The 5 Best Action-Packed Liam Neeson Movies on Netflix Since ‘Taken’
He’s best known for putting bad guys behind bars. He’s best known for chasing kidnappers. He’s best known for his elite spying skills. He has even fought Batman, trained Jedi, and led revolutions, and if you create and hurt anyone who’s near him, he will look for you, he will find you, and he will kill you.
He’s Liam Neeson.
After the success of Taken in 2008, Liam Neeson’s career skyrocketed, and he became an iconic and prominent member of the field, carving out his own standalone sub-genre of high-octane thrillers and action-packed movies. Liam Neeson has often been portraying the character of a spy, ex-cop, or soldier in suspense thrillers full of mysteries unraveling with twists and turns. Since the success of Taken in 2008, Liam Neeson and his ‘particular set of skills’ have become an action subgenre by making their mark on a number of exciting action films. Despite his age, Liam Neeson doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon on his streak of starring in action movies.
Yet, starring in movies like Taken, Liam Neeson continues to draw large audiences to his action films, keeping them hooked and entertained.
Here’s a guide to the five best Liam Neeson-led action movies similar to Taken on Netflix and other streaming platforms to binge-watch.
The Ice Road (2021)
Liam Neeson, starring as Mike McCann, jumps quickly into the fight against his colleague to defend the honor of his brother, Gurty (Marcus Thomas), who is suffering from PTSD and aphasia. After indulging in a fight, the two brothers are fired from their jobs and find work as ice road truckers. They don’t have to deliver wellheads to mine but must rescue the miners. The mission proves to be more deadly and daring than neither had accounted for.
The Marksman (2021)
Liam Neeson plays Jim Hanson, a veteran from Vietnam and a grouchy rancher who is lagging behind in property payments and surveys the Arizona-Mexico border to report an illegal border crossing to his stepdaughter (Katheryn Winnick) at the US Border Patrol.
One day, a young Mexican mother and son are trying to cross the border, fleeing the Mexican cartel led by Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba). A bloody shoot-out takes place, killing the mother. While on her deathbed, she begs Jim to take her son and a box of cash to Chicago. During the shootout, Jim kills the Mauricio brothers, certainly making him the next target to be killed.
Honest Thief (2020)
The near-perfect movie unfortunately suffered due to the timing and the COVID-19 pandemic. Liam Neeson, as Tom Dolan, nicknamed “In-and-Out Bandit,” meets a young student (Kate Walsh) working at a storage unit where he stores his money. To start a new life with Annie, after falling in love with her, Tom has to turn himself in with his money; however, corrupt FBI Agent John Nivens (Jai Courtney) has other wicked ideas. To take all of the money by himself, John kills his partner and frames Tom, who now has to prove his innocence.
Cold Pursuit (2019)
Liam Neeson stars as Nels Coxman, a snow plow driver who has just won a ski resort’s “Citizen of the Year” award. Later on, all of a sudden, he discovers that his son has been killed by a forced heroin overdose at the hands of the Denver cartel. Thus prompting Coxman to embark on a revenge-pursuing rampage. The plot of Cold Pursuit is filled with straight-up action-packed sequences.
Non-Stop (2014)
The plot has mainly taken inspiration from Taken and has been unofficially described as Taken-on-a-plane. Bill Marks, played by Neeson, an alcoholic ex-NYPD police officer, now works as a Federal Air Marshal. While on a flight, Bill’s secure phone receives messages stating that someone will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is safely wired into a specific bank account. Bill must work around all this and figure out how many lives he can save.