The Next Three Days, Unknown, and Wrath of the Titans. Taken 2 was also a massive success, earning $376 million at the box office against its reported budget of $45 million. It wouldn’t take long for Taken 3 to materialize, and see equal commercial success.Whether you’ve seen the Taken films 20 times, or haven’t yet witnessed Liam Neeson’s action-thriller debut, your time to watch Taken and Taken 2 on Netflix is running out. Much like Bryan Mills’ own race against the clock to save his daughter and ex-wife, you have roughly 96 hours to make your move.