Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a retired CIA operative from their elite Special Activities Division. He describes his former job as being a "preventer", but has recently retired in Los Angeles solely in order to be close to his 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who now lives with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and her new wealthy husband Stuart (Xander Berkeley). Bryan is hoping to re-connect with Kim after being away for much of her childhood due to the nature of his job. When pop diva Sheerah (Holly Valance) comes to town, friends and former co-workers of Mills, who now run a security outfit, offer him a job for the night. After the show, Sheerah is attacked, but Bryan disables the assailant and gets her safely out of danger. Thankful, Sheerah expresses some interest in Mills' daughter after learning that Kim wants to be a singer herself. Sheerah passes along contact information for her vocal coach and manager.
Kim travels to Paris with her 19-year-old friend Amanda. Upon landing as they're arranging for the transportation into the city, the exuberant girls are approached by a young guy who, seeing that they're taking cell phone photos of each other, offers to take one of them together. He proceeds to introduce himself as Peter and suggests they split a taxi. Finding Peter to be "hot", Amanda immediately accepts while Kim reluctantly goes along with it. After getting to their destination, Peter now knows their address and through further banter learns that they are staying alone. Bryan calls Kim at the apartment and during the call, men break in and take Amanda. Kim watches and describes the whole scene to her dad. Her dad tells her to hide under a bed and when the men come for her, to leave her phone on, and describe the men as they take her. Her phone is still operating and Bryan converses with one of the kidnappers. Bryan says everything will be forgotten if she is let go immediately, otherwise, he will hunt him down and kill him. The kidnapper wishes him good luck and ends the call.
Right away Bryan turns to his previous CIA contacts and presents them with the recording he taped. They identify the language used during the abduction as Albanian. Bryan is further informed that Albanian gangs whose members mostly come from the town of Tropojë operate in Paris by abducting young girls, drugging them, and forcing them into prostitution - before they used to do it with girls from back home by luring them to Paris through promises of good paying jobs, but now they simply abduct girls traveling to the city to save on transportation costs. After mentioning that Albanian gang boss Marko Hoxha is known to have recently relocated to Paris, the contact also says there is most likely a 96 hour window - if Kim is to be found, it will be in that time.
Bryan arrives in Paris the next day, courtesy of Stuart's corporate jet. His first stop is the apartment where he recreates the scene of the abduction from the recorded phone conversation with Kim. Bryan tracks down Peter at the airport after finding a picture of the girls in the disc of Kim's broken phone. His reflection is in the airport sign when he takes a picture of them. Unfortunately, the chase leads to Peter's death.
Bryan meets up with an old friend from French intelligence named Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude provides reluctant assistance from afar, as he is no longer a field operative but has a desk job. Jean-Claude says the Albanians are the worst of the worse. Later he has a tail placed on Bryan. The next lead is to find them. Bryan rents a car and a translator. Bryan cruises the red-light district and speaks with a local street walker controlled by the Albanians. He is roughed up by the Albanian pimp but not before he plants a listening device on the man's lapel. While in the car, he listens and the dialogue is translated. His next lead, a construction site.
Men are lined up at a trailer. The trailer is a makeshift whore house with cloth curtains separating the pay by the hour occupants. Bryan finds Kim's denim jacket with one girl but she is drugged and unable to reply coherently. He takes her back to the car but not before there is a shootout over the girl and a car chase. Jean-Claude can no longer help him, he is getting a higher profile with each act of violence. Jean-Claude has air tickets for Bryan to leave on the next flight, courtesy of the French Government for services previously rendered. Bryan doesn't take the bait. Getting the girl back to a safe house, a hotel known from his former life, he administers an IV to counter the drugs she is on. When she is lucid, the only clue she has are the red doors from the Rue de Paradis.
Bryan walks into the house and is admitted when he shows them his Police ID in the form of Jean-Claude's business card. He is bought upstairs to a table full of men. In his roll as French Policeman, he extorts a larger fee for keeping quiet about their operations while learning more clues. He identifies Marko from the phone call and tells him he is the man on the other side of the cellphone. A gunfight ensues and Bryan kills everyone else in the house. Bryan explores the house. Rooms on the upper floors contain girls drugged and tied to beds. He finds Amanda dead in one of these rooms. Bryan removes Marko from the house and the next scene, Marko is tied to a chair in a basement. He is hooked up to the light circuit. Bryan interrogates him but is only spat upon in return. Each time he turns the current on. Marko is more then willing to talk by the third time. Marko tells him virgins are not kept here, they are kept at a special place for special treatment. His only clue is man named Patrice Saint Clair. The finger is pointing to Police involvement.
Bryan unexpectedly shows up for dinner at Jean-Claude's. His wife is unaware of the tension between the two men. Bryan discovers who Saint Clair is but not before Jean-Claude pulls a gun on him. Bryan admonishes him for getting soft sitting behind a desk when he can't tell a loaded gun from an unloaded one by the feel of the weight of it. Bryan shoots his wife in the arm and asks Jean-Claude about where to find Saint Clair. Bryan forces the issue by threatening to shoot her in the head if he doesn't tell him. Jean-Claude does tell him and Bryan said that this would never have come to this if he took the welfare of a friend's daughter first before a cushy desk job extorting Albanians.
Again, with a fake police ID, Bryan gets into an exclusive party held by Saint Clair. He finds himself in the Cellar where an exclusive sale is underway. There is a white slavery auction going on. The subject bid upon is bought center stage and the bidders are all hidden behind glass booths. The last to be bid is Kim. Bryan is able to knock out a waiter and gains admittance to one of the booths as she comes up for auction. He forces the occupant to make the winning bid and as he is leaving to claim her, is knocked out.
Waking, he is suspended by handcuffs and hanging from an overhead pipe. Saint Clair and three of his henchmen have him and interrogate him. He informs them that he is the father of the last girl for bid. Saint Clair says he understands Bryan's position as he is a father himself. However, this is a very special business with special clients and orders him to be quietly killed. One of the henchmen starts to strangle Bryan with a belt. However, the pipe Bryan is dangling from comes loose and in the ensuing fight, Bryan is able to gain a gun and kills everyone. He corners Saint Clair in the elevator and Saint Clair's last words are that they are down by quay unloading the delivery of girls right before he is shot dead.
Bryan leave house in time to see the car leave, the car was having a Qatari vehicle registration plate. He chases the car to a bridge overlooking the riverside quay and sees the boat take off. He goes down to quay, relieves the driver of the car and chases the boat down river. Getting ahead of the boat, he is able to jump onto the boat from a bridge as the boat passes underneath.
The girls are being prepared for the Shiekh's bedroom as the intruder alert is given on the boat. After a series of gunfights and hand to hand combat, Bryan corners the Shiekh, who holds a knife to Kim's throat. He tries to bargain his way out but is shot. Father and daughter are reunited. She can't believe her father came for her and he brings her home. Lenore and Stuart are grateful. He is happier as he has spent more time with her. His last surprise present is to introduce her to Sheerah at Sheerah's house. The singing coach is there also. It is totally unexpected surprise and the scene cuts as the door closes.
TORRENT 
