MovieChat Forums > Taken 2 (2012) Discussion > Factual errors so outrageous

Factual errors so outrageous

posted 11 years ago by nihatb48
24 replies | jump to latest

Hi, I'm Turkish and a native of Istanbul. I'm normally willing to overlook minor mistakes in a movie for the sake of entertainment, but this one is full of so many glaring factual errors it made me sick to my stomach. First and foremost; US Embassy in Istanbul !! This was beyond preposterous ! There is NO US Embassy in Istanbul, embassies are located in the capital city of a country, and Turkey's capital happens to be Ankara :), NOT Istanbul. There is a US Consulate in Istanbul, but it's about 15 miles away from where Bryan and his daughter grab the yellow Mercedes cab ( so nowhere near the Grand Bazaar as shown in the chase scene !), and it would take them AT LEAST half an hour to get there as traffic is usually jammed in the area...

2) The time difference between Istanbul and Los Angeles is +10 hours, sometimes even 11 due to winter / summer time adjustment, so when Bryan calls his CIA friends from the " Embassy " courtyard in the afternoon, it has to be around 5 or 6am in L.A, but what do we see ? He catches them on a golf course in broad day light !!

3) The border crossing scene was beyond ridiculous !! There is NO common border between Albania and Turkey, the Albanian mobsters would have to go through Greece, an EU member country, to come to Turkey.. And they expect us to believe that a border crossing point would only consist of a primitive hut with a single officer sitting in it !

4)The story takes place in present day, but they show Turkish police driving 80's model Fiat cars !

It's a shame that an actor like Liam Neeson, who gave us The Schindler's List, was involved in this.

[–] julicska 10 years ago

Thanks! The time difference and the common border are huge mistakes which I didn't notice.

[–] yamxt600 10 years ago

well - in "James Bond - Tomorrow never dies" the BMW crashes through the wall from the hotel garage into the car rental. In reality between those two places in Hamburg there are about 2 kilometers. That's one hell of a flying car. ;)

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] clark_gillies 10 years ago

Agree on the border scene.... that was my first thought (as you said, they would have to go through either Greece, or Macedonia and Bulgaria.... neither of which would be a single track country road).

Maybe they have been a little poetic, but Taken is trying to pass itself off as belonging in the Jason Bourne universe of more "realism" and accurate, yet seemed to come well short on this.

[–] sailinalong1 10 years ago

I appreciate your facts, but like many said...it is a Hollywood movie. Yet, your point is correct about "taking too many obvious liberties" in the name of high entertainment.
We all are critical of movies with obvious flaws & inaccuracies. To that end...the movies I find more engaging are the ones that make it a point to stay with the facts, the actual truth, show that Jason Bourne does bruise & bleed, etc. as the plot covers the place, time, people, what a BMW can & cannot do etc.
In Taken 2's case, they took too many liberties...were interested to make it too entertaining and therein, we have a flawed & low rated movie. The box office tickets support what you and I are saying and that is the bottom line.

[–] Strazdamonas 9 years ago

The movie does not show how long it took them to arrive at the Embassy. Its possible they took the 15 miles trip to the Consulate in theory, i guess.

To be honest the golders i knew were all early risers and were in the fields by 7-8AM, but yes the time lag was not visible.

Or they went through Macedonia and Bulgaria thus circumventing EU. They also likely bribed the border guard and specifically took the more out of the way route to get in so there would be no traces of them entering. I dont know all boarder roads in the european part of turkey, do you? I do know that here in EU some border roads do indeed consist of a single hut with 2-3 border guards in it.

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