- "My salary is X. My expenses are Y. As long as my family is provided for, I do not care where the difference comes from. That is my entire involvement!"
- ―Jean-Claude to Bryan Mills
Jean-Claude Pitrel is major antagonist in the 2008 film, Taken and a minor character its 2012 sequel, Taken 2. He is a corrupt ex-French police officer, bureaucrat, and former friend of Bryan Mills.
He is played by Oliver Rabourdin.
Biography[]
Taken[]
Bryan seeks help from an old friend, Jean-Claude, a bureaucrat and former field agent, now within French intelligence. He sustained some injury on the field agent job and now enjoys his later career working at a desk. Jean-Claude tells Bryan where to start looking, but warns him not to make trouble.
Some time later in the film, after Bryan destroys a construction site where a makeshift brothel has been set up, Jean-Claude orders police to tail Bryan and their car comes close to Bryan's Jeep, but Bryan eludes the trap by making a u-turn at a stoplight. Jean-Claude attempts to persuade Bryan to return to the United States to avoid imprisonment in Europe, while also setting two traps for Bryan; police disguised as joggers, and triangulating Bryan's position based on his cellular phone. Bryan evades both traps by using a walkie-talkie to speak indirectly into the cellular phone.
Later, Bryan turns up unexpectedly to dinner with Jean-Claude and his wife, where he confirms that Jean-Claude has been keeping secrets. The latter turns out to be colluding with the Albanian Mafia, taking bribes to keep the authorities from shutting them down. The earlier police chase was his failed attempt to remove Bryan from Paris and keep his old friend from exposing his corruption.
Jean-Claude attempts to hold Bryan at gunpoint, but his former friend has unloaded Jean-Claude's pistol. Bryan then shoots Isabelle in the shoulder, and threatens to kill her them both if he does not tell him where to find Saint-Clair. Jean-Claude complies and Bryan tells him that this could have been avoided had he only been less concerned about his desk job and more about what is right. Bryan tells him to apologize to Isabelle for him. When Jean-Claude tries to attack Bryan, he pistol-whips him across the skull with his Beretta 92FS pistol, knocking him out and ending their friendship.
What happened to Jean-Claude is unclear. It is probable that he continued to remain a police officer, but because Isabelle was shocked about his crimes and was not seen again, it is possible that she left him, possibly taking custody of their kids.
Taken 2[]
Several weeks later, Jean-Claude returns home after work one evening only to find something wrong. He goes for his pistol, but Murad and his thugs grab him and tie him to a chair. Murad found Jean-Claude's business card at the scene of Marko's death after Bryan impersonated him, so they begin to torture Jean-Claude with scissors to coerce information about the current whereabouts of Bryan Mills. He explains that he knows nothing but his testicles are crushed and then Suko reveals the teddy bear belonging to his children, either implying that they have been killed or that they will be killed. After getting what they need from him, Jean-Claude is then most likely killed by the gang.
Trivia[]
- In the first movie he owned a SIG-Sauer P239 pistol as his personal sidearm, kept hidden in the bathroom apparently in case of a home invasion. In the second film, his duty sidearm is a SIG-Sauer SP2022, quite accurate for the French police.
Behind the Scenes[]
Appearances[]
| Films | ||||
| Taken | Taken 2 | Taken 3 | ||