While working as security with former colleagues, Bryan saves pop star Sheerah (Holly Valance) from a knife-wielding assailant after a concert. Sheerah, grateful, agrees to tutor Kim after Bryan says she aspires to be a singer. At a lunch soon after, Kim asks Bryan for permission to travel to Paris with her older friend Amanda. Bryan balks at the two girls travelling alone, but relents when Lenore complains that he is overprotective after being absent for most of Kim's life. He gives Kim a new cellphone that can work internationally, and makes her promise to call every day. At Los Angeles International Airport, he is dismayed to discover the girls are not staying in Paris, but are actually following U2 during their European tour, something Lenore knew but kept from him.

Arriving in Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Kim and Amanda meet Peter, who offers to share a cab with them and invites them to a party. This is a ruse to gather information about where they are staying. At the apartment, Kim discovers that Amanda's cousins, with whom they are staying, and who are meant to be keeping an eye on them, are in fact in Spain. While talking to Bryan on the phone in the bathroom, Kim sees Amanda being kidnapped by intruders. Bryan instructs her to go to the nearest room and hide under a bed. He explains that when the men find her, she has to shout out their physical descriptions. Kim is pulled out from under the bed, and she complies with her father's instructions. When a kidnapper picks up the phone, Bryan tries to bargain with him, threatening to kill him if he does not let her go. The kidnapper replies only "good luck" and destroys the phone.

Bryan shows up at Stuart and Lenore's house, and tells her about their daughter's kidnapping. Bryan's former colleague Sam tells him that based on the recording, Kim has probably been taken by an Albanian human trafficking ring that has recently begun abducting female tourists. He also says that if she is not rescued within ninety-six hours, she will likely never be found. Bryan travels to Paris on one of Stuart's private jets and finds Peter at the airport attempting to lure another attractive tourist. After a confrontation and chase, Peter is hit and killed by a passing truck before Bryan can interrogate him.

Bryan then seeks out Jean-Claude, a former French intelligence officer who now works a desk job. Jean-Claude is relatively unhelpful but does direct Bryan to a district where an East European gang are prostituting women. Jean-Claude afterwards has the police put a tail on Bryan and soon warns Bryan that his vigilante methods will result in him getting kicked out of France, but Bryan manages to avoid arrest.

Bryan follows one gangster to a makeshift brothel at a construction site, where he finds a girl wearing Kim's jacket. He fights off the brothel guards and escapes with the girl in a fierce car chase. After the girl awakens, she gives Bryan enough information about the house where she met Kim to allow him to find it.

Bryan is let inside the Albanian's house by feigning to be a corrupt policeman, sent to renew its extortion "contract" with the brothel. He tricks the thugs inside into saying a few words and phrases, and recognizes a voice: Marko, the kidnapper he spoke to on the phone. He wounds Marko and kills the rest. Searching the house, he finds several captive teens, including Amanda, who is dead from an apparent overdose. In the basement of the house, Bryan straps Marko into a makeshift electric chair and tortures him with electric current until he talks: Kim, being a virgin, was very valuable on the black market, and was sold to an auctioneer named Patrice Saint-Clair. Bryan leaves Marko to die from electrocution and visits Jean-Claude at home. Having deduced that Jean-Claude is taking kickbacks from the kidnappers, Bryan shoots Jean-Claude's wife in the arm and threatens to kill her unless Jean-Claude gives up Saint-Clair's home address.

Bryan infiltrates Saint-Clair's mansion, where a large party is the facade for an auction of girls in the basement. His daughter is the last offering. Bryan forces a Middle Eastern bidder to purchase her, but is captured after they exit the room. Bryan frees himself and kills Saint-Clair's henchmen. He forces Saint-Clair to reveal where Kim has been taken before killing him. Bryan races to a luxury yacht owned by Raman, a sheikh. Jumping aboard, Bryan kills the boat's guards in a violent battle, and finally confronts the sheikh in his boudoir. Despite the sheikh holding a knife to Kim's throat, Bryan shoots him in the head and rescues his daughter. They return to the U.S. where she is reunited with her mother and stepfather. Afterward, Bryan takes Kim to see Sheerah for her first singing lesson.

Critical reception
Taken received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 58% based on reviews from 168 critics and reports a rating average of 5.8 out of 10, with the reported consensus: "Taken is undeniably fun with slick action, but is largely a brainless exercise." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 50 based on 31 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Time said the film "has nothing more on its mind than dozens of bad guys getting beat up and another one turned into instant roadkill." The Washington Post described the film as "a satisfying as grimly professional as its efficient hero" and likened the action to the Jason Bourne series. Variety described the film as a "kick ass, pedal-to-the-metal actioner  that wisely doesn't give the viewer any time to ponder the string of unlikely coincidences  the film has the forward, devil-may-care momentum of a Bond film on steroids."

The Los Angeles Times described "the premise of 'Taken,' a brisk and violent action programmer that can't help being unintentionally silly at times  Obviously, 'Taken' is not the kind of action film to spend much time worrying about its pedestrian script or largely indifferent acting, so it's fortunate to have Neeson in the starring role." Bryan Mills is characterised as "relentless attack machine who is impervious to fists, bullets and fast-moving cars, he uses a variety of martial skills to knock out more opponents than Mike Tyson and casually kill those he doesn't KO."

Box office
On its opening day in the United States, the film grossed $9.4 million, scoring the best opening day ever for Super Bowl weekend. It went on to make $24.7 million during its opening weekend, which was the second highest Super Bowl Opening weekend, at the time, behind Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour ($31.1 million). The film grossed $145,000,989 in the U.S. and Canada, and $81,829,579 overseas, for a worldwide total of $226,830,568.