History Film / Blade

[[redirect:Film/BladeTrilogy]

[[redirect:Film/BladeTrilogy]]

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->''"[[PreMortemOneLiner Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill.]]"''
-->--'''Eric "Blade" Brooks'''

''Blade'' is a 1998 superhero action-horror film that marked the first film in the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. It was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer, and released on August 21, 1998.

Eric "Blade" Brooks (Creator/WesleySnipes), aka the "Daywalker", is a {{Dhampyr}} who was born as a result of his pregnant mother Vanessa Brooks (Sanaa Lathan) being fed on by a vampire and dying in the process. He has most of their strengths and only one of their weaknesses, having to fight the increasing bloodlust and urge to kill people. Hunting down the omnipresent vampires in the present day along with his mentor Abraham Whistler (Creator/KrisKristofferson) and Dr. Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright), a hematologist he recently saved, he has to stop the renegade vampire Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) from completing a ritual to resurrect the ancient blood god La Magra and turn the whole world into a slaughterhouse.

The film is followed by ''Film/BladeII''.

Do not confuse this movie with ''Film/TheBlade1995''.

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!!This film provides examples of:

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: The henchman who gets his hand blown off by the failsafe on Blade's sword laughs like a hyena about it afterward.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Deacon Frost is made into a Generation X hipster played by Stephen Dorff. In the comics, he was an old white haired guy with a German accent from the 1860s.
* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: without watching the deleted scenes or reading script/source material, you woudn't know how on Earth did Frost plan to survive if La Magra turns the entire world vampiric: [[spoiler: by creating PeopleFarm facilities where humans are bred and exsanguinated while braindead/lobotomized]]. Also, Mercury kills one of the Twelve purebloods needed for a ritual, without explaining where did she get a replacement.
* AdaptationOriginConnection: {{Inverted}}. Deacon Frost, the BigBad of the film is the vampire who bit Vanessa Brooks while she was pregnant, causing Blade to become what he is. [[spoiler:Turns out he fully turned her and she's now on his side.]] While Deacon did [[spoiler:turn Vanessa]] in the comics, him being the BigBad is new to the movie.
* AgeLift[=/=]YoungerAndHipper:
** Deacon Frost is reimagined as a more ComicBook/GenerationX type of character. His comic book counterpart was an older, German accented, white haired gentleman that hailed from circa 1868.
** Blade himself is also younger, having been born in 1967, instead of 1929.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The vampires invade Blade's AbandonedWarehouse.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: After the defeat of La Magra, Blade is offered a cure for vampirism. "There's still job to be done. You want to help? Make me a better serum."
* AnArmAndALeg: Quinn has a bad habit of losing limbs, but he can just grow them back.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The hematologist remarks that Quinn's red blood cells are "biconvex." Meanwhile the microscope's monitor displays regular biconcave red blood cells, so we can recognize them.
* {{Backstory}}: Plenty of it, be it for Blade or La Magra.
* BadBoss: Deacon Frost makes a sport of killing off his familiars when they displease him. Subverted when he prepares to test Blade's sword on Quinn's arm, stops and reveals that he's just kidding. Notably, Quinn probably deserves the punishment, as he had proven himself incompetent at basically every opportunity and had already lost and grown back ''two arms'' by this point.
-->'''Frost:''' (holding Blade's sword) Hold out your arm, Quinn. Now.\\
'''Quinn:''' Deac, I... (obeys)\\
'''Frost:''' (winds up) Just kidding. (bro-punch to the chest)\\
'''Quinn:''' (Beat, laughs) He was just fuckin' with me, man! He was just fucking with me.
* BigBad: Deacon Frost is the film's main villain.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: The opening hospital scene with Vanessa dying from her vampire-inflicted wound while giving birth to him.
* TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn: When Blade's sword is knocked out of Quinn's hand, it sticks in the ground, straight up, next to Karen.
* BloodBath: Blood is showered on vampires at a [[VampireDance vampire rave]] with the [[{{Pun}} punny name]] "Blood Bath".
* BloodMagic: It's of little surprise that the ancient vampire artifact runs off of blood. Blade is strapped into a huge bloodletting device that causes his blood to fill up all the magical symbols below him.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Played straight (and ludicrously so) during the shootout in the night club in the beginning of the movie.
