Blade: There are worse things out tonight than vampires.
Karen: Like what?
Blade: Like me.
Blade is a vampire hunter comic book character from Marvel Comics created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan who debuted in The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July, 1973).In the movies, his Super Hero Origin is that vampires killed his mother during childbirth, which had a bizarre side-effect in making him part-vampire. He remained mostly human but gained all the strengths of a vampire and none of their weaknesses. He can walk in sunlight, is not allergic to garlic or silver, heals quickly and has all their enhanced senses. There is a slight catch, however: Blade still gets the "hunger" for blood and is never quite satisfied with an artificial substitution. While vastly outnumbered, Blade makes do working with his mentor, a grizzled veteran vampire hunter named Abraham Whistler, who manages to devise all sorts of vampire hunting gear.The vampires are insanely rich, powerful and secretly in control of the world from behind the scenes with their own research labs and army. But Blade is still a legend among them, calling him "The Daywalker."All three movies star Wesley Snipes as Blade and Kris Kristofferson as Whistler. In addition to the movies there was a spinoff TV show titled, creatively, Blade: The Series. The first film helped usher in the current era of consistently well-done, serious comic book films, coming earlier than X-Men or Spider-Man. As part of a four series deal between Marvel and Madhouse (the others being X-Men, Wolverine, and Iron Man), he stars in his own anime, which premiered on July 1st, 2011.
In the second, vampires invade again but in order to form an uneasy truce to defeat a common enemy.
The third movie has two instances in two different bases by different antagonists: a SWAT team infiltrates Blade's lair at the beginning and Drake later sneaks into Night Stalker HQ.
Anti-Hero (Type III): Blade and Whistler. Fridge Logic makes them seem more like sociopaths in some respects.
Badass Grandpa: Whistler sports a white beard and a gatling gun.
Badass Longcoat: It has a hole for his blade to poke out of and everything.
Badass Normal: Whistler and the Nightstalkers, who take out vampires without the benefit of superpowers.
Bottomless Magazines: Few characters in the Blade universe ever need to reload their firearms.
Bullet Time: On one of the directors commentaries they jokingly mention the fact they did it before The Matrix.
City of Weirdos: No one bats an eyelash at Blade's appearance while he walks around in broad daylight with a leather duster and sword, nor when he does things like beat up cops on the street. Especially in the third film when he's being hunted by the FBI. This was averted several times in the series, however.
In Blade Two people beating up a uniformed police offer in broad daylight doesn't attract any attention. Nor is Frost holding the young girl hostage, nor Blade saving said girl from being hit by a bus.
Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Notably averted in this film. The eponymous hero goes solely by that name, even when we learn his real name: Eric.
In a DVD commentary, the filmmakers state that Blade is effectively invincible while wearing his shades.
Also Priest and Reinhardt from the second movie.
Cool Sword: A silver, impossibly sharp blade and a clockwork anti-theft mechanism built into the handle. Amazingly, it has a straight blade and is not a katana.
Cool Car: 68' Dodge Charger in all 3 movies. According to Guillermo del Toro, the car was practically nonfunctional and had to be pushed into the set.
Daywalking Vampire: As the term 'Daywalker' would imply, half-vampires like Blade are not affected by sunlight, even though it kills regular vampires rather quickly.
Forgotten Phlebotinum: The Big Bad of the first film had a UV-blocking sunscreen which allowed him to walk in the sun for a significant amount of time (hours at least). It's never seen again, even though, by all rights, it's a much more reasonable alternative to all the genetic engineering and other nonsense the vampires try. Although, the UV-blocking seemed to be a temporary/short term solution(Blade noted Frost's sunscreen was beginning to run at one point)
Good Is Not Nice: Blade is a hard-ass dick, but he's also a hero.
Guns Akimbo: Throughout the films, this practice is shown by Blade, Hannibal King, Abigail Whistler, various members of the Blood Pack, Whistler, and even Scud.
Half-Human Hybrid: Blade is a Dhampyr, which is called a "daywalker" in the film's world. He has all the strengths of a vampire with none of their weaknesses except their thirst. Hardly seems fair.
