Nikki, an ex-special forces operative, cuts a bloody swath through a human-trafficking syndicate to rescue her daughter. While this film attempts to call attention to the evils of human trafficking and sexual slavery, it more often feels like an excuse for a revenge-fueled rampage, with lots of splattering gore, punishing violence and harsh language.
Nikki didn’t miss all of her daughter’s birthdays, but she missed a lot of them.
She didn’t want to miss them, of course, but a job in the U.S. military’s special forces isn’t exactly conducive to a normal work-life balance. More often than not, the best Nikki could do was send her daughter, Chloe, birthday wishes from a military base on the other side of the globe.
But it was okay. Chloe seemed to understand.
Then Chloe’s father died. Nikki returned home to care for her daughter, now on the cusp of her 16th birthday.
But things are strained. The resentment of so many lost years has finally caught up with them. Chloe feels like her mother has fought for everyone but her. Nikki’s profession taught her the “logistics of death,” how to take a life. But she has always felt woefully unprepared for bringing life into the world—and cultivating that life. Still, Nikki tries her best to be the mother that Chloe needs.
So, when Chloe sneaks out one night to drink with friends, Nikki goes after her. She knows how dangerous the world can be—and, unfortunately, her worst fears are soon realized.
Chloe is drugged and kidnapped by human traffickers. Nikki gives chase, but the traffickers escape with Chloe.
Nikki knows the 72 hours following an abduction is critical. So, she’ll use every tool in her particular set of (considerably bloody) skills to rescue her daughter before that time runs out, even if that means taking on an entire human-trafficking syndicate to do so.
Nikki loves Chloe and is willing to put her life on the line to protect her daughter. Though we don’t see much of him, Chloe seems to have had a good relationship with her father, who cared for her while Nikki was deployed.
A positive side effect of Nikki’s violent rampage: Several women who are being trafficked escape their captors.
Given the violence she has seen at home and abroad, Nikki wonders if there’s a “greater meaning” to life—or if it’s all random coincidence. (This thought is left unexplored by the film.)
Nikki has a vision, or hallucination, of speaking with Chloe.
A murderous and despicable man sports a cross necklace.
Much of the sexual content in Protector deals with sex trafficking and, as such, will be covered in the next section. Some women who are being trafficked are briefly shown in revealing clothes or underwear—but, to the movie’s credit, it tries to avoid any gratuity in this regard.
In one scene, we see Nikki’s bare back and a lot of her legs. Characters refer to “sex workers” and a “whorehouse.”
With her friends’ encouragement, Chloe talks to a guy at a bar. …
… Unfortunately, the guy is a “spotter” for traffickers, used to lure, drug and abduct young women—which he does to Chloe.
This abduction kicks off Nikki’s bloody rampage through the rest of the film. Scores of traffickers get shot, stabbed or strangled during Nikki’s pursuit; each death features a bloody splatter. Bones snap and bodies squelch. People get tortured in a variety of ways.
Nikki endures a lot of punishment throughout Protector, as well. She gets beaten and stabbed. For much of the film’s runtime, she bears the marks of countless injuries. At one point, she gets strung upside down, and a man makes a bloody cut across her abdomen.
Trafficking victims are shown, and we see evidence of the physical abuse they’ve endured. Some are the targets of violent threats. Others are locked away in cages and referred to as “livestock.”
A soldier jumps on an exploding grenade to save his comrades. Another gets shot and killed by a sniper. Cars crash and explode. A man catches fire in another explosion. War footage shows other explosions and gunfire.
The f-word is used nearly 60 times, with one use paired with “mother.” There are seven uses of the s-word. God’s name is misused more than 10 times, paired twice with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is abused three times.
There are several uses of “b–ch.” Additional profanity includes “h—,” “a–” and “a–hole.” There is one crude reference to male anatomy.
Chloe, who is 16, sneaks out to a bar to drink with her (presumably also underage) friends. A man drugs one of her drinks.
Nikki takes a pill to help her stay awake. A man has a bottle of whiskey on his desk—alongside an unnamed white powder. People drink alcohol.
A trafficker claims that a substantial amount of the local police force is on his payroll. A police captain is revealed to be corrupt and aiding the trafficking syndicate.
When Chloe’s frustration with her mother boils over, she says some hurtful things. Nikki defends her absence from Chloe’s life, saying she was “doing [her] duty.”
Nikki steals a car. Chloe disobeys her mother and sneaks out of her room.
A man dies of cancer. (We see him in a hospital bed while his family mourns beside him.)
It’s hard to watch Protector and not feel the heavy influence of the 2009 Liam Neeson action vehicle, Taken: The daughter of a retired special forces operative gets kidnapped, leading to a violent rampage where that operative employs their particularly deadly set of skills to get their child back. Protector follows that playbook closely, while cranking up the bloodshed and cranking down the brightness.
This is a dark film—both figuratively and literally—and while the murky cinematography spares us (at times) from more vivid bloodshed, this movie is still an unrepentantly violent mess.
To its credit, the movie makes an effort to spotlight the horrors of human trafficking—a title card during the opening credits tells us that 17,000 women and children are trafficked and forced into sexual slavery every year in the United States alone. This is a grave evil that we should all do our part to end.
But Protector seems more interested in using that terrible reality as a launching pad for a bloody revenge thriller than anything else. It was hard for me to watch this movie and not think of last month’s Still Hope, which also detailed the evils of human trafficking. But while Still Hope kept its focus on the victims’ experiences and the difficult road they face even after escaping their traffickers, Protector is all about justifying a voyeuristic killing spree.
There is very little in Protector that could be called “redemptive.” This flick is a foul mix of blood, violence and language—one parents will want to protect their own kids from.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
