96 Hours
96 Hours is the German release title of Taken, a 2007 French action thriller directed by Pierre Morel, written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, and starring Liam Neeson as a retired CIA agent who has 96 hours to rescue his kidnapped daughter from human traffickers in Paris1. The film was produced by EuropaCorp, M6 Films, and Grive Productions, with Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam among its producers1 • 2. Released in France on 27 February 2008 and in the United States on January 30, 2009, it became the most successful French film at the American box office to that point and launched a three-film franchise3 • 2 • 4.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | Taken; released as 96 Hours in Germany and as 96時間 in Japan1 • 5 |
| Director and writers | Pierre Morel; screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen1 |
| Lead cast | Liam Neeson (Bryan Mills), Maggie Grace (Kim), Famke Janssen (Lenore)1 |
| Runtime and rating | 94 minutes in France (CNC visa 117480, 14 February 2008); 1h 30min and PG-13 for the US release3 • 2 |
| Releases | France 27 February 2008; United States January 30, 20093 • 2 |
| Box office | Over $226 million worldwide against a $25 million budget6 |
Spoilers
Plot and production
The story follows Bryan Mills, a former US secret-services agent living in Los Angeles, whose 17-year-old daughter Kim is abducted in Paris on the first day of a European trip, moments after a terrified phone call to her father7. Using contacts and a recording of the call, Mills identifies the kidnapper as an Albanian man named Marko, whose ring drugs young tourists and forces them into prostitution, and he learns he has 96 hours to find his daughter before she is sold7. The French synopsis describes the same premise: a father who can only listen helplessly by mobile phone as his daughter is seized, and who has only hours to tear her from a gang specialized in trafficking women8.
Director Pierre Morel had previously made the futuristic action film District B13 and worked behind the camera with Luc Besson before taking the job; he said he accepted immediately once he knew Liam Neeson would star9. Morel and Neeson had the cast perform their own action and stunts, which Morel credited with changing the look of the film9. The French classification board rated the film for viewers aged 12 and older, noting violent scenes including a very realistic torture scene and a storyline about a network trafficking in women3.
Franchise and later use of the title
The film's success produced two sequels, Taken 2 (2012), which outgrossed the original with $376 million, and Taken 3 (2015), which earned $326 million6. In 2015 NBC ordered a straight-to-series prequel centered on a young Bryan Mills, with Besson as executive producer13; the series launched in 2017 to largely negative reviews and was canceled after two seasons6. The film's "particular set of skills" phone speech became one of the most quoted lines in recent action cinema13.
The title 96 Hours also belongs to an unrelated French film, 96 Heures (2014), directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer, in which a police unit chief kidnapped during a prisoner transfer has 96 hours to resist giving up the informant who betrayed him; it stars Gérard Lanvin, Niels Arestrup, and Sylvie Testud, with music by Max Richter, and runs 96 minutes14.
Release and box office
The film opened in France on 27 February 2008 and was then distributed in 43 other territories during 2008, totaling $69 million at the box office before its American launch4. It had drawn more than 1 million cinema admissions in France over those eleven months4.
Its US opening weekend on January 30, 2009 brought in $24.6 million and took first place, the best opening figures ever for a French film in the United States and the second-best release ever for a Super Bowl weekend4. Against a budget of $25 million, the film ultimately grossed over $226 million worldwide6. A Unifrance press dossier states that Taken remains, as of that publication, the biggest success achieved by a French film at the American box office10.
Critical reception
Critical response was mixed. Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times critic who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, described Mills as a one-man rescue squad and a killing machine, judged the setup completely unbelievable, and concluded that viewers who wanted that kind of picture would probably like it7. Reviewers also noted the film's brisk, vindictive energy and its premise's unexamined ethnic stereotypes11. Academic work has read the film as part of a post-9/11 return of the vigilante figure in popular culture12.
References
- Taken, Crew United
- Taken, 20th Century Studios
- Visas et Classification: TAKEN, CNC
- Best opening figures ever for a French film in the United States, EuropaCorp press release, 3 February 2009
- 96時間, 20th Century Studios Japan
- Taken Returns as a Streaming Hit After Launching an Action Franchise, MCE Notices
- 96 hours to save his daughter from a fate worse than death, Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com
- Taken, Cineuropa
- Exclusive: Pierre Morel Talks Taken, ComingSoon.net
- Taken 2 dossier de presse, Unifrance
- Taken critic reviews, Metacritic
- Resurrecting the vigilante: paternal sovereignty, exceptionality and familial security in Taken (2008) and Taken 2 (2013), Royal Holloway
- A Taken Prequel TV Series Is In The Works At NBC, TIME
- 96 Heures, Cineuropa
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Action thrillers, 2000s
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
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