Movies Like Taken

Frequently asked about Taken

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• Why does Bryan Mills warn his daughter's kidnappers over the phone instead of staying silent?▾

  Bryan picks up the phone after Kim is grabbed and delivers his famous 'I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you' speech as a deliberate tactic, not just rage. As a former CIA operative, he is trying to rattle the kidnappers into speaking long enough to get a voice sample, which Sam later uses to identify the captor as Albanian trafficker Marko Hoxha. The warning is also psychological warfare meant to make them treat Kim more carefully.

• Who are the kidnappers and what do they do with the women they take?▾

  The kidnappers are an Albanian human-trafficking ring led by Marko Hoxha operating out of Paris, who pose as friendly locals at the airport to identify young tourists. They drug and process the women at a brothel on Rue de Paradis, where some are forced into street prostitution while the most valuable virgins are auctioned to wealthy buyers. Kim's American passport and virginity make her a high-value target, which is why she ends up sold to a sheik on a yacht rather than kept in the city.

• Why does Bryan shoot his old friend Jean-Claude's wife at the dinner table?▾

  Bryan realizes Jean-Claude, a former colleague now with French intelligence, has been taking bribes from the Albanian traffickers to look the other way, which is why his investigation kept getting blocked. He shoots Isabelle in the arm, not fatally, to demonstrate to Jean-Claude that he is serious and willing to escalate against the man's family the same way the traffickers escalated against his. It is a calculated act of intimidation to force Jean-Claude to give up the location of the auction.

• What is the significance of Kim's friend Amanda and why is she already dead when Bryan finds her?▾

  Amanda is the older friend who lied to Kim's parents about the Paris trip actually being a U2 concert tour, and she is the one who unwittingly invites the trafficker Peter into their cab from the airport. Because Amanda is not a virgin, she has lower auction value and is kept at the Rue de Paradis brothel, where she dies of a heroin overdose from being forcibly drugged to keep her compliant. Bryan finding her corpse with a needle in her arm signals to him that Kim's window of safety is closing fast.

• Why does the sheik on the yacht try to negotiate with Bryan before being killed?▾

  The sheik has just purchased Kim at the auction for a premium price and views her as legitimate property, so when Bryan boards the yacht he offers money, claiming 'we can negotiate' because that is how his world operates. Bryan refuses because the sheik knowingly bought a kidnapped underage girl, making him morally indistinguishable from the traffickers themselves. The scene underscores the film's view that the buyers fueling demand are as culpable as the Albanians doing the snatching.