movie review abduction 2019

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Abduction Reviews

It works more often than it does not.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2019

Slight and silly, but ultimately satisfying, Abduction delivers what action/sci-fi fans are looking for

Full Review | Jun 22, 2019

The film is only a modest amount of fun - but fun is fun.

Full Review | Jun 7, 2019

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Common Sense Media Review

Underwhelming action thriller has deaths, violence.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this action thriller stars Twilight hunk Taylor Lautner and rising star Lily Collins, so it's sure to attract teens. But there's a fair bit of violence, language, and intrigue that might make it too mature for tween members of Team Jacob. The more intense sequences include several…

Why Age 14+?

One "f--k," plus regular use of words including "bulls--t," "s--t," "ass," "d--k

Suspense and action-movie violence featuring hand-to-hand brawls and weapons (mo

An Apple laptop makes a few close-up appearances, as do an Amtrak train, an Audi

In the opening sequence, a bunch of high-schoolers drink at a weekend party. Nat

Parents are especially affectionate and do a touchy-feely slow dance that their

Any Positive Content?

The only positive message in the movie is when Nathan's birth father says "I may

Nathan and Karen stick together, even when it would be easier for him to go off

One "f--k," plus regular use of words including "bulls--t," "s--t," "ass," "d--k," "hell," "freak," "Jesus" (as an exclamation) and "damn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Suspense and action-movie violence featuring hand-to-hand brawls and weapons (mostly guns, but there's also a bomb). Nathan and his father have an extended "sparring" scene that bruises them both up and makes a hungover Nathan vomit. Although many characters are killed -- people are shot both execution style and from a sniper's distance, beaten mercilessly, thrown off a train, and blown up in an explosion -- there's very little blood. One of the most upsetting scenes is when a young girl is forced into a room and punched and terrorized by a hit man.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

An Apple laptop makes a few close-up appearances, as do an Amtrak train, an Audi, a Mustang, a BMW, and a Lexus. Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates must have cooperated with the film, because a game is part of a climactic sequence; PNC Park, Pirates paraphernalia, and the stadium's famous Roberto Clemente statue are all on full display, and Nathan wears a Clemente jersey.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In the opening sequence, a bunch of high-schoolers drink at a weekend party. Nathan gets drunk and wakes up shirtless on the hostess' lawn. He later vomits after being forced to spar with his father.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Parents are especially affectionate and do a touchy-feely slow dance that their son sees. A guy keeps staring intently at a girl and vice-versa. At a pool party, some girls are shown in bikinis. Nathan is shirtless in a few scenes. After an intense couple of days of hand holding and near-death experiences, Nathan and Karen share a passionate kiss that ends up with her straddling him and his hands creeping up the back of her shirt.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The only positive message in the movie is when Nathan's birth father says "I may be your father, but I'm not your dad," indicating that the couple who raised him are Nathan's true mother and father.

Positive Role Models

Nathan and Karen stick together, even when it would be easier for him to go off on his own, and they're courageously willing to put themselves in harm's way for each other. Nathan comes to understand why his parents demanded that he know how to defend himself and why they kept his true identity a secret.

Parents need to know that this action thriller stars Twilight hunk Taylor Lautner and rising star Lily Collins , so it's sure to attract teens. But there's a fair bit of violence, language, and intrigue that might make it too mature for tween members of Team Jacob. The more intense sequences include several character deaths, execution-style shootings, sniper kills, and a couple of brutal beatings, one of which results in a man being chucked out of a speeding train. Even the teen girl is terrorized and beaten. (All of that said, there's not a lot of blood here.) Swearing includes "s--t," "ass," and one "f--k"); sexuality is mostly flirting, hand holding, and slow dancing -- plus one heated make-out session between teens. An early scene shows teens drinking, including the main character, who gets very drunk. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (10)
• Kids say (39)

Based on 10 parent reviews

Good MovieI

What's the story.

Nathan ( Taylor Lautner ) is a high school wrestling champ with attentive, affectionate parents and a few close friends. After he's paired up in class with his neighbor, the crush-worthy Karen ( Lily Collins ), the two start researching a sociology project about missing children ... only to discover a photo of a boy who looks a lot like Nathan. Curious about the uncanny similarities, Nathan contacts the website's chatline, which is actually maintained by a nefarious foreign baddie. Before Nathan can fully confront his mom ( Maria Bello ) and dad ( Jason Isaacs ), hit men strike the house, sending Nathan and Karen on the run. Reeling with grief and confusion, Nathan and Karen are advised by his therapist, Dr. Bennett ( Sigourney Weaver ), not to trust the CIA and are left on their own to evade both government and international operatives trying to track them down.

Is It Any Good?

The best part of this John Singleton production is the sheer number of excellent actors who pop up as supporting players. In addition to Bello and Isaacs -- who have more chemistry in a couple of scenes than Collins and Lautner in the entire film -- there's Weaver, Swedish star Michael Nyqvist (of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ) and Alfred Molina , who plays a squirrelly CIA agent in charge of the mission to rescue Nathan. It makes perfect sense that Singleton recruited a cast of acclaimed actors to bolster Lautner's leading-man debut, but sadly he's not up to the task yet. If anything, he should find an ensemble where he lends support to actors like his co-stars.

As Twilight heartthrob Jacob, Lautner's intensity makes him downright irresistible -- especially if you're only paying attention to his shirtless scenes. But the truth is that as adorable as Lautner may be -- and as gifted with the physicality necessary for an action career -- he lacks the acting range to carry a movie's emotional center. The scenes of Nathan crying are painful to watch, because you can tell how difficult they were for Lautner. And the screenplay doesn't do him any favors; it has him speaking and acting in a completely unbelievable manner for a guy who's just lost his parents. Collins is cute enough, but aside from one admittedly steamy kissing scene, the two don't conjure any heat.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the amount of violence in the film. Is it cartoonish and unbelievable or realistic and disturbing? How does that affect its impact?

What are some other movies that feature the "hidden identity" theme? Why do audiences respond to orphaned characters? Name some other famous pop-culture orphans.

