History Main / Taken

* ''Film/{{Taken}}'': three thriller films starring Liam Neeson.

* Taken: The past participle of the verb "take" meaning to to seize or capture, as well as an adjective meaning interpreted in a certain way. Hopefully [[{{Grammar}} you already knew that.]]

* Taken: [[CaptainObvious The past participle of the verb "take" meaning to to seize or capture, as well as an adjective meaning interpreted in a certain way.]] Hopefully [[{{Grammar}} you already knew that.]]

* ''Film/{{Taken}}'': two thriller films starring Liam Neeson.

* ''Film/{{Taken}}'': a 2008 thriller film starring Liam Neeson.

"Taken" is the past principle of the verb "take" meaning to to seize or capture.

There are two works with this title:

* ''[[{{Series/Taken}} Taken]]'': a 2002 miniseries
* ''[[{{Film.Taken}} Taken]]'': a 2008 thriller film starring Liam Neeson.

* ''[[{{Series/Taken}} Taken]]'' a 2002 miniseries
* ''[[{{Film.Taken}} Taken]]'' a 2008 thriller film starring Liam Neeson.

* ''[[{{Film.Taken}} Taken]'' a 2008 thriller film starring Liam Neeson.

There are two works for this title, a [[{{Series/Taken}} mini series]] and a [[{{Film.Taken}} movie]], click the one you want.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Taken.jpg
[[caption-width:144:You'd best listen.]]

-->'''Bryan Mills''': ''I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll 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.''
-->'''Marko''': ''[[TemptingFate Good]] [[TooDumbToLive luck]]''.

An intense 2008 rescue thriller produced by French auteur Luc Besson and directed by Pierre Morel. AKA "The Bourne Paternity".

LiamNeeson plays Bryan Mills, a [[RetiredBadass former special-forces commander]] attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughter Kimmy, who is currently living with her remarried-to-a-millionaire mother. He took up the job of being a bodyguard to help pay the bills.

Things turn ugly when Kimmy is kidnapped by Albanian sex-traffickers on a trip to Paris on her 17th Birthday.

Bryan courteously warns his daughter's captors that he has [[OneManArmy "a particular set of skills that will make their lives very miserable"]] and that he will [[PersonOfMassDestruction kill all of them]] if they do not let her go. They ignored his warning.

Bryan was '''not''' bluffing when he claimed to be [[IKnowKungFu a frighteningly skilled]] [[BadassGrandpa old warrior]] [[OneManArmy whose brutality would make Jason Bourne seem like a pussycat in comparison.]]

[[PapaWolf Hell hath no fury like a father protecting his little girl,]] as the underworld of Paris soon learns the '''hard''' and '''painful''' way.

[[http://www.filmjunk.com/2009/03/12/taken-sequel-in-the-works/ A sequel is in the works.]]

Not related to the AlienAbduction MiniSeries "[[Series/{{Taken}} Stephen Spielberg's Taken]]"
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!!This movie provides examples of:

