Liam Neeson has been an action movie staple for many years, but at the beginning of 2021, he announced that he’d be retiring from the genre given his advanced age. A year later, we haven’t hit the endpoint of this portion of his career just yet, as evidenced by the impending arrival of Blacklight. Neeson is back with a gun in his hand to take down bad guys, and you can get a taste of what’s to come in his latest action flick by watching the first trailer.
Marking Liam Neeson’s first film appearance since Netflix’s The Ice Road, Blacklight, from Briarcliff Entertainment, sees the actor playing Travis Block, a freelance government operative who’s been working for a secret, off-the-books FBI program. Now Travis is ready to leave the “fixer” life behind him, not only to be more involved in his daughter and granddaughter’s lives, but also after being tipped off by a journalist about an undercover program that’s killing U.S. civilians. Unfortunately for Travis things go sideways after he confronts the FBI director, i.e. the man he used to work for, about this program, making it clear he doesn’t approve of its actions.
Consequently, Travis Block’s daughter and granddaughter are kidnapped for his defiance. Don’t these people know you never target the relatives of a Liam Neeson action character? Evidently not, but they’ll soon learn the error of their ways. Murder may not have been part of his job description back when he was helping out the FBI as a fixer, but now Travis won’t hesitate to kill anyone who stands in the way of getting his family back safe and sound.
Blacklight marks Liam Neeson’s second time working with director Mark Williams, who helmed 2020’s Honest Thief. Neeson’s costars include Tim Draxl, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Taylor John Smith and Aidan Quinn. Between this and Memory (which arrives in April), Neeson still has some gas left in the ol’ action movie tank before he’s ready to call it a proverbial day.
Looking further ahead into Liam Neeson’s future, he’s on deck to play the Raymond Chandler-created detective Phillip Marlowe in the aptly-named Marlowe, as well as star in the thriller Retribution, which is a remake of the 2015 Spanish movie El desconocido. The actor has also said that he’s primed to appear in some English romantic comedies once the action movie life is behind him. So for those of you who’ve enjoyed watching Neeson gun down villains over the years, enjoy these final outings and then get ready for him to turn to a new chapter of his performing life.
Blacklight opens in theaters on February 11. Check out our 2022 release schedule to learn about the other movies to look forward to this year.
