- "Good luck..."
- ―Marko's famous line to Bryan Mills over the phone
Marko Hoxha is the main antagonist of the 2008 film, Taken, and the posthumous overarching antagonist in its 2012 sequel, Taken 2. He is a member of an Albanian human trafficking ring which dedicates to kidnap foreign white women to sell them as sex slaves and prostitutes. When Marko kidnaps Kimberly Mills, however, he unleashes the wrath of her father Bryan, who sets himself to hunt down Marko and rescue his daughter.
He was portrayed by Arben Bajraktaraj.
Biography[]
Marko Hoxha was born on January 29, 1973 in Tropojë, Albania. He finally became a high-ranking member of an Albanian human trafficking ring settled on France that abducts innocent foreign women to sell them as sex slaves and prostitutes, working with an auctioneer named Patrice Saint-Clair to sell those women who are virgins as they are very valuable on the black market. He also employs Peter, a Frenchman, to befriend most tourist women on the airport to then call him and notify him where they are living. Marko later shows up at their houses and kidnaps them without showing any mercy. He was also the son of Murad Hoxha, the head of the Albanian Mafia, who was the main antagonist in Taken 2.
In the first film, Peter told Marko about two American women named Amanda and Kim whom he met, causing him and other intruders to break into the girls' apartment in order to kidnap them, yet Kim left her phone turned on so Bryan can hear her descriptions of Marko. After realizing his daughter has been taken, Bryan gets in touch with Marko and allows him to go free if he leaves Kim alone. But Bryan also threatens that if Marko does not let his daughter go, he will find him and kill him to which Marko simply replies "good luck" and hangs up.
Back in France, Bryan tracked down Marko and his cohorts and finally went inside the Albanian's house by feigning to be a corrupt policeman, lying to them that they must renew their extortion contract with the brothel. Believing the lie, the thugs prepared to pay Bryan up while he tricked them into saying a few words and phrases, and recognized the voice of Marko as he spoke to on Kim's cellphone. During the subsequent fight, Bryan knocked Marco unconscious and killed his henchmen (2 of them were stabbed by knife and the others were shot). Searching the house, Bryan founds several captive teens, including Amanda, who was dead from an apparent overdose. In the basement of the house, Bryan strapped Marko into a makeshift electric chair and tortured him with an electric current until he talked. Kim, a virgin, was very valuable on the black market and was sold to Patrice Saint-Clair. After he retrieved that vital information, Bryan prepared to leave. Seeing Bryan reach for the light switch, Marko began pleading desperately for his life, insisting that he knew nothing more. Bryan stated coldly that he believed him, but that this wouldn't save him. He then flipped the switch, running the electric current through Marko's body and leaving the screaming thug in agony.
The consequences of Marko's death would eventually come to haunt Bryan later on, as Murad and some henchmen of his later hunted drown the former CIA agent and his family in Taken 2. However, Bryan defeated them one by one and kills Murad himself after he refused to let go his anger and his wishes to avenge Marko. It is unknown if either of Marko's two brothers ever decided to continue the vendetta.
Personality[]
A ruthless sex slaver, Marko kidnaped foreign white women to sell them as prostitutes or sex slaves to make a profit. For him, women were objects and if they were virgins, that means they were valuable and were more money for him, even sending them to Patrice Saint-Clair so he could sell them to powerful men from the black market, who payed large sums for them. He held no regard on the life of others, as demonstrated when he drugged Amanda too much until he caused her to die from an overdose, but as usual, his victims meant nothing for him and Marko didn't care for it.
When Bryan warned him to let go his daughter or otherwise he will track him down and kill him, rather than taking serious such threat, Marko mocked Bryan and sarcastically wished him good luck, showing that he believed himself as better than the others and was quite arrogant, not used to be threatened on his job. Marko also believed that he can control the law when he payed up corrupt French policemen with extortion money so he could continue to make profit for his business, like maintaining brothels. However, when interrogated, Marko was really a coward, as demonstrated when he wasn't able to tell Bryan where Saint-Clair sold his victims, leading Bryan to leave him to die a painful yet well-deserved death.
Trivia[]
- Unlike the main antagonists of the following installments, Marko stands up as one of the most despicable and heinous due his actions against innocent women. In terms of heinous standards, he's perhaps only equaled by Oleg Malankov in Taken 3.
- It's unknown whether Marko loved his father, given his crimes and ruthless attitude. However, given that Murad was depicted as being okay with his son's occupation, it's possible that Murad was just as ruthless like him or that Marko had a lighter side for his family.
- Murad mentioned in Taken 2 that Marko was strapped to the chair so long, that his heart burst.
- Although he is the main antagonist in the first film, he has small screen-time of around 5 minutes.