* AcceptableTargets: Apparently the French, who produced this film, still don't like Albanian immigrants.
** And sex traders/human traffickers, but it'd take an especially oozy bleeding-heart to feel sorry for them over the poor women they abduct.
** Possibly also the Swiss and Muslims, referring to Patrice St. Clair and the sheik in the final showdown. Plus French law enforcement.
*** Luc Besson has a similar attitude to the French justice system as American 80s action films have to the US justice system: the "establishment" (judges, prosecutors and police chiefs) are impotent or corrupt, but one or two [[CowboyCop Cowboy Cops]] can strike a telling blow for justice.
* ActorAllusion: Liam Neeson has to meet some slave-traders [[{{Fallout}} whose base of operations is called "Paradise."]]
* AwesomeYetPractical: Bryan's martial arts style obeys the laws of gravity and physics, and involves no somersaults or fancy kicks - he even refuses to use GunsAkimbo when he has two pistols. His style basically consists of ramming hard things into people's heads, and ramming people's heads into hard things, and dammit; it works ''really'' well.
* BadCopIncompetentCop: Pretty much the whole force seen in the film.
** I don't know if it's incompetent so much as Bryan is just really, really awesome. But some are bad, obviously.
* BadassBoast: The opening quote for this page. Too bad for the Albanians who thought he was joking.
* BadassGrandpa: Bryan's pushing 60, but can still waste a dozen villains half his age without breaking a sweat.
* BadassLongcoat: In some of the publicity shots and part of Bryan's outfit for much of the film.
* BaldOfEvil
* BasedOnATrueStory: One Colonel William Hillar, only in real life it was in Asia, and sadly it was the friend who survived, not his daughter.
** He was revealed to be a fraud. He never even served in the military.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: The protagonist is an ex special forces soldier who tortured people in the past (that's where he learned his [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique "technique"]]), is merciless toward his enemies and threatens an innocent person [[spoiler:and then carries through on it by shooting her in the arm]] on one occasion. His opponents are sex-slavers, a profession [[{{Understatement}} not exactly known for being all that sympathetic]].
* ChaoticGood
* CompleteMonster: The Albanian sex-slave traders have zero redeeming features whatsoever.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: "You don't remember me, do you? We spoke on the phone two days ago. I told you I'd find you."
* DawsonCasting: 25-year-old Maggie Grace as 17-year-old Kim.
* DeathBySex: [[MyGirlIsNotASlut Kim is a virgin,]] as the plot goes out of its way to note. Amanda apparently isn't, and was looking forward to having fun abroad IfYouKnowWhatIMean. [[spoiler: Guess who dies?]]
** [[spoiler:Amanda not being a virgin and also being the one who dies is a case of truth in television for this movie; the way they treated Kim and Amanda depending on their virginity is something that happens with most sex-slavers in real life.]]
* {{Determinator}}: By the end of the movie, Bryan has a bullet wound, multiple knife wounds, been beaten in fisticuffs pretty badly by TheDragon, and most likely has a broken ankle, and ''still'' manages to massacre every {{Mook}} on the yacht. And that's just the ''last'' action sequence.
* DirtyCoward: The young "recruiter" guy, Peter.
* DistressedDamsel: Poor Kim...
** Kim may also be the DamselScrappy. It's difficult to sympathize with her when she drops her father's gift on the ground to go ride a horse, lies to get Bryan to sign off on her trip, and then ignores the [[ProperlyParanoid rules and precautions]] she promised to abide by.
*** Considering she's a girl from Southern California, I'm just glad that she seems to be on very good terms with Bryan. That, and, you know, secret agent fathers in movies generally always start out having a bad relationship with their children because they're "never home", so Kim's not so bad in this regard.
*** [[HouseHiringHeuristic After her ordeal, she'll never disobey her father again.]]
* TheDragon
* ElectricTorture: Played ''terrifyingly'' straight. And averts the trope association of there not being any visible wounding, the electric current is being run into the mook by [[spoiler: nails shoved directly into his thighs.]]
* EnhanceButton: One of the clues he follows is a memory card from his daughters broken cell phone. He finds a picture with a reflection of someone following them around. He doesn't zoom in much, but he is able to enhance it to get a good look at his face.
** Justified, as it's little more than an increased contrast and sharpen filter that just makes the general structure of facial features stand out more.
* EvilForeigner: With two exceptions, ''everyone'' foreign over the age of six is Evil.
* {{Expy}}: The movie has been compared with ''TwentyFour''; Bryan is Jack Bauer, Kim is Kim Bauer, Lenore is Teri Bauer. When Kim is kidnapped, Bryan's CIA friends say that analysts give them ninety-six hours (four days) before Kim disappears completely. Jean-Claude resembles Christopher Henderson, considering that both went from agents to desk jobs, both had their wives shot by the Bryan/Jack to force Jean-Claude/Christopher to give up information, and both tried to shoot Bryan/Jack with a gun that the Bryan/Jack had already taken the bullets out of. Oh, and Xander Berkeley, who plays George Mason, plays Stuart, Kim's stepfather. Oh and Amanda's [[AlasPoorScrappy Janet York]].
