Abduction

Abduction Information

Abduction is a 2011 American action thriller film directed by John Singleton and stars Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Sigourney Weaver, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Michael Nyqvist, and Alfred Molina. The film is about a teenager who discovers that the father and mother he has been living with throughout his youth are not his real parents when he sees his baby picture on a "Missing Persons" website. The film was released by Lionsgate Films on September 23, 2011.

Plot

Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner) is an 18-year old teenager living in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his parents Kevin (Jason Isaacs) and Mara (Maria Bello). He has been troubled by recurring nightmares, and has been seeing psychiatrist Dr. Geraldine "Geri" Bennett (Sigourney Weaver) to diagnose them.

At school, Nathan is teamed with Karen Murphy (Lily Collins) for a research project on missing children. Karen discovers a website that uses age-progression technology to see what a child would look like as they get older. Nathan uses a photo of Steven Price and finds the resemblance to himself uncanny. Worried, he goes back home and looks through his childhood possessions and finds a shirt that matches the one in Steven's photo. He attempts to make contact with the operator of the website with Steven's picture to learn more. While waiting for a response, he finds more oddities about his childhood, including that his parents only appear to have a handful of pictures of him growing up. When he approaches Mara about this, she emotionally reveals that he was adopted.

While Nathan returns to his room, two men, claiming to be from the FBI arrive. Mara immediately attacks them, but soon is shot by one of the men. Kevin, alerted by the battle, subdues one of the men, but is killed while telling Nathan to run. Nathan runs but returns for Karen, who is now captured by the remaining agent. Nathan rescues her and demands the agent explain who he is. The agent agrees to talk but says there's a bomb in the oven. Sure enough, there it is, with 8 seconds left. Nathan and Karen race outdoors and are blown into the pool, which saves them from the enormous explosion.

Nathan takes Karen to the hospital for a minor cut on her shoulder, while he attempts to contact the police. Instead, his call is intercepted by CIA operative Frank Burton (Alfred Molina), who tells Nathan he is in danger and will send two men to collect him. As Nathan waits, Dr. Bennett appears with a bunch of balloons, and helps him and Karen to escape without being seen by the security cameras. In her car, Dr. Bennett explains that Nathan's biological father, Martin (Dermot Mulroney), stole an encrypted list of 25 corrupt CIA operatives from the Serbian terrorist Nikola Kozlow (Michael Nyqvist); Kozlow now plans on abducting Nathan to coerce Martin to hand over the list. Nathan has been purposely given to his adoptive parents to hide him from Kozlow, but his identity was revealed after using the missing child website, a ruse created by Kozlow. Dr. Bennett gives Nathan an address to a safe house in Arlington, Virginia, and tells him to trust only two others, his father Martin and a man named Paul Rasmus. By exploding her car, Bennett is able to provide a distraction from Kozlow's men who are following them to allow Nathan and Karen to escape. Meanwhile, Burton is warned by his superior to end the situation as soon as possible once he learns of Bennett, a former CIA operative, being involved.

Arriving at the safehouse, the two regroup, and find money, a gun, a photo of Nathan's biological mother Lorna Price (Elisabeth Röhm), and a cell phone. Despite being explicitly warned not to by Bennett, Karen attempts to contact her family, and her phone call is intercepted by Burton and the CIA forcing them to flee. Finding the address for his mother at the apartment, the pair soon discover the address is a cemetery and that Lorna has died, Nathan and Karen pay a visit to her grave, and are surprised to find fresh flowers there. Karen sweet-talks the graveyard attendant to reveal the sender, a Paul Rasmus who lives in Nebraska. Knowing that they would be stopped at an airport, the two take to a passenger train to get there, using fake IDs provided by their friend Gilly (Denzel Whitaker). They are unaware they are followed by Kozlow's right-hand man aboard the train. He abducts Karen as she goes for food, and when Nathan finds her absent, is able to defend himself from his attack. Nathan gets the upper hand using fighting techniques from his adoptive father, and subdues the man, and then pushes him out from the train after taking his cell phone. Nathan finds Karen safe but soon the train abruptly stops due to the CIA. The two take off on foot but soon surrounded by Burton and his agents.

Burton offers a meal at a diner to the two while he discusses the situation with them, all the while other CIA agents are posted as guard. Burton explains the data that Martin had stolen, and Nathan realizes that the phone from the safehouse contains that data; he also further surmises that Burton's name is on that list. As Burton tries to play that off, the agents are attacked by Kozlow's snipers. In the distraction, Nathan and Karen take off in a car before they can be caught. As they flee, the cell phone from Kozlow's man rings. Nathan finds Kozlow on the line, who warns him that he will kill Karen's parents if Nathan does not hand over the data. Nathan gets Kozlow to agree to make the transaction at a public event, at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game.

