Twentieth Century FoxWe'll pay you $50 to fight Liam Neeson.
If you agreed to that bet, you are either Darth Maul (more on that in a second) or seriously delusional. If you hear the name "Neeson" and immediately recall the grief-stricken father who learned to open his heart again in Love, Actually, well, you're in for a rude awakening when Taken 2 rolls in to theaters tomorrow, guns blazing.
So to prepare for the latest showcase of Liam Neeson badassery, we've decided to look at ten of his most killer performances, so far (numbered, but really, in no particular order):
10. Taken: This 2008 action flick was a coming out party of sorts for Liam's badassery. As Bryan Mills, a seemingly mild mannered dad, Liam traveled to Paris to retrieve his kidnapped daughter, busting out some CIA-level killing skills and off like half the population of Albania.
9. Batman Begins: Anyone who can take Christian Bale's Batman in a fight deserves some serious street cred. And anyone with a legion of evil ninjas at his disposal officially earns the title of badass, which Liam did playing the League of Shadows' mysterious Ra's al Ghul.
8. Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace: Obi-Wan Kenobi may have been space's only hope, but who taught Obi everything he knew? Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, naturally. And though Darth Maul eventually K.O.ed Qui-Gon, the dude knew how to wield a lightsaber.
7. Battleship: So maybe Taylor Kitsch's Lieutenant Alex Hopper does most of the alien ass kicking in this board game-to-big screen adaptation, but anyone who can strike fear in Tim Riggins himself, as Neeson's Admiral Terrance Shane does, is one bad mamma jamma.
6. Clash of the Titans: As Zeus, leader of the gods on Mount Olympus, Liam punished mere mortals by knocking up their wives (whoopsies!), turning enemies into monsters with lightning and literally unleashing the Kraken. Oh, and he rocked one seriously badass beard.
5. The Grey: What do you do for a living? Oh, you don't kill wolves when they threaten oil rigs? Then you're not as cool as Neeson's John Ottway, who, after surviving an airplane crash in a blizzard, gets in to mono a mono fights with wolves and faces his mortality like a man.
4. Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe: Aslan, the titular Great Lion, might be Narnia's substitute for Jesus Christ figure, but he's hardly a pacifist. That's not what makes the king of beasts, voiced by Liam, badass though: Aslan was killed. But didn't die!
3. The A-Team: Col. John Smith was nicknamed Hannibal, for one. Not after the cannibal, but instead one of the greatest military leaders of all time—that's pretty intimidating. He also habitually escapes prison, hijacks aircrafts and blows up stuff (like, lots and lots of stuff).
2. Kingdom of Heaven: In the Crusades-centric saga, Neeson plays Baron Godfrey of Ibelin, a man with a big ass sword who knows how to use it. Like, say against a family member (he kills his own nephew, for one). Plus he knights people, which is just plain awesome.
1. Darkman: The stuff of nightmares! And also...a superhero (this ain't your abtastic Captain America or snarky Iron Man, kids). Dr. Peyton Westlake was burnt and left for dead by mobsters, only to return with masks made of synthetic skin, super strength and a thirst for revenge.