** Bryan comes off very similar to Sam Fisher in ''SplinterCellConviction''.
* FoeTossingCharge: Essentially the entire movie.
* FridgeBrilliance: At first viewing, Bryan ignoring all but three of the kidnapped girls (Amanda, Kim, and the girl that had Kim's jacket) seems rather cold. On further thought, police are going to be swarming all over the corpse-strewn battlefields, and they will be far more capable of helping the girls than he would.
* GenericEthnicCrimeGang: The primary antagonists are from an Albanian organized crime ring.
* GenreBlind: If the antagonists of this film had so much as a shread of [[GenreSavvy savvy,]] they would've let Kim and Amanda go and got the hell out of the apartment while PapaWolf was in a charitable mood.
* GodModeSue: This movie is pretty much about how awesome LiamNeeson is. Although [[EscapistCharacter it's (arguably) well done]]. Who ''doesn't'' want to punch [[CompleteMonster sex slavers]] in the face?
* GoGoEnslavement: With an unpleasantly appropriate justification.
* GroinAttack
* [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, It's That Guy]]: [[ThePretender Broots]] as a badass ex-special-forces guy.
** On the other hand, try picturing LiamNeeson as [[StarWars Qui-Gon Jinn]], [[BatmanBegins Ra'as Al'Ghul]], [[{{Fallout}} your dad]], [[KingdomOfHeaven Godfrey]], or [[ChroniclesOfNarnia Jesus]] (aka. "Qui'Ghulfrey Jesus"), and the whole movie just becomes even ''more'' awesome.
*** How has NOBODY mentioned that Liam Neeson was [[SchindlersList Oskar Schindler]]?? The whole time I was watching, that thing, y'know, about how "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire", was echoing in my head in a mean way.
** Wow, [[HarpersIsland Trish Wellington's]] been having a bad couple of years!
** Hey, it's Ruby from Supernatural!
* HilarityEnsues: Marko twitching like a cockroach hit by a slipper when Bryan turns on the power. [[CompleteMonster What did that dumb rapist]] expect to happen when [[WhatAnIdiot he spat at a man]] who has just [[TooDumbToLive slammed two long and rusty nails into his thighs attached to a fuse box?]]
* {{HSQ}}: If you did not walk out of the Movie Theater going "Dude..." then you watched the wrong movie.
* {{ILLKILLYOU}}
* ISOStandardUrbanGroceries: Bryan uses a bag as camouflage to get into the Paris apartment.
** Jean-Claude also carries home a baguette for dinner. Justified, although apparently Parisian bakers do not bother with a paper bag, or any form of packaging for their food products.
* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: In one of the trope's finest-ever uses.
* ItsPersonal: "It was just business, NothingPersonal!" [[{{PreMortemOneLiner}} "It was all personal to me."]] * BANG*
** Carries much more weight in the Harder Cut where it's * BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, casually tosses empty gun onto dead body while gunpowder smoke drifts slowly to the top of the elevator*
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Considering the type of movie this is, this trope is Unavoidable, but there is one particularly bad case of it at the movie's climax. A Gunman unloads countless of rounds Point blank at Bryan Mills, and all bullets miss.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Oh, the ElectricTorture.
--> '''Bryan:''' "I need you to be ''focused!''" ''(slams nails into man's thighs)'' ARE YOU FOCUSED YET?!
* JitterCam: Thankfully not to the extent of the ''Bourne'' movies, but yeah.
* KarmicDeath: Possibly ''good'' luck for the DirtyCoward, since as we see later, it prevented him from being [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique 'interrogated']].
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Normally, having the protagonist torture someone for information is a major KickTheDog. But then this movie presents us with someone who [[CompleteMonster totally deserves]] to have ElectricTorture done to him through ''rusty nails jammed into his legs''.
** The whole movie is basically "Kick The Sons of Bitches: The Film."
* KilledMidSentence: "We can negoti--" * BANG*
** FridgeBrilliance: The moment he started talking would be the one moment he'd be most distracted, and thus the prime moment to attack.
* KnightTemplarParent
** Even better when you consider that Liam Neeson's last major role before this film was as a Crusader knight.
* LeCopsSportif
* TheManBehindTheCurtain
* {{Mooks}} and more mooks, and more mooks, and, just for a change of pace, even more mooks...
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Kim's virginity has [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt friggin' plot armor]].
** {{Justified}}: [[spoiler: Virgins carry a much better fetching price in human trafficking markets. Bryan likely saved Kim just in the nick of time.]]
* NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight: The guy threatening the singer. ''[[{{Scrubs}} Mistaaaake!]]'' But subverted when TheDragon, after bringing out a knife, is only defeated subsequent to wounding Bryan some.
** Then again, the former was just an average crazy stalker. The latter used special knives with tremendous skills.
* NightmareFuel: See JackBauerInterrogationTechnique. YourMileageMayVary if you [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hate rapists.]]
