Blade (film)

Blade is a 1998 superhero film starring Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson and Stephen Dorff, based on the character "Blade", from Marvel Comics. The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer. Blade grossed $70 million at the US box office, and $131.2 million worldwide. It was followed by two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity. It is banned in Malaysia and censored in Germany.

Wesley Snipes stars as Blade, the anti-hero who is a human-vampire hybrid who protects people by hunting vampires.

Plot

In the year 1967, a pregnant woman is treated in a hospital after being bitten by a vampire, but the doctors think the wound is an animal bite. They try to revive her, but she dies after delivering her baby. The boy inherits the vampire's strength, bloodlust, and enhanced senses, but does not suffer from their weaknesses, such as garlic or sunlight. He grows up to become Blade, the vampire hunter.

Thirty years later, in 1997, Blade locates a vampire rave club in Detroit and kills most of the club, including the vampire Quinn, who burns it to the ground. When the police and fire departments arrive, Blade escapes and the police take Quinn's body and take it to the mortuary. When Dr. Karen Jenson performs an autopsy on a coworker, Quinn comes back to life and attacks them. When some armed policemen arrive, Blade rescues Jenson from Quinn and flees to her base with her, while Quinn escapes from her. There, Blade and his mentor and weapons technician, Abraham Whistler try to stop Jenson from becoming a vampire.

Blade's attacks are discussed by the Shadow Council in the House of Erebus, one of the vampire clans. His chief, Dragonetti berates a young vampire, Deacon Frost, arguing that vampires should remain in the shadows and secretly coexist (and then feed) with humans. Frost, in any case, believes that vampires should openly dominate humans. The other hierarchs, all purebloods (born vampires), look down on Frost, who was born human and later became a vampire. Frost and Dragonetti have another confrontation in the vampire library when Frost is trying to translate the ancient book of Erebus, the vampire bible.

Despite Blade's warning, Karen returns to her apartment, where she is mugged by a policeman (Krieger), who reveals that he is a human servant of the vampires and belongs to Frost. Blade rescues her and the two follow Krieger to one of Frost's clubs, where Blade and Karen use a UV lamp to torture an extremely obese vampire named Pearl, to extract information about Frost's plans for something called La Magra, the Vampire God of blood. Once they've pumped Pearl, they go to the library, where they are ambushed by Frost's guards, led by Quinn. Thanks to the fact that Blade wears a radio-transmitter in his ear and is always in contact with Whistler, he manages to save them. After learning of Blade's origins and the serum she uses to quench his bloodlust, Karen begins working on a cure for vampirism, using Whistler's research.

Meanwhile, Frost kills Dragonetti by exposing him to the rising sun. He also offers Blade a non-aggression deal, but Blade declines, as his goal is to eliminate Frost and the rest of the vampires. Frost then kidnaps Karen and attacks Blade's base, assaulting Whistler. He leaves her a video above Whistler's body, where he urges her to come to his guard, since Frost has discovered that he needs Blade's blood to summon La Magra. Whistler, who had died, was bitten by Quinn and to prevent him from becoming a vampire, Blade leaves him his gun, with which Whistler shoots himself.

To avenge Whistler and rescue Karen, Blade arms himself with darts filled with EDTA, an anticoagulant that volatilizes vampire blood. Once she has entered Frost's base, Blade meets her mother and discovers that she did not die, but rather Frost himself who bit her and took her in as her lover. As he tells her this, Frost's guards paralyze him with teaser guns and knock him unconscious.

Frost takes him to the Temple of Eternal Night, where he wants to resurrect La Magra in a ritual in which he must use the blood of "he who has seen the sun" and sacrifice twelve thoroughbred hierarchs. Thus, all that power will be concentrated in Frost, and he will become La Magra.

Karen, meanwhile, is thrown into a well, where her ex-boyfriend is, turned into a zombie. After knocking him out, Karen gets Blade to revive from her (since she has lost a lot of blood), causing him to bite her in the marks Quinn had left when she bit her. Having regained his strength, Blade removes his mother and begins killing all of Frost's minions, including Quinn, whom he decapitates (retrieving his everlasting glasses, stolen by Quinn). He then he engages in battle with a transformed Frost. Blade is unable to kill Frost with conventional weapons, but locates the EDTA. Frost thinks it's the serum Blade needs to quench his bloodlust. Blade throws all the EDTA syringes at Frost, who begins to inflate and ends up exploding. Karen offers to heal Blade, but he refuses, as he prefers to keep her powers to continue hunting vampires, and telling her that if he wants to help her, make her a better serum.

