
In the film
Protector, which premieres today in theaters, Milla Jovovich stars as Nikki, a veteran war hero who thought she left her violent past behind her on the battlefield, but her peaceful life is upended when her daughter, Chloe (Isabel Myers), is kidnapped by a human trafficking ring, and she must venture into the city’s criminal underworld to find and save her. As she tears through the crime syndicate using her training, leaving a trail of death in her wake, her mission becomes even more difficult as she attracts the attention of the police and military and must avoid them in her pursuit. As the local authorities, led by Captain Michaels (D.B. Sweeney), try to bring her in, Nikki’s former commanding officer (Matthew Modine) sums it up: he doesn’t need to protect Nikki from the criminals; he needs to protect them from her.
In a recent interview with SciFi Vision, Jovovich and Meyers opened up about what drew them to the project.
“[W]hen I got this script, it really resonated with me as a parent,” Jovovich told the site. “To be a mother of three girls and to know how human trafficking is such a problem, that it just keeps growing.”
The actress added that she felt like no one was making movies about the topic. “That's why I wanted to come in as a producer,” explained Jovovich, saying that it wasn’t just about streamlining the script. “[It was also to] make sure that once I was done filming as an actor, I had control of how the rest of the movie was going to be edited, scored, color graded, just to make sure that the subject matter was dealt with in the most sort of respectful way possible.”
Jovovich also liked that even though the film has violence and is exciting, it also has “heart and soul”.