** Not to mention Bryan's cold speech about how outsourcing torture to Third World nations was ineffecient because of unreliable power grids, forcing torturers to use [[ItGotWorse even more extreme methods]]. However, in an industrial nation like France, he can just leave the power on "until it's disconnected for lack of payment on the bills"... [[spoiler:Which is exactly what he does.]]
** Bryan searching through an impromptu brothel, coming upon several young women who are all sickly, sweaty and have their arms covered in needle marks. ''Brrr.''
** The whole friggin' movie. Or to phrase it another way: for the love of all that's holy, '''DO NOT''' show this movie to a parent whose teenage child is planning on going overseas soon.
*** I actually would plan on showing this movie to them, and to their children. They can still go, but they should be aware of the dangers of talking to people you don't know who have too much interest in you and then sharing a cab with them to where you are staying alone and informing them the specific area of the building you're going to be in. So basically, if you have children visiting a foreign country, tell them not to pick up and play with the IdiotBall.
**** [[SarcasmMode Because nothing like this would ever happen to them at home]].
***** [[ParanoiaFuel Well obviously it COULD happen at home,]] but it's more likely that something could happen when you're abroad since you're in a place that isn't familiar to you and since you're probably going to go into tourist mode, it's easy to let down your guard. Also, if you're not with your parents, if something DOES happen, they can't do a thing to help.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: When Bryan impersonates Jean-Claude, no one questions why a French policeman has an Irish accent.
** A case of FridgeBrilliance: he is impersonating before a bunch of Albanian mooks who hardly speak French themselves, not to mention making out accents. On many levels his visit relied on them being too dumb and overconfident to live.
* NotSoFastBucko: It looks like Kim is about to be saved only for Bryan Mills to find out [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle his princess is in another castle.]]
* OhCrap: the look on the man's face when [[spoiler: Bryan says to him "I told you I would find you."]]
* OneManArmy: The main character goes through an underground sex-trafficking crime ring the same way [[ResidentEvil4 Leon Kennedy]] [[KillEmAll goes through a Spanish peasant village.]]
* OverprotectiveDad
* PapaWolf: The plot of this movie
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Bryan does this a lot. In fact, the film's general message is that sometimes it's ''necessary'' for TheHero to do bad things.
* ProperlyParanoid: The OverprotectiveDad is proven ''absolutely right'' in every way to have tried forbidding his daughter from traveling overseas, as well as the conditions he sets when he finally allows her to go.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Bryan makes it perfectly clear that he only cares about the sexual slavery ring to the extent that they have abducted his daughter, and repeatedly offers to leave them in peace if they let her go. Apparently, he's alright with ''other people's daughters'' being abducted, drugged, and raped by sadists.
** It's not at all that he's "alright" with it. It's that his goal is to get his daughter back, and he knows that as badass as he is, he alone isn't going to be able to put an end to the whole thing.
*** Except, you know, that he proceeds to do ''exactly that''. He doesn't get all the customers, but he kills the Albanian suppliers and the ringleader (and most of {{Mooks}}, too).
*** You think a [[OddlySmallOrganization couple dozen guys]] in one city is the ''entire'' operation? Really?
*** Seemed like a sizeable chunk of it. And considering the attention they'll be getting from the French police...
*** See the FridgeBrilliance part above. He causes enough damage to get the police's attention, and they are much better at helping the sex slaves instead of just himself.
**** Except for the implications of police incompetence/corruption. Will the sex slaves actually end up any better off?
* PunchClockVillain: Patrice tries to paint himself this way, but fails to convince Bryan.
* RealityEnsues
* RetiredBadass: Bryan
* RichBitch: Bryan's ex-wife. We're told that she has good reason for not liking Bryan, but she winds up looking spiteful and manipulative instead. She repeatedly tries to distance her daughter from Bryan (thankfully unsuccessful) and flaunt the fact that her new husband is richer and can afford nicer things for Kim.
** Pop star Sheerah initially seems like this when, upon being asked by Bryan if she can give his aspiring-to-be-singer daughter any tips, she responds, "Tell her to pick another career." It's later revealed after Bryan saves Sheerah from an attacker that she meant it as a warning, as a lucrative career in the music industry is "not what everyone thinks it is". She ends up giving the number of her vocal coach and her manager to Bryan when he simply responds, "That's what she wants."
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge
* RuthlessForeignGangsters: The Albanian gagsters.
