Taken opening two minutes

Taken came out in 2008, and is about an ex spy played by Liam Neeson, who's 17 year old daughter and her friend go on holiday to Paris with permission for her Dad despite him not liking the idea of her going away. He later finds out that she is not only going to Paris but are following the rock band U2 on tour around europe. The accumulation of Neeson at first not granting his daughter permission to go on Holiday, the precautions he takes such as requesting the address of her hotel, giving her an international cell phone to call him on, is used as the suspense and build up to her and her friend Amanda being kidnapped from their hotel room minutes after arriving there.

The film begins with an old family video of a young girl, which imeadiatly suggests that something at some point in the next upcoming scenes. The film is of an action/thriller/heroic/Crime fiction, but this is not massviely obvious at first, it takes until a few scenes later when Neeson protects a popstar from being stabbed when working as secturity at a pop concert until the audience can establish what genre the film is. The film uses the cliche of the rich stepdad, when Neeson turns up at his Daughters over exhaggerated birthday party to give her a kareoke machine for her present, only to have this overidden when his ex-wife's new partner emerges with a horse as his present for his stepdaughter. This immediately puts Neeson in  lower position than him and doesn't at first make him out to be the hero of the film.

The use of mise-en-scene gives us this first impression about Neeson too, the next scene on from the home video is him waking up in a dark fairly small empty apartment immediately gives the cliche of the divorced father. The film then uses juxtaposition from Neeson to his daughters stepdad at the birthday party, being held at his white stone colored palace like settlement, along with his fresh, smart clothing matching the color of the house instantly presenting wealth.