FILM · 2014 · FRANCE
Taken 3
22 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
22 Interesting Facts About Taken 3
Interesting Facts (17)
- #001
Liam Neeson reportedly committed to making the third film only on the condition that "nobody gets taken."
- #002
Liam Neeson performed all of the fight scenes in the film himself.
- #003
While promoting the film, Forest Whitaker said he took several set pieces home as mementos of his time on set at the end of production, including a police badge, a chess piece and a bag of simit.
- #004
The photograph used to depict Lenny is the same as the one on actress Famke Janssen's profile.
- #005
The character Stuart St. John was previously played by Xander Berkeley in the first Taken film; because Berkeley was not available to reprise the role, Dougray Scott plays St. John in this installment.
- #006
In the original Taken (2008), Bryan Mills tells the kidnappers on the phone exactly what he will do and what they are up against, and they respond, "Good luck." In Taken 3 (2014), in an interesting role reversal, Franck Dotzler tells Bryan exactly what he will do and what Bryan is up against, and Bryan replies, "Good luck."
- #007
Like the first two films, this one was shot as an R-rated film but was cut down to PG-13 for its theatrical release.
- #008
Liam Neeson and Forest Whitaker, who play the hero and the anti-hero respectively, do not share any screen time until the 102nd minute of the film.
- #009
In Taken (2008), Bryan hides under a corpse and then shoots the villain who is looking for him; he does the same thing in this film.
- #010
This is the only film in which Lenore and Kim do not share a scene.
- #011
The Malibu pier appears the same way at the end of both Taken 2 and Taken 3, with a long scrolling pull-back shot just as the credits roll.
- #012
Dougray Scott is ten years younger than Xander Berkeley, who played Stuart in Taken (2008).
- #013
When St. John tells Mills about Oleg Malinkov, he notes that Malinkov was in the Russian army when it invaded Afghanistan. Sam Spruell, who plays Malinkov, was actually almost three years old when that happened: he was born in January 1977, and the invasion of Afghanistan took place in December 1979.
- #014
The house where Stuart is taken was also used as the home belonging to Nolan Ross in the series Revenge.
- #015
Kim drives a 1977 model Toyota Corolla.
- #016
Sam Spruell (Oleg Malinkov) and Liam Neeson (Bryan Mills) appeared together in two films. One of them was this film, and the other was K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), in which Liam Neeson played a captain in Russia during the Cold War aboard the K19 submarine and Sam Spruell was a crew member on the ship.
- #017
Olivier Megaton also directed Taken 2 (2012).
Characters & Cast (1)
- #018
In addition to playing her husband in this film, Dougray Scott also portrayed Famke Janssen's love interest in the series Hemlock Grove (2013).
Easter Eggs & References (3)
- #019
Many fans of the series were disappointed that the Albanians, whose enmity was their trademark and who were expected to return in this film, never do. In the previous film, Murad Hoca claimed that if Bryan killed him, his other sons would take revenge, leading many to believe the villains in this film would be Albanians, but they never appear. Instead, the villains are a Russian gang trying to collect money from a crooked business deal gone wrong with Lenore's husband, Stuart St. John. Many thought the Russian conspiracy came out of nowhere, but that is not true: in the first film, Bryan comments that Stuart was involved in an oil deal gone bad with "some Russians," and those Russians are the villains in this film.
- #020
Forest Whitaker (Franck Dotzler) generally plays a political or law enforcement character in other films, and in many of them he has a chess piece with him throughout the film; in this case it was a knight.
- #021
Because Lenore is killed in this film, it can be said that the title refers to her life being taken.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #022
In many of the scenes where Detective Dotzler is one step behind in the investigation because Mills's team got there first, Dotzler can be seen holding the knight chess piece. It symbolizes their relationship, since in chess you have to think several moves ahead of your opponent.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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