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Taken
Movie

Taken

2008 • Action, Crime, Thriller

Woke Score
1
out of 10

Plot

Seventeen 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.

Overall Series Review

The film is an unreserved action-thriller focused entirely on a father’s relentless, skill-based pursuit to rescue his daughter from a criminal enterprise. The story's moral core is the unconditional love of a father and the protective nature of traditional masculinity. Bryan Mills is a fully competent and morally righteous character whose actions are justified by an objective moral truth: the sanctity of his daughter’s life. The narrative is a clear example of universal meritocracy, where the protagonist's superior skills—not his identity—provide the only path to salvation. The structure celebrates the hero's American competence and familial devotion against a backdrop of foreign indifference and corruption. No themes of anti-Western sentiment, gender ideology, or deconstruction of the nuclear family are present; rather, the plot acts to affirm the necessity of the protective male role and the virtue of the traditional family unit.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The film does not rely on race or immutable characteristics for its heroes. The protagonist, Bryan Mills, is defined purely by his elite skill set and his moral drive as a father to rescue his daughter. The villains are explicitly characterized by their national/ethnic and professional identity as Albanian human traffickers and a wealthy Arab sheik, positioning the white American male as the competent and moral savior against foreign-identified evil.

Oikophobia1/10

The narrative promotes gratitude toward a capable American archetypal figure and views the institutions of family and the protective father as essential shields against chaos. The foreign setting (Paris/Europe) is framed as a dangerous place where local law enforcement and social attitudes are ineffective or complicit, contrasting negatively with the protective capacity of the American hero.

Feminism1/10

The film champions a complementarian view, portraying the male protagonist's masculinity as a protective, vital force. His teenage daughter and ex-wife are depicted as vulnerable and dependent on him for rescue. The plot completely rejects the 'Girl Boss' trope, showing the women as victims whose naiveté and failure to heed the father's protective warnings lead directly to their peril.

LGBTQ+1/10

The story centers exclusively on a traditional male-female pairing in a family crisis. The conflict revolves around the heterosexual threat of sex trafficking and the protective bond between a father and his daughter. Sexual identity is not a narrative focus, and there is no presence of 'queer theory' or lecturing on gender ideology.

Anti-Theism1/10

The film operates on a clear, objective moral law: the absolute wrongness of human trafficking and the absolute rightness of using any means necessary to save an innocent child. The father's quest is driven by a transcendent moral imperative, and there is no hostility toward religion or embrace of moral relativism; the moral lines are drawn with unflinching clarity.