Liam Neeson has spent the better part of two decades threatening criminals over the phone, and beating them over the head with said phone, ever since Taken transformed him into one of Hollywood’s most unlikely action stars. But while audiences have been happy to watch him dispatch villains for years, his latest adventure has encountered a problem that even Neeson might struggle to overcome. Nobody seems particularly interested in seeing it.
Neeson’s newest action flick, The Mongoose, is a certified flop following the worst opening weekend of his career. Over its initial few days, it brought in just $480,000. According to Box Office Mojo, the movie debuted at No. 18 over the Halloween weekend, generating a disastrous average of approximately $473 per theater despite opening on more than 1,000 screens.
When war hero Ryan “Fang” Flanagan accidentally kills his ex-wife’s abusive new fiancé in self- defense, he knows how it will look. Accused of a crime he didn’t commit and with nothing to lose, Fang steals a Shelby Mustang and makes a desperate bid for freedom. As he leads the police in a cross-country car chase, he is aided by his former Special Forces Army comrades. When the chase sparks the interest of local news channels, Fang ends up closely monitored on national TV with a sympathetic public rooting for his safe getaway. The cast stars Neeson (Taken) as Ryan “Fang” Flanagan, Marisa Tomei (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as Tara, Michael Chiklis (The Shield), and Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible).
- He reads ground the way other people read a room.
- He will stand between you and the worst of it without discussing it.
- He says almost nothing, and never the wrong thing.
- The 1982 original came from David Morrell’s 1972 novel, which ends very differently.
- Stallone cut most of his own dialogue in the edit to make the character nearly silent.
- Five films across thirty-seven years, from 1982 to the fifth in 2019.
- He is better in the room than he is on paper, and he is excellent on paper.
- He will not explain the plan, and the plan will work.
- He treats charm as a tool, and it is a remarkably effective one.
- Eon has made twenty-five Bond films since Dr. No in 1962, across six actors.
- Denis Villeneuve is directing the next one for Amazon MGM, which took creative control in
2025. - The search for the new 007 was still running through 2026, with screen tests under way.
- He has read the thing nobody else thought to read.
- He will risk the whole plan for the artifact, and be right about half the time.
- He improvises better than most people prepare.
- The Cairo swordsman scene was improvised on the day because Harrison Ford had dysentery.
- Raiders was filmed in about 73 days, which was fast even in 1981.
- Dial of Destiny in 2023 was Ford’s fifth and last outing, at the age of eighty.
- He turns whatever is in the room to his advantage.
- He is funniest when things are at their worst.
- He has never once agreed that it is over.
- Die Hard came from Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to a book
filmed in 1968. - Nakatomi Plaza is Fox Plaza, which was the studio’s own headquarters at the time.
- Bruce Willis was a television comedy actor then, and a long way down the casting list.
- He takes the risk himself rather than assigning it.
- He is three moves ahead and will not say which three.
- He treats your survival as the actual objective.
- Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M at a thousand feet for the opening of Rogue
Nation. - The HALO jump in Fallout took 106 takes, filmed at dusk for the light.
- The Final Reckoning in 2025 was the eighth film, and was sold as the last.
‘The Mongoose’ Is Liam Neeson’s Biggest Box Office Disaster Yet
The movie’s opening weekend marks a particularly unfortunate milestone for Neeson, whose previous wide-release films had never debuted below $500,000 domestically when playing in more than 600 theaters. In fact, The Mongoose becomes his third movie of 2026 to open below $1 million, following The Fix and Cold Pursuit.
And critics don’t love it either, because The Mongoose currently holds a 29% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers largely unimpressed. The Mongoose opened in U.S. theaters on October 30, 2026, and is also beginning its digital rollout in select international markets, including Australia and Canada.
The Mongoose
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Ryan “Fang” Flanagan
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Major Walter Pope
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