* ScaryBlackMan: He appears ''just'' long enough to get his ass completely handed to him by Bryan.
* SeriousBusiness: Apparently, sex slaver Marko values keeping the location of our protagonist's daughter secret more than his own life, [[TooDumbToLive even when strapped into a chair with electrified nails in his thighs]].
** He's probably worried that his colleagues would do worse if they found out. [[ColdBloodedTorture Oooooh boy is he wrong.]]
* ShootTheDog: [[spoiler:Shooting Jean Claude's innocent wife]]. But it was OnlyAFleshWound so it's [[MoralDissonance okay]].
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Literally for Kimmy and Amanda, who get targeted by the Albanians because they're hot and can fetch a lot of money as {{Sex Slave}}s.
* TalkToTheFist: Or 'bullet' as the case may be.
* TheCombatPragmatist: Bryan is a GOD of this trope. Let's see: aiming for the nuts 90% of the time, playing dead in a shoot-out, shooting someone who let their guard down for one microsecond just to talk, aiming for the head in a hostage standoff, the list goes on...
* TheUnfettered: Bryan is the living embodiment of this. Nothing is going to stop him from finding his daughter and there is no line he will not cross to find her. He even claimed to be [[WhatTheHellHero willing to kill his old friend Jean Claude and his wife]] if they didn't help him achieve his goal. All of Bryan's actions in the movie indicate that he was not bluffing.
* TooDumbToLive: The villains switch from [[spoiler:smuggling in and enslaving illegal immigrants]] to [[spoiler:[[WallBanger kidnapping several rich white foreigners]] PER DAY]], and from [[spoiler:luring their targets to abandoned buildings]] to [[spoiler: nabbing them out of their rooms WHILE THEY ARE ON THE PHONE]]
** In regards to [[spoiler:switching over to rich white foreigners]], this troper's International Perspectives on Women professor (who saw this movie on this troper's recommendation while we were covering sex-trafficking in class) claimed that this [[RealityIsUnrealistic made sense]] because [[spoiler: said foreigners are going to have a much healthier pedigree than poorer European women and fetch a higher price from wealthier clients]].
*** ''This'' troper wonders just how much of a benefit that really is if the traffickers are then going to [[spoiler: enforce their victim's compliance by addicting them to intravenously injected drugs.]]
*** [[spoiler:That was for the ones who weren't considered high-dollar.]]
** No mention of Kim and Amanda? The idiots accepted a car ride with a complete stranger in a foreign country, then told that stranger that they'd be alone in their apartment. Really, the kidnapping was Natural Selection at work.
*** Well in all fairness, despite actually agreeing in the end, Kim was smart enough to question her friend why they should trust someone they hardly knew. Of course Amanda takes this trope 100% for being so carefree you'd be surprised she wasn't kidnapped while mid-flight.
** Let's not forget the fact that they totally took Bryan's threat lightly...
** In this troper's opinion, special mention goes to the guy on the receiving end of the ElectricTorture. [[SuicidalOverconfidence When someone has jammed three-inch nails into your legs, what you don't want to do is spit in their face.]]
*** No, no, the mistake was doing it ''twice''. ''Then'' he had the balls to be surprised when Bryan went back to the power switch again.
* TranquilFury
* TryAndFollow: Done [[IncrediblyLamePun semi]]-successfully by one of the {{mooks}} Bryan tracks down.
* UnstoppableRage
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Was it ever covered exactly ''why'' there was somebody trying to assassinate an early-20's pop singer?
** Well, it happens with a lot of [[FanDumb crazy male fans]] who believe ''"if I can't have her, nobody can"'', as the botched attempt on Japanese singer-and-voice actress [[NanaMizuki Mizuki Nana]] shows.
** Also, nothing is ever done to show if [[spoiler: Amanda's family was ever notified of their daughter's murder by overdose, or what actions they took if they were.]]
** It's never really made clear [[spoiler:how long it took Bryan and Kim to get back to America, considering Bryan's all bandaged up and would have possibly needed to chat with the French authorities about that long list of murder victims he's tallied up.]]
** Nor have there been any mention of [[spoiler:Jean-Claude. Was he arrested or kicked out of the department for his connections to the traffickers? What did his wife think of her husband now she knew of his connections?]]
*** [[spoiler:Jean-Claude]] never had any connections to the traffickers; he was aware that his boss was involved, but was only too happy to look the other way.
**** He was happy to look the other way because he was being [[EveryManHasHisPrice paid off]]. That's one hell of a connection.
** Why has no one thought about [[spoiler:that girl with Kim's jacket? Are we supposed to assume she found her own lost half-naked way back home?]]
*** [[spoiler:There was a phone in her room, wasn't there? She could just call home.]]
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: The villains suffer from this. [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy Bryan doesn't.]]
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Practically the movie's entire premise.
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<<|{{Film}}|>>