The final scene takes place in Moscow, where a man takes a woman to a club. Above the door you can see vampire symbols. The man then transforms into a vampire. Before he bites the woman, Blade appears. The vampire runs up to Blade and he kills him with his sword.

Cast

• Wesley Snipes like Eric Brooks / Blade: a "caminant" half a vampire hunting vampires. Blade is very skilled in martial arts and is always equipped with weapons to kill vampires.
• N'Bushe Wright as Dr. Karen Jenson: a hematologist who is bitten by a vampire. She stays with Blade to stay safe while she finds a cure for herself.
• Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost: a vampire advented with great ambitions and influence. He emerges as the main enemy of Blade and also wants to conquer the human race.
• Kris Kristofferson like Abraham Whistler: Blade mentor and blacksmith.
• Donal Logue like Quinn: Frost's minced, able to survive the wounds that kill minor vampires.
• Udo Kier like Gaetano Dragonetti: an old vampire.
• Sanaa Lathan like Vanessa Brooks: Blade's mother, who has become a vampire.
• Arly Jover as Mercury: a vampire of floating feet and Frost lover.
• Kevin Patrick Walls as Officer Krieger: A "family", or human servant, Frost.
• Tim Guinee as Dr. Curtis Webb: Karen's ex-boyfriend, who is murdered by Quinn and then becomes a zombie creature.
• I brought Lords as Rachel: a seductive vampire that leads a man to the delusion of blood.

Dubbing

Soundtrack

These songs only appear in the movie. For the official soundtrack, see below.

1. "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
2. "UT1-Dot" by Polygon Window
3. "Ah, Singapore" by Shonen Knife
4. "Yeah" by DJ Krush
5. "Eclipse" by Solitaire
6. "Soeil" by Solitaire
7. "Call & Response" by Source Direct
8. "Ether" by Siren
9. "Fearless" by Solitaire
10. "Rattle The Fear" by Spirit Fire Child
11. "Rainbow Voice" by David Hykes from Hearing Solar Winds
12. "Ni Ten Ichi Ryu (Two Swords Technique)" by Photek
13. "Go Get On It" by Southside Reverb
14. "Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix)" by New Order
15. "Chin Chin (Bang Wa Cherry)" the elusive song by the two japanese school girls in the club scene.

These are the songs. appearing on the official soundtrack. Most are rap songs that do not appear in the film:

1. "The Edge of the Blade" by Mystikal
2. "1/2 & 1/2" by Gang Starr
3. "Blade" by KRS-One
4. "Fightin' a War" by Down 2 Earth
5. "Reservations" by P.A.
6. "Gangsta Bounce" by Wolfpak
7. "Things Ain't the Same" by Kasino
8. "Deadly Zone" by Bounty Killer
9. "Blade 4 Glory" by Mr. Majesty Feat. Bizzy Bone
10. "Strictly Business (Mantronik MBA Radio Edit)" by Mantronik vs. EPMD
11. "Wrek Tha Discotek" by Roger Sánchez
12. "Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix)" by New Order
13. "Playing With Lightning" by Expansion Union
14. "Dig This Vibe" by DJ Krush
15. "Dealing With the Roster" by Junkie XL

Production notes and cameos

• Originally, Stan Lee had a cameo that was finally cut for the movie. He played one of the cops who came to the club at the beginning of the movie and discovered Quinn's body on fire. Although Blade is a Marvel Comics character, it was created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. Stan Lee only has cameos in movies based on characters created by him or in collaboration.
• David Goyer explains in the DVD of extras, that when Karen Jenson wakes up at the base of Blade after being attacked, he discovers a taste with a fetus of a vampire baby inside. The baby could be alive and used by Blade and Whistler as a guinea pig to develop weapons to combat vampires. The study found this concept too controversial and rejected it.
• The original ending includes a monstrous version of La Magra. This version was modified and remade to the already known final. This was because in the previous passes of the film, many fans showed their disgust by seeing Stephen Dorff (Frost) disappear from the scene. The original end can be found on the extra DVD of the movie.

Cultural references

When they are at the party in Deacon Frost's penthouse, just before he bites his police minion, a vampire Spider-Man figurine can be seen on a table. Moments before, some images of the movie "Mortal Kombat", also from New Line Cinema, can be seen on a television.

Reception

The website Rotten Tomatoes gives it an average rating of 55%; with a rating of 5.7/10, based on a sum of just 85 reviews concluding that while some may find the plot a bit hollow, the action is strong, plentiful, and appropriately stylish for a comic book adaptation. The IMDb portal gives it a score of 7.1/10 and the Metacritic portal also gives it a 45% approval rating with regular reviews.

Versions

A reissue of the film was published in 2006 with the Spanish version.