You Reckon Liam Neeson's Best Franchise Was Right There, And We All Missed It For *Taken*?
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Liam Neeson's forgotten thriller, *A Walk Among the Tombstones*, offered a rich, character-driven narrative with far more franchise potential than the repetitive *Taken* series, akin to choosing a deep RPG over a quick-time event.
Alright, listen up, mates. We need to have a bit of a chat about Liam Neeson. Not the man himself, mind you, but his cinematic choices – or rather, the choices *Hollywood* made for him. Because I've been tinkering with a rather intriguing nugget of insight this morning, and bloody hell, it’s got me wondering if we collectively missed a trick, a truly profound narrative questline, in favour of what amounted to a glorified button-mashing quick-time event.
You know Neeson, right? The gruff, intense chap with that unmistakable voice, always ready to find you and make you regret… well, whatever you did. His late-career pivot into action thrillers, kicked off by 2009’s *Taken*, was a massive surprise hit. Suddenly, he was the go-to guy for dad-on-a-rampage flicks. And fair play, *Taken* was a blast. A simple, brutal, utterly effective premise: daughter kidnapped, ex-CIA operative dad goes full John Wick before John Wick was even a twinkle in Keanu Reeves' eye. We saw it, we cheered, we moved on. And then, like a game studio trying to milk a popular mechanic, came *Taken 2* and *Taken 3*.
Now, don't get me wrong. There's a certain satisfaction in a well-executed revenge arc. But here’s my gentle skepticism kicking in: how many times can one chap's daughter, or ex-wife, or dog, get kidnapped before the suspension of disbelief just… pings off into the ether? The premise, as good as it was for one cinematic burst, doesn't really lend itself to an ongoing, evolving franchise, does it? It's like building an entire open-world RPG around a single 'rescue the princess' mission. Great for the first few hours, but where's the character progression? The branching dialogue trees? The lore?
This is where my digital wizardry hat comes on, because it turns out, just a few months before *Taken 3* dropped, Liam Neeson starred in a film that, in my humble opinion, had the blueprint for a much richer, more compelling ongoing narrative – a genuine character-driven saga. I’m talking about *A Walk Among the Tombstones*.
Now, you might be thinking, 'Jeff, mate, I don't even remember that one.' And that's exactly the point, isn't it? It fell through the cracks like a rare item bugging out of your inventory. But what if I told you that this film, based on the Matt Scudder detective novels by Lawrence Block, presented Neeson with a character so much more nuanced, so much more ripe for exploration, than Bryan Mills?
Picture this: Matt Scudder. Not some super-spy with a 'particular set of skills' (though he's got 'em), but a recovering alcoholic and ex-cop turned unlicensed private investigator. His backstory isn't some generic 'government operative gone rogue,' but a profoundly human tragedy. Back in his drinking days, he took down some criminals who shot a bartender, but a stray bullet — a 'bad bounce,' he calls it — tragically killed an innocent bystander. He wasn't reprimanded, because the baddies fired first. But the guilt, the sheer weight of that 'what if,' drove him from the force. He's a man trying to rebuild his life, piece by painstaking piece, without the twin crutches of alcohol or the badge.
Sound familiar to anyone who appreciates a well-crafted RPG protagonist? This isn't about vengeance; it's about redemption. It's about finding purpose when your old life is gone, about navigating a morally ambiguous world with a deeply personal, often heavy, moral code. He's not chasing kidnappers for a quick resolution; he’s taking on a chilling case for a wealthy drug dealer whose wife has been brutally murdered. It's a 'pre-revenge fact-finding mission,' as the original article from Polygon cleverly put it, which sounds suspiciously like a branching quest chain with moral dilemmas at every turn.
The director, Scott Frank, understood something crucial that the *Taken* sequels largely missed: Neeson's gravitas isn't best served by endless fistfights. It's in the quiet, the mournful, the weary atmosphere. *A Walk Among the Tombstones* isn't an action movie. It's a dark, chilly detective story, steeped in noir. It’s set in 1999 New York, before everyone had a smartphone and could instantly Google everything. Scudder actually has to go to a public library for research, with help from a homeless teenager who thinks a website is a 'program.' Imagine the atmospheric potential there! The pre-gentrification Brooklyn, the deep, rich shadows, the Green-Wood Cemetery location shooting – it creates a world you'd want to *explore*, not just blast through.
His struggles aren't external foes alone; they're internal demons. He's not visibly wrestling with whether to have a drink in every scene, but the ghost of his past, the shadow of his guilt, permeates his every move. This kind of character, perpetually figuring out 'how to shape his life in a world without alcohol or police work,' has endless narrative possibilities. Each case could be a chapter in his ongoing journey of self-discovery and tentative redemption. It’s the kind of subtle character work that makes you invest in a game's protagonist for hundreds of hours, not just a few linear missions.
Think of the long-term potential: a new case, a new mystery, a new moral quandary for Scudder to poke around in, each adding layers to his character, each allowing Neeson to deliver that intense, wintry gravitas he does so well. It’s akin to the craft found in the Christopher McQuarrie/Tom Cruise *Jack Reacher* films – muscular, unfussy, but with a palpable sense of character in a sparse, dangerous world. Cruise didn't really *need* Reacher to be his signature, but Neeson's Scudder could have carried that torch for years.
Instead, we got more of the same, more explosions, more phone threats, more diminishing returns. It’s a bit like choosing to fund a sequel to a wildly successful but shallow mobile game when there was a rich, story-driven indie gem begging for resources. We chose the immediate gratification over the potential for deep, unfolding lore and character development. And what a bloody shame that is.
So, next time you're scrolling through streaming services (you can find *A Walk Among the Tombstones* on Paramount Plus, by the by), give it a whirl. And spare a thought for the franchise that could have been – a much deeper, more compelling narrative experience that truly played to Liam Neeson's strengths. Sometimes, the real treasures are found in the forgotten corners of the map, aren't they?
This brilliant observation, sparking my own mental quest for narrative depth, comes courtesy of Jesse Hassenger over at Polygon. Cheers, mate, for digging this one up!
Tags: Narrative Design, Franchise Potential, Character Arc, Gaming Adaptation, Cinematic Universe
Original article: Polygon