Liam Neeson’s next thriller has him driving a car that will explode if he stops

Ever since he became a breakout action star with 2008’s TakenLiam Neeson acted in action movies on airplanes and further trains. So of course now is the time for cars. In Retaliation, Neeson plays an investment banker who must, you guessed it, save his family from a threat. And in typical Neeson fashion, it actually looks really nice. Retaliation will hit theaters on August 25.

In this latest family thriller, fund manager Matt Turner (Neeson) and his kids are held hostage by an anonymous caller who linked a bomb to Turner’s car, which he believes will explode if Turner doesn’t follow instructions or the car comes to an unauthorized stop. With that premise, the trailer shows us all sorts of car maneuvers, red herrings, and big explosions – none of which probably actually detonate Neeson or his kids.

Action movie fans might already be thinking this sounds like the premise of Speed, where a bus rigged with bombs will blow up if Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock don’t keep it above 50 MPH all the time. However, the real twist is that this is actually a remake of a Spanish movie called El Desconocido (although the English title too Retaliation). More interestingly, this is actually the third remake the film has received after the German version, Do not. To get. Out!and the South Korean version, Difficult target. Perhaps more surprisingly, Neeson was first set to star in this American remake in 2017, but the project was delayed.

Retaliation is directed by Nimrod Antal (Predators), and written by Andrew Baldwin (Invasion), Ward Parry (Shattering it) and Christopher Salmanpour (FBI: Most Wanted), from the script of the original Spanish film written by Alberto Marini. In addition to Neeson, Jack Champion (Avatar: the way of the water), Matthew Modin (Stranger things), and Arian Moayed (Succession).