Blade (film)
| Blade | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Stephen Norrington |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | David S. Goyer |
| Based on |
Blade by Marv Wolfman Gene Colan |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Mark Isham |
| Cinematography | Theo van de Sande |
| Edited by | Paul Rubell |
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Production
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| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
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Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million |
| Box office | $131.2 million |
Blade is a 1998 American vampire superhero film starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Snipes plays Blade, a vampire with human traits who protects humans from vampires. The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer.
Released on August 21, 1998, Blade became a commercial success by grossing $70 million at the U.S. box office, and $131.2 million worldwide. Despite mixed reviews from film critics, the film received a positive reception from audiences and has since garnered a cult following. It was followed by two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, both written by Goyer who also directed the latter.
In 1967, a pregnant woman is attacked by a vampire while giving birth. Doctors are able to save her baby, but the woman dies of infection.
Thirty-one years later, the child has become the vampire hunter Blade. He raids a rave club owned by the vampire Deacon Frost. Police take one of the vampires to the hospital, where he feeds on hematologist Karen Jenson and escapes. Blade takes Karen to a safe house where she is treated by his old friend Abraham Whistler. Whistler explains that he and Blade have been waging a secret war against vampires using weapons based on their elemental weaknesses, such as sunlight and silver. As Karen is now "marked" by the bite of a vampire, both he and Blade tell her to leave the city.
Meanwhile, at a meeting of vampire elders, Frost, the leader of a faction of younger vampires, is rebuked for trying to incite war between vampires and humans. As Frost and his kind were not born as vampires and are therefore not pure-bloods, they are considered socially inferior. In response, Frost has one of the elders executed and strips the others of their authority.
Upon returning to her apartment, Karen is attacked by a policeman, who is a "familiar", a human slave controlled by a vampire. Blade subdues the familiar and uses information from him to locate an archive of vampire history. Later, at the hideout, Blade injects himself with a special serum that prevents him from succumbing to his desire to drink blood, which would ultimately turn him into a vampire. However, the serum is beginning to lose its effectiveness due to overuse.
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Wikipedia