* BookEnds: The present-day section of the movie begins with a vampire luring her victim to his doom, before Blade interrupts. The film ends with a vampire in a different city luring his victim to her doom, with exactly the same dialogue, before Blade interrupts.
* BraggartBoss: Quinn, TheDragon vampire, keeps boasting about how he intends to harm Blade.
* BuildingIsWelding: Whistler is welding in his first appearance.
* BulletproofVest: Blade uses a ridiculously effective one, though with his half-vampire physique, he can more easily ignore the kinetic impacts of bullets.
* BulletTime: Used in the first confrontation between Blade and Frost. The film also came out a year before ''Film/TheMatrix''.
* TheCavalry: Blade is pinned to a wall and surrounded by bad guys, when Whistler bursts through the wall holding two machine guns and delivers the PreAsskickingOneLiner; "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viNfg6b9wvA Catch you fuckers at a bad time?!]]"
* CarFu: Blade did it, using a bike to smash through the window of the Big Bad's office-building, instead of entering through the door as the waiting goons had expected.
* ChekhovsBoomerang:
** The "vampire mace" Blade gives Karen is seemingly paid off in a joke where Karen tries to use it on a guy who turns out not to be a vampire. Then it's not mentioned again until the end of the movie when she gets to use it properly at a key moment in the final fight.
** The anti-theft mechanism on Blade's sword keeps, as it were, popping up after Karen learns about it: first there's a straight use where it gets one of Frost's mooks, then a subverted use when Frost himself demonstrates how much he knows about Blade by circumventing it, then one last use during the final fight when Blade uses it in a manner for which it was not intended.
* TheChosenOne: Invoked by name, though decidedly negative in context.
-->'''Whistler:''' You're the key. He needs your blood. The blood of the Daywalker. You're TheChosenOne.
* ChunkySalsaRule: Any vampire exposed to the anti-coagulant explodes into a gory mess. [[spoiler:Including Frost.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Immortality provides considerable advantages to estate planning and asset acquisition, which has allowed the elders of the vamps to get their fingers into a bit of everything and maintain quiet influence over humans.
* CrazyPrepared: Blade's sword has a boobytrapped handle which will burst the hand of anyone holding it without flipping the safety switch, as poor Quinn finds out.
* CreatorCameo: The vampire who looks up as the car chase goes past is director Stephen Norrington.
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Being a vampire turns you into an AlwaysChaoticEvil bloodthirsty psychopath, but you will look good forever, join a secret society that secretly rules the world, and live and be encouraged to live an eternal un-life of absolutely debauched sex, violence, partying and hedonism. Basically one of the reasons the film works; it both captures the sheer utter bastardy of the nosferatu race and yet perfectly illustrates ''why'' people would want to be such evil bastards in the first place.
* DeadlyHug: How Blade [[spoiler: brings rest to his mother.]]
* DeadStarWalking: Traci Lords, killed off in the very first action scene.
* DefendsAgainstTheirOwnKind: Blade -- although technically, he's only ''half''-vampire.
* DenOfIniquity: The techno club in the opening sequence is implied to be a well-kept secret, concealed within a meat processing plant and allowing those within to do as they please.
* DesignatedGirlFight: While Blade and Frost have their final showdown, Karen faces off against Mercury (Frost's henchwoman).
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Before the final showdown [[spoiler: Blade is in desperate need to feed on blood, and has no serum on hand, so Karen offers herself. What follows is a lengthy segment of them in each others arms, with periodic spasms as Blade feeds ravenously on Karen, who moans for him to stop as he's taking too much, ending with Blade roaring up like a triumphant beast.]]
* DodgeTheBullet: Frost can do this, though no other vampire does. In the DVDCommentary the makers gripe over how they [[OlderThanTheyThink came up with this trope before]] ''Film/TheMatrix''.
* DrivenToSuicide: When Whisler gets infected by [[spoiler:Frost]], Blade decides to help him [[spoiler:end his life by giving him his gun]].
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Blade's introduction has him crashing a vampire techno club, scaring the vampires shitless with his very presence, and then proceeding to kick ass all over them.
* EvilOverlooker: The poster of the film show the vampire antagonist Deacon Frost ominously watching over the Daywalker Blade in a blood-red background.
* FantasticSlur: Blade at two point makes slurs against vampires.
-->'''Blade:''' You give Frost a message from me. You tell him it's open season on all suckheads.
-->'''Blade:''' (in Russian) Hey you leech!
