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 over $130 million worldwide. Two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, were subsequently produced.
Plot
Blade, the Daywalker.
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 strange nightclub. As the scene progresses, the man realizes something is amiss in the club yet cannot quite discern why. However, his fears are soon confirmed when blood begins to pour down from the sprinkler system, revealing that most all of the club's patrons are vampires. Unable to escape from the hideous creatures which have now surrounded him, the young man seems doomed until one of the vampires notices an individual who has just entered, whom he calls "the daywalker".
Blade (Wesley Snipes) coolly enters the main dance floor, wreaking havoc amongst the vampire crowd. He immediately begins a no-holds-barred slaughter of the vampires, using a combination of martial arts and firearms to pick them off. Eventually, after fighting his way through numerous guards, Blade singles out one vampire in particular named Quinn (played by Donal Logue), nailing him to the wall with stakes and setting him alight. Upon hearing police 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. Dr. Karen Jenson plays a pivotal role in the film.
Doctor Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright) 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 from the attack. To suppress his thirst for blood, Blade is injected with a special serum on a daily basis.
The scene changes to the meeting room of The House of Erebus, a vampire Shadow Council. The Elder Dragonetti (played by 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), whilst 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 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. Blade learns the shocking truth of his now-vampire mother.
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, there discovering that Frost has plans involving a vampire blood-god named La Magra. The officer is killed by Frost at a party thrown by Deacon. Blade and Karen proceed to interrogate a comically obese vampire named Pearl. Blade and Karen kill Pearl with a UV-Lamp, searing the vampire's flesh and turning him to ash. 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. Whilst 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 doesn't 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, 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. Frost successfully becomes La Magra, the vampire Blood God.
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.)
With Dr. Jenson's intervention Blade breaks free from his sacrificial housing, killing his mother and nearly draining 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 requests for her to make him a better serum, reminding her that "there's still a war going on". The final scene shows Blade in Moscow, hunting down and killing a Russian vampire who persuaded a human to follow him to a vampire club. This sets the stage for the second film.
Cast
When David S. Goyer first pitched the idea of doing a Blade movie, the executives of New Line felt there were only three actors who could possible do the role: Wesley Snipes, Denzel Washington and Laurence Fishburne, but in Goyer's mind, Snipes was always the perfect choice for the character of Blade.
Production notes and cameos
- Filming was in large done in Los Angeles, with some scenes being shot in Death Valley.[1]
- Flat Earth Productions created the effects for the film.[2]
- 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 on a distant rooftop wrapped in rags. The character is supposed to be the Marvel Comic vampire Morbius.
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 teak 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
Box office
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.[3] 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.[4] 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,[5] as was Brazil, making $855,000 in four days from 133 cinemas.[6] The film was banned from showing in Malaysia, whom are widely considered to be the most conservative censors in Southeast Asia.[7]
Critical reaction
Reaction to Blade among critics was mixed, with the film earning a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[8] 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."[9] 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."[10].
Impact
Blade was one of the first most successful comic book based film back in the late 90's after the disastrous performance of Batman and Robin. It's 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.
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.
References
External links
