The vampires succeed in framing Blade for the killing of a human (a familiar being used as bait when posing as a vampire). Blade, now in the public's eye and wanted by the FBI, is chased down to his hideout where his mentor, Abraham Whistler, triggers an explosion inside the building, sacrificing himself to protect their operation.
After being captured by the police, who are about to hand him over to the vampires, Blade is rescued by the Nightstalkers, a human clan of vampire hunters. They are led by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds), an ex-vampire, and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), Abraham's daughter. They ask his help to go after Danica Talos (Parker Posey), a powerful vampire leader, who has succeeded in locating and resurrecting the ancient first vampire Dracula, or Drake (Dominic Purcell), as he is now commonly known. Talos hopes that she will finally be able to kill Blade.
In his first confrontation with Blade, Drake shows a sort of affinity for the "Day Walker", as they are both "honorable warriors" (somewhat ironically, while Drake is delivering his speech about honor, he is hiding behind a newborn baby he has taken hostage).
Blade realizes that normal combat won't be enough to take down Drake, and he learns of a bioweapon, Day Star, that the Night Stalkers had been working on, that will wipe out all vampires. The catch: They need a sample of Drake's blood, as his vampiric genes are "pure", to make the virus work. The second catch: The virus may also kill Blade due to the fact that he is half-vampire.
While Blade and Abigail are out hunting, Drake finds their base of operations, and, disguised as Whistler, kills the entire staff, and captures King, who had been injured in their last encounter. When Blade and Abigail return, they discover their comrades dead and King missing. Meanwhile, at Drake's skyscraper fortress, Talos has her henchmen torture King to get the information of what his group was working on.
In a desperate attempt to rescue the soon to be re-vamped King, Blade and Whistler storm Drake's skyscraper fortress, during which Blade confronts Drake. After a prolonged battle, Blade impales Drake with a Daystar arrow and draws Drake's blood releasing Daystar and wiping out all nearby vampire life, also killing Danica Talos. Drake then dies from the Day Star virus soon after it is released and Blade seemingly dies as well.
Endings
- Theatrical Ending: As Blade fought honorably, Drake gives him a "parting gift" by transforming his body into a replica of Blade's just before he dies. The FBI captures the body of who they think is Blade and thus call off their manhunt for Blade, but the body transforms back into the corpse of Drake at the morgue. The movie ends with Blade driving off into the night to continue the unending war against the vampires.
- Director's Cut Ending: The body captured by the FBI is Blade, but he's not really dead. He sits up abruptly in the morgue, attacks the FBI agents, and appears ready to bite a nurse on the neck. The ending is ambiguous as to whether Blade retains his humanity or gives in to his vampiric thirst, thus becoming the new vampire messiah as Drake predicted. The short scene following features a voiceover about Blade not actually dying but his heart just slowing down. The scene ends with Blade replacing his sword and riding off on his motorcycle. Commentary on the DVD indicates it was the ending director Goyer intended.
- Werewolf Ending: The Daystar virus circles the globe and wipes out all vampires. Blade walks off into the sunset, his long battle finally over. The final shot is of the Nightstalkers battling a new enemy... werewolves. This version of the ending was used in the novelization of the film and is included on the DVD as an extra, however it was rejected for use in the film itself early on in production, due to similarities to the vampires vs. werewolves film Underworld, the discontinuity with the backstory, and for simply being too silly in Goyer's opinion.
Cast
Actor | Role |
---|---|
Wesley Snipes | Blade |
Kris Kristofferson | Abraham Whistler |
Ryan Reynolds | Hannibal King |
Jessica Biel | Abigail Whistler |
Parker Posey | Danica Talos |
Cascy Beddow | Flick |
Dominic Purcell | Dracula / Drake |
Callum Keith Rennie | Asher Talos |
Paul Anthony | Wolfe |
John Ashker | Campbell |
Mark Berry | Chief Martin Vreede |
Eric Bogosian | Bentley Tittle |
Steve Braun | FBI Agent Wilson Hale |
Michel Cook | SWAT Member |
Scott Heindl | Gedge |
John Michael Higgins | Dr. Edgar Vance |
Triple H | Jarko Grimwood |
Natasha Lyonne | Sommerfield |
Patton Oswalt | Hedges |
Haili Page | Zoe |
James Remar | Ray Cumberland |
Ron Selmour | Dex |
Françoise Yip | Virago |
Kett Turton | Dingo |
Christopher Heyerdahl | Caulder |
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