Blade

"Against an army of Immortals, one warrior must draw first blood."

1998 2h 1m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 7,017

HorrorAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The Daywalker known as "Blade" - a half-vampire, half-mortal man - becomes the protector of humanity against an underground army of vampires.

“Against an army of Immortals, one warrior must draw first blood.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Wesley Snipes
Blade
Stephen Dorff
Deacon Frost
Kris Kristofferson
Whistler
N'Bushe Wright
Karen
Donal Logue
Quinn
Udo Kier
Dragonetti
Arly Jover
Mercury
Traci Lords
Racquel

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Stephen Norrington
Writers: David S. Goyer, Jason Brubaker
Languages: Russian, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

28 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Russian, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Blade Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

336+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Stephen Norrington, shot by Theo van de Sande. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mark Isham. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Paul Rubell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff and Kris Kristofferson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Stephen Norrington directs. Theo van de Sande behind the camera. Mark Isham scores. Paul Rubell cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Russian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

128 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Russian, English.
3Part of the "Blade Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4336+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Stephen Norrington, shot by Theo van de Sande. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Mark Isham. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Paul Rubell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff and Kris Kristofferson carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Against an army of Immortals, one warrior must draw first blood.".
10IMDB entry: tt0120611 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 22 themes, including "martial arts", "hero", "vampire", "superhero".

The technical file

Cinematography: Theo van de Sande
Original score: Mark Isham
Editing: Paul Rubell
Production design: Kirk M. Petruccelli
Costume design: Sanja Milkovic Hays
Makeup / hair: Michael Germain
VFX supervisor: William Plant
Sound: Harry Cohen
Stunt coordinator: Jeff Ward
Runtime: 121 min · 2h 1m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $45,000,000
Box office: $131,183,530
Return: 292% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Blade (1998)

Awards

MTV Movie Award for Best Villain

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

Blade Collection

Blade is a film franchise based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Wesley Snipes as Blade, the half-human/half-vampire who is possessed with the same powers as his bloodsucking brethren, but without the weaknesses that can destroy them. Acting as a modern day Van Helsing, Blade sets out to foil plans by a legion of the undead to wipe out mankind.

Also by

Stephen Norrington

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb440066252019-03-09
★ 5/10
Blade is tons of fun, particularly when viewed through the nostalgic lens of 90s action cinema. It's also worth noting that the success of this movie - an R rated vampire flick with an African American lead - gave birth to the comic book movie era. The action, effects, and music are silly and dated, plus the story makes no sense. But Blade is nevertheless still fun.
Gimly2019-08-25
First released in 1998, Blade brought commercial success back to Super Hero films, after the woeful distribution of films like Batman & Robin and Steel stopped the genre in its tracks. Starring Wesley Snipes as the eponymous Half-Vampire/Half-Human hybrid come Super Hero/Vampire Hunter, Blade works with Dr. Karen Jensen and Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) in order to defeat vampires Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) and Quinn (Donal Logue) and their host of undead soldiers before they can kill Gitano Dragonetti (Udo Kier) and the other vampire Elders in a ritual that will transform Deacon Frost into La Magra, the vampire Blood God. With me so far? No? That figures. The script's interesting, but it's not terribly sense-making. What I mean to say, is, the script's rubbish, but the story is great. The whole film is really rather story and effects driven, but the characters are pretty lacking. Quinn is sort of fun, and Deacon's... well... he's attractive, but not a lot else. Still, there's more to him than most of the characters, including the titular Blade. Straight up, just putting out there, I think goth-culture is attractive, so, my aesthetics may go quite a way to influencing my decision in the final score, if you disagree with me, you might want to keep that in mind, seeing as most vampires have at least a little bit of that going on. All that aside though, the opening of Blade is one of the strongest ways a film can start off that I've ever seen. It has basically everything you could want for a modern vampire tale. Including the Blood Rave song, Confusion (Pump Panel Remix) by New Order. The cinematography was another cool point, lots of ins and outs in a non-nauseating way. Although the fight choreography suffered from a serious case of "Only-One-Guy-Attacks-At- A-Time" Syndrome. Come on guys, this ain't Tekken. When there's an army to fight, fight an army. Maybe not all at once, I know that could get a tad pointless, but it really didn't transfer well in this film. To end with, there's one plot-hole I'd like to bring up, I don't think I'll be spoiling anything too badly, but if you want to go in completely fresh, stop reading. There's one point when Frost says he needs to kill the 12 Elder vamps in a big underground ritual in order to complete his ascendancy into the Blood God (Khorne?), but he kills the leader earlier, on a beach. Okay, so maybe he wasn't counted, and he was actually number 13. But, Frost's lady-friend Mercury kills another with Blade's sword, before the ritual gets started, and nobody seems to care... I am dubious- faced. After all that though, Blade is a vampire film that's not slow like Nosferatu, and not indescribably awful like Twilight, so for people with tastes like mine, it's certainly worth a geez. 66% -Gimly
John Chard2020-04-14
★ 8/10
The Daywalker. Half human and half vampire, Blade's function in life is to rid the world of vampires, he is driven forward by the notion that his mother was killed by his half brethren. This is no ordinary vampire film, this is nothing to do with bearing crosses and creatures making music of the night, this is armoured weaponry, dazzling swordplay and a protagonist that is as cool as anything that has leaped off of the comic book page. Wesley Snipes (perfect piece of casting) is Blade, a much troubled superhero (aren't they all?), he has to take a formula suppressant to keep away his inner vampire cravings. Aided by trusty pal, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), they wage war against all blood suckers and here they must stop the sinister Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) from executing his monstrous plan. There are no cranial pondering's here in this piece, this is a joyously high velocity action horror movie, containing great choreography and retaining its comic book heart. Blade is pure popcorn fodder for the MTV generation, in fact director Stephen Norrington utilises his music video background to great effect as the combat scenes are scored with delightful sledgehammer precision. Blood brains and gore flow freely as the film hurtles towards the head splitting conclusion, loud, dark and tinged with brooding menace, Blade is hugely recommended for a ripper of a night in. 7.5/10