How does the movie portray teen drinking ? Does it have realistic consequences?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 23, 2011
• On DVD or streaming : January 16, 2012
• Cast : Lily Collins , Sigourney Weaver , Taylor Lautner
• Director : John Singleton
• Inclusion Information : Black directors, Female actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 106 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sequences of intense violence and action, brief language, some sexual content and teen partying
• Last updated : June 7, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

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Best action movies for kids, thriller movies.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• September 23, 2011
• Taylor Lautner as Nathan; Lily Collins as Karen; Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Bennett; Maria Bello as Mara; Jason Isaacs as Kevin; Alfred Molina as Burton; Michael Nyqvist as Kozlow

Home Release Date

• January 17, 2012
• John Singleton

Distributor

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

The statue of David is more expressive than he is. And his smoldering good looks might fool you. But Nathan is a hurting young man. We know by the way he sometimes gets snippy with his mother, or the way he sometimes tries to beat the tar out of his father while sparring. We know by the way he flexes his biceps when folks he doesn’t like walk past him at parties.

He tells Dr. Bennett, his psychiatrist, that his life sometimes feels like that of a stranger. And he has dreams about the huge, hairy beastie he turns into every time that annoyingly sparkly vampire—

Oh, no. Sorry. Wrong dream. Nathan dreams that some strange woman gets killed right in front of him. And he’s had the same dream ever since he was a little kid.

His shrink tells him that when he has that dream, he should take a deep breath and ignore it. Ignore it with all the ignorance he can possibly muster. Turn his attention to something else (practicing his smolder in front of a mirror, perhaps). Forget about digging around in his subconscious, she says. Best to just pretend its not there, bottle it all up inside and go on with life. Oh, and as far as feeling out of place … well, best to let that go too. Time’s up!

But then one night while doing a rare bit of homework, Nathan runs across a missing persons website—one that features images of what missing kids would look like years later as adults. And he discovers that one of them looks just like … Taylor Lautner! And Nathan too, of course. But before he can get some answers from his parents, they’re gunned down right in front of him. And then the ne’er-do-wells nearly kill his pretty next-door neighbor, Karen by blowing up his house.

Nathan suddenly has that sinking feeling that there may be something more going on here, something that even his smolder can’t solve.

Positive Elements

Nathan is a nice guy—or so the movie tells us. We know he’s nice because when he passes out drunk after a party in someone’s front yard, he helps pick up the trash the next morning. We know he’s nice because when he’s fleeing would-be killers and needs to push people out of his way, he apologizes. And we know he’s nice because he does his utmost to try to keep Karen from being killed.

Karen has taken a shine to Nathan too. When an assailant demands that she tell him where Nathan’s hiding, for instance, she vigorously shakes her head in refusal. Also: Nathan’s parents sacrifice their lives for him.

Spiritual Elements

Nathan finds an important card embossed with a Christian cross.

Sexual & Romantic Content

We learn that Nathan and Karen kissed when they were in eighth grade—then drifted apart. Now they quickly make up for lost time, hugging and smooching and clutching like crazy inside a train’s sleeper car. They smooch some more in a deserted baseball stadium.

Nathan’s parents also clutch and kiss. And his dad says Karen’s “hot.”

It takes the film all of five minutes to contrive a way to get Taylor, er, Nathan shirtless. Karen wears midriff-revealing and low-cut outfits, and uses her sex appeal to coax someone into doing something illegal. Workout wear is skintight. We see bikini-clad women fighting at a pool party. There’s a joke about virginity.

Violent Content

Killers invade Nathan’s home and, before it’s over, one of them has his neck broken and both of Nathan’s parents are dead from gunshots. Nathan pounds one of the attackers with his fists and a fireplace poker. Then the building explodes and throws Nathan and Karen into the family pool, where debris rains down around them.

Russian bad guys shoot and kill a bevy of CIA agents (at long range). CIA agents shoot villains. A would-be assassin is snuffed out by a sniper bullet. Nathan and a bad guy tussle on the train: Twice during the fight, the bad guy lies still, eyes open and vacant, only to revive again. So Nathan ends it once and for all by throwing him out a window. Nathan hurts his fist on an evildoer’s jaw and injures his leg jumping off a ledge. He and Karen both have to leap out of a careening car. And Dr. Bennett’s vehicle explodes.

Nathan plans to shoot and kill a baddie. Karen is hit, threatened (with the amputation of her finger), and tied up and gagged. We see Nathan’s birth mother killed in flashback: A killer wearing a gas mask beats her as a mysterious vapor fills the room.

After Nathan comes home drunk one morning, his dad forces him to put on boxing gloves and spar—insulting his son as they trade leather. Nathan grows enraged, and the two begin kicking each other too. Dad punches him hard enough to make him vomit.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word, a half-dozen or more s-words and a frosting of other profanities, including “a‑‑,” “b‑‑ch,” “d‑‑n,” “h‑‑‑” and “p‑‑‑.” God’s name and Jesus’ name are misused once each. We hear a couple of crude references to male body parts.

Drug & Alcohol Content

The first time we meet Nathan, he’s on his way to a party with two buds to get drunk. (They tell each other, “Let’s go get drunk.”) While we don’t see the level of intoxication Nathan’s friends eventually hit (all three appear to be guzzling gallons of beer), Nathan winds up passing out on the party-thrower’s front lawn. His parents drink wine with dinner.

Other Noteworthy Elements

In a stunt sure to be emulated, Nathan rides on the hood of his friends’ truck, egging on the driver to go faster. Characters lie to one another. One of Nathan’s friends sells fake IDs and later “borrows” an elderly woman’s car. Nathan spits in someone’s face.

Taylor Lautner’s Twilight -derived star wattage will certainly draw prepubescent moviegoers into theaters, where they will watch the postpubescent pinup get drunk, beat people up, take his shirt off and glower for the camera. They will wade through a simple yet strangely incomprehensible movie in which outlandish plot devices pile up like so much lint in the dryer. Though much of the film seems cribbed from an Alfred Hitchcock-style thinking-man’s thriller, the only real thinking Abduction audiences will be doing is pondering why Sigourney Weaver agreed to appear in it.

No one is actually abducted in Abduction . Yet the title still fits like a glove as it extends to us an unintentional truth: Sit through this film and you’ll realize that two hours of your life has been taken from you, with nary a ransom note in sight.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Abduction (2019) Review

“Abduction” Theatrical Poster

AKA: Twilight Zodiac Director: Ernie Barbarash Cast: Scott Adkins, Andy On, Truong Ngoc Anh, Lily Ji, Aki Aleong, Daniel Whyte, Mike Leeder, Tom Caserto, Brahim Chab, Philippe Joly, Semiquaver Iafeta, Jai Day Running Time: 98 min.