* FastForwardGag: The CarChase, unintentionally, presumably because Los Angeles didn't want to have an actual car chase for some reason.
* FatBastard: Pearl, the hideously bloated vampire from the archive.
* GodOfEvil: La Magra, the vampire Blood God. Frost's evil scheme is to complete a ritual to summon him into a vampire avatar so he can walk the earth. If he fights humanity, he will turn everyone into vampires by his mere presence. [[spoiler:Deacon Frost summons La Magra into himself and becomes much more powerful, being made entirely of blood and showing insane regenerative powers. Blade kills Frost by loading him with anti-coagulents, but it's unknown if this killed La Magra too.]]
* GratuitousSpanish: "La Magra" means "The Skinny Female One" in Spanish. This name was made up for the film, but the concept evokes certain vampires from the Latin American folklore.
* GroinAttack: In the opening action scene, pornstar Traci Lords received a rifle butt to the groin, and then a stake to the face when she doubles over. One can't help but wonder if the crotch shot was a reference to the actress's career.
* GunsAkimbo: Blade wields a pair of machine pistols as one of his primary weapons.
* IdiotBall: Quinn captures Blade, and decides to torture/beat him. He punches Blade in the stomach several times to no effect and once in the face to some minor effect because Blade is wearing body armor. How did Quinn think those punches would do anything? He could have gouged out Blade's eyes, chopped his hands off, broken his kneecaps etc but uses this golden chance to punch Blade in the stomach. Even if Blade has the same healing factor of other vampires, he still would have been crippled for the near future.
* ImmortalityHurts: In the opening, Blade dispatches Deacon Frost's [[TheDragon Dragon]] Quinn, a vampire who can heal from most injuries. Blade notes that he's run into the guy so many times by that point that he's getting bored with hacking him up all the time, and tries [[KillItWithFire burning him to a crisp]] instead--which ''still'' doesn't hold. Later, Frost himself messes with Quinn as well by pretending that he's gonna chop off his arms again, then stops at the last second.
* ImprobableInfantSurvival: The girl Frost throws ''across the park, through a hot dog stand, and into the street'' [[MadeOfIndestructium is none worse for wear]] when Blade saves her from the bus a moment later.
* IncestSubtext: [[spoiler:Vanessa]], as a vampire, shows a more than motherly interest in her own son to [[VillainousIncest indicate how depraved she's become]] since Frost turned her.
* InformedAbility: Frost's transformation into La Magra was supposed to make him a OneWingedAngel in the form of a giant blood cloud. Test audiences were all "Where'd Stephen Dorff go?" so they redid the ending to leave Frost his "human" form. Frost also [[AllYourPowersCombined supposedly took the powers of all 12 pureblood vampires]] such as pyrokinesis and mind control, but neither he nor the purebloods (or even [[{{Dracula}} Drake-ula]], the granddaddy of all the pureblood vampires) displayed any of these powers at any time.
* KillItWithFire: Blade uses fire on the vampire Quinn. This doesn't kill him, but it probably makes him wish it had, at least for a while. Funnily enough, Blade probably only set him on fire as a new form of bullying Quinn.
-->'''Blade:''' Quinn, I'm getting a little tired of chopping you up. I thought I might try fire, for a change.
* KryptoniteProofSuit: SPF 1,000 sunscreen, though they also have black leather outfits with UV-blocking visored helmets.
* LockAndLoadMontage: Blade is seen loading guns, sheathing his sword and knives, and strapping on other weapons before the final assault on Frost's skyscraper.
* LudicrousGibs: Vampires ''explode'' upon being injected with anticoagulant, or after ingesting concentrated garlic; [[spoiler:Mercury]] learns this the hard way.
* LukeIAmYourFather: Blade discovers that his mother Vanessa is still "alive."
* {{Matricide}}: Blade discovers that [[spoiler:Deacon Frost had turned his mother Vanessa into a vampire when he inadvertently made the unborn Blade a dhampyr. Blade is eventually forced to kill her for good when he sees how horrible she has become.]]
* MonstrosityEqualsWeakness: This trope was the reason the FinalBattle was changed. Test audiences didn't care for Frost [[OneWingedAngel transforming]] into a giant BlobMonster made of {{blood|Magic}}, so the theatrical version ended with a SwordFight instead.
* MouthingTheProfanity: After Deacon Frost shrugs off an attack that should have killed him, courtesy of a magical ritual, Blade mouths "What the fuck?"
* MrFanservice: Deacon Frost spends a lot of time with the his chest exposed. Blade as well, particularly in the final act.
