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Taken (film)

2008 film by Pierre Morel

Taken is a 2008 French action-thriller film about an ex-CIA operative who takes on a sex trafficking ring to rescue his kidnapped daughter.

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you're looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it - I will not look for you, I will not pursue you... but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you... and I will kill you.
Directed by Pierre Morel. Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen.
They took his daughter. He'll take their lives.taglines

Dialogue

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Kim: Mom says your job made you paranoid.
Bryan: My job made me aware.
Bryan: [into phone] I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you're looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it - I will not look for you, I will not pursue you... but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you... and I will kill you.
Marko: [on the phone] Good luck.
Bryan: Sam, what've you got?
Sam: [over phone] They're speaking Albanian; based on their accents and dialects, they must be from a town called Tropojë. Place is ground zero for scummers like this. Even the Russians give these guys a wide berth. Um, the one you spoke to, his name is Marko, and we have information that a mobster boss by the name of Marko Hoxha moved to Paris about six months ago. If he's the one, he's a big fish. And, uh, the tattoo, by the way is group ID. Am I on speaker or are you by yourself?
Bryan: Lenore's here.
Sam: Hey, Lennie.
Lenore: Hello, Sam.
Bryan: She needs to hear this, Sam.
Sam: The specialty of the groups coming out of this area is trafficking in women.
Bryan: Keep going.
Sam: Their previous MO was to offer women from the emerging East-European countries - like Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria - jobs in the west, as maids and nannies. Once they smuggled them in, they'd addict them to drugs and turn them into prostitutes. Lately, however, they've decided that it's more economical just to kidnap traveling young women. Saves on transportation costs.
Lenore: [begins to break down in tears] Not my little baby...
Bryan: What else?
Sam: Based on what they know about the way these groups operate, our analyst says you have a 96-hour window from the time she was grabbed.
Bryan: To what?
Sam: To never finding her.
Jean Claude: Just like the old days.
Bryan: Would you have it any other way?
Jean Claude: Between you and me, no. But now that I sit behind a desk, the world looks different.
Bryan: You mean it looks boring.
Jean Claude: I mean different. Okay, a little boring. But is being retired any more interesting?
Bryan: It wasn't until my daughter disappeared in Paris yesterday. She and her friend were marked by a spotter at the airport. Albanians took her.
Jean Claude: How do you know this?
Bryan: I'm retired, not dead.
Jean Claude: And I assume you don't want to go to the police.
Bryan: I was told I have 96 hours. That was sixteen hours ago.
Jean Claude: Okay, first we should find the spotter.
Bryan: I found him. He's dead.
Jean Claude: You found him that way?
[Bryan stays silent]
Jean Claude: Bryan, you cannot just run around, tearing down Paris.
Bryan: Jean Claude, I will tear down the Eiffel Tower if I have to.
Jean-Claude: [over phone] My chief wanted to arrest you; I convinced him to send you home. Air France, 001, leaves today at 2. First class. Courtesy of the French government for past services rendered.
Bryan: What about my daughter?
Jean-Claude: I told you, I sit behind a desk now. I take my orders from someone who sits behind a bigger desk. Come on! Seven dead bodies. Three in hospital. A building destroyed! Total chaos at the airport? He wanted your ass in chains! It's the best I could do. I'm sorry.
Bryan: "Sorry" doesn't cut it, Jean-Claude. Not this time.
Jean-Claude: You can't beat the state, Bryan. You know that.
Bryan: I'm not trying to to beat the state! I'm trying to save my daughter! And it was a trailer, not a building.
[Bryan is at the Albanian mob hideout, posing as corrupt French agent making a deal with them]
Bryan: By the way, which one of you is Marko?
Mobster: We are all Marko.
Bryan: Marko from Tropojë.
Mobster: We are all from Tropojë.
Bryan: [smirks briefly] If this is a game you wanna play with me, the rate goes up by 10%.
Mobster: Mister... If you are trying to make extortion on us because we are immigrants, we know the law.
Bryan: [stands up] I'm extorting you because you are breaking the law. Now which charge would you like to be arrested for? Drugs? Kidnapping? Prostitution? Take your pick. You come to this country to take advantage of the system and think because we are tolerant, we are weak and helpless? Your arrogance offends me. And for that, the rate just went up by another 10%.
[Bryan gets a 20% rate from the Albanians who took his daughter]
Bryan: You've made a very good investment, Gentlemen. See you in a month... [takes a slip of paper out, as if remembering it, and handing it to Marko] Oh... A friend gave this to me. It's Albanian. Would you mind translating it for me?
[Marko takes it and reads, before showing it to his friends, and they all laugh derisively]
Marko: "Good luck".
[Bryan, hearing this, recognizes him as the man he spoke to on the phone]
Bryan: You don't remember me? [Marko looks at him in surprise] We spoke on the phone two days ago. I told you I would find you.
[Marko suddenly remembers his earlier conversation, realizes who Bryan is and tries to attack, but Bryan gets there first and knocks him unconscious]
[Bryan smacks Marko in the face, waking him up; Marko is tied to a metal chair]
Bryan: Wake up! [holding up two nails] I need you to be focused!
[he violently drives the nails into Marko's thighs; Marko screams in pain, while Bryan connects electric wire clamps to the nails]
