How was it that Liam Neeeson went from Oskar Schindler to playing Bryan Mills in his own action thriller blockbusters from the Taken series? Well it wasn’t on purpose, as back in 2009 when he was into his late fifties, Neeson’s life got turned upside down, not by Taken’s unexpected success, but instead by the tragedy of his wife Natasha Richardson passing away after a skiing accident.
Neeson said he partly dealt with that devastating episode by focusing his energy into his work, he found it helped him stay strong for his sons, so he embarked on a journey that has now produced over a dozen action films in the last 10 years. At 68 years old, Neeson is a household name when it comes to action films, so naturally he’s the guy to call when adapting Spanish action thriller Retribution.
Retribution (“El Desconocido” in Spanish) takes on a similar plot to 90’s hit Speed (starring Keanu Reeves), having Neeson’s play a banking executive who one suddenly gets a call from an unknown attacker telling him that there’s a bomb on the car he’s driving with his two children, if he doesn't do what the assailant requests, the bomb will explode.
Hungarian-American director Nimród Antal (Metallica: Through The Never, The Whiskey Bandit) has been tasked by Studiocanal, The Picture Company and Ombra Productions to oversee Neeson in this remake of the Spanish hit that clinched 8 Goya awards nominations in 2015. Ombra Productions is spearheaded by Jaume Collet-Serra, who already directed Neeson in Unknown, Non-Stop and The Commuter, while also directing Disney’s 2021 Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Paul Giamatti and Edgar Ramírez.
Speed was one of the biggest 90’s action films and its plot has enough cultural significance to have been turned into a basic running gag in action parodies, so Retribution has a solid starting point and a big action name to back it up. It’s safe to say Neeson’s career in the last decade could inspire envy from some of the biggest action stars from the 80’ sand 90’s, like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose characters are now more at home in Mortal Kombat than in movie theaters.
Regardless of that, even if Rambo or John McClane’s 21st century attempts have failed to gain a footing in the modern movie industry, be it with critics or audiences, Neeson’s particular set of skills acquired over his very long career, still make him and Retribution a potential threat in the box office.
The Spanish version of Retribution is available on Netflix.
Source: Deadline