Protector Movie Ending Explained & Full Story: Is Chloe Dead?

I think we all know that unexpressed grief and trauma often hold the power to change the course of our lives, and sometimes, when it happens, we cannot even point it out ourselves. Director Adrian Grunberg’s “Protector” tells the story of an American soldier whose destiny gets shaped by one such trauma and she falls prey to an unending hunger to avenge the death of a loved one. The film is surprisingly good, especially how intense the story is since Bong Seob Mun did great as the writer. Milla Jovovich stuns as Nikki, the titular character of the film, showcasing her gun-toting skills (reminded me of Alice, her character from the “Resident Evil” franchise).

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens In The Film?

Nikki Halsted is an expert US soldier who has impeccable skills. She fights for her country alongside other Special Forces members while missing her husband Bernard and their little daughter, Chloe. Nikki tries her best to be there for Chloe even though her line of work barely allows her to breathe. She attends Chloe’s birthday parties via FaceTime and that’s also her only way of communicating with Bernard. As Chloe grows up, Nikki often plans surprises for her dear daughter like gifting her the acoustic guitar she has always wanted or baking her a cake. However, she keeps missing some occasions because of her job but Chloe seems to be okay with that. Nikki and Chloe’s life changes forever after Bernard passes away upon losing his long battle with Leukaemia. To spend more time with her daughter, Nikki retires from the Special Forces but as days pass, Chloe seems to grow frustrated. 

What’s Wrong With Chloe?

On Chloe’s sixteenth birthday, Nikki arranges for a feast at her home and bakes a cake for her daughter. Chloe spends a day with some of her friends and before they leave, everything seems okay. However, Chloe gets sad because she wants to go out with her friends but Nikki, being a strict mother, will not allow it. Her sadness turns into extreme frustration because Chloe has kept her feelings about Nikki’s absence hidden for long. She has never opened up on how bad she has felt whenever Nikki has skipped her birthday parties. Chloe thinks that Nikki has deliberately ignored her family while exploring the world in the name of protecting her country. After Bernard’s death, Chloe’s hatred for Nikki has grown so much that she thinks her mother constantly tries to keep her in control. That evening, Chloe locks her door from the inside and escapes through her room’s window, leaving a letter for Nikki.

Where is Chloe?

Chloe goes to a party to celebrate her birthday with friends and there, she meets a random guy named Ben. After they instantly start to hit it off, Chloe’s friends leave the bar and Ben drops a sleeping pill into her drink. Since Nikki has Chloe’s location set on her phone, she arrives at the bar and sees Ben dragging her daughter towards the back door. She runs towards Ben’s car, almost catches him but gets flung on the road after the car takes a sharp corner. Despite being injured, Nikki doesn’t give up because she is trained enough to be tough even in the most difficult situations. She runs through rooftops and lands right on the car before punching her car key into the driver’s left eye. This causes the car to get into an accident that kills the driver and harms Ben a little. The impact knocks Nikki unconscious while Ben drives the car away and hands Chloe over to his gang, the Syndicate. It appears that Ben works for a human trafficking gang as a spotter, someone who uses charm to lure girls at bars and drops them off those women at designated places. The Syndicate’s local mob boss, Sullivan, who works for the boss, the Chairman, takes Chloe inside an abandoned factory where she is kept with other girls. When Nikki regains consciousness, she extracts this information from a guy named Butcher (someone who works for the Syndicate) and then kills him. Later, Nikki kills Sullivan, rescues Chloe from the back of his car and brings her home. However, she loses her again when she goes out to buy medicines and Chloe gets kidnapped by The Chairman and the rest of the Syndicate.

Why Does The Police Suspect Nikki?

Nikki goes on a killing spree  where she burns down clubs, houses and properties registered under the Syndicate’s name. She knows that most kidnappings go out of hand after the first 72 hours and that perfectly explains why she is so desperate to find Chloe. Nikki’s actions trigger a wave across the Police Department and Captain Michaels, the Police Chief, starts to investigate the matter. By looking at the CCTV footage, everyone thinks that those are the works of a rogue man, but Michaels soon points something out. The driver’s body that has been found on the street (Ben’s driver) has a spare car key lodged into his left orbital bone, which is registered to Nikki. Michaels realizes  that Nikki is using the car and tracing her location will not be easy. Woo, the rookie in the department, suggests searching for Nikki at her house, and the police ultimately find her there.

Why Does Colonel Lavelle Hit Captain Michaels?

Michaels sends a SWAT team to ambush Nikki but he is stopped by her former boss and Pentagon employee, Colonel Lavelle. Lavelle brings direct orders to abandon the mission since he knows Nikki is a valuable government asset and most importantly, a helpless mother searching for her child. Michaels gets warned by Lavelle about sending a SWAT team but despite the Colonel’s direct orders, the Police Chief decides to play it dirty by instructing the SWAT team to turn their cameras off and ambush Nikki. Obviously, it backfires on him as Nikki easily takes all of them down and when Lavelle finds out, Michaels gets stripped of his position and badge right away, for disobeying Pentagon’s orders. Michaels still shows the audacity to abuse Lavelle and challenge him for a fight, only to witness the Colonel’s wrath; Lavelle rightfully shows him his place by driving his head through a car window.

Is Chloe Dead?

Colonel Lavelle did not reveal to anyone in the Police Department why he vouched for Nikki so much but he knew very well what he was doing (and why). Lavelle informs the Police that Nikki is on a wild goose chase because Chloe is not alive anymore. Nikki lost Chloe long ago, and by the time she discovered her, it was too late to save her dear daughter. She was killed by the same perpetrators who belonged to the Syndicate and Nikki lost her consciousness upon looking at Chloe’s lifeless body. Years of stress, trauma, violence and her daughter’s death caused retrograde amnesia in Nikki, which greatly affected her. Nikki forgot everything about Chloe’s death and after she woke up in the hospital, Levelle tried comforting her but her broken mind was beyond repair. Every now and then, she used to search for girls in danger and rescued them, thinking that she was saving Chloe. The girl Nikki rescued and brought home was not really Chloe escaped from the window while the former soldier went out to buy medicines. Because why would the Chairman send his men to kidnap Chloe right under the broad daylight? 

What Happens To Nikki In The End?

We see Nikki waging a war against time, thinking that she is rescuing Chloe from the Chairman’s grasp. She has already managed to put down half of the Syndicate and the Chairman’s mansion is her last stop. Upon arriving there, she frees all the girls trapped inside the building, fights valiantly against the Chairman’s goons and comes to a standoff with him. Even though the Chairman holds a gun to the captive girl’s head (whom Nikki sees as her Chloe), Nikki shoots him in his head, and the poor girl is rescued. After this incident, I am quite certain that Nikki’s short-term memory will again be erased and probably after her next nap, she will be out there, looking out for women in danger. And thanks to Colonel Lavelle, the Police will most likely stay away from investigating her because she is literally doing their job for them. Nikki’s brain only holds some flashbacks of the night when she discovered Chloe’s body, but do you think it will ever become a full-fledged memory and stop her from putting down criminals? The answer is no, because Nikki is now a killing machine who will not stop until she kills off all the human traffickers from the face of America.

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