Bryan: Are you focused yet? [shows a photo of Kim] Where is this girl.
[Marko spits in his face; Bryan calmly wipes it with a handkerchief, which he then uses to gag Marko; he goes to the power switch and turns it on, sending electric current through Marko's body for a few moments; Marko screams through the gag, squirming in pain]
Bryan: You know, we used to outsource this kind of thing. But what we found was that the countries we outsourced to had unreliable power grids - very third world. Sometimes you'd turn on a switch and the power wouldn't come on for hours. Then tempers would get short. People would resort to things like pulling fingernails... acid drops on bare skin... the whole exercise would become counterproductive. But here, the power is stable. Here you get a nice, even flow... here you can throw a switch and the power stays on all day. Where is she?
[Marko spits again; Bryan gags him and shocks him for another few moments]
Bryan: I don't have any more time to waste, Marko from Tropojë! You either give me what I need or this switch will stay on until they turn the power off for lack of payment on the bill. Where is my daughter?
Marko: We don't keep virgins... we sell them. She was virgin... lot of money...
Bryan: You sold my daughter? You sold her? To who?
Marko: I don't know...
[Not believing him, Bryan shoves the cloth back in Marko's mouth before he shouts out]
Marko: Saint-Claire! Saint-Claire...
Bryan: Saint-Claire, is that a person? A place?
Marko: [out of breath] Person. Patrice Saint-Claire...
Bryan: Where can I find him?
Marko: I don't know. [Bryan moves towards the light switch] I don't know! Please! I don't know! I DON'T KNOW! NO! PLEASE! Please... not that... please...
Bryan: I believe you...
Marko: [whimpering]
Bryan: ...but it's not gonna save you. [throws the switch and walks out while Marko screams in agony]
[Bryan is having dinner with Jean-Claude and his wife, Isabelle. She mentions he is looking at houses]
Jean-Claude: Find anything interesting?
Bryan: As a matter of fact, I did. Over in the 10th Arrondissement on Rue Paradis. People there know someone who works in your office, I think. A Mr. Macon. Do you know him?
Isabelle: Oh, Henri! I call him Mr. Nervous. Always seems like he's about to have a problem. Carrots?
Bryan: [not answering her] I got to the bottom of it, Jean Claude. I know everything. I hope you're not involved in this shit?
Isabelle: [horrified] What shit?
Jean-Claude: This is not the time or place, Bryan.
Bryan: Are you involved?
Isabelle: Involved in what? What are you two talking about?
Bryan: Are you?
Jean-Claude: [Angrily] My salary is X. My expenses are Y. As long as my family is provided for, I do not care where the difference comes from. That is my entire involvement!
Bryan: And what about my family?
Jean-Claude: I told you, I would help, as long as it didn't cause trouble for me.
Bryan: Who is Patrice Saint-Clair?
[Jean-Claude rises and draws his gun on him. Isabelle starts crying in horror]
Jean-Claude: I don't know, I don't care. I'm driving you to the airport.
Isabelle: Jean-Claude!
Jean-Claude: Tais-toi, Isabelle. Tais-toi! [Shut up!] Let's get going. Dinner is over.
Bryan: I'm not finished yet.
Jean-Claude: Yes you are!
Isabelle: No!
Bryan: [rises] No, I'm not.
[Throws three bullets to the table. Jean-Claude, shocked, pulls the trigger, and the gun clicks, revealing it is empty. Bryan throws a handful in Jean-Claude's face]
Bryan: That's what happens when you sit behind a desk! You forget things! Like the weight in the hand of a gun that's loaded and one that's not!
[He draws his own gun and shoots Isabelle in the arm, causing her to fall to the floor in pain]
Jean-Claude: ISABELLE! [Bryan points the gun at him] SALE CON! [You "asshole"!]
Bryan: It's a flesh wound! But if you don't get me what I need, the last thing you'll see before I make your children orphans is the bullet I put between her eyes. [aims the gun at Isabelle] Now... Patrice Saint-Clair!
[After Jean-Claude finds Patrice Saint-Clair]
Bryan: You could have made this much less painful if you had been more concerned about my daughter, and less concerned about your goddamned desk. Please apologize to your wife for me.
[Jean-Claude spins round to take a swing at him, but Bryan simply knocks him unconscious with his gun]
[Captured, Bryan is handcuffed to a pipe on the ceiling]
Patrice Saint-Claire: Would you mind telling me what you're doing here?
Bryan: The last girl - I'm her father.
Patrice: ...Oh, my.
Bryan: Give her to me.
Patrice: I wish I could - honestly. See, I'm a father myself. I have two sons, and a daughter. But let me tell you something, Mr. Whoever-You-Are... this is a business. This is a very unique business, with a very unique clientele.
Bryan: I'll pay!
Patrice: This business, you have no refunds, no returns, no discounts, no buy-backs. All sales are final. Besides, discretion is about the only rule we have. [aside to guard] Kill him. Quietly. I have guests.
[Bryan kills Patrice's guards and corners him with a gun]
Patrice: We- we can resolve this! I know how you feel... we should talk, okay? We- we can work this out! [Bryan shoots him, he cries out] You have no idea... [Brian shoots him again]
Bryan: 'Where is she?!
Patrice: Please, understand... please try- [and again] ...there's a boat by the quay... Please understand, it was all business. It wasn't personal!
Bryan: It was all personal to me. [Empties his gun into Saint-Claire, then discards it onto his corpse and walks away]

Taglines

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  • They took his daughter. He'll take their lives.
  • His daughter was taken. He has 96 hours to get her back.
  • Time is Running Out
  • They have taken his daughter. He will hunt them. He will find them. He will kill them.

Cast

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