Blade (1998 film)

Blade
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stephen Norrington
Written by	Screenplay: David S. Goyer Comic book: Marv Wolfman Gene Colan
Produced by	Peter Frankfurt Wesley Snipes Robert Engelman Andrew J. Horne
Starring	Wesley Snipes Stephen Dorff Kris Kristofferson N'Bushe Wright Donal Logue Sanaa Lathan
Cinematography	Theo Van De Sande
Edited by	Paul Rubell
Music by	Mark Isham
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	August 21, 1998
Running time	120 min.
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Budget	$45,000,000
Box office	$131,183,530

Blade is a 1998 vampire action film starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character Blade. The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer. Snipes plays Blade, a half-human and half-vampire who protects humans against vampires. Blade grossed $70 million at the U.S. box office, and $131.2 million worldwide. Two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, were subsequently produced.

Plot

The movie begins with a flashback of a pregnant woman being hospitalized after being bitten by, as one of the doctors said, some kind of wild animal. In the process of trying to revive her, she gives birth to her baby boy and dies. The next scene proceeds to the present and continues with a seductive woman bringing an unsuspecting man to a dance club. As the scene progresses, the man realizes something is amiss. However, his fears are soon confirmed when blood begins to pour down from the sprinkler system. Then it is revealed that the club's patrons are vampires. Unable to escape from the hideous creatures which have now surrounded him, the young man seems doomed unlice sirens, Blade turns to Quinn and tells him "Give my regards to Frost", leaving a burnt Quinn along with the confused human as the only surviving inhabitants of his attack. The police take Quinn's crisp remains and send them for identification.

Doctor Karen Jenson is the unlucky individual who performs the examination on Quinn's "corpse". During the examination, Quinn shockingly returns to life and feeds on both Jenson and her co-worker. However, Blade enters the morgue, having pre-supposed that Quinn would come back. He attacks the rejuvenated vampire, but is yet again forced to flee when the police arrive. As he makes to leave, Blade sees a bleeding Doctor Jensen lying on the floor, beckoning for him to help her. Due to the doctor's similarity to Blade's mother, he rescues Jensen and they head back to his base of operations. Quinn also escapes.

The scene changes to the meeting room of The House of Erebus, a vampire Shadow Council. The Elder Dragonetti (Udo Kier) discusses Blade's recent intensified attacks, and berates a young Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) for his recklessness in running these clubs. During this scene, there is a short explanation of vampire politics - most vampires believe that they should more or less co-exist with the humans (maintaining a secret, Mafia-like power cabal), while renegades such as Frost believe they should rule them outright. It is also established that there is some stigma from "pure-blood" vampires (i.e. those who are born vampires) towards those born human and later turned into vampires.

The storyline switches back to Blade's lair, where Jenson meets Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), Blade's mentor and weapons technician in their fight against vampire-kind. Whistler delivers a small speech outlining Blade's past, their current mission and the nature of vampires, along with the power they hold in the outside world. Jenson decides to head home, although Blade reminds her it is a possibility that, due to Quinn's bite, she too may become a vampire. It is also established in this scene that Blade is a half-vampire, and requires a serum to prevent his need to drink blood. Jenson begins to work on a permanent cure for the vampire condition, using Whistler's research as her starting ground.

Meanwhile, Deacon Frost begins research on vampire rituals and mythology and downloads whatever information he can gather on a laptop. When Elder Dragonetti demands what Frost in looking up, he refuses to answer. However, it soon becomes clear that he is planning a special ritual to turn himself into a vampire blood-god named La Magra.

Upon arriving in her apartment, Jenson is assaulted by a policeman who is revealed to be a familiar - a human being who serves vampires (a collaborator, essentially, that after years of service might get rewarded by being turned into a vampire). Blade rescues Jenson, and later follows the familiar back to another club of Frost's, forcing the familiar to reveal another underground passageway to a vampire hideout. Frost kills the officer at a party he is throwing. Blade and Karen make their way through a passage way and encounter a comically obese vampire named Pearl. Blade and Karen torture Pearl for information with a UV-Lamp, searing the vampire's flesh; Pearl reveals under torture that Frost has plans involving a vampire blood-god named La Magra. Blade and Karen enter the vampire library but are ambushed by Quinn and Frost's henchmen, along with Mercury (Played by Arly Jover), a love interest for Deacon. Although Blade and Jenson are assaulted by Frost's private army, they escape due to the timely arrival of Whistler.

