Liam Neeson Movie Quotes

Tate, I’m sure you’re aware that this is an equal opportunity workplace. I have a unique set of skills—” “Ha!” I laugh. “Okay, Liam Neeson. Good to know I can call you if I get taken.

On one of these occasions, I accompanied Charlotte to hear him talk and found his hour-long presentation to be both moving and absorbing. When he asked for questions, the first was inevitably about the movie. “How accurate was it?” At this, he smiled, replying that Liam Neeson, the Irish actor who played the title role, was taller and more handsome than the real Oskar Schindler; also that the Russians who appeared at the end hadn’t arrived on horseback, they had come in a truck. Apart from those minor details, he said, the entire portrayal was uncannily close to what had occurred, and he congratulated Mr. Spielberg on having done such a fine job.

Whatever the actual plot, Liam Neeson’s “Taken” movies are primarily and definitively male fantasies of superpotency.

Let’s all do a little experiment. I ask adult readers of this book to watch the most high-speed and intense two-hour action film they can think of—something that really gets the old adrenaline going, maybe one of Liam Neeson’s Taken movies, let’s say. Or to simply take about two hours to surf the Net—rapidly skimming along as many hyperlinks as they can. At the end of those two hours, pick up any one of your favorite books and start reading. Now notice how far you get before your attention begins to wander.

Let’s all do a little experiment. I ask adult readers of this book to watch the most high-speed and intense two-hour action film they can think of—something that really gets the old adrenaline going, maybe one of Liam Neeson’s Taken movies, let’s say. Or to simply take about two hours to surf the Net—rapidly skimming along as many hyperlinks as they can. At the end of those two hours, pick up any one of your favorite books and start reading. Now notice how far you get before your attention begins to wander. If you’re like most of us, you won’t get too far. It takes time to calm down a hyperaroused nervous system; you can’t just downshift from fifth to first gear. Now keep in mind that, as an adult, you have a fully developed brain and nervous system; your frontal cortex—which controls your executive functioning, including impulsivity—is fully formed. Your adrenal and nervous systems—fully developed. And your attentional abilities have been hardwired since your childhood. Yet you still have a hard time staying focused after just a couple of hours of intense, rapid scene changes in the movie or the rapid content shifting that occurs while you are surfing. Now imagine if hyperarousing screen stimulation was a condition under which you spent the bulk of your time—like the seven-plus hours a day that kids do.

Your particular set of skills? That sounds like a Liam Neeson movie.