Handicapped Badass: Whistler has a pronounced limp and wears a leg brace due to a bad leg injury that never quite healed up right. Despite this, he's more than capable of kicking ass.
Hemo Erotic: The various vampire-club scenes in the movies often involve the vampires being aroused while feeding. In fact, the first movie begins with a vampire-rave in which vamps are sprayed with blood, then start getting hot and heavy.
Hybrid Power: Blade, a classic dhampyr, has all the strengths of vampires, but none of the weaknesses, barring a much weaker desire for blood which he treats with a serum.
Knife Nut: While he favors his sword and guns, Blade also always has several knives on hand. Some he throws(including his signature double bladed "Glaive" throwing knife), some he stabs with, one he carries is even attached to a wire or chain of some sort and can be shot out, allowing it to double as a combination Ballistic Knife / Epic Flail.
Knuckle Cracking: In the movies, it seems not even the Daywalker is immune to the ravages of arthritis.
Les Collaborateurs: The vampires' various human "familiars", who knowingly aid the vampires against their own kind.
Masquerade: Vampires hide from humanity. In the first film, Deacon Frost wants to break the Masquerade and rule humans in the open. In the second film, the vampires have beefed up their Masquerade a bit just to hide from Blade. They still feel the need to visibly brand their minions with glyph tattoos, though, apparently to keep things sporting.
And to protect the familiars.
Mentor Archetype: Whistler in the films, Jamal Afari in the comic
Misapplied Phlebotinum: Blade rarely tries to hunt down vampires during the day - while they sleep.
Vampirism is a genetic condition caused by a retrovirus which is transmitted via vampire saliva contacting human blood, e.g. through a bite. Vampires are not "undead", and surviving bite victims are the ones who may turn into vampires, those who die do not.
Vampirism causes volatile sensitivity to UV direct radiation (like in sunlight), severe allergies to silver and garlic, and the inability to produce hemoglobin. As a result of the latter, they need to drink human blood to survive.
At the same time, it grants enhanced strength, agility, retractable sharpened fingernails and canine teeth, a healing factor that scarlessly repairs any injury that doesn't disable the brain or the heart in a matter of days(including the complete regrowth of limbs and other body parts), and slows down the aging process to a negligible rate after the subject reaches maturity.
Vampires have no weakness to crucifixes, crosses or holy water and do not need to be invited into a dwelling to enter it.
A vampire can be killed by destroying or separating its brain from its body, destroying its heart, completely incinerating it, or overwhelming it with a dose garlic or silver. When a vampire dies, a volatile chain reaction occurs which incinerates its entire body except for remnants of its skeleton.
During the first film, a hematologist looking for a cure for the virus discovers that vampire blood explodes like nitroglycerin when mixed with blood thinners(EDTA is named). Injecting vampire with them is obviously violently fatal.
Unlike in the comics, Blade is the result of a vampire attacking and infecting his mother as she went into labor with him. The result was him developing the characteristic super-strength, agility, enhanced healing and the thirst for blood but not the weaknesses to sunlight, garlic or silver.
Artistic License - Geography: The younger vampires take the elder to see the sunrise on the ocean. The thing is the movie takes place in Los Angeles, which is on the West Coast, so they really can't technically watch the sun rise across the ocean.
Bad Boss: Deacon Frost makes a sport of killing off his familiars when they displease him. Subverted, however, when he prepares to test Blade's sword on his minion's arm (Quinn), only to reveal that he's just kidding.
The movie definitely gives the impression that it's just Quinn though. The guy is a complete screw-up, being a one-man Quirky Mini Boss Squad who's more interested in sluts than Frost's master plan. Frost kills and sacrifices minions left, right, and center. Quinn's arm WILL GROW BACK, as he's already lost two arms over the course of the film.
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) AHAHAHAHA He was just fuckin' with me, man! He was just fucking with me.
Blown Across the Room: Played straight (and ludicrously so) during the shootout in the night club in the beginning of the first movie.
The Cavalry: In the first film Blade is pinned to a wall and surrounded by badguys, when Whistler bursts through the wall holding 2 machine guns and delivers the line "Catch you fuckers at a bad time?".
Whistler: You're the key. He needs your blood. The blood of the Daywalker. You're The Chosen One.
