A new Liam Neeson action film comes around yearly, putting the titular star in more heightened and intense situations. Neeson’s latest thriller, Retribution, puts him into a Speed-esque setting. The story follows Matt Turner (Neeson), a high-ranking bank executive In Vienna. Our story starts with Matt receiving a call from his business partner, Anders (Matthew Modine). He needs Matt’s help to talk down a client wanting to pull money from their bank. It’s an urgent matter that Anders wants Matt to resolve. Matt is so motivated by work in ways that leave his family disgruntled.
His wife Heather (Embeth Davidtz) asks him to drive his kids, Emily (Lilly Aspell) and Zach (Jack Champion), to school. Much to Matt’s frustration, he agrees to take them after serious convincing. Once he gets them in the car, their regular morning is about to go from bad to worse. A mysterious phone starts to ring, with a sinister (and modulated) voice introducing himself to Matt. The voice informs Matt that a bomb is strapped beneath his seat and will detonate if he leaves the car. It isn’t until the voice forces Matt to see the damage it can do that his kids realize the danger.
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Emily and Zach Need Convincing

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It is not until Matt’s coworker Sylvain (Arian Moayed) gives him a distressing phone call. Sylvian tells Matt he has been talking to the same voice who is giving him instructions. This mysterious voice forces Matt to see the damage he can do. Attracting the attention of a police officer, Sylvain’s girlfriend gets out of the car. After Sylvain cannot keep his girlfriend in the car, the voice detonates the vehicle killing all three. It is the twisted convincing that shows the kids the situation they are all in. That is until the voice has his next demands.
The voice informs Matt that he wants money from a secret offshore bank account. As he dodges calls from Anders, the voice makes another command. He wants Matt to meet Anders to get the proper information to transfer money. Both men (Matt and Anders) are the only ones who can authorize this transaction.
When the voice tells Matt to kill Anders, Matt is unable to pull the trigger. He drops the gun, which sets off the detonator in Anders’s car, killing him and wounding Emily. It’s two murders that make Matt a primary suspect of the police. That is after the voice got him to call his wife, who Matt finds out is at a divorce attorney. Much to his kid’s dismay, they continue to realize the severity of the situation. Now the voice forces Matt to involve his wife by having her withdraw money from a safe deposit box.
It takes some convincing for Heather, but she agrees to get the job done. When Matt and the kids arrive outside the bank, the voice starts to pull strings. It wants Heather to give the money to a random person, which she does. The catch is that the police have been waiting this whole time, hoping Matt would arrive. This once again involves having to escape the police via an action scene until Matt cannot avoid them any longer.
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Matt Learns the Truth
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Matt drives through a tunnel to escape the police while the area’s cell reception drops. As he escapes the tunnel, he is met by an entire police brigade on the other side. Matt has one last chance to convince the police. That job is easier said than done, with the police inspector (Noma Dumezweni) trying to speak with Matt. She also takes some convincing until the local bomb squad sees the pressurized bomb under his seat. Once they get Zach and Emily out of the car, the inspector tries to convince Matt to turn himself in. He informs her that he has to finish this thing once and for all to clear his name.
The voice wants Matt to finally have a face-to-face meeting, instructing him to drive to a certain location. This location is in the center of Vienna, forcing Matt to go into the middle of a city protest. As he tries to assess and find the voice, a masked man enters his car. The man removes the mask revealing himself to be Anders. He faked his death and wants Matt to take the blame. Instead of a typical action-packed third act, the stakes remain smaller. Matt decides there is only one option to save his family. He will wreck the car and detonate the bomb, killing Anders and himself.
Anders continues to inform Matt of his money-hungry plan before he realizes what is happening. Matt knows he has to sacrifice himself to save his family. He says his goodbyes as he drives the car faster and faster. Anders realizes this and panics once the car hits a lamp post and topples over, barely staying on a bridge.
Luckily, Matt can get out of the car before Anders. Once he leaps out of the car and pushes Anders into the water, the bomb detonates. The explosion kills Anders, while Matt can dive underneath it into the water. As he climbs out of the water, he shares a look with the police inspector, who realizes Matt is not the villain. The screen cuts to black as the audio of news reports plays, explaining how Matt was not the mastermind. The report also states that Matt cooperated in helping the police uncover evidence of Anders’s involvement.