Pierre Morel’s Taken isn’t the kind of film that lends itself to an easy sequel. Liam Neeson’s estranged daughter (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped while vacationing in Europe, and he goes after the scumbags who abducted her. What, is she going to get kidnapped in a new location? Is the inevitable sequel going to be like The Hangover: Part II, with the exact same format playing out in a new neighborhood?

That's basically it, according to Latino Review, who shared the details on the in-production sequel on an exclusive “First Look” podcast report (which we’ve posted below). WARNING: The podcast gets into very, very specific plot details, spelling out basically everything that happens in roughly the first hour of the sequel, so steer clear if you’d like to go into Taken 2 without ruining the story.



What do we learn? That the sequel returns Neeson, Grace and Famke Janssen (as Neeson’s ex-wife), and takes place in Istanbul, Paris and Los Angeles. The plot – a straight-up vengeance tale – involves the father (Rade Serbedzija) of one of Neeson’s victims swearing to bring our hero down.

Like most sequels, it sounds like Taken 2 follows very closely to the template of the original, flipping the script on its head ever so slightly but not deviating too far away so as to alienate the core audience that supported the initial film. The guys at Latino give the story a solid thumbs up. Now all that’s left is to see if director Olivier Megaton (Colombiana) can deliver the goods.