Conspicuous CG: It becomes apparent that they ran out of their CG budget. Frost's death actually looks like a cartoon animation, and the one Dragon Lady whose head explodes looks like a balloon just popped.
Damn It Feels Good To Be A Vampire: Expressed in the first film, implied in the others; being a vampire turns you into an Always Chaotic Evil 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.
Blade: You give Frost a message from me. You tell him it's open season on all suckheads.
Fast-Forward Gag: The Car Chase, unintentionally, presumably because Los Angeles didn't want to have an actual car chase for some reason.
Follow the Leader: In a sense, the first movie led to the boom of Marvel movies. Though later overshadowed by 2000's more successful X-Men, Blade was the first Marvel movie to be a bonafide financial and critical success (Men In Black came out first but technically, it was more a property bought by Marvel than made by Marvel. And granted, some productions such as Spider-Manhad long been gestating, but the movie's success proved that Marvel characters could headline their own movies.) Additionally, Blade himself was not as well-known prior to the movie's release, but still made for a successful property. In addition to their A-list stars, Marvel and DC have subsequently looked at other lesser-known characters for possible movies.
And despite Batman & Robin being basically a Genre Killer the year before, Blade proved comic book movies still had it.
Groin Attack: In the first film's opening 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.
I Am Your Father: Blade discovers that his mother is still "alive."
Informed Ability: Frost's transformation into La Magra was supposed to make him a One-Winged Angel 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 took the powers of all 12 pureblood vampires such as pyrokinesis and mind control but neither he nor the purebloods (or even Drake-ula the granddaddy of all the pureblood vampires) displayed any of these powers.
If you think about it, Frost didn't even achieve full godhood. The prophecy calls for absorbing "the Spirits of the Twelve," meaning the twelve purebloods... minus the one Frost's girlfriend Mercury ashed with Blade's sword. So Frost only became 11/12 of La Magra, which means even with the EDTA, the only reason that Blade won is because Mercury threw a bitch fit. This could also count for Idiot Ball AND Fridge Brilliance.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the first film, Karen nearly becomes a vampire (and her boyfriend is killed) because Blade chose to set Quinn on fire rather than staking him, even though he knew it wouldn't kill him.
Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Some mothafuckas are always trying to iceskate uphill," which was something that Snipes said on set one day, and Stephen Norrington liked it so much he added it to the script.
Punch Clock Villain: As Blade is about to kill a henchman in the first movie, said mook replies "No... please! I just work for them!"
Present Day: After the first scene set in the 1960's, it flashes to "Now". The "Now" when the movie was released was 1998. See Technology Marches On.
Rasputinian Death: Blade abuses Quinn in every way possible (impaling, burns, beatings) before decapitating him.
Too Dumb to Live: Officer Krieger, after leading Blade to Pearl, really shouldn't have said "Shut up, bitch!" to Frost's girlfriend when called out on it.
Vampire Refugee: The M.E. from the first movie. Blade refuses to be cured of his vampirism so he can remain super-powerful and continue to wipe out the race.
Villainous Friendship: Frost's relationships with Quinn and Mercury seem to be a mild, but genuine version of Type I.
Waking Up At The Morgue: The vampire Quinn wakes up in the middle of his own autopsy after being set on fire.
You Killed My Father: Frost was the one who bit Blade's mother while she was pregnant. Unbeknownst to Blade, she became a vampire.
Younger and Hipper: Deacon Frost is reimagined as a more Generation X type of character. His comic book counterpart was an older, German accented, white haired gentleman that hailed from circa 1868.
Alien Blood: In the second film; caused by Executive Meddling from the censors. For some reason they needed to have some of the characters bleed green to get an R rating, even if there's gallons upon gallons of red-coloured gore anyway.
Anti-Climax: The resolution of the rivalry between Blade and Reinhardt. Somewhat mitigated by the fact that it is very cool... but considering the conflict between them had been building for the entire movie, while Blade had only a single scene previous with Nomak, it still feels like a bit of a letdown.
