Blade
Against an army of Immortals, one warrior must draw first blood.
Country
Production
Budget
$45 000 000
Revenue
$131 183 530
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Peter Frankfurt, Wesley Snipes, Robert Engelman, Michael De Luca, Lynn Harris, Stan Lee, Avi Arad, Joseph Calamari
Operator
Theo van de Sande
Composer
Artist
Kirk M. Petruccelli
Audition
Rachel Abroms, Jory Weitz
Editing
Paul Rubell, Jennifer Teves
All team (272)
All team (272)
Short description
Blade is a half-human, half-vampire who can walk in daylight and does not feed on people. From his base with Whistler, a mentor who supplies his weapons, he hunts the vampires who operate secretly throughout society. His personal target is Deacon Frost, the vampire whose bite infected his mother before he was born and who now follows his own plan to change the balance between the two races.
Stephen Norrington directed the film, his second feature after Death Machine (1995) and before The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). David S. Goyer wrote the screenplay, and Peter Frankfurt, Robert Engelman and Wesley Snipes produced. Snipes plays Blade, with Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost, Kris Kristofferson as Whistler, N'Bushe Wright as Karen, Donal Logue as Quinn and Udo Kier as Dragonetti. The credited cast numbers 64 and the credited crew 273.
Made for 45 million USD, Blade took about 131 million USD worldwide, a strong return on its budget that helped establish the film as a commercial success. On IMDb it holds 7.1/10 from around 329,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.9/10 from roughly 7,000 votes. A critics' rating of 6.2/10 from 113 reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in London (United Kingdom), Los Angeles (USA), and Vancouver (Canada).
- The film mentions the vampire bible – the sacred “Book of Erebus”. Erebus, according to Greek mythology, is the god of darkness.
- David Fincher was offered the directing position, but he declined, choosing other projects.
- The filmmakers insisted that the music for the film be composed by the rave group The Prodigy, who were at the height of their popularity with the international hit Firestarter. However, the British musicians preferred to participate in other projects.
- It was intended that Karen would discover a living vampire infant that Blade and Whistler were using as a guinea pig to create a biological weapon against vampires.
- Wesley Snipes, Laurence Fishburne, and Denzel Washington were considered for the role of Blade, with the role ultimately going to Snipes.
- During the filming of the hospital fight scene, N'Bushe Wright accidentally broke Donal Logue's jaw.
- LL Cool J was originally supposed to play Blade.
- The number of victims in this film was counted as 88 individuals.
- Originally, the film could have ended with Frost summoning the ancient blood god of vampires and then transforming into a blood vortex, which Blade was able to defeat by piercing with a sword.
- In the film, Blade saves a female doctor named Karen from a vampire, and she later creates a vaccine for the hero that destroys vampires. The script did not specify her skin color. David S. Goyer implied she was a white woman, but Snipes insisted that Karen be African American.
- After the release of "Blade" in theaters, producers and director Stephen Norrington expressed a desire to make a trilogy about Deacon Frost – the main villain of "Blade." Negotiations with the studio began in 2000, but the project was put on hold due to a lack of funding. Later, in 2009, the project was revisited, but then deemed irrelevant, causing the project to be shelved indefinitely.
- The working title of the film was "Blade – Vampire Killer."
- "La magra" translates from Italian as "shoal, shallow water".
- Vampires at Frost's party are watching the film "Mortal Kombat" (1995).
- When, on the 16th minute of the film, after landing on the adjacent roof, Blade runs away with Karen under police fire, a member of the film crew with a paintball marker can be noticed in the right part of the frame.
- On the 28th minute of the film, Whistler blocks Karen's path, while Blade jumps down from above behind her. However, it is unclear how Blade managed to free himself from the restraints with which Whistler had bound him to the chair a minute earlier to administer the serum.
- On the 29th minute of the film, Whistler takes an ultraviolet lamp out of his bag and holds it in his right hand. In the next frame, the lamp moves to his left hand, and after a change of shot, it is back in his right hand again.
- At the 38th minute of the film, Blade takes Krieger's wristwatch off his wrist and puts it in his pocket. He does this again in the next shot.
- When Blade interrogates Krieger in the kitchen at the 43rd minute of the film, you can notice a cushioning lining peeking out from the sleeves of his police jacket.
- When Blade opens the freezer door at the 44th minute of the film, several vegetables can be seen on the top shelf of the refrigerator in the left part of the frame. When he enters the chamber in one of the following scenes, a round aluminum tray is already on the shelf instead of the vegetables.
- At the 54th minute of the film, when Quinn plunges a silver stake into Blade, a silver earpiece appears in Blade's left ear, which wasn't there before.
- At the 70th minute of the film, Frost strokes the girl's chin, and a claw grows on his index finger. Although the claw was already on his finger in the previous shot, when Frost released the girl's hand and grabbed her head.
- At the 80th minute of the film, Blade melts silver using a small open furnace, however, this is impossible to do in the way shown, as the melting point of silver is around 960 degrees Celsius.
- When the vampires place Blade in the sarcophagus at the 96th minute of the film, the strap that is supposed to hold Blade's head remains behind him. In one of the following shots, the strap appears on his neck.
- When Mercury orders the vampire council members to stand on markings at the 98th minute of the film, she is wearing a white fur coat and holding Blade's sword in her left hand. In the next scene, when Mercury is crouching and looking towards the rising elevator, the coat and sword are gone, but soon reappear.
- At the 100th minute of the film, Karen opens the sarcophagus and saves Blade. When lightning strikes the sarcophagus at the 104th minute, it is already closed. During the subsequent fight scene between Blade and his mother, the sarcophagus is open again.
- At the 111th minute of the film, when Blade cuts Frost in half and turns towards him, the film crew and equipment can be seen reflected in his glasses.
- At the 111th minute of the film, Blade attempts to strike Frost’s legs with his sword, but Frost manages to dodge. As Frost jumps away, it can be seen that actor Stephen Dorff is replaced by a stunt double in this scene.
- At the 112th minute of the film, Blade throws his sword to retrieve a pouch with serum vials stuck in a crack. As the sword flies, it is visible that it should enter the wall to the right of the pouch, but in the next frame it is directly above it.
- At the 112th minute of the film, Blade puts his hand behind his back and catches the falling pouch with serum vials. In the previous shot, it is clearly visible that the pouch falls much further away from him.
- The number of serum vials Blade takes for the fight with the vampires in Frost's lair changes between scenes: at the 80th minute of the film, he fills and takes 6 vials with him; at the 85th minute, Blade uses 2 vials to kill two vampires in the corridor – he should have only 4 vials left; at the 112th minute, Blade retrieves a pouch stuck in the wall during the fight with Frost, and it again contains 6 vials; at the 113th minute, when Blade kills Frost, he plunges 7 vials of serum into him.
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