* NaiveNewcomer: After being rescued by Blade, Karen gets the situation explained to her and thereby to the audience.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Karen Jensen nearly becomes a vampire (and her ex-boyfriend Curtis Webb is killed) because Blade chose to set Quinn on fire rather than staking him, even though he knew it wouldn't kill him.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Mercury, as detailed in the InformedAbility entry above.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler: When storming Blade's hideout, Frost tells Whistler he's not going to turn him and proceeds to beat him until Whistler is barely clinging to life, and later asks Blade for a mercy kill.]]
* NowItsMyTurn: Deacon Frost demonstrates his new powers from the ritual after Blade attempts to hack him apart.
* OffhandBackhand: Blade attacks a vampire sneaking up on him with the butt of his shotgun during the nightclub fight.
* OhCrap:
** The partygoer at the nightclub has a moment of terror when he sees that vampires are going to attack him. Seconds later, everyone gets a MassOhCrap when they see Blade for the first time.
** Quinn when Blade cuts off his arm again at the train station.
** Dragonetti when Frost pulls out his vampire teeth with a pair of pliers before exposing him to the sunlight.
** Two of Frost's mooks when Blade uses the EDTA serum on them.
** Mercury when [[spoiler:Karen]] uses garlic on her.
* PantyShot: You can get a glimpse of the panties of the female singers in the Yakuza club.
* PhysicalGod: Deacon Frost after turning into La Magra, becoming the physical manifestation of the evil Blood God. [[spoiler:As strong as he is, he's still vulnerable to anti-coagulants.]]
* PunchClockVillain: As Blade is about to kill a henchman, said {{mook|s}} replies "No... please! I just work for them!"
* PresentDay: After the first scene set in the 1960s, it flashes to "Now". The "Now" when the movie was released was 1998.
* ProtagonistTitle: ''Blade''.
* RasputinianDeath: Blade abuses Quinn in every way possible (impaling, burns, beatings, ''pushing his head against a passing train'') before decapitating him.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Pallantine, a Pureblood leader who also opposes Frost's actions early in the film, but shows less FantasticRacism towards him than Dragonetti, and proves to be a DefiantCaptive as Frost is preparing to use the purebloods as sacrifices.
* {{Retirony}}: Whistler is doomed from the moment he pauses during his big damn rescue scene and complains that he's getting too old for this sort of thing.
* RevisedEnding: In the ending as it was originally planned, 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.
* {{Sadist}}: Deacon Frost, an upstart vampire who believes that humans are cattle and the vamp establishment is weak for not acknowledging this. His response to this issue is to sacrifice a bunch of his brethren to become a Blood God. He's also [[spoiler:the one who turned Blade and his mother, and finds it hilarious when he sets his mother upon him]].
* ShapeshifterGuiltTrip: The vampire who was once [[spoiler:Vanessa]] tries the "You couldn't kill [[spoiler:your own mother]]" guilt trip when he gets free near the end. (Which might have worked better if they hadn't already had the ThatManIsDead conversation last time they talked.) Blade's response is that if there's any of [[spoiler:his mother]] left in the vampire, killing the vampire and setting her free would be doing her a favor.
* SilverBullet: Blade uses them against the vampires (as well as other silver weapons, including stakes and a silver-edged throwing star). Some of the bullets have hollow points filled with garlic essence, just to be doubly sure.
* SingleServingFriend: Early in the film Blade visits Kam, an herbalist who supplies the serum that inhibits Blade's bloodthirst. Kam shows concern that the serum is becoming less effective, and the two part with a ManHug; despite obviously being an ally against the vampires, Kam never reappears.
* StealingFromThieves: Dr. Karen Jenson takes umbrage at the fact Blade steals the money from a bunch of crooks that he saved her from (actually minions of the vampires that were out to silence her). Blade snarks that [[HunterOfMonsters his line of work]] isn't a charity and thus he needs to get the money from anywhere he can (there is also the underlying irony of using the money from the absurdly rich vampire courts to fund his hunting).
* SupernaturallyYoungParent: In the climax, [[spoiler:Blade meets his mother Vanessa for the first time, who was turned into a vampire by Frost. As a result, she looks the same way she did the day that Blade was born, while Blade aged normally as a {{dhampyr}}.]]
* SwordDrag: After Blade unsheathes his... blade, he delicately draws a line around himself on the floor as one of his many [[IntimidationDemonstration Intimidation Demonstrations]]
* ThatManIsDead: "Try to understand, Eric. [[spoiler:Your mother]] died a long time ago."
* TheBigEasy: Averted, the film is set in New Orleans, but you wouldn't know if you hadn't read the original script or caught a [[FreezeFrameBonus blink-or-you'll-miss-it]] shot of a road map.
* ThisIsReality: Blade tells Karen that crucifixes and holy water are ineffective against vampires, and advises her to "forget what you've seen in the movies."