Though it is very much in tune with their previous interactions in the movie; Reinhardt smugly antagonizes Blade and Blade effortlessly retaliates and humiliates Reinhardt in return. Really, if Reinhardt (who got owned by Whistler a couple scenes back) put up anything of a real fight, it would have clashed with the rest of the movie.
Anti-Villain: In the second movie, some of the Blood Pack. Nomak is also a bordering example... while distinctly villainous, his danger to humans is more incidental than intentional, as he focuses on vampires when he can.
Bad Guy Bar: The House of Pain, a sadomasochistic vampire bar.
Bald of Evil: Damaskinos, Reinhardt, Nomak, and the Reapers. Damaskinos originally had hair during filming, but it was soon removed because it made him look like Michael Bolton according to Guillermo del Toro.
Barehanded Blade Block: Blade does this in the second film. Even bringing the blade toward his face afterwards whilst his opponent struggles to push it through his hands.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Nyssa dissolves gently into sparkles, instead of violently charring away to a skeleton and then dust while screaming like every other vampire exposed to sunlight does.
Blood Bath: Vampire Lord Damaskinos wades into a small but literal pool of blood. Later on, Blade is rejuvenated when he takes a nosedive into one such pool.
Body Horror: The transformation into a reaper is very painful (provided the victim has been bitten for long enough to properly drain them, as happens to Priest), a victim's hair falls out, their skin goes deathly pale, their jawbone dissolves, their chin separates into two pieces and sprouts fangs, and their tongue turns into a sucker. That's just what we see on the outside.
Brick Joke: The fate of Rush in the second movie. This also happens midway through in a blink and you'll miss it encounter in the House of Pain.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: When Reapers are "ashed", they explode in a flash of blue light, as opposed to a regular vampire's red-orange.
Create Your Own Villain: Blade II is all about the Vampire Government recruiting Blade to help them fix their own mess, Nomak and the entire Reaper sub-species was the result of the Vampire Leadership trying to genetically erase the typical vampire weaknesses. The Reapers are immune to garlic and silver and their hearts are surrounded by solid bone ("Try and get a stake through THAT!") but are still just as vulnerable to sunlight/UV rays. What they didn't expect was the Reapers could turn humans and regular vampires into Reapers through mere sharing of sweat, let alone blood and vampire bites.
Drop the Hammer: Bloodpack member Lighthammer carries a huge 2 handed maul with a retractable spike as his primary weapon, using his firearm as a backup.
Dual Wielding: Nyssa and Assad both wield a pair of swords when they infiltrate Blade's hideout. Blade responds by wielding his sword in one hand and his sword's scabbard as a parrying weapon in his offhand. Earlier in the film a pair of the mooks guarding Whistler dual wield fighting sticks or batons of some sort and Blade retaliates by dual wielding a pair of silver stakes as if they were daggers. Reinhardt also dual wields his gunblades as knives in the sewer battle.
Dying as Yourself: A variation. Nyssa has been bitten by Nomak, and will become a Reaper. Blade gently carries her out into the sun, so she can die as a vampire.
Enemy Mine: Blade's teaming with the Bloodpack in Blade II.
Food Chain of Evil: Reapers have knocked vampires off the top and whilst they do attack the occasional human, vampires are currently their main source of food. The situation is lampshaded by Whistler.
Whistler: "They're just shitting bricks cause they're no longer top of the food chain."
Groin Attack: Blade kills one vampire by staking it in the crotch in the opening scene.
Intimidation Demonstration: As Nyssa approaches Blade before their duel, she whirls her blades around to display her swordsmanship. The scene can be viewed here.
Keeping The Enemy Close: Blade knew that Scud was a traitor the whole time, but kept him around for this reason.
The Mole: The second movie: Scud, though Blade already knew about him.
Mix-and-Match Weapon: Reinhardt carries a pair of Beretta pistols that have huge blades extending from the grips to the end of the barrel, allowing them to be used as guns or knives. According to the weapon's designer TyRuben Ellingson the weapon was originally designed for Blade but was given to Reinhardt during production.
Mugging the Monster: In the beginning of, three vampires try to forcibly extract blood from Jared Nomak. They realized the consequences too late.
Power Walk: Blade and the Bloodpack walking into the House of Pain, with Massive Attack blaring on the soundtrack.