By Paul Bramhall

I confess to having intentionally avoided the Scott Adkins vehicle Abduction in 2019. In a year which saw the British martial arts star either headline or feature in the likes of Avengement , Triple Threat , and Ip Man 4: The Finale , the Roger Corman produced sci-fi romp backed by China felt like it had a “we all have bills to pay” vibe written all over it. You know the ones that occasionally pop up in any actor’s filmography who isn’t regularly headlining big budget Hollywood productions – Incoming , Green Street 3: Never Back Down , Legendary , the list goes on. It had always remained a curiosity somewhere in the back of my mind though, so as 2020 draws to a close I decided to give it a go (I know, checking out a movie a year after it was released is no biggie, but Adkins cranks them out so fast that Abduction  is already 7 movies ago).

The main draw behind Abduction is the reunion of Adkins and Andy On, 17 years after they went head to head in the Tsui Hark directed 2002 Hong Kong flick Black Mask 2: City of Masks , back when they were both starting out in the industry. In a word of warning, anyone hoping to see the pair in a slightly less out-there tale than what their first outing offered (in short – Adkins as a mad scientist mixing up the DNA of pro-wrestlers with animals) will be left disappointed. While there’s no pro-wrestlers in sight, instead we have an alien race who’ve parked up above a fountain in Vietnam (invisibly, of course), and need human qi to be able to return home. We learn that some people have stronger qi than others, which includes Adkins’ daughter and On’s wife, so when they’re both kidnapped by the aliens to be drained of their lifeforce, the pair team up to rescue their abducted loved ones.

Before proceeding any further, I should point out that the Blu-ray of Abduction (yes, we love our physical media here at COF) comes with 2 versions of the movie – the producers cut, and the director’s cut. The version being reviewed here is the director’s cut. The director in question is Ernie Barbarash, a journeyman director who exclusively works in the DTV field. Barbarash has worked with Adkins before on 2011’s unremarkable Assassination Games , which pitted Adkins against his childhood hero Jean Claude Van Damme. In addition to Assassination Games , he also helmed the Van Damme vehicles 6 Bullets and Pound of Flesh , as well as the Michael Jai White actioner Falcon Rising . While none of them match up to the DTV action flicks that the likes of Isaac Florentine and Jesse V. Johnson crank out, at best Barbarash’s work is passable entertainment, at worst mediocre and plodding.

The out-there plot then could well be what results in Abduction  being so entertaining. Working from a script by Mike MacLean, whose illustrious credits include penning Dinocroc vs. Supergator , Sharktopus , and Piranhaconda (notably all also produced by Roger Corman), the fact that Abduction doesn’t take itself too seriously is arguably its biggest strength. Until they officially team-up, Adkins and On mostly act as if they’re in 2 completely different movies, which works in the narratives favour. After being kicked out of the alien’s base in the opening scene and finding himself in a fountain in the middle of Ho Chi Minh, Adkins realises he has no memory and is stuck with a stutter.

Playing his character like a mix of Adam Sandler in The Waterboy and Frank Spencer from Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em , it’s a rare comedic performance from the British thespian, and it surprisingly hits all the right notes. While Adkins stumbles around Ho Chi Minh trying to remember who he is and being slapped in the face by locals before he can spit out what he wants to say, On on (no spellcheck, this isn’t a double up of word usage) the other hand plays a poker faced former military man turned assassin under the employment of the local Chinese gang boss. After doing one last job to send a message to a rival gang trying to encroach on the Chinese’s turf, he wakes up one morning to find his wife gone, and despite having what he assumes was a dream about the aliens abducting her, believes it was the rival gang taking revenge and goes on the warpath.

The two men are eventually brought together by Vietnamese actress Truong Ngoc Anh, the star of the still unreleased in the west Vietnamese action flick Tracer . Ngoc Anh plays a psychiatrist who ends up with Adkins on her couch, and although reluctant to believe his story about aliens abducting his daughter, after she visits the park and meets an equally befuddled On who teleports in front of her eyes, she decides to connect the pair. Soon the truth about the aliens is revealed, and if they don’t get their victims “strong and beautiful qi” they choose to eat them “like chicken”!

Despite how goofy everything sounds so far, there are elements of the sci-fi concept which are actually rather cool. The alien’s ability to split reality is visualised through On opening the bedroom door to find the aliens abducting his wife, and the bedroom floating off into space while On remains stuck in the doorway (think the hypnotism scene in Get Out for reference). It’s clearly budget friendly, but nevertheless proves an effective way to convey the concept. Small touches like the fact whenever On tries to enter the bedroom after the event results in nausea and disorientation further help to establish the rules of the world Abduction takes place in. Speaking of hypnotism, I confess the scene contained here involving Ngoc Anh hypnotising Adkins is probably one of the funniest ever committed to screen, and unlike a lot of his performance, I don’t think this particular instance was intentional.

But let’s be honest, nobody is clocking into an Adkins flick to see how well he can act hypnotised, we’re here for the action. Thankfully Abduction gives both Adkins and On a number of opportunities to strut their stuff. The fight choreography is handled by Tim Man, who by this point has worked with Adkins on multiple occasions as both choreographer and occasional onscreen opponent, with assistance from the main villain of Boyka: Undisputed , Brahim Achabbakhe. Achabbakhe gets to pull double duty, playing the head henchman of the rival gang On goes after, as well as one of the aliens. On gets into brief scuffles with both characters, with the outcome of one definitely more successful than the other. Adkins and On also get to team-up for an entertaining 2 vs 2 battle against HK regulars Tom Caserto ( Big Brother ) and Semiquaver Iafeta ( Helios ), which involves some nice impacts and grappling.

The highlight for the fight action though goes to a battle between Adkins and On, resulting from Adkins being taken over by the aliens, and effectively becoming a kung-fu terminator. In an interview I did with him in 2018 he’d mentioned he was carrying a few injuries while filming Abduction (which at the time was going by the title Twilight Zodiac ), however based on this fight you can’t tell. The flashy aerial kicks may be absent, but I enjoyed the more grounded aspect of it, and the presence of On feels like it brings an element of the classic HK choreography style. There’s a nice flow of exchanges, and Adkins genuinely feels like a force to be reckoned with, conveying plenty of power behind his blows.

