2. PLOT - STORYLINE
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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