Nathan works with Gilly to arrange the tickets, including securing a hidden gun to one of the seats with the intent to kill Kozlow himself, As he enters the stadium, Martin calls him and warns him off, but Nathan refuses to listen. Meanwhile, when Kozlow arrives, Karen, in hiding, takes a photograph and sends it to Nathan so he can recognize Kozlow. The two meet, sit and watch the game. Kozlow tells Nathan how he killed his mother when Nathan was 3 after she refused to give up Martin's location. Nathan realizes that he had witnessed this event and that it is the source of his reoccurring nightmares. Kozlow grabs the gun when Nathan is distracted and demands the list. Nathan bolts, Kozlow gives chase, and the CIA sees them in the crowd. Nathan is able to escape, and Martin, calling again, directs him to lead Kozlow to the south side of the park. Kozlow eventually catches up with Nathan but before he can kill the boy, Kozlow is killed by Martin, using a sniper rifle from a nearby parking structure. Burton, his superior, and the rest of his agents soon arrive, taking away Kozlow's body. Burton asks for the cell phone, promising to give the decrypted results to his superior; however, Martin had warned his superior about Burton's corruption, and takes the phone himself while Burton is taken into custody. Martin calls Nathan one last time, apologizing for not being able to meet him in person, and for not being the father he should have been but tells him he will continue to watch over him. Bennett arrives with Karen, and says she has arranged for Nathan to live with her until he decides what to pursue in his life. As the movie ends, Nathan and Karen go on a long-awaited date in the empty ballpark.

Cast

Taylor Lautner as Nathan Harper/ Steven Price
Lily Collins as Karen Murphy
Alfred Molina as Frank Burton
Jason Isaacs as Kevin Harper
Maria Bello as Mara Harper
Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Geraldine "Geri" Bennett
Michael Nyqvist as Nikola Kozlow
Dermot Mulroney as Martin Price
Elisabeth Röhm as Lorna Price
Antonique Smith as Sandra Burns
Denzel Whitaker as Gilly

Production

Development

Lionsgate Films bought screenwriter Shawn Christensen's spec script for Abduction in February 2010, with actor Taylor Lautner attached to the film. The studio won a bidding war for the screenplay, acquiring it for $1 million. Gotham Group and Vertigo Entertainment had developed the script, based on a story idea by Gotham's Jeremy Bell.

Lionsgate rushed to start principal photography in July, due to Lautner's schedule to begin work on the last two Twilight films for Summit Entertainment. Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff was hired to work on the screenplay, and John Singleton signed on to direct in March. Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Lee Stollman, Roy Lee, and Doug Davison produced the film, and Jeremy Bell and Gabriel Mason executive produced. Lautner's father, Dan Lautner, also produced, the first film from their Tailor Made Entertainment label.

Filming

On a budget of $35million, principal photography began on July 12, 2010 in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Lionsgate returned to the region due to tax benefits from Pennsylvania's tax credit program, after filming My Bloody Valentine 3D, Warrior, and The Next Three Days there in 2008 and 2009. An open casting call for extras held at Carnegie Mellon University drew over 900 people in June, many of whom were teenage fans of the Twilight film series.

Many of the film's scenes were shot in suburban Mount Lebanon, and some others in Forward Township. Scenes were shot at Hampton High School in Hampton Township, a suburb north of Pittsburgh. The school's name and mascot, the Talbot, appeared in the film, as did real students, cheerleaders, and the marching band. Production continued in Pittsburgh, Mount Lebanon, Greensburg and Hampton Township, and lasted into September 2010.

Soundtrack

Train " "To Be Loved"
Lenny Kravitz " "Come On Get It"
Raphael Saadiq " "Heart Attack"
Oh Land " "Twist"
Hot Bodies in Motion " "Under My Skin"
Black Stone Cherry " "Blame It on the Boom Boom"
Blaqk Audio " "The Witness"
Cobra Starship " "#1Nite (One Night)"
Alexis Jordan " "Good Girl"
Matthew Koma " "Novocaine Lips"
Superstar Shyra " "DJ Love Song"
Donora " "The Chorus"
Andrew Allen " "Loving You Tonight"
Edward Shearmur " "Abduction Suite"

Reception

Critical response

Abduction was universally panned by film critics. Critics review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 4% of 98 critics have given "Abduction" a positive review, with a rating average of 3.3 out of 10 and an audience rating of 42%. The website's consensus is, "a soulless and incompetent action/thriller that not even a veteran lead actor could save, let alone Taylor Lautner." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 25 based on 19 reviews.

Kyle Smith of the New York Post said that "actual abduction may be preferable to the movie of the same name, but only if your kidnappers don't torture you by forcing you to watch it", adding that Lautner "has the acting chops of Bert from Sesame Street." R. Kurt Oselund of Slate Magazine was also critical of Lautner, saying that he "can't carry a movie any more than Abigail Breslin can carry a refrigerator." James Berardinelli gave the film one out of four stars, saying, "For those who are indifferent to Lautner or who don't like him, the only way to survive Abduction is under the influence of a controlled substance, and even that may not be enough." Catherine Brown of Filmink also gave the film a scathing review, saying that "Singleton is poorly equipped to handle teenage angst, a fact made far worse by cringe-worthy dialogue and a wooden leading man who proves that he has not yet developed the skills required to carry a film."

A less critical review came from Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the film a C, commenting that Lautner is "not a terrible actor, but if he wants a career after the Twilight fades, he'll pick better films." Likewise, Roger Moore of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two out of four stars, saying it "falls in the same corner of the youth market as the Twilight movies. Some moments and many lines feel cribbed from that series." Andrew Barker of Variety called the film "a haggardly slapdash Bourne Identity knockoff, never rising above the level of basic competence."

Box office

After an unexpected weak opening, the film became a moderate box office success. Abduction only grossed $28 million domestically but did slightly better around the world with over $54 million to a total of $82 million worldwide.

Awards

Taylor Lautner was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his role in the film (also for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1), but lost to Adam Sandler for both Jack and Jill and Just Go with It. The film received two nominations for the Teen Choice Awards with Choice Action Movie and Choice Action Actor for Taylor Lautner and subsequently won both.

Home media

Abduction was released on North American DVD and Blu-ray on January 17, 2012.