If anything, I was a victim of my own expectations when it came to the finale. Having seen Achabbakhe return as one of the aliens after his role as a henchman, I’d been expecting things to build up to a confrontation pitting Adkins and On against his enhanced skills, and nobody choreographs a 2 versus 1 fight quite like Tim Man! But alas it wasn’t to be, and instead the real finale is martial arts free, instead opting for some sacrificial heroics to stop the victim’s qi from opening a portal back to the alien’s home world. It’s enjoyable, and involves the kind of cheesy low budget CGI that used to populate early 2000’s sci-fi B movies. It sounds like a negative, but I find low budget CGI being used to create an effect that can’t be done practically much more charming than big budget CGI explosions and fire, so it anything it only contributes to Abduction’s B-movie appeal.

Seeing Adkins play somewhat against type, combined with On who we frankly don’t see enough of, easily make Abduction worth a watch. The fact that it’s about qi sucking aliens in Vietnam, well, that’s just a welcome bonus.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10

15 Responses to Abduction (2019) Review

About time Paul!!! Been waiting for your review for this film for ages. isn’t CHINESE FILM expert Mike Leeder is in this one as a bloody leather face guy… I keep on seeing photos of him in full costume on social media… does he gets his ass beat by Andy On?

The answer to all of your questions is – yes! Rumour has it that Leeder is actually playing the same character as he did in ‘Fearless’, so if you’re interested to learn about the referees fate 13 years on, this is the place to be.

We should also point out that this review is dedicated to Dan Hagen!

Hey, thanks for the shout-out! Life’s been wearing on me these past few days, so it was a nice surprise to wake up this morning and see this.

The initial vibe I got from Abduction wasn’t too dissimilar from yours. I ended up putting it on one night while doing laundry, with a very casual “let’s see what the hell this thing is” kind of approach. What I ended up getting was a fun, warm-hearted sci-fi action flick, with both Scott Adkins and Andy On putting on strong and likeable performances.

I had no idea there were two different cuts. The version I watched was simply streamed off of VUDU (no physical), and a little bit of investigation leads me to believe that this may have been the shorter producer’s cut. While I doubt there’s much difference, the blu-ray’s already been on my wishlist for a while now, so, hey… there’s one more excuse for me to finally buy it. 🙂

Excellent review as always. Cheers.

Cheers Dan, and we can now make if official, you’re a COF influencer! (The 2nd most sought after influencer title after Instagram :-D)

NO PAUL ! NO ! YOU WILL NOT GIVE THIS A HIGHER RATING THAN SEIZED ! NO !

C’mon, this was far more entertaining than ‘Seized’ ! The good news is, the soon to be released millennial romantic thriller ‘Dead Reckoning’ got a lower rating, which now looks like it’ll be kicking off the 2021 Scott Adkins-athon.

Also Paul what exactly is the difference between the Producer’s cut and the Director’s cut of this film ? :O

That’s a good question, I did fast forward through the Producer’s cut, and honestly didn’t notice any discernible difference. Maybe co-producer Mike Leeder could shed some light on the matter?

I definitely liked this better than Legacy of Lies.

the years had taken their toll on Referee Randall, but the Aliens did offer a steady supply of wellington boots and coco pies, and a man has to live!

A lot of fun making the movie in both Vietnam and China, we had a great team and i managed to craxk my sternum fighting Andy On(my fault) which was fun!

The difference between the two cuts were very minimal, I think it was just a couple of dialogue beats

While the Iqiyi version is a bit more Andy focused in the edit

I had a decent time watching Abduction. As I’ve mentioned before, the movie felt like it was written by Giorgio A. Tsoukalos from that aliens show, and there seemed to be some influence from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The beginning with Scot Adkins’ stutter made me cringe, but the action beats were good. I’m glad that Scott Adkins and Andy On were given a proper fight scene together after that messily choreographed fight in Black Mask 2.

What are some other good movies with Andy On that show off his abilities? I need to explore his filmography some more.

Also, I re-watched the fight scene at the end where Scott Adkins becomes imbued with alien powers, and it made me realize that I need another Universal Soldier movie ASAP.

Hey Dan. There’s a few! For me my overall favorite fighting performance of his is in Dennis Law’s ‘Bad Blood’ (inexplicably re-titled ‘King of Triads’ for its US release) from 2010, the same year he had what’s probably his most distinctive performance, as the villain in Yuen Woo-Ping’s ‘True Legend’ . He’s fought Donnie Yen twice, playing the villain in both 2011’s ‘The Lost Bladesman’ and 2013’s ‘Special ID’ (in which he ironically replaced Vincent Zhao, his co-star in ‘True Legend’ ). He’s close with fellow thespian Philip Ng, and their co-starring roles facing off against each in 2014’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Shanghai’ and 2019’s ‘Undercover Punch and Gun’ are both worth a watch. For outright fun, it’s hard to go wrong with 2014’s ‘Zombie Fight Club’ .

I finally caught this and agree with Paul, that large chunks of Abduction feel like 2 movies haphazardly stitched together, and unfortunately I was more interested in the half NOT having Scott Adkins.

I was wishing I could have seen more of Andy On as a slick assassin facing down Russian mobsters as opposed to Stuttering Scott hunting down inter-dimensional aliens harvesting DNA and rebuilding some super feng shui compass to get home.

I checked this out for Adkins but it’s On who walks away with the movie’s coolest scene: Offering his captors tea and snacks before beating seven bells out of them. Abduction could have used more of such scenes.

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Directed by Ernie Barbarash

The clock is ticking for the human race…

A man steps out of a park fountain in Ho Chi Minh City with no recollection of who he is or where he came from. As he wanders through the city, piecing together clues to his past, he is relentlessly pursued by mysterious figures.