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Considering the type of movie this is, this trope is Unavoidable, but there is one particularly bad case of it at the movie's climax. A Gunman unloads countless of rounds Point blank at Bryan Mills, and all bullets miss. This may have been just another textbook case, had the editor not cut to a shot which clearly shows the terrorist standing less than a meter away from Bryan, and the gun ''clearly'' pointed at Bryan's back, thus in real life, every single one of those bullets would have hit Bryan and torn him to shreds. That one scene ''Shattered'' the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief of this troper.

-->'''???''': ''[[TemptingFate Good]] [[TooDumbToLive luck]]''.

A 2008 rescue thriller produced by French auteur Luc Besson.

AKA "The Bourne Paternity".

Things turn ugly when Kimmy is kidnapped by Albanian sex-traders on a trip to Paris on her 17th Birthday.

Bryan courteously warns his daughter's captors that he has [[OneManArmy "a particular set of skills that will make their lives very miserable"]] and that he will [[PersonOfMassDestruction kill all of them]] if they do not let her go.

[[HilarityEnsues The Albanians foolishly ignored his warning.]]

** Possibly also the Swiss and Muslims, referring to Patrice St. Clair and the sheik in the final showdown.
** Plus French law enforcement.

* AwesomeYetPractical: Bryan's martial arts style obeys the laws of gravity and physics, and involves no somersaults or fancy kicks. It basically consists of ramming hard things into people's heads, and ramming people's heads into hard things, and dammit; it works ''really'' well.

* SeriousBusiness: Apparently, sex slaver Marko values keeping the location of our protagonist's daughter secret [[SuicidalOverconfidence more than his own life]].

* BadassGrandpa: Bryan's pushing 60, but can still waste a dozen villains half-his-age without breaking a sweat.

**** Except for the implied fact of police incompetence/corruption. Will the sex slaves actually end up any better off?

* [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, It's That Guy]]: ThisTroper had trouble accepting [[ThePretender Broots]] as a badass ex-special-forces guy.

** Not to mention Bryan's cold speech about how outsourcing torture to Third World nations was ineffecient because of unreliable power grids, forcing torturers to use [[ItGotWorse even more extreme methods]]. However, in an industrial nation like France, he can just leave the power on as long as he wants...

** A case of FrigeBrilliance: he is impersonating before a bunch of Albanian mooks who hardly speak French themselves, not to mention making out accents. On many levels his visit relied on them being too dumb and overconfident to live.

Bryan was '''not''' bluffing when he claimed to be [[IKnowKungFu a frighteningly skilled]] [[BadassGrampa old warrior]] [[OneManArmy whose brutality would make Jason Bourne seem like a pussycat in comparison.]]

* BadassBoast: The opening quote for this page. [[HilarityEnsues Too bad for the Albanians who thought he was joking.]]

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The protagonist is an ex special forces soldier who tortured people in the past (that's where he learned his [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique "technique"]]), is merciless toward his enemies and [[strike:threatens]] [[spoiler:shoots the arm of]] an innocent person on one occasion. His opponents are sex-slavers, a profession [[{{Understatement}} not exactly known for being all that sympathetic]].