TAKEN (2008) - THRILLER ANALYSISBy Jodie Turini

PLOT - STORYLINESeventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father Bryan Mills. Bryan is a retired agent who left the Central Intelligence Agency to be near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. Kim manages to convince her reluctant father to allow her to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When the girls arrive in Paris they share a cab with a stranger named Peter, and Amanda lets it slip that they are alone in Paris. Using this information an Albanian gang of human traffickers kidnaps the girls. Kim barely has time to call her father and give him information. Her father gets to speak briefly to one of the kidnappers and he promises to kill the kidnappers if they do not let his daughter go free. The kidnapper wishes him "good luck," so Bryan Mills travels to Paris to search for his daughter and her friend.

OPENING

The film starts with the trademark "20th Century Fox" introduction

The screen goes to black out and the production company appears again but in small white writing fading in and out of the screen.

A handheld recording appears of screen and the first thing we see is a child's birthday hat.

A young girl is seen on screen suggesting it is her 5th birthday and she blows out the candles.

After blowing out the candles the screen goes blurry as a man is waking up, showing that the previous scene was a dream, likely to be a flashback.

The rest of the scene consists of the man turning on a small lamp and gazing at a picture, which we see to be the girl in the last scene. This suggests it could be his daughter and something may have happened to her.

CONVENTIONS ESTABLISH CHARACTER= showing that the character was dreaming of the little girl and then is holding a

picture of her on his chest suggests the young girl holds importance in his life and he is perhaps troubled over something to do with her.

ESTABLISH SETTING = The audience is not yet shown much to do with the setting of the film, nothing is being given away, all we are really shown is lounge with a man sitting there alone with a photo.

KEEPING AUDIENCE INTERESTED = Upon seeing the flashback to the birthday and seeing the photo of the young girl appears next to the title of the film engages the audience. They question is she missing now? is she dead? is someone going to take her? has she been missing a while?

SOUND = Throughout the opening there are no conservations, the only sound the audience hears is weary softly playing music that fades in and out as the opening progresses.

CREDITS/TITLES = The names of actors and editors fades in and out of the screen while we are being shown the setting and characters. The titles appears of screen next the photo frame of the little girl.

FLASHBACKS = Flashbacks are often used in thrillers to add missing parts to a storyline, to allow the audience to gradually piece together what has happened. "Taken" opens with a flashback with a young girl being the main focus implying that the storyline of the film is likely to have something to do with the young girl.