Scott Adkins Andy On Lily Ji Aki Aleong Trương Ngọc Ánh Daniel Whyte Mike Leeder Paul W. He Philippe Joly Andrew Ng Temur Mamisashvili Brahim Achabbakhe Jai Day Michael Chan Kevin Lee

Director Director

Ernie Barbarash

Producers Producers

Raymond Lim Henry Luk Adam Ren Yuchen Roger Corman

Writer Writer

Mike MacLean

Casting Casting

Mike Leeder

Editor Editor

Peter Devaney Flanagan

Cinematography Cinematography

Phil Parmet

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Scott Adkins

Production Design Production Design

Rachel Lee Payne Darrow

Composer Composer

Marc Vanocur

Red Sea Media Ace Films

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Chinese

Releases by Date

20 mar 2019, 20 nov 2019, 06 dec 2019, 31 mar 2022, 28 nov 2019, 12 oct 2022, releases by country.

• Digital 16 Prime Video
• Physical 18
• Digital R15+

98 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★½ 2

Worth it for both the astonishingly bad digital work, seriously it's almost BIRDEMIC-level awful, and for Scott Adkins' amazing jacket.

Review by Keith G ★★ 5

Managing to be both interesting and extremely dopey, this science fiction actioneer has an amnesiac man (Scott Adkins) escape from an alternate reality/other dimension(I think), into a fountain in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. We learn he is from 1985 and is searching for his daughter who he believes was abducted by aliens. Also in the city is a gang enforcer, low rent John Wick type (Andy On), who wants out of the business in the most tired of movie cliches. His wife is abducted and he must try and find her. Turns out his boss's hook handed son has been trading human traffic with the visitors from another world, in exchange for getting his wanking hand back. With…

Review by 𓋹 ★½

Review by DreamScape40 ★★★

Hrmmmm... Interesting Nice to see a different side of Scott Adkins, stuttering and smacking himself to get the words out. Loved him in that colorful comic jacket. Adorable.

Interesting concept. I'm a sucker for alien related stories. Sci-fi suspense with some great fighting and gunfire sequences. Low budget CG. The ending there was a bit hokey.

Beautiful score.

Review by Curtis ★★★½ 2

Quinn (Scott Adkins) confronts the kidnapper of his daughter and, during the ensuing fight, gets kicked into the future of Viet Nam. Connor (Andy On), an enforcer for the local mob, is just about to leave the business when strange visitors don't just kidnap his wife, but the entire room she's sleeping in. The two will have to team up and do battle with something not just of this world, but from beyond every world, if they want to get their loved one back.

I've got to give Abduction all the credit for cool and unusual underlying ideas. We don't just have standard green-blooded aliens snatching up humans for experimentation. This gets very weird and very intriguing as we start…

Review by sydney ★★★

feels spiritually connected to pyun even though it has none of his impeccable style or dedication to exploring his characters, but the meathead actor turning in a surprisingly good emotional performance + the weird cyber alien portal computer graphixxx nonsense + the abandoned building opening/ending + attempt at profundity amidst the dumbest corniest world building really made me think of him. so unfortunately even though this looks like garbage and makes no sense, i loved it!! i can't resist this low budget action/sci-fi hybrid shit i'm sorry

Review by Ed Küpfer ★★½

In the first five minutes Scott Adkins is punched so hard he lands halfway across the globe 23 years into the future. This movie never reaches that level again, mostly because Adkins isn't in a huge number of scenes, but there is a lot of action, and the plot, which revolves around alien kidnappers who use Feng Shui to power their craft, was nutty enough to hold my interest for 90 minutes.

Review by Nachtwaechter ★★ 15

Scott Adkins ist Scott Adkins. Hier wie da, oben wie unten. Er kann hauen, er kann treten, er kann lieb gucken, er blamiert sich nicht zu sehr beim Schauspielen (hier aber beim Einsammeln von Kleidung, diese Jacke!), scheint zu wissen wo seine Grenzen sind...

Ernie Barbarash ist aber nicht Isaac Florentine. Ernie Barbarash ist nicht Jesse Johnson. Erne Barbarash ist Ernie Barbarash. Ein vollkommen routinierter und durchaus versierter Handwerker, der weiß wo man eine Kamera hinhält und wie man etwas abfilmt. Aber auch nichts darüber hinaus. Keine inszenatorischen Finesse oder Experimentierfreudigkeit im Spiel mit der Kamera wie ein Florentine, kein überzeugter (dadurch aber auch etwas steifer!) Gangstergeschichtenerzähler wie ein Johnson, der seine Stoffe meist sehr ernst nimmt. Und die Beiden…

Review by loxliki05 🎞️ ★★½

Scott Adkins hat auch schon oft das schnelle Geld mitgenommen und für kurze Zeit Filme abgedreht. Dabei gibt es wirklich schwierige Filme wie Incoming, doch selbst diese sind immer noch charmant und gut genug, um kein Totalausfall zu sein. Es liegt auch einfach stückweit an Scott Adkins selbst, den ich nicht ohne Grund verehre und im Actionbereich besonders schätze. 

Abduction ist dabei lediglich für den chinesischen Markt gedreht, um dort das Geld einzuspielen. Da täuscht das geerdete Cover leider völlig und leitet den Zuschauer in eine ganz falsche Richtung, da einem Zeitreisen, Zauberer, Aliens und irgend etwas Science Fiction mäßiges untergejubelt wird. Und ich kann es einfach nicht anders sagen. Abduction macht einfach nur Spaß, liefert abstruse Dummheit und wirklich…

Review by Chuck Dowling ★★

The idea here is fine, despite being an awkward mashup of a sci-fi thriller and a Hong Kong actioner set in Vietnam starring a Brit (Scott Adkins) and a Chinese-American (Andy On). The budget is WAY too low for any of the sci-fi elements to be executed properly, but the concept at least is decent and somewhat unique.

That leaves the action, which shows up at odd times and is generally let down by the camerawork and the sound effects, the latter of which are mostly muted when they needed to be much, MUCH louder. Conceptually and in terms of choreography they're fine. They just needed to look and sound better to be as rad as the filmmakers wanted us to think they are.

Again, it's fine. It just needed more money to pull off everything it wants to accomplish.

Review by 👹 Lee, or El Duderino, if, you're not into the whole brevity thing ★★

" What year do you think it is? "

I had no idea this was going to be a scifi multidimensional alien probing film. I thought it was just another DTV/OD Scott Adkins martial arts film. But within the first 10min, we have Scott Adkins fighting a group of hooded strangers who end up beating him and punching him so hard, he flies out of their evil He-Man layer, lands in some weird green ocean, is blasted through the time space continuum breaking through their reality into some sort of negative zone, and eventually falling into modern Vietnam, 33 years into his future. Yeah, that was a mouthful and doesn't make any sense, I know. It doesn't work at all like it…

Review by johnholmes ★★½ 3

Da isser der Scott Adkins uffm Cover. Geile automatische Waffe im Anschlag, im Hintergrund explodiert alles und Düsenjets unterstützen die 1-Mann-Armee.

