Thinking of Father’s Day coming up, I wondered just how many dads have gone the extra mile in entertainment, risking life and limb to find and/or save their children. After doing a little research, I managed to find quite a few, and it’s a surprisingly distinct sub-genre that crosses the spectrum. Without further ado, here are ten dads that you do NOT want to mess with.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) – Taken

In Taken, ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills’ daughter Kim is quickly abducted during a trip to Paris. Not only does he overhear the entire abduction over the phone, but he puts his skills to work and manages to track down the people responsible, discovering that his daughter is being primed for sale in a sex trafficking ring. Knowing that he has less than 96 hours before he’ll lose her forever, he employs a relentless efficiency and do-whatever-it-takes attitude to find her amongst the lowlifes and secret society of human slave trade. All told, the hows and whys aren’t that important. In the end, it’s all about Neeson’s fantastic performance as a father who can and will do anything to find his daughter.

Wilson (Terrence Stamp) – The Limey

In a performance brimming with rage, The Limey’s Wilson has less fortunate results looking for his daughter after his release from prison. Going on the assumption that she was a victim of foul play in a car accident, he doesn’t hold any hope of finding her alive, but instead wants to find the man responsible and exact his own justice. Searching the shady underbelly of Los Angeles, Wilson connects the dots in the most ruthless way possible until he finds the man who last saw her alive, high-rolling music mogul Terry Valentine, and learns the truth about what happened to his daughter.

John McClane (Bruce Willis) – Live Free or Die Hard

We all know John McClane is a bona fide bad-ass who does what it takes to take care of terrorists, but aside from his wife Holly (Gennero, I presume?), his children have been mostly non-existent. That is until in Live Free or Die Hard when cyber-criminal extraordinaire Thomas Gabriel crosses the line and takes McClane’s daughter Lucy hostage. After that, he goes all out to save her, including infiltrating the bad guys’ mobile headquarters and taking on an F22 fighter jet and still save the country in the process. How’s that for a modern-day Roy Rogers?

Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau) – Lost

Perhaps one of Lost’s most polarizing characters, Michael Dawson took on the burden of being the only character that had a child, Walt, that was also an important character in the show himself. In the first season, Michael struggled to get re-acquainted with his son and it became apparent that Walt was not only in need of a father but also seemed to hold a key to the one of the many mysteries of the island. It wouldn’t be until after Walt’s abduction by the Others that Michael’s arc takes a hard left turn into some dark territory, turning him into an obsessive, almost diabolical character as he does whatever it takes to get his son back. Bonds are broken, tables are turned and bodies are left in his wake until Michael’s fatherly compulsion manages to turn the entire show on its head at the end of the second season.

Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid) – Frequency

Thanks to an old HAM radio and some seriously groovy atmospheric disturbance in Frequency, Detective John Sullivan finds himself talking to his late father Frank thirty years in the past. After Frank cheats death on his son’s advice, weary and down on his luck John takes the opportunity to get to know his pop that he never really knew but soon discovers that something has changed. With Frank escaping death as it originally happened, the future has changed for everyone, including John, his friends and most of all, his mother, who is consequently murdered by a serial killer. With the help of John who knows the case as ancient history, Frank tracks down the man that kills his wife in order to save himself, his wife and his son.

Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) – War of the Worlds

Save for the aliens that come down to Earth to eradicate humans from the planet, Ray Ferrier might have had a rather uneventful weekend with his estranged son and daughter in War of the Worlds. But when those damned tripods erupt from under the ground and start vaporizing people left and right, Ray scoops up his daughter Rachel and teenage son Robbie and heads out of town narrowly escaping encounters with a crashed airliner, panicked mobs and a breathtaking tripod attack on an overcrowded ferry. When Robbie finally gives in to the urge to stand and fight with military forces, Ray holds on to Rachel as long as he can until she’s “harvested” by one of the tripods, when he devises a plan to save her from certain death.

Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) – Blood Diamond

While Blood Diamond is largely about smuggler-trying-to-go-straight Danny Archer, the subplot of Solomon Vandy, a fisherman who’s family is torn apart during a raid on his village, is just as compelling. When Solomon is forced into slavery for a local warlord to pan for diamonds, he finds a most extraordinary giant pink diamond and subsequently hides it during his escape to freedom. Danny catches wind of Solomon’s hidden find and strikes a deal with him to help save his son if he will take him to its secret location. During their journey, Solomon learns that his son has been recruited into the rebel forces and now lives as a child soldier. This causes Danny to alter his plan and go straight for the heart of the rebels where Solomon confronts his brainwashed son and makes a passionate plea to steer him back on track no matter the cost.

David Drayton (Thomas Jane) – The Mist

In The Mist, David Drayton is an artist who ventures out one morning with his son Billy to fetch supplies after a particularly rough storm the night before. While at the local supermarket, what appears to be a heavy fog settles over the small New England town and citizens begin to panic when word spreads of something dangerous in the mist. As David, Billy and the shoppers begin to seal themselves into the store, paranoia and hysteria sets in driving the group into factions and causing people to turn on one another. David’s first concern is the safety of his son, but he’s also hopes to find a way to get everyone to safety. Rising to the occassion, David sparks a moral debate that ultimately forces himself, his son Billy and a small group of others out into the mist to find help from the outside world with unspeakable results.

Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) – Jaws 2

After his classic showdown with a great white shark in Jaws, Chief Martin Brody still wonders if the ocean has more in store for him when more folks start disappearing in the waters surrounding Amity Island. While Jaws showed us how caring and dedicated Brody is to his family, it’s the final reel of Jaws 2 that shows us just how far Brody is willing to go as a dad. When his two sons sneak away with friends for a boating excursion and find themselves stranded at sea after a run-in with another great white shark, Brody risks his life to get them to safety and take out the vicious tooth-laden killing machine for good.

Marlin (Albert Brooks) – Finding Nemo

Speaking of dastardly marine life, there’s not a man alive that could stand the test of will that clown fish Marlin undergoes to find his son in Finding Nemo. Would any of these fine gentlemen mentioned above swim to the bottom of the ocean, wage a battle of wits with a trio of sharks, navigate a school of deadly jellyfish, find their way out of the belly of a humpback whale and put up with a amnesiatic sidekick to find their son? I think not!

Are there any other great dads you can think of in film or TV that truly risk everything to protect their young ones? Let’s hear what you think in the comments!