(Special S)Kill List: 5 Films to Watch If You Like “Taken”

This Friday, Liam Neeson once again gears up as the former government operative turned rogue vengeance seeker Bryan Mills in the third installment of the Luc-Besson-penned action franchise Taken.  Like the first two films, Taken 3 brings Mills out of retirement, this time after he’s accused of a heinous murder. Racing against the clock, Mills will have to use his very particular set of skills to track down the real murderer, and clear his good name once and for all. Business as usual.

For the most part, the Taken franchise can be point blank taken for what it is: action thrillers with vengeful decisions woven into each narrative’s fabric. But looking past the fantastically horrid Neeson one-liners, Taken should be given credit for revitalizing the revenge story arc in North American cinema. Its sudden massive mainstream appeal not only drew in a crowd of up-and-coming writers, but also proved that with the right amount of violence and story intrigue, there was a profitable market for these kinds of films. With just a couple of days until Taken 3 is released in North America, here are five similar films to hold you over until then.

The Man from Nowhere (2010)

Far more violent than anything Neeson does in the first film, The Man from Nowhere shares elements of Taken’s plot — the human trafficking angle, the kidnapping of a beloved child — with conventional South Korean cinema themes like honor, revenge, and respect. With astounding levels of carnage delivered in fantastically choreographed hand-to-hand combat scenes, The Man from Nowhere is exactly the kind of kick Taken fans are going to be looking for in a film.

John Wick (2014)

There may not be any human smuggling in John Wick, but there is definitely the murder of a loved one — it just so happens to be a dog. And it just so happens that the dog’s owner is an ex-hitman. Scratch that; he’s the ex-hitman. Like the boogeyman, his name is whispered among carefully hidden underground clubs for scoundrels. And he, like Neeson, has a very particular set of skills. The revenge angle is what most likens it to Taken, but there’s a level of Asian influence in Chad Shaehlski and David Lietch’s first film — it has masterful fight choreography in line with The Raid. It’s terrible one-liners and awkward humor inserted into poorly comedic timed scenes are what put it more in league Taken than anything else.

Colombiana (2011)

Action cinema tends to be reserved for men. The marketing is aimed at men, the films star men, and the best moments revolve around a man or a group of men. But Colombiana is a kickass revenge film starring Zoe Saldana as a mad hatter whom you wouldn’t want to cross in a dark alley. Written by Taken’s Luc Besson, Colombiana centers around Saldana’s Cataleya, a young girl who grows up to be an assassin after her parents are murdered. Like John Wick and Bryan Mills, she develops a specific set of skills, and sets off to find the mobster monsters who killed her parents so she can exact revenge. Incredibly fast-paced and starring some of the best actors and actresses in the business, Colombiana demonstrates that action films don’t need to be white and male to be invigorating.

Léon: The Professional (1994)

Besson’s 1994 film Léon: The Professional nails the one characteristic most writers and directors overlook when putting together an action movie: human drama. After young Mathilda’s parents are viciously murdered and she’s left an orphan, she’s taken into Léon’s home. Léon, a professional assassin, raises Mathilda as his own and eventually shows her the tricks of the trade. Having an innocent child to take care of warms the ice surrounding Léon’s heart and rejuvenates the humanity inside of him. In order for revenge movies to work, there must be a severe emotion like anger pulsating through the main character. Assassins aren’t emotional, they’re robots. Having a child juxtapose the big baddie criminal is a perfect way of creating the drama a film like this needs to survive.

Vengeance (2009)

After his daughter’s husband and children are killed, a French chef heads to Hong Kong with three hired hitman to exact his revenge. Vengeance is probably the film most unlike Taken on this list. It’s interesting to see a revenge movie so reliant on a certain magnitude of violence pull it off with a main character whose background isn’t actually in killing. Instead, it relies purely on his maniacal paternal anger. Themes of respect and dishonor play a large role in the film, and the audience responds to the emotional outpouring from this devastated father. The importance of family is a strong theme in both Vengeance and Taken.