Was ihr bekommt ist einen stotternden Adkins samt der hässlichsten Jacke der Welt( gut gespielt), Dimensionsaliens aus Pappenhausen und einer Story die bekloppter auch nicht in Stargate Staffel 67 erzählt worden wäre.

Willkommen im Marketingjahr 2020.

PS. Auf relativ nette Kampfe muss nicht verzichtet werden und Andy Out bekommt genauso viel Screentime wie Adkins und gehört mit aufs Cover. Vielleicht als Machete schwingender Rambo, der gerade einen Panzer mit einer Granate zerstört und aus der Explosion schon die nächste wirft.

Trailer: m.youtube.com/watch?v=mhoZA0HjmjY

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• Movie - Abduction - 2019

Abduction  (2019)  اختطاف

• 106 minutes
• Release Date: 7 June 2019 (US) (more)
• Genre: Action (more)

When a SWAT member loses his memory in Vietnam, he struggles to figure out who he is and why he is being pursued. As he starts to remember a kidnapping, he has to team up with a former military ...Read more operative as they try to find their respective daughter and wife.

• Ernie Barbarash (Director)
• Ernie Barbarash (Writer)
• Scott Adkins
• Mike Leeder
• Daniel Whyte

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When a SWAT member loses his memory in Vietnam, he struggles to figure out who he is and why he is being pursued. As he starts to remember a kidnapping, he has to team up with a ...Read more former military operative as they try to find their respective daughter and wife.

• Science Fiction
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• US [ 7 June 2019 ]
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"Entertaining, Inspiring Finish"

What You Need To Know:

(BB, PP, Ro, Pa, C, LL, VV, S, N, AA, M) Strong moral, patriotic worldview overall, marred slightly by some Romantic, pagan behavior, plus a couple light references to the Christian Cross; 13 obscenities (including one “f” word), one strong “J” profanity and three light exclamatory profanities, plus teenager has hangover and vomits and is grounded for drinking; some strong and light action violence includes bomb in oven explodes, men shoot teenager’s adoptive parents, adoptive mother who turns out to be a CIA agent fights with one thug, man kill’s boy’s biological mother with deadly gas, distant explosion of a car, villains shoot agents protecting teenager and his girlfriend, man hits teenage girl and ties her up and gags her, teenager fights villain in train compartment and eventually knocks him out, teenager throws villain off speeding train, chase scene thru hospital, villain shot dead, boxing between teenager and adoptive father gets a bit rough, villain threatens girlfriend’s parents when they fly back from Europe; no sex scenes but passionate and intense kissing between two teenage high school seniors, teenager shouts the “b” word and hero’s teenage friend lightly laments he’s a virgin; brief upper male nudity and young women in bikinis at party where there’s a pool; underage alcohol use and teenage drunkenness, plus teenager is grounded for a week for staying out and coming home with a hangover the next morning; no smoking or drugs; and, teenage protagonist argues with the father who raised him but doesn’t know he’s adopted, adoptive father punishes son by goading him during boxing training but it turns out father has a secret positive intent for what he’s doing, parents neglect to tell son he’s adopted but it’s partly to keep him safe from his real father’s enemies and potential enemies, youthful partying at fancy house where apparently college-age daughter’s parents are away, traitor exposed.

More Detail:

ABDUCTION isn’t record-breaking entertainment, but it’s a fun, solid movie that earns its kudos by the time of the exciting ending, which has a good finish that may leave most viewers wanting more. Which is just what the director, John Singleton, has already announced when he recently told the press a sequel is already in the works, whatever the box office for this first movie turns out to be.

The movie opens in an edgy way, however. Young high school senior, Nathan (played by young acting heartthrob Taylor Lautner of THE TWILIGHT SAGA), and his two buddies break into a college party at a fancy estate. Nate clearly gets soused and wakes up the next morning on the lawn. Back at home, his mother, Mara, grounds him for a week, and his father, Kevin, gives him a harsh boxing lesson. Mara interrupts the lesson before the male testosterone gets out of hand.

Apparently, Nathan has an anger problem that almost landed him in Juvenile Hall a year ago, but he’s gotten it mostly under control, or so his therapist (played by Sigourney Weaver) tells him. Nathan still suffers from nightmares, however, about a child’s mother being attacked while the child hides under the bed.

At school, Nathan is partnered with Karen, the beautiful girl across the street who Nathan likes but hasn’t dated, on a class paper about missing children. While working on their computers together at Nathan’s house, Nathan finds a child photo that looks like him on a website about missing children. He messages the site for more information, but the woman who answers him back turns out to be an Eastern European thug who alerts his Serbian boss in England, a man named Kozlow, that they’ve found Nathan.

Nathan’s mother admits to him he’s not their biological son. Just then, however, two men come looking for Nathan. Soon, Nathan and Karen are running from the bad guys. They find themselves in an international spy plot that sends Nathan on a quest to find his real father and mother.

Some minor parts of the dialogue and plot developments in ABDUCTED are goofy and predictable, but the movie becomes more interesting the more Nathan learns about his real mother and father. Everything leads to a really nice finish that extols family, adoption and patriotism. Enough questions are left open about the hero’s parents, however, to ensure a sequel.

In one sense, ABDUCTION is like a fairy tale, and it’s structured like a fairy tale. In many fairy tales, the hero or heroine finds themselves in a situation where their family has been attacked in some way by the villain or villains. In such fairy tales, the hero or heroine often undergoes a journey to defeat the villain and restore the family or repair what has been lost. ABDUCTION follows this pattern but has an ending that doesn’t fully complete the pattern but that could lead to a completion of the pattern in the sequel, or perhaps even a third movie.

Ultimately, ABDUCTION turns out to be an inspiring action movie for mature teenagers. Though Nathan learns his lesson about drinking alcohol, caution is still advised because of the movie’s youthful party scene, passionate kissing between Nathan and Karen, violence, and some foul language.

