A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who was kidnapped on a trip to Paris to be sold into prostitution.
Seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father Bryan Mills. Bryan is a retired agent who left the Central Intelligence Agency to be near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. Kim manages to convince her reluctant father to allow her to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When the girls arrive in Paris they share a cab with a stranger named Peter, and Amanda lets it slip that they are alone in Paris. Using this information an Albanian gang of human trafficker kidnaps the girls. Kim barely has time to call her father and give him information. Her father gets to speak briefly to one of the kidnapper and he promises to kill the kidnapper if they do not let his daughter go free. The kidnapper wishes him "good luck," so Bryan Mills travels to Paris to search for his daughter and her friend.

Bryan ( Liam Neeson ornaments ) is a retired special agent , perennial agent living with his wife and daughter become increasingly alienated time , his daughter Kim ( Maggie Grace ornaments ) to the consent of cloth Ryan agreed to go to Paris to play as a father , Brian , is not assured 17 - year-old daughter to travel alone , and after some bickering , stubborn Brian finally agreed to his daughter in Paris , however , Kim was a gang prostitution ring of trafficking , in order to save her daughter , the old agents come out of retirement ... as a father , I heard the daughter on the phone the other end of the desperate cry for help but could do nothing , is not this the most heartbreaking thing ? However this nightmarish things happen to the old Brian agents who , only a few a few hours the daughter Kenmu from a group of terrible , specifically trafficking in girl gang rescued . However , the most important issue facing Brian : He was living in Los Angeles , while Kenmu was kidnapped in Paris .