Blade (film)

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Blade
Movie poster for Blade
Directed by	Stephen Norrington
Produced by	Peter Frankfurt Wesley Snipes Robert Engelman
Written by	Screenplay: David S. Goyer Comic Book: Marv Wolfman Gene Colan
Starring	Wesley Snipes Stephen Dorff Kris Kristofferson N'Bushe Wright Donal Logue Sanaa Lathan Arly Jover
Music by	Mark Isham
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	August 21, 1998
Running time	120 min.
Language	English
Budget	$45,000,000 (est.)
Gross revenue	$131,183,530
Followed by	Blade II

Blade is a 1998 vampire action film starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, loosely based on the published stories of the fictional Marvel Comics character Blade. It was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer. Snipes plays the titular character, a half-man, half-vampire superhero vampire hunter who becomes the protector of humans against the vampires. Blade grossed $70 million at the U.S. box office, and $130 million worldwide. This success is often credited with starting the current superhero revival in American cinema.^{[citation needed]} Two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, were subsequently produced.

Plot

A man is led to a rave club by a seductive woman, only to find that the club is filled with vampires eager to feed on the human members of the crowd. In the middle of the carnage, a vampire-hunter named Blade arrives. As a half-vampire hybrid known as a "daywalker", Blade has all the strengths of a vampire but none of their weaknesses except the thirst for blood. He slaughters the vampires in the club, leaving only Quinn alive and horribly burned.

Blade tracks Quinn down to a hospital, but Quinn is able to bite a resident hematologist, Dr. Karen Jenson, before escaping once again. Blade brings Karen back to his lair and introduces her to Abraham Whistler, his mentor and weaponsmith. Karen resolves to study vampirism and find a cure before she becomes a vampire. She soon discovers that the anticoagulant EDTA reacts explosively with the vampire infection. Meanwhile, Deacon Frost, a young upstart in the vampire community, clashes with his vampire elders. He believes that vampires should rise from the shadows and enslave humanity. The elders shun him for his radical views and because he was not born a vampire, like they were. Frost studies ancient vampire lore and comes to believe that he can awaken La Magra, a vampire god, to gain godlike power. Together with his minions, he kills the chief vampire of the region and imprisons the other elders.

Blade combats Frost's various minions in an effort to uncover his plan, but Frost manages to invade Blade's lair, kidnapping Karen and mortally wounding Whistler. Blade gives the infected Whistler a gun to commit suicide, then arms himself with a large supply of EDTA. He storms Frost's home, overrunning the bodyguards, and discovers his own mother, whom he believed dead, in Frost's bed. She reveals that Frost was the vampire that bit her while Blade was still in the womb and caused him to become a daywalker. Thunderstruck, Blade is defeated and taken to the Temple of Eternal Night for Frost's blood ritual.

Deacon Frost.

Frost sacrifices the elder vampires in a magic ritual and gains the power of La Magra. Karen manages to break free and feed Blade her blood, giving him the power to fight back. He kills his mother while Karen kills Frost's lover Mercury with garlic spray. Blade then cuts through Quinn and the rest of Frost's minions before engaging Frost in swordplay. Frost's new powers make him immune to normal weapons, so Blade injects him with EDTA, causing Frost to explode. Blade and Karen return to Blade's lair, where Karen successfully cures herself of vampirism. Blade chooses to forgo the cure in order to continue hunting vampires with their own powers. An epilogue finds Blade killing a vampire in Russia.

Cast

• 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.
• 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 vampiress 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.
• Traci Lords as Racquel: A seductive vampiress who leads a man to the blood rave.

Production notes and cameos

• Stan Lee originally had a cameo that was ultimately cut from the film. He played one of the cops that came in to the blood club during the aftermath and discover Quinn's body on fire. 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.
• 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 such as LL Cool J, Denzel Washington, Martin Lawrence and Laurence Fishburne, but in Goyer's mind, Wesley Snipes was always the perfect choice for the character of Blade.
• 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.

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 wooden stakes and behaved similarly to John Shaft. The character was not originally a "daywalker" and had limited supernatural powers 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.

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

The following songs are featured within the film.

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. "Chin Chin" (Bang Wa Cherry)" the elusive song by the two Japanese school girls in the club scene.^[1]

The following songs are featured in the official retail soundtrack, Blade: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture. A majority of the songs are hip hop tracks that do not appear in the film.^[2]

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 Sanchez
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

References

1. ^ Chin Chin (Bang Wa Cherry)
2. ^ Amazon.com: Blade: Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture: Music: Various Artists

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Blade (film)

• Blade at the Internet Movie Database
• Blade at Marvel.com
• Blade turns Ten. Interviews with the cast members from the movie

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