* TooDumbToLive:
** In the opening scene, the vamp who lured the human to the bar when she cusses out Blade unarmed instead of fleeing, as well aso one of the vampires attacking Blade. Up against a guy who has a big rep for killing vamps, armed with a shotgun - mind you, loaded with [[SilverBullet silver bullets]], which is the [[KryptoniteFactor Kryptonite]] for vampires, what weapon does she choose to take him on with? A crowbar. She deserved to die for that stupidity.
** Officer Krieger, after leading Blade to Pearl, really shouldn't have said "Shut up, bitch!" to Frost's girlfriend when called out on it.
* TheToothHurts: Deacon Frost rips a vampire elder's fangs out of his mouth with pliers before executing him.
* TrainEscape: Blade grabs the end of a train with one arm while holding onto Karen with the other. The train pulls them to safety while dislocating his shoulder.
* TrapDoor: Dr. Karen Jensen falls down into a trap chute near the end of the film, where she's attacked by [[spoiler: her former research partner, Dr. Curtis Webb, (who has turned into a ghoulish, zombie-like vampire), but climbs back out of the chute using an old bone as leverage.]]
* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: Played for drama. Karen Jensen gets into a lift with two sinister-looking types. When she averts the protocol, turning to look directly at one of the two, his response is a chilling but polite "How ya doin'?"
* VampireDance: The vampire rave that opens the movie, complete with BloodBath.
* VampireHickey: Karen Jenson is bitten early on by the vampire Quinn. She spends the rest of the film covering the bite marks with a bandage while working to cure herself before she turns; at one point Whistler examines them and remarks that she'll turn vampire within days.
* VampireRefugee: Karen is bitten by Quinn early on. She uses her medical training to devise a cure for herself, but Blade refuses to be cured of his vampirism so he can remain super-powerful and continue to wipe out the race.
* VegetarianVampire: Inverted. Deacon Frost is exceptionally evil because he wants to [[IndustrializedEvil industrialize blood production]].
* VehicleVanish: Inverted when we see Blade latch onto a train as it passes by, and he dislocates his shoulder in the process.
* VerbThis: Between Officier Krieger and Blade:
-->'''Officer Krieger''': Go fuck yourself.\\
'''Blade''': (producing gun) Fuck me? No, you fuck this!
* VideoWill: Deacon Frost leaves a tape for Blade that starts off with [[spoiler: "By the time you watch this Whistler is dead..."]]
* VillainBall: When Frost throws Karen into the zombie pit, then doesn't stick around to make sure she's dead.
* VillainOpeningScene: The film opens with vampires having a rave (with a helpless human dude), which is crashed by the title hero.
* VillainousFriendship: Frost's relationships with Quinn and Mercury seem to be a mild, but genuine version.
* VoluntaryVampireVictim: Karen does this for Blade when he is wounded and needs to regain his strength to fight the BigBad.
* WaifFu: The teen/tween in the archive. She looks about 12 or 14 and she kicks Blade so hard he falls back. She even plays helpless, scared and cute when he first sees her, then kicks him through some SoftGlass.
* WakingUpAtTheMorgue: The vampire Quinn wakes up in the middle of his own autopsy after being set on fire.
* WorthyOpponent: During the VideoWill, Frost tells Blade in seeming sincerity, [[spoiler: "If it's any consolation, [Whistler] put up a hell of a fight", as Whistler and Karen did take down several mooks before getting outwhelmed.]]
* WouldHarmASenior: Frost shoots Whistler in his bad leg, beats him up and has Quinn bite him, so Blade can find him a bloody mess.
* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:Frost was the one who bit Blade's mother while she was pregnant. Unbeknownst to Blade, she became a vampire.]]
* YourHeadASplode: [[spoiler:Mercury]], after Karen "maces" her with garlic. Two vampire mooks also get a spectacular version of this when Blade tests the experimental anti-coagulant that Karen whipped up to "Blow some vampire heads." ChunkySalsaRule applies.
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** The partygoer at the nightclub has a moment of terror when he sees that vampires are going to attack him. Seconds later, everyone gets shocked when they see Blade for the first time.

->''"Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill."''

''Blade'' is a 1998 superhero horror film that marked the first film in the ''Film/BladeTrilogy''. It was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer, and released on August 21, 1998.

* TheSociopath: Deacon Frost, an upstart vampire who believes that humans are cattle and the vamp establishment is weak for not acknowledging this. His response to this issue is to sacrifice a bunch of his brethren to become a Blood God. He's also [[spoiler:the one who turned Blade and his mother, and finds it hilarious when he sets his mother upon him]].