Blade (franchise)

Blade is a film and television franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics superhero of the same name, portrayed by Wesley Snipes in the film series and Sticky Fingaz on the television series. The films were written by David S. Goyer (who directed the third film and also served as a co-writer for the TV series in the first two and last episodes), based on the comics by Marv Wolfman, and Gene Colan. The three films were directed by Stephen Norrington, Guillermo del Toro and Goyer respectively, and distributed by New Line Cinema.

Blade
The Blade Trilogy DVD box set
Directed by	Stephen Norrington (Blade) Guillermo del Toro (Blade II) David S. Goyer (Blade: Trinity)
Written by	David S. Goyer
Based on	Blade by Marv Wolfman Gene Colan
Starring	Wesley Snipes
Music by	Mark Isham (Blade) Marco Beltrami (Blade II) Ramin Djawadi (Blade: Trinity)
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	1998–2006
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$164 million[1]
Box office	$415 million

The character was created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the 1970s comic The Tomb of Dracula. In the comic, Blade's mother was bitten by a vampire while she was in labor with Blade.

Films

Blade (1998)

Blade grows up to become a Vampire Hunter, swearing vengeance on the creatures that killed his mother. He teams up with a man called Whistler, a retired vampire hunter and weapons expert.

Meanwhile, in the urban underworld, a feud is started between "pure-blood" vampires and those who had been human, but were "turned." Blade becomes aware of this and investigates further, uncovering a plot to raise the blood god La Magra, something he must stop at all costs.

Blade II (2002)

A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community. "Reapers" are vampires so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming victims who are unlucky enough to survive into Reapers themselves. Now their quickly expanding population threatens the existence of vampires, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler and an armory expert named Scud are curiously summoned by the Shadow Council. The council reluctantly admits that they are in a dire situation and they require Blade's assistance. Blade then tenuously enters into an alliance with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires who were trained in all modes of combat to defeat Blade. They'll use their skills instead to help wipe out the Reaper threat. Blade's team and the Bloodpack are the only line of defense which can prevent the Reaper population from wiping out the vampire and human populations.

Blade: Trinity (2004)

In the final installment of the series, the vampires succeed in framing Blade for the killing of a human (who was in fact a familiar being used as bait). Blade, now in the public's eye and wanted by the FBI, has to join forces with the Nightstalkers, a human clan of vampire hunters. Blade, Hannibal King, and Abigail Whistler go after Danica Talos, who has succeeded in locating and resurrecting Drake, also known as Dracula, the first vampire and by far the most powerful. In order to stop him, Blade has to release a virus that will wipe out all vampires, but being a dhampir, he must face the possibility of also dying as a result.

Television

Blade (2006)

In 2006, Spike TV aired a thirteen-episode series set after the events of Blade: Trinity, with Sticky Fingaz portraying Blade, replacing Snipes.

Cast and crew

Cast

Character	Original series			Television series
	Blade	Blade II	Blade: Trinity	Blade
	1998	2002	2004	2006
Eric Brooks Blade	Wesley Snipes			Sticky Fingaz Jon Kent Ethridge (young)
Abraham Whistler	Kris Kristofferson			Adrian Glynn McMorran
Deacon Frost	Stephen Dorff	Mentioned
Dr. Karen Jenson	N'Bushe Wright
Quinn	Donal Logue
'Mercury'	Arly Jover
Vanessa Brooks	Sanaa Lathan
Racquel	Traci Lords
Gitano Dragonetti	Udo Kier
Eli Damaskinos		Thomas Kretschmann
Jared Nomak		Luke Goss
'Priest'		Tony Curran
Nyssa Damaskinos		Leonor Varela
Dieter Reinhardt		Ron Perlman
Asad		Danny John-Jules
'Snowman'		Donnie Yen
'Chupa'		Matt Schulze
'Scud'		Norman Reedus
Dracula / Drake			Dominic Purcell
Abigail Whistler			Jessica Biel
Hannibal King			Ryan Reynolds
Danica Talos			Parker Posey
Dr. Edgar Vance			John Michael Higgins
Jarko Grimwood			Triple H
Asher Talos			Callum Keith Rennie
Krista Starr				Jill Wagner
Shen				Nelson Lee
Marcus Van Sciver				Neil Jackson
'Chase'				Jessica Gower
FBI Agent Ray Collins				Larry Poindexter

Crew

Film	Director	Producer	Writer	Composer	Cinematographer	Editor
Blade	Stephen Norrington	Peter Frankfurt Wesley Snipes Robert Engelman Andrew J. Horne	David S. Goyer	Mark Isham	Theo van de Sande	Paul Rubell
Blade II	Guillermo del Toro	Peter Frankfurt Wesley Snipes Patrick Palmer		Marco Beltrami	Gabriel Beristain	Peter Amundson
Blade: Trinity	David S. Goyer	Peter Frankfurt Wesley Snipes David S. Goyer Lynn Harris		Ramin Djawadi		Conrad Smart Howard E. Smith

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office gross			All time ranking	Budget	Reference
		North America	Other territories	Worldwide	North America
Blade	August 21, 1998	$70,087,718	$61,095,812	$131,183,530	#724	$45 million	[2][3]
Blade II	March 22, 2002	$82,348,319	$72,661,713	$155,010,032	#558	$54 million	[4]
Blade: Trinity	December 8, 2004	$52,411,906	$76,493,460	$128,905,366	#1,036	$65 million	[5]
Total		$204,847,943	$210,250,985	$415,098,928		$164 million

Critical and public response

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	CinemaScore
Blade	56% (104 reviews)[6]	45 (23 reviews)[7]	A–[8]
Blade II	57% (151 reviews)[9]	52 (28 reviews)[10]	B+[8]
Blade: Trinity	25% (169 reviews)[11]	38 (30 reviews)[12]	B+[8]
Blade: The Series	50% (18 reviews)[13]	49 (15 reviews)[14]	N/A

Music

Soundtracks

Year	Title	Chart positions		Certifications (sales thresholds)
		U.S.	U.S. R&B
1998	Blade Released: August 25, 1998 Label: TVT	36	28	US: Gold
2002	Blade II Released: March 19, 2002 Label: Virgin	26	23
2004	Blade: Trinity Released: November 23, 2004 Label: New Line	–	68

References

1. "Blade Franchise Box Office History - The Numbers". The Numbers.
2. "Blade (1998)". Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo, LLC. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
3. "Blade Production Budget