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• Quinn steps out of a park fountain in Vietnam with no recollection of who he is or where he came from. As he wanders through the city, piecing together clues to his past, he is relentlessly pursued by mysteriously dangerous figures.
• This pulse-pounding action thriller pits two strangers against a nefarious alien force, with the future of mankind hanging in the balance. Quinn Scott Adkins, a member of a SWAT unit, steps out of a park fountain in an Asian city with no recollection of who he is or where he came from. As he pieces together clues from his past, he vaguely recalls his young daughter, who has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, Connor Andy On, a former military operative turned gangster-for-hire, discovers that his wife has also disappeared mysteriously in the middle of the night. These two men, with little in common, realize they must work together to find their loved ones and thwart their mysterious abductors.

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"I take orders from the Octoboss."

Abduction (2019)

So no, it’s not a remake of John Singleton’s 2011 movie starring Taylor Lautner. I also got it mixed up with another upcoming Adkins project called SEIZED, which I have confirmed is a different movie, an Isaac Florentine joint where a daughter and son are kidnapped, presumably by humans.

I don’t think I can say ABDUCTION is Adkins’ weirdest, because there’s always UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING , a far more atmospheric, moody and hard-hitting movie, better on every level. This one is literally a Roger Corman production and has the bland glossiness and chintzy digital effects I associate with the SyFy Channel. But it’s definitely not generic. It has a hell of an opening that immediately dunks your head in the craziness and takes its time before letting you take a breath. I was into it.

He gets up and makes a run for it, finds a room with a bunch of cages and one of them has his daughter Lucy in it, standing, alive but unresponsive. He fights some people whose eyes flash green, gets punched through a brick wall by a faceless hooded being (Daniel Whyte, THE TWINS EFFECT, TRIPLE THREAT ), emerges in a strange world with fantastical castles, falls into water, surfaces in a fountain on earth, climbs out, looks around, eventually figures out he’s in Vietnam!

It’s partly an amnesia movie. He doesn’t remember who he is at first. Even if he did I don’t think he would know how he got to Vietnam. Something weird is going on here, it’s like a Twilight Zone episode. He doesn’t speak the language, and has developed a horrible stutter, which goes away for a bit when an old lady slaps him. For a while he has to slap himself to communicate, then he gets in a fight and it seems to permanently cure him.

He wanders the streets trying to get help but only frightening people. He steals a hilariously garish jacket covered in cartoon characters. Something Ricky Baker from THE HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE might wear. He beats up some cops who find him sleeping in an alley. At a hospital he finally finds a doctor (Truong Ngoc Anh, THE WHITE SILK DRESS) who speaks English and who he slowly convinces of what’s going on. Or at least the parts of it he knows.

Eventually the doctor runs into Conner at the same fountain that Quinn came out of, witnesses some weird phenomenon, and decides to introduce them to each other. They team up but there’s one part where Quinn gets controlled by one of the spiders so that there can be a fight scene between them. Also there’s an old guy who built a machine that detects things that disrupt the natural flow of chi or something? He knows what these beings are and it has something to do with chi and feng shui.

The fight choreographer is Tim Man, who was also behind NINJA II , BOYKA: UNDISPUTED , ELIMINATORS, ACTS OF VENGEANCE , ACCIDENT MAN , THE HARD WAY and TRIPLE THREAT . There’s plenty of good movement and some spinning of staffs and what not, but it comes across more stagey and with less impact than most of those I just listed. A little more Power Rangers -y. There’s even some whooshing sounds as the fists swing around. I’m not complaining.

Where Adkins is allowed to shine is in stretching his acting range a little. The stutter is unnecessary but he has some tics and ways of hunching his shoulders and stuff that’s both convincing and unlike anything I’ve seen him do before. He’s constantly having to communicate with people who don’t share a language with him. And he conveys alot without dialogue but without it being an inward character like a Boyka. He just happens to be alone and not have someone to talk to.

This one is directed by Ernie Barbarash, whose movies I guess I’ve been watching for decades, because he was a producer of AMERICAN PSYCHO , he wrote CUBE 2: HYPERCUBE (which I reviewed for The Ain’t It Cool News in 2002) and he directed CUBE ZERO. But I learned his name from ASSASSINATION GAMES (2011), the movie that teamed up Jean-Claude Van Damme and Adkins as co-leads. He also did 6 BULLETS and POUND OF FLESH with Van Damme and FALCON RISING with Michael Jai White.

This one stands out by being much stranger, if not better. I respect it for having a sense of humor (there are a couple good punchlines) but treating all the weird shit with total seriousness, never intentionally undermining it. I think there’s a specific mood you might be in some time that I could recommend this for, but I don’t know how to describe it, so you’re on your own. Good luck.

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12 Responses to “Abduction (2019)”

July 15th, 2019 at 12:36 pm

“A little more Power Rangers-y”

I need this…

July 15th, 2019 at 3:23 pm

I got this last week, ordered with a bunch of other films, including the Criterion set of Lone Wolf and Cub. Haven’t watched it yet, and will return to it later this week. I’m watching A Quiet Place and Hellfest today. Trying to get through the horror films I have pending. Finally got around to Hereditary yesterday (I’m not sure what to think about that film).

July 15th, 2019 at 10:09 pm

This was out early on Viaplay and I quite liked it. A bit like a DOCTOR WHO episode, but a good one. Nice locations.

July 16th, 2019 at 5:44 am

“I think there’s a specific mood you might be in some time that I could recommend this for, but I don’t know how to describe it, so you’re on your own.”

feels like a “Saturday afternoon slightly day drunk and I got a bunch of laundry to fold” kind of a movie to me

July 16th, 2019 at 8:24 am

I second the day drunk thing, but it’s more a “the wife’s at the gym and I got 80 minutes to kill” type of movie for me.

July 17th, 2019 at 12:31 am

Imma gonna see this, but not just for Scott, but cause Andy On has got a big role in it.

He’s been China’s version of Scott Adkins for quite some time. In that he’s a talented actiony guy who’s career hasn’t taken off. But he’s been plugging away in supporting/villainous parts for years and just about always kills it. He’s had some injuries that set him back, and his Cantonese skills are terrible (back when that was important, now Mandarin takes you farther but he hasn’t been able to break out in Mainland films for whatever reason)but he’s actually a solid dramatic actor and an absurdly handsome man.

