Taken‘s phenomenal commercial success back in 2009, during the dumping ground month of January no less, kicked off a new phase of Liam Neeson‘s career. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, and Sylvester Stallone all started their action careers at a relatively young age. Neeson, however, was 56 when Taken hit theaters. And yet, he’s now as much of an action star as any of those aforementioned performers. Of course, Neeson had been in films of the genre before, e.g. Batman Begins, Excalibur, and The Dead Pool, but he was always part of an ensemble. In Taken, he was the star of the show without a doubt, and with the release of Absolution in 2024 he’s now led 18 mid-budget actioners in just 16 years.

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That figure includes the Taken trilogy, which undoubtedly proved to be the most lucrative of these straightforward actioners. But what about those other 15? Are there a few of them that are superior in the quality department to that kidnapping flick? As it turns out, yes. In no ranked order, let’s find out what the three best Liam Neeson-front action films are.

Cold Pursuit

For every utterly forgettable Blacklight, Honest Thief, and Retribution, there’s just a single Cold Pursuit, an action film so charged with emotion that it sticks with you. Like Run All Night and A Walk Among the Tombstones, Cold Pursuit is both underrated and capable of some real brutality. Liam Neeson’s Nels Coxman is also almost certainly the best of his actioner characters outside Taken‘s Bryan Mills, and even then, it’s still close.

Cold Pursuit is essentially the slightly more realistic version of Taken. But, instead of rescuing his child, he’s getting revenge on those who murdered his child via a forced heroin overdose. The difference between the two films is also that, in Cold Pursuit, it often feels as though Neeson’s character’s life is genuinely in danger. In Taken, there’s never really any doubt that Mills is going to Transporter 2 his way through all seven guys in the room. Here, his character must be more methodical. Another thing that gives Cold Pursuit the edge over all but one of Neeson’s action vehicles is just how much time it spends developing Tom Bateman’s villainous character, Trevor “Viking” Calcote. He comes across less like the cookie cutter antagonists of Taken and its regrettable sequels and more like a fleshed-out human being. Not a good human being by any stretch of the imagination, but a human being nonetheless.

Stream Cold Pursuit on Prime Video.

The Marksman

There are a few topical Neeson actioners. In the Land of Saints and Sinners is one as is Non-Stop (another Taken-sized box office success). But The Marksman has the edge on both of those films, even if its title is every bit as generic as Absolution, Retribution, Unknown, and The Honest Thief.

The key to The Marksman‘s success is that it’s a surrogate father and pseudo-adopted son story as much as it is an action film. These Neeson actioners often have him play a relatively normal father whose own kid or kids are in jeopardy. Of course, that was the case in Taken and, to an extent, that was the case in Retribution. Here though, he’s a former US Marine Corps Scout Sniper who pays bills by reporting illegal border crossings to the Border Patrol. But when it becomes clear to him that one illegally crossing little boy is being pursued by a Mexican drug cartel, he puts his own problems in life aside (not to mention his life on the line) to ensure the boy’s safety. Even when The Marksman drags in spots, it’s one of the post-Taken films that still attempts to operate with a brain and a conscience.

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Rent The Marksman on Amazon Video.

The Grey

Maybe there’s just something about the combination of Liam Neeson, guns, and wintery conditions, because the two best films of his glut of actioners are Cold Pursuit and The Grey (The Ice Road is also a lot of fun and features Prey and Novocaine‘s Amber Midthunder in a sizable role). On one hand, The Grey could be deemed an ensemble piece, considering it’s a survival story focused on a group of characters, two of whom are played by stars in their own right: Frank Grillo and Dermot Mulroney. Neeson isn’t the only big name trying to survive the gnashing teeth of a grey wolf pack.

But who’s on the poster? Just Neeson. Who’s the one who straps broken bottles to his knuckles to fight off the encroaching wolf pack in the film’s final frames? Just Neeson. It’s his vehicle, and it’s a suitably intense and, given its nihilistic tone, often surprising one.

Stream The Grey on Prime Video.

What are you favorite Liam Neeson movies? Let us know in the comments below!