Liam Neeson Discusses the Mind-Blowing Premise of Taken 2 (Hint: Involves Taking)

Did you know that 20th Century Fox has already gone and made Taken 2? It’s not surprising that they would, of course: Taken was rad, and made a ton of money on a small budget, and had an easily repeatable concept. (In fact, Neeson already quasi-repeated it with last year’s Unknown, in which his wife, January Jones, forgets he exists and he has to fight a bunch of people.) But, somehow, the fact that this sequel was actually in the works totally slipped past me. Until this week, that is, which was truly a landmark one for the Taken franchise. Most immediately relevant, we have EW giving us the inside dirt on what all goes down in Taken 2, complete with action shots — Liam Neeson shooting a gun! Liam Neeson breaking some dude’s neck! Liam Neeson staring pensively at fire! — from the movie. Also, it’s out October 5, and brings back Maggie Grace as Neeson’s daughter and Famke Janssen as his ex-wife. Let’s let our dude Liam explain the rest:

From what I understand, the survivors of the people you exterminated in the first movie are coming after you.

Yeah, I took out a lot of Albanian guys — smugglers and sex traffickers. They met grisly ends. So now it’s their uncles, brothers, fathers, who have motive to find this guy, come hell or high water.

So last time he was seeking them out, and this time they’re on his trail.

I’m taken — let’s put it that way. They kidnap him to humiliate him, torture him, and ultimately bring him back to the village in Albania where the boys from the original film came from. With the help of my daughter … she wants to help me escape from where these bad guys have me.

I’m taken — let’s put it that way.” Ah, Liam Neeson, you truly are the best. And, for further proof along those lines, there’s this sketch from last weekend’s SNL. Neeson was kind enough to Get In the Cage with Nic Cage, and Nic can barely contain his envy about the man’s career. “Earlier this year you starred in The Grey, a movie about a man fighting off a pack of ravenous wolves with his bare hands — a.k.a., the Nic Cage story!” Later in the bit Neeson runs through his “famous monologue from the Taken trailer.” Ah, just watch the whole thing.

Oh, by the way, EW also asked Neeses Pieces if we can expect more sequels, and Neeson answered: “We joke about doing Taken 3, Taken 4, Taken 5, and so on. It’s funny to be doing this at 60. I just hope my knees hold up.” SPOILER ALERT — Liam Neeson is in no way joking about doing Taken 3, Taken 4, Taken 5, and so on.

Filed Under: Liam Neeson

Amos Barshad has written for New York Magazine, Spin, GQ, XXL, and the Arkansas Times. He is a staff writer for Grantland.

Archive @ AmosBarshad