He also kicked off his career with leading roles in a pair of expensive bombs which more or less permanently bumped him down to ‘Billed Fifth’ status. In fact his debut film was Tsui Hark’s berserk Black Mask 2, wherein he had the unenviable task of filling in for an absent Jet Li, his villainous co-star in that, billed about fifth or so was Scott Adkins in his first role of any substance. I guess that makes this film a reunion of sorts.

July 17th, 2019 at 2:07 pm

I’m kinda surprised that Andy On has gone back to America, and act in more Hollywood films. I guess it was easier for him to get a foot in the door in Hong Kong, even though he wasn’t a martial art, and of course, his debut Black Mask 2, wasn’t an English language film so that helped him get the role.

With the exception of Blackhat and Outcast he hasn’t done many English language films until Abduction. Abduction is also a Chinese film that is English language which I guess is something new (or maybe imdb is wrong by only listing China as the country of origin for this film).

I’m also surprised that he hasn’t joined Daniel Wu in Into The Badlands. Both Americans working in Hong Kong. Both were in New Police Story. I guess there are enough Asian Americans to not needing to ask On to come back to America.

July 20th, 2019 at 10:57 pm

Did the end of this one remind anyone of “Prince of Darkness”?

July 21st, 2019 at 9:56 pm

Sean: I definitely got that vibe too with the ending, though the John Carpenter film I was hoping it would emulate a bit more is BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. I enjoyed all the same, though I’m biased since I’ve met Mike Leeder while vacationing in Hong Kong.

Interesting to note the Shout Factory Blu-ray contains a Director’s Cut that’s about 8 minutes longer than the version I saw theatrically, which the disc bills as the Producer’s Cut. They’re all extensions of existing scenes, Scott Adkins gets a few more character beats, his hypnosis scene is longer, and there’s more exposition between the Chinese scientist and our heroes in his shop. One other extension helps clear up one little inconsistency after the hospital fight scene.

July 22nd, 2019 at 9:26 am

Thanks for mentioning that Al, I completely forgot to note that it gives you two options at the beginning and (finding no explanation on the internet) I figured director’s cut was the one to go with.

May 10th, 2020 at 2:38 pm

Saw this yesterday. Enjoyed it. Got the “Prince of Darkness” vibe from the ending as well.

December 7th, 2020 at 2:51 am

SEIZED is not yet available to buy or rent here but I found this other Scott Adkins child abduction movie on my local streaming service. I honestly had no idea it even existed, but after watching it, that is completely understandable.

This is a really, really bad movie. It is embarrassingly bad. Having said that, the first half of it is weirdly engaging and entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was enjoying it. Like you guys pointed out, it leans into the weirdness, it has some humour in it, and it’s just fun. It’s especially fun to watch Adkins give his worst acting performance ever after he has been so great in other things recently. But the second half of this movie…holy shit it was painful. The ending was completely incomprehensible and it certainly did not help that it had some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen. It went completely off the rails very quickly. I can’t really recommend this one unless you are a completionist that insists on seeing every Adkins joint.

Coincidentally, I have been working my way through the Adkins Undisputed podcast and listened to the BLACK MASK 2 episode right after watching ABDUCTION. I nearly fell off my chair when he described the fight between Andy On and Adkins in ABDUCTION as an “all-timer”! Then again, he did announce in the first episode that his favourite JCVD movie is HARD TARGET so his taste is a bit questionable (though I assume he’s a commenter here and was purposely trolling me). I am still enjoying the podcast though and looking forward to the episodes where he covers Adkins’ actual good films.

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The Ending Of Abduction Explained

Taylor Lautner is best known for one of two roles: the shark-like preteen with anger issues in "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl" and his stint as the sweet yet strong Jacob Black in the "Twilight" series. After he became a household name thanks to the latter series, he branched out and tried his hand at lead roles . Unfortunately for him, his first foray as the leading man didn't go very well, and his 2011 mystery thriller "Abduction" is still clinging to a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes .

"Abduction" had all the components to be a hit: action, romance, and plenty of twists. It featured Lautner as Nathan Harper, a high school teen who realizes his mom Mara (Maria Bello) and dad Kevin (Jason Isaacs) are not actually his biological parents. As soon as Nathan confirms his suspicions, Mara and Kevin are killed by mysterious operatives, and Nathan goes into hiding with his classmate Karen Murphy (Lily Collins) , who gets wrapped up in the mess. The bulk of the film is about Nathan and Karen running from the mysterious forces that want to hurt him, while attempting to discover the truth about his family history.

While "Abduction" was a bit of a mess, the ending left us with even more questions that will probably never be answered.

What just happened?

At the end of "Abduction," Nathan comes face-to-face with the main villlain, Nikola Kozlow (Michael Nyqvist). Seconds before Kozlow pulls the trigger to kill Nathan, a sniper takes Kozlow out. Nathan then gets on a phone call with his biological father, Martin Price (Dermot Mulroney), who not only shot Kozlow but has pulled some strings and managed to convince everyone to leave Nathan and Karen alone to live in peace.

"Abduction" ultimately had a happy ending, but the twisty-turny plot still left us with plenty of questions. Why does Martin have such a huge pull with the CIA? What is the purpose of Nathan being shirtless so often? How did no other passengers on the train hear the intense fight? As an MTV review succinctly put it, "Moments like these happen pretty consistently for the entirety of the film. It was a never-ending barrage of things that didn't make sense, whether small and subtly incompetent or glaringly over-the-top examples of idiocy, it was incessant." While we were happy to see everything wrap up nicely, there wasn't much of an explanation as to how things were taken care of — we sort of just have to accept that they were.

Abduction hurt Taylor Lautner's career

Though many action movies do well enough to pump out a few sequels, "Abduction" had such a negative reception that it's no shock the franchise ended there. What was a bit surprising was the negative effect "Abduction" seemed to have on Lautner's acting career. Aside from an overall Metsacore rating of 25 , Lautner's performance in the film was also overwhelmingly panned by critics. Catherine Brown of Filmink wrote "[Director John] 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 harsh review came from Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly , who noted that Lautner "[isn't] a terrible actor, but if he wants a career after the Twilight fades, he'll pick better films."

Lautner has been in a few other projects since "Abduction," but he has yet to shake the reputation that precedes him. Hopefully, if he never makes a full-time return to acting, he has wisely invested his "Twilight" earnings.