Blade (film)

Not to be confused with The Blade (film).

Blade
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Stephen Norrington
Produced by	Peter Frankfurt Wesley Snipes Robert Engelman Andrew J. Horne Avi Arad
Written by	David S. Goyer
Based on	Blade by Marv Wolfman Gene Colan
Starring	Wesley Snipes Stephen Dorff Kris Kristofferson N'Bushe Wright Donal Logue
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Theo van de Sande
Edited by	Paul Rubell
Production company	Marvel Enterprises Amen Ra Films Imaginary Forces
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	August 21, 1998 (1998-08-21)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$131.2 million

Blade is a 1998 American vampire superhero action horror film starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Snipes plays Blade, a human-vampire hybrid who protects humans from vampires.

The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer. Blade grossed $70 million at the U.S. box office, and $131.2 million worldwide. It was followed by two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, both written by Goyer who also directed the latter.

Plot

In 1967, a pregnant woman is rushed into a hospital in labor where a C-section is performed on her to save her baby. She dies, but her child lives.

Three decades later, a seductive woman (Traci Lords), leads a young man to a rave club. At first he has fun, but he notices other people staring at him. He casually bumps into the club owner, later revealed to be Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a young upstart in the vampire community. The music peaks when blood is sprayed out from the sprinklers above, and most of the people reveal themselves as vampires. In the middle of the carnage, the armor-clad vampire-hunter Eric "Blade" Brooks (Wesley Snipes) arrives and kills a number of vampires in the club, leaving Frost's right-hand man Quinn (Donal Logue) alive and horribly burned as the police arrive on the scene.

While Quinn's body is being examined in the hospital, he awakens and kills the examiner by biting his neck. Blade tracks Quinn down to a hospital, but he is able to bite a resident hematologist, Dr. Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright), before escaping once again after Blade severs his arm. In an act of mercy, Blade brings the injured Karen back to his lair and introduces her to Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), his mentor and weaponsmith. Karen resolves to study vampirism and find an antidote before she becomes a vampire herself. In working to find a stable, viable cure, she soon discovers that the anticoagulant EDTA reacts explosively with the vampire infection.

Meanwhile, Frost clashes with his vampire elders of the House of Erebus. He believes that vampires should rise from the shadows and enslave humanity while the elders believe in the subversive rule of (both human and vampire) society through their influence with police, politics, finance and real estate. Moreover, because he was not born a vampire as they were, Frost is shunned for his radical views and reckless activities. Frost studies ancient vampire lore and comes to believe that he can awaken La Magra, the Blood God, to gain absolute power. Together with his minions, Frost kidnaps and mutilates the chief vampire of the region, then kills him by exposing him to the sun. He imprisons the other vampire elders.

Blade combats Frost's various minions in an effort to uncover his ultimate plan. After another encounter with Quinn and Frost's lover Mercury, Whistler explains to a suspicious Karen that Blade's mother, Vanessa, was attacked while pregnant and that Blade is a half-vampire hybrid with all their superhuman strengths but none of their weaknesses except the blood thirst. After witnessing Whistler give Blade a serum to counter the thirst, Karen successfully develops an antidote to cure herself of vampirism. While Blade is out on an errand, Frost and his crew manage to invade Blade's lair, kidnap Karen and mortally wound Whistler.

Blade gives the infected and horribly beaten Whistler a gun to commit suicide, then arms himself with a number of weapons and a large supply of EDTA. He storms Frost's penthouse, overrunning the bodyguards, and soon discovers Vanessa (Sanaa Lathan)—his own mother, whom he believed long dead—in Frost's bed. She reveals that Frost was the vampire that bit her while she was pregnant with Blade and caused him to become the Daywalker. More guards arrive and attack Blade as Frost intimates a long since sexual relationship with Vanessa and proclaims himself as creator of their "family". Thunderstruck, Blade is defeated and taken (with Karen) to the Temple of Eternal Night for Frost's blood ritual sacrifice.

The temple antechamber drains Blade's blood and filters it through the ancient channels of the temple. Karen escapes the pit where Frost had put her and feeds Blade her blood, thereby restoring his strength. Frost sacrifices the elder vampires in a mystic ritual and painfully gains the power of La Magra. However, the unintended result was not the awakening of the blood God, but the culmination of the dead elders' souls that fought absorption as the energies consume Frost's body. Vanessa attacks Blade forcing him to kill her.

In the melee, Karen secures a shotgun from a guard, shoots him dead and kills Mercury with concentrated garlic spray. Blade furiously cuts through Quinn and Frost's minions before engaging Frost. Frost's new powers make him immune to Blade's conventional weapons, so Blade injects him multiple times with EDTA, causing Frost to explode. As the pair leave the temple, Karen offers to cure Blade but he chooses to forgo the cure in order to continue hunting vampires and asks her to develop a better serum.

An epilogue finds Blade observing a vampire attacking his date in Russia, indicating that Blade's new campaign has spread into Europe.

