Slideshow: 8-Image Gallery For ‘Taken’ With Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace

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Bryan (Liam Neeson) visits a streetwalker (Fani Kolarova) as he attempts to infiltrate a vicious gang that has kidnapped his daughter.

CHICAGO – This 8-image slideshow contains a selection of official press images from Twentieth Century Fox’s “Taken,” which opens stateside on Friday, January 30th, 2009.

“Taken” stars Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, David Warshofsky, Katie Cassidy, Holly Valance, and Famke Janssen. The film was written by Robert Mark Kamen and Luc Besson and directed by Pierre Morel. It opens on Jan. 30, 2009.

Synopsis: “I don’t know you who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you’re looking for a ransom, I can tell you, I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills acquired over a very long career in the shadows, 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.”

With these chilling words to a member of a band of kidnappers, former government operative Bryan Mills begins the longest 96-hours of his life – and the hunt for the fearsome organization that has taken his daughter Kim.

Mills had only recently given up his government career as what he calls, a “preventer” – “I prevented bad things from happenings,” he says – to be near Kim, who lives with Bryan’s ex-wife Lenore and her new husband. To make ends meet, Bryan joins some former colleagues for special security details (like guarding a pop diva), but most of his time and energy are spent re-connecting with Kim.

Bryan’s familial goal is nearly derailed when Kim requests his permission to spend time in Paris with a friend. All too aware of the dangers that could lie ahead for Kim in a foreign land, Bryan says no, but Kim’s disappointment leads him to very reluctantly relent.

Bryan’s worst fears are realized when Kim and her friend Amanda are suddenly abducted – in broad daylight – from the Paris apartment at which they’ve just arrived. Moments before Kim is dragged away by the as yet unseen and unknown assailants, she manages to phone Bryan, who begins to expertly piece together clues that will take him to the darkness of Paris’s underworld, and to the City of Light’s plushest mansions. He will face nightmares worse than anything he experienced in black ops – and let nothing and no one stop him from saving his daughter.

You can click “Next” and “Previous” to scan through this slideshow or jump directly to individual photos with the captioned links below. All photos credited to Stephanie Branchu/Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox unless otherwise noted.

1. Taken_01: In Taken, Liam Neeson stars as Bryan Mills, an ex-government operative who has less than four days to find his kidnapped daughter - who has been taken on her first day of vacation in Paris.
   
   
2. Taken_02: Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) engages in a fire fight with the vicious gang that has kidnapped his daughter in Paris.
   
   
3. Taken_03: Only moments away from being taken by a vicious band of kidnappers, Kim (Maggie Grace) makes an urgent phone call to her father.
   
   
4. Taken_04: Bryan (Liam Neeson) visits a streetwalker (Fani Kolarova) as he attempts to infiltrate a vicious gang that has kidnapped his daughter.
   
   
5. Taken_05: Bryan (Liam Neeson) prepares to take extreme measures during his interrogation of a man he suspects of being a key player in the kidnapping.
   
   
6. Taken_06: In Paris, Bryan (Liam Neeson) looks to a former ally, Jean Claude (Olivier Rabourdin), for help in finding those responsible for the kidnapping.
   
   
7. Taken_07: Ex-spouses Bryan (Liam Neeson) and Lenore (Famke Janssen) do not see eye-to-eye on matters concerning their daughter. Photo by Sam Urdank
   
   
8. Taken_08: Bryan (Liam Neeson, right) presents his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) with a birthday gift, as his ex-wife and her mother Lenore (Famke Janssen) looks on. Photo by Sam Urdank
   
   

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com