Nearly 15 years after earning an Oscar nomination for Schindler’s List, Liam Neeson took a turn toward the action-packed when, as ex-CIA agent and doting dad Bryan Mills, he promised the men who kidnapped his daughter in Taken that he would find them [dramatic pause] and kill them. Now, ten years and even more revenge-flicks-that-all-kind-of-look-the-same later, Neeson is feeling vindictive yet again in Hans Petter Moland’s Hard Powder — but this time he’s got a snowplow. And, as Deadline reports, an official release date: February 8, 2019.
According to the film’s official synopsis, Neeson plays Nels Coxman, a nose-to-the-grindstone family man (Laura Dern plays his wife) who is beloved by the residents of his Colorado resort town because “he is the one who keeps the winter roads clear.” One could argue that keeping roads snow-free is exactly what a snowplow operator is paid to do, but let’s not mess with a good thing. Especially as Neeson’s character seems willing to go way beyond the call of duty when, following the murder of his son at the hands of a ruthless drug lord, Coxman channels his inner huntsman and “transforms from an ordinary man into a skilled killer as he sets out to dismantle the cartel,” which in turn triggers a turf war between “a manically unpredictable gangster known as Viking and a Native American gang boss.”
If that sounds like a lot of words you might never expect, or want, to hear in a sentence together, bear in mind that Hard Powder is a remake of Moland’s 2014 Norwegian film, In Order of Disappearance, so it has worked before. More importantly: It may be the last time Neeson seeks onscreen vengeance. When asked about his action-star status at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival, Neeson admitted that he was ready to retire that mantle: “Guys, I’m sixty-fucking-five.”
