With the upcoming release of Retribution, Liam Maguren looks back at five of the best Liam Neeson action-thrillers from the past 15 years.
Pierre Morel’s no-nonsense action-thriller Taken was a mini-phenomenon. What could have been a forgettable one-man-army punch fest became a crowd favourite thanks to Morel’s visceral set-pieces and Liam Neeson’s unique portrayal of an action hero.
Neither an Arnold Schwarzenegger bulk beast nor a Bruce Lee lean machine, Neeson’s former agent Bryan Mills looks more like your polite neighbour who might give you a half-smiling nod in the morning when you’re taking out the bins. So when he demonstrates himself as an unstoppable throat-kicking sharp-shooter, it comes with a certain “wow” factor.
Neeson also plays Mills with compelling slants of regret, a man deeply unwilling to revisit the deadliest side of himself. But, hey, when you snatch that man’s daughter, exceptions will be made, culminating in one of cinema’s most meme’d monologues.
Taken‘s success did the unthinkable: it turned an actor in his mid-50s into an action icon. 15 years on, Neeson’s led roughly one action-thriller a year, and while some of them are rubbish (see: Tak3n), these five are worth your time.
The A-Team
Neeson plays iconic cigar-chomper Hannibal in Joe Carnahan’s blockbuster take on the classic ’80s series. Starring alongside Bradley Cooper as Faceman, Sharlto Copley as Murdock, and former MMA star Quinton Jackson as BA Baracus, Neeson proves himself a natural fit as a leader of a ratbag group of vets-turned-mercenaries, even if he initially seemed like an oddly serious choice to play Col. John Smith.
Sadly bombing at the box office, this hugely entertaining 2010 romp lovingly embraces being a big dumb action film. Relishing in its ludicrous set-pieces, The A-Team ignores the laws of physics to gift us the sight of a flying tank and the most elaborate shell game ever conceived. A lot of critics didn’t take to the ridiculousness of it all, but given the current state of the Fast & Furious franchise, you could argue it was ahead of its time.
Cold Pursuit
Neeson’s role in this 2019 oddity somewhat mirrors his iconic role in Taken. Here, he plays a humble snowplough driver out to kill the drug dealers he thinks murdered his son. Inadvertently, his quest for revenge contributes to a mob war and the deterioration of his marriage. Did I also mention that this is a comedy?
An English language remake of his 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance, director Hans Petter Moland’s darkly comedic crime thriller was sold as a subpar Taken ripoff only to wildly subvert those expectations. With a host of fleshed-out side characters, a thought-through gangster plot, and plenty of infectious gallows humour, Cold Pursuit goes above and beyond its generic title to deliver something closer to a modern-day Fargo.
The Commuter
Neeson stars as an insurance salesman, an ex-cop, and—you guessed it—a commuter who would have been home by now if it wasn’t for this massive criminal conspiracy delaying his train ride. Vera Farmiga plays the trademark Stranger on a Train who gives him the seemingly innocent task of identifying the passanger who doesn’t belong. It’s all fun and games until someone dies.
It’s Hitchcock by way of Agatha Christie, squashed into a burger pattie, presented with fries and a child’s toy. To some, that sounds disgusting. To me, it’s delicious and reliable junk food cinema, with director Jaume Collet-Serra proving himself as a filmmaking fry cook of crafty, schlocky thrillers. He’s made a bunch, and The Communter marks his fourth collaboration with Neeson, though I think this one might have the best fistfight out of them all.
The Grey
Neeson is Ottway, the reluctant leader of an oil-rig crew, who must guide them all to safety after a plane crash leaves them stranded and perfect prey for hungry wolves. While he’s a huntsman trained in the snow-covered Alaskan wilderness, the others are not, and with no clear way out, the group of survivors must push on and not give in to hopelessness.
Released two years after The A-Team, Joe Carnahan’s beautifully shot 2012 thriller does not joke around with brutal moments of nature at its most unforgiving and sombre ruminations on what it’s like to stare death in the face. The Grey‘s trailer copped flack for revealing the ending in a deceitful way, which is a terrible shame because, in the final film, it makes for a thoughtful conclusion to this humane survival drama.
Non-Stop
Neeson plays a deeply flawed air marshal on a commercial flight in another Big Mac combo thriller from director Jaume Collet-Serra. When he covertly receives a deadly threat—a passenger dies every 20 minutes until you fork over one million dollars—he must weed out the perpetrator without inciting panic among the passengers.
An increasingly implausible idea done super stylishly, Non-Stop knows its premise is absurd but rolls with it anyway. Uninterested in appearing realistic, like the unbearably tense 7500 or the entertaining but overblown Idris Elba series Hijack, Collet-Serra chooses to simply entertain by playing hacky sack with a bunch of schlocky thriller ideas: a confined space, cat-n-mouse mind games, a killer hiding in plain sight, the threat of mutiny, a ticking clock, a hero who might not be up to the task. It’s the fun kind of silly suspense.