Smug Snake: Reinhardt and Scud, neither of whom are anywhere near as clever or awesome as they seem to think.
Suicide By Sunlight: After she's infected by the Reaper virus, Nyssa Damaskinos asks Blade to carry her out in the open just before dawn so she can see the sunlight and die while she's still a vampire. When the sun comes up she disintegrates in his arms.
Artistic License - Biology: Nomak is a "carrier" for the Reaper condition, but carriers by definition are not affected by their carried disease/gene defect. Nomak clearly has some of the traits of the other Reapers. He has their general appearance, split jaw, heart shield, and drug addict-like appetite for blood. The only difference seems to be that he has retained his intelligence.
Also, pheromones don't come from the adrenal glands, nor are they "nut juice". And a species that doesn't have a mandible bone shouldn't have any use for bifurcated masseter muscles ... or any lower teeth, which Nomak clearly has in numerous close-ups.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The third film features nearly subliminal use of Esperanto to make the setting seem a little off and vaguely foreign. This is most noticeable when Hannibal watches the Esperanto language horror film Incubus in his hospital bed, starring William Shatner pre-Star Trek.
Awesome, but Impractical: Nearly everything about Abigail Whistler, but her situational-awareness-killing personal soundtrack is at the top of the list.
The UV Laser comes close second, because slicing through things like butter may sound good, but when a UV lamp hurts them and not you, and a normal sword is sufficient to dust them... why risk lightsabering yourself?
Convection Schmonvection: Although it might be hyperbole, Abigail holds a UV laser that is "half as hot as the Sun" in front of her face. To say nothing of the power requirements for that...
Dirty Coward: Drake runs away from Blade and takes a baby hostage in order to escape without a fight and then has the gall to deliver a speech about honour and dying by the sword while holding the baby captive.
Possibly justified in that Drake was unarmed at the time going up against Blade who has his sword, guns and various other vampire slaying weapons to which Drake would not have stood a chance.
Epic Flail: In the opening scene Blade carries a knife that with the push of a button, can launch it's blade a short distance(like a ballistic knife). However, the blade is attacked to a wire or chain of some sort, allowing it to function as a bladed flail after being launched. After the battle, Blade tells Whistler "This worked real good"(and then never uses it again for some reason).
Everyone Owns a Mac: In Blade: Trinity EVERYONE uses Mac computers, and even features a scene where Jessica Biel's character uses iTunes to create a music playlist for her iPod that she can listen to while fighting vampires (never mind that having music blaring into your ears would be detrimental to your situational awareness in a battle with undead blood suckers). More than one reviewer has commented that the film is basically a two hour long commercial for Apple products.
Four Lines, All Waiting: Is it about vigilante Blade versus human law enforcement, the upcoming vampire apocalypse, Blade's attempt to create his own apocalypse via The Virus, or Blade vs. Dracula? Concentrating on any two of these plotlines would have worked, but not four. Wesley Snipes was reportedly very upset that the core character was lost in the plot shuffle.
High Altitude Interrogation: A mook is dangled in an attempt to lead the protagonists to the Big Bad, but he refuses to talk. Then his cell rings. Blade answers, tells the mook it's for him, and lets go of the rope.
Hilariousin Hindsight: In the PG era that the WWE is in right now, it can be hilarious to hear Triple H constantly cussing in every other scene that he's in.
Idiot Ball: In Blade III, Blade is fooled into killing a human disguised as a vampire, despite having the instincts to distinguish between the two! Considering in the first movie he could smell a vampire from roughly 40 feet away, and can even differentiate vampire and human by the way they move, there is no way he should have been fooled.
Oh Crap: When Hannibal sees Dr Vance standing over his own corpse, he fumbles for his gun, shouting "Oh Jesus, it's him! Abbey! It's Drake!"
Product Placement: All the computers in Blade: Trinity are Apple brand. The fact that Abigail likes to listen to an iPod while fighting vamps is made into a character trait. There's even a little montage of her putting together a playlist. This inspired quite a few groans.
Worthy Opponent: Drake (Count Dracula) is far more interested in fighting Blade due to his reputation than for any reason related to helping his debased great-great-great grandspawn.
0 reviews 