However, shortly after this, Frost makes a second strike. While Blade heads out to fetch the ingredients for his serum, Frost abducts Dr. Jenson from the lair and badly beats Whistler, leaving Quinn and the rest of his crew to finish him off. Upon Blade's return, he finds a taunting video left from Frost. In a poignant scene, Blade aids a bleeding Whistler in suicide (Blade hears a gunshot from outside, but does not see it happen). Stricken with grief, Blade vows to find and kill Frost. During this time, Frost kills Elder Dragonetti by subjecting him to a sunrise, and forcibly gathers the other members of the Shadow Council as "volunteers".

Blade arms himself for a raid on Frost's base, taking along with him specially-designed pneumatic syringes loaded with EDTA (normally used as a blood thinner to clear blood clots in the heart, which has a highly volatile reaction to vampire blood). During his attack on the base, Blade fights his way through a horde of vampires and armed familiars, yet discovers a horrible truth once he reaches the top floor of the building. He learns that his mother (the pregnant woman from the flashback scene) did not in fact die, and is now Frost's vampire mistress, as it was Frost himself who had bitten his mother during her pregnancy. Overcome with shock, Blade is easily subdued by the guards, who knock him out and take him to the Temple of Eternal Night, where Frost reveals the final stages of his plan - Using his resources and vast wealth, Frost has managed to rebuild the temple and intends to use it for La Magra's resurrection, a key ingredient of which is Blade's sunlight-resistant vampiric blood, along with the sacrifice of the other twelve council members (Ashe, Cianteto, Dragonetti, Faustinas who held two seats, Ligaroo, Lemure, Kobejitsu, Lobishomen, Von Esper, Upier, and Pallintine). Through the ritual Frost becomes an eminently more powerful vampire, far surpassing any other vampire's strength or speed, and gains the powers and attributes of each sacrificed member, including immunity to silver, instant regeneration of lost limbs, superior strength and speed, red bulging eyes (from the Kobejitsu tribe), and the ability to walk during the day (from Blade's blood). He then intends to use these powers to help him conquer humanity.

With Dr. Jenson's intervention Blade breaks free from his sacrificial housing, killing his mother and nearly drains Dr. Jenson to renew his strength. After Blade disposes of Frost's minions, including the death of Quinn and Mercury, the two meet for one final climactic battle at the base of the temple. Upon discovering that Frost cannot be killed by any conventional means, Blade empties every single EDTA syringe he has on Frost (who is now constituted entirely of vampire blood), causing his body to swell and explode.

Climbing out from the underground temple, Karen offers Blade her cure. Blade refuses, because "curing" him of his need for blood would also remove his Daywalker powers and he would be unable to hunt vampires, and he requests that she make him a better serum, reminding her that "there's still a war going on". The final scene shows Blade in Moscow, tracking down and seeking to kill a Russian vampire who persuaded a human to follow him to a vampire club. This sets the stage for the second film.

Cast

File:Sd lamagra.gif

Deacon Frost.

• Wesley Snipes as Blade: A half-vampire "daywalker" who hunts vampires.
• N'Bushe Wright as Dr. Karen Jenson: A plucky hematologist who is bitten by a vampire.
• Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost: An upstart vampire with great ambitions and influence.
• Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler: Blade's mentor and weaponsmith.
• Donal Logue as Quinn: A cocky minion of Frost's, capable of surviving wounds that kill lesser vampires.
• Udo Kier as Gitano Dragonetti: A vampire elder.
• Sanaa Lathan as Vanessa Brooks: Blade's mother, who has become a vampire.
• Arly Jover as Mercury: A fleet-footed vampire and Frost's lover.
• Kevin Patrick Walls as Officer Krieger: A "familiar", or human servant, of Frost's.
• Tim Guinee as Dr. Curtis Webb: Karen's ex-boyfriend who later becomes a decomposing vampire.
• Traci Lords as Racquel: A seductive vampire who leads a man to the blood rave.

Production notes and cameos

• Filming was in large part done in Los Angeles, with some scenes being shot in Death Valley.
• Flat Earth Productions created the effects for the film.
• Stan Lee originally had a cameo that was ultimately cut from the film. Although Blade is a Marvel Comics character, he was created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. So far, Stan Lee only has had cameos in movies based on characters that he helped create.
• David Goyer explains in the DVD commentary that when Karen Jenson wakes up at Blade's hideout after her initial attack and rescue by Blade, the script had her discover a jar with a vampire baby in it. The baby would be alive and used by Blade and Whistler as a guinea pig for testing out weapons to fight the vampires. The studio found this concept to be far too disturbing and refused to allow it.
• The original ending included an eight-story monstrous version of La Magra. This was scrapped and re-done to the current known ending after many fans were disappointed when Stephen Dorff (Frost) was taken off-camera during the film's first screening. The original ending can be found in the special features section of the DVD.
• An alternate ending can be found on the LaMagra section of the DVD where Karen Jenson points out a shadowy figure wrapped in rags on a distant rooftop. The character is supposed to be the Marvel Comic vampire Morbius.
• The film playing on the TV in Frost's Penthouse being watched by the young girl is showing a scene from Mortal Kombat featuring Reptile in his CGI form.
• Matt Schulze, Chupa from Blade II, has a bit part in the archive room, playing the vampire Crease, used to exhibit the effectiveness of the booby trapped hilt.

