

The audience immediately sides with the hit man and shows no sympathy for the rich people doing the reprehensible trafficking.

Plus, such a code allows the essential Neeson to emerge-a good guy underneath his "special skills." This refinement of past assignments, this surfacing of a standard that brooks no trafficking in young people, is a moral advance for an immoral assassin. Because his current contract involves murdering a 13-year-old girl, Beatriz (Mia Sanchez), he's not going to do it, period! Per usual, Neeson's hardcore vigilante has his limits: Involving children is a non-no, and it's an immediate softener for the audience. In Martin Campbell's Memory (the 78-year-old Casino Royale director like Neeson still has his mojo), he plays Alex Lewis, a contract killer telling his sponsors he's done, but they refuse to accept his offer. In an interview, he believes audiences love seeing the big old guy kicking butt for the rest of us stuck home from covid, retirement, or whatever. "Justice comes down to him." From The Marksman Vigilante revenge is riddled through American thriller films, and nobody does it better than Liam Neeson.