Cast

• Wesley Snipes as Eric Brooks / Blade: a half-vampire "daywalker" who hunts vampires and has superhuman reflexes and powers as a result that his mother was bitten by a vampire.
• Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost: an upstart vampire leader who emerges as Blade's primary enemy and who wants to conquer the human race by becoming the supreme blood god "Le Magra".
• Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler: Blade's mentor, weaponsmith, and surrogate father figure.
• N'Bushe Wright as Dr. Karen Jenson: a hematologist who is bitten by the vampire Quinn. She stays with Blade to remain safe while she finds a cure for herself.
• Donal Logue as Quinn, a cocky lead minion of Frost.
• Udo Kier as Gitano Dragonetti, the head of the House of Erebus.
• Sanaa Lathan as Vanessa Brooks, Blade's mother, believed dead, who became a vampire and lover to Frost.
• Arly Jover as Mercury, Frost's second lover and second in command.
• 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 zombie.
• Traci Lords as Racquel, a seductive vampire who leads a man to the blood rave.
• Eric Edwards as Pearl, the obese records keeper.

Production

Development

Marvel Studios had developed the film as early as 1992, when rapper/actor LL Cool J was interested in playing the lead role. Blade was eventually set up at New Line Cinema, with David S. Goyer writing the script. According to Goyer, New Line originally wanted to do Blade as "something that was almost a spoof" before the writer convinced them otherwise. By 1996 Wesley Snipes was attached to star.

Casting

When Goyer first pitched the idea of doing a Blade film, the executives of New Line felt there were only three actors who could possibly do the role: Snipes, Denzel Washington, and Laurence Fishburne, but to Goyer, Snipes was always the perfect choice for Blade. Marc Singer was the original choice for Whistler. Jet Li was offered the role of Deacon Frost but opted to do Lethal Weapon 4 instead. Bruce Payne was also considered for the role of Frost.

Filming

Blade was produced on a budget of $45 million and principal photography commenced on February 5, 1997, in large part done in Los Angeles, with some scenes being shot in Death Valley. All sets were constructed, and all on-set filming occurred, in what was formerly the Redken Shampoo factory in Canoga Park. The effects for the film were done by Flat Earth Productions.

Post-production

The first cut of the film was 140 minutes long and it had a disastrous test screening with audiences. Heavy edits and re-shoots were implemented which delayed the release date more than half a year. The most significant change was the addition of the final sword fight between Blade and Deacon Frost, which did not exist in the original cut. In the original ending, Frost turned into La Magra and became a large swirling mass of blood instead of keeping his form. This was scrapped because they couldn't get the special effects to look right. It can be seen as a special feature on the DVD. Stan Lee originally had a cameo that was ultimately cut from the film. He played one of the cops that come in to the blood club during the aftermath and discover Quinn's body on fire. The scene where Karen and Deacon are talking about the cure for vampirism initially ran a bit longer and answered the question of how the vampires would feed if everybody was turned into a vampire. They would keep some humans alive in giant blood bags to harvest them. The bags can still be seen in a doorway during the scene, and later played an integral part of the plot in Blade: Trinity

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 teakwood 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. (As seen in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #8, first published in August 1999) The film portrayal of Blade was updated for a 1990s audience and the comics character was subsequently modified to match. The film's version of Deacon Frost also differs greatly from his comic counterpart. Although the movie retains Frost's upstart ambitions, he was a great deal younger and more updated for the 1990s.

A Blade anime series was also done by Madhouse Company in 2011. The series consists of 12 episodes.

Release

Blade was Marvel's first box office success, and set the stage for further comic film adaptations. Blade followed the disastrous Howard the Duck as the second Marvel property to get a wide theatrical release in the United States. The Punisher and Captain America both had films made previously, but neither saw a theatrical release in the United States.

Box office

The film went to number one in both Spain and Australia for their opening weekends. With 200 theatres showing the film, Spain's filmgoers 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, widely considered to have the most controlling censors in Southeast Asia.

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 55% rating. 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."

Critics such as A. Asbjørn Jøn have noted not only the important place of Blade (film) in the wider vampire genre but also possible intertextual links between the Whistler character and a character named Whistler in A Dozen Black Roses (1996) by Nancy A. Collins, as they possess "striking similarities in role, dramatic focus, visual appearance, and sharing the name".

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, received a "based on characters created by" credit in this film, but did not receive credit in Blade II or the TV series.

Soundtrack

Main article: Blade (soundtrack)

A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on August 25, 1998 by TVT Records and Epic Records. It peaked at #36 on the Billboard 200 and #28 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The British techno band The Prodigy were approached to do the soundtrack and score to the film but had to turn down the offer due to other commitments.

Video game

A video game based on the movie was published and released by Activision in 2000.

Future

In August 2014, Snipes spoke about his desire to return to the franchise, telling MTV.com, "I'd be open to it. I think we've got some stones left unturned and there's some latitude left for us to build on and I'd love to get back in the suit again and do some things I've learned how to do now that I didn't know how to do then."

See also

• Vampire film

External links

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