La Magra

One of the major plots of the film was to prevent Frost from raising La Magra, the Vampire blood god, and causing a vampire apocalypse. When Frost successfully became La Magra he gained certain powers, making him almost invincible. Each ability he gained was from the twelve pure bloods (Ashe, Cianteto, Dragonetti, Faustinas who held two seats, Ligaroo, Lemure, Kobejitsu, Lobishomen, Von Esper, Upier, and Pallintine) sacrificed in the ritual. Some of those powers/abilities include:

• Far superior strength and speed from that of a regular vampire
• Red, bulging eyes
• Instant regeneration of lost limbs
• Impervious to silver due to Blade's blood
• The ability to walk during the day due to Blade's blood
• The ability to turn any humans in his path into vampires instantly. (This is open to debate since Dr. Karen Jenson was in the same area where La Magra and Blade's battle took place and was not instantly turned, though it's a probability that La Magra needs to concentrate his powers in order to achieve the turning.)
• The ability to control minds, matter and the elements. (Gained from the Faustinas tribe)
• The ability to shed his skin, turning into a ball of fire to stalk his prey methodically. (Gained from the Ligaroo tribe.)

The majority of these powers were never seen or mentioned in the film since Frost's reign as La Magra was short-lived, but it is believed that since all of the pure bloods' spirits lived within Frost's body, he would have gained their abilities as well.

Connections to the comic

The character Blade was created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the 1970s comic The Tomb of Dracula. The comic Blade used steak knives and was much more the everyman in his behavior and attitude. Though courageous and brave, he displayed flaws as well, such as an inability to get along with certain other supporting cast members and a hatred of vampires that bordered on fanaticism.

The character was not originally a "daywalker" but a human being immune to being turned into a vampire. Lacking the superhuman speed and strength of his undead quarry, he relied solely on his wits and skill until he was bitten by the character Morbius. The film version of Blade was updated for a 1990's audience and the comics character was subsequently modified to match. The film's version of Deacon Frost also differs greatly from his comic counterpart.

Release

Commercial

Blade went to number one in both Spain and Australia for their opening weekends. With 200 theatres showing the film, Spain's cinema goers earned the film $1.5 million (US) in three days, whilst Australia earned $1 million from 132 cinemas showing the film. In the Flemish Region of Belgium, the film earned $323,000 from 20 cinemas, and the Netherlands earned the film $246,000 from 44 cinemas. France made $1.9 million in five days from 241 cinemas, but the film was less successful in Hong Kong (with $182,000 from 22 cinemas) and South Africa ($159,000 from 64 cinemas). The United Kingdom was more successful, taking in $5.7 million over 10 days, as was Brazil, making $855,000 in four days from 133 cinemas. The film was banned from showing in Malaysia, whom are widely considered to be the most conservative censors in Southeast Asia.

Critical reaction

Reaction to Blade among critics was mixed, with the film earning a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, writing: "Blade ... is a movie that relishes high visual style. It uses the extreme camera angles, the bizarre costumes and sets, the exaggerated shadows, the confident cutting between long shots and extreme closeups. It slams ahead in pure visceral imagery." Conversely, James Berardinelli gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, writing: "Blade has the capacity to dazzle, but it also will leave many viewers dissatisfied."

Impact

Blade was one of the first successful comic book based films to be released after the disastrous performance of Batman & Robin. Its success convinced Marvel to develop the X-Men film series as well as the Spider-Man film series.

Lawsuit

Marv Wolfman, the original creator of the Blade character, unsuccessfully sued Marvel and New Line for $50 million after the release of the film. He, along with artist Gene Colan, receives a "based on characters created by" credit in this film, but does not receive credit in the sequels or TV series.

The third and final movie of the trilogy gives credit to Marv Wolfman, at the beginning of the ending credits.

Soundtrack

Main article: Blade (soundtrack)

A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on August 25, 1998 by TVT Records. It peaked at #36 on the Billboard 200 and #28 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

External links

• Blade at Marvel.com
• Blade at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Blade at Box Office Mojo
• Blade at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blade at Metacritic
• Blade turns Ten. Interviews with the cast members from the movie