Taken is the thriller I have chosen to analyse as it is one of my favourite films and is well created with a captivating storyline full of many twists.
Characters
Taken revolves around two characters, Kim, an average female character of the age of 17 whom plays the role of a daughter who is kidnapped alongside her 19 year old friend on a trip to Paris and Brian, her father an ex government worker who dedicates his skill and passion into finding and saving his daughter before it is too late. Kim and her friend are kidnapped whilst she is on the phone to her father he then record’s the phone call with his technical devices, to use the recording of the conversation in future references in order to aid him with his search for his daughter. He notifies her mother and sets of to Paris immediately to begin his search. Brian discovers that she has been kidnapped and passed around by ‘Human Trafficking’ elites where by the news turns into a drive of determination and rage and goes on a rampage of action and violence fighting his way to the whereabouts of his daughter. The film continues with many fights of which Brian faces with those associated in the kidnap of his daughter providing many questions and enigmas of the whereabouts of his daughter Kim, however these enigmas are settled through various clues that are fed gradually throughout the film.
Bryan is the main character whereby the story line revolves around him and those he cares about. Bryan is perceived as a lonely man as he sits in his dull apartment reminiscing the days with his daughter and feeding of the memories from the pictures. Brian values the importance of his daughter Kim greatly and loves her dearly. He also strives to protect her regardless of the difficulties placed for him seeing her. Bryan is also a retired highly skilled CIA officer, where his frequent absences resulted in the divorce with Kim’s mother but he continued to be a loving farther. His skills are seen later on in the film when he begins his journey in finding his daughter. This becomes a hug strength throughout the film his ability to use his knowledge, logics, forensic skills and fighting skills. However with every strength comes a weakness which is clearly the protection of his daughters life, where he travels to France hunting down her kidnapper and racing against time before it is too late to find her or find her alive. As a retired and divorced man who is lonely and misses his daughter he does have certain elements of ’everyman’ where the audience can relate to how he feels throughout the film even when he transform into his CIA Officer ways.
Kim is also a main character within this film who also has elements of an 'every man' as an ordinary teenage girl. She is represented as warm hearted, caring and loving and secretive towards her farther as he is very protective about her which is a normal characteristic many girls can relate to. She lies to him about going to her friends cousins in Paris where actually they will be at the apartment on their own as well as lying about visiting tourist sites and art galleries in France when in actual fact their plans were to follow the band U2 on their world tour. She is also seen as weak as she gives into her friends excitement in joining 'Peter' (who set them up for kidnap) for social approval which is another feature people can relate to as this is the behaviour of conformity. Peter invites them to a party where her friend agrees almost immediately and Kim was hesitant but gave into the offer after some persuading. Its from this point onwards where the idea 'is it OK for them to be accepting a strangers invitation to a party within a foreign country?', which begins the main plot of the film which then based on her farther on a mission to find her as the party went wrong. With Kim having her parents not together and has a step dad the audience can relate to this situation as it's common in reality.
Narratives
The film continues to drag the main question on which is 'Is he going to find her?'
Every time Bryan believes he has found something to aid him in his search for his daughter, things become more difficult and the audience to begin to have their doubts to whether he will succeed in his own mission. The film is pact with suspense from the beginning from the point Kim was kidnapped, this draws the audience in only for them to experience more intensity and action. Such vibes are created through the use of music which has a high effect of increasing the mood to which suits it best. An example is when Bryan is led to an industrial area whereby a warehouse is full of young girls taken into prostitution this gives the audience hope that he may find his daughter there and suspense is created as soon as he starts to make a mess by intruding booths by kicking down doors. The suspense increases and the audience too feel this until he comes across Kim's best friend dead and the whole perception and likeliness of him finding his daughter goes downhill because the audience know that they both started off together and now that her friend is found dead the enigmas are changing to 'is Kim dead?'.
more enigmas arise as Bryan visits an old friend in France 'John Claude' asking him for help, it turns out that his so called friend is betraying him and is involved in the human trafficking industry. This acts as a dramatic paradox diverting the audience once again of the hope of the whereabouts of Kim. Bryan is forced to shoot John's wife in order to retrieve information, the end turns out to be a happy ending where Bryan is led in the right direction and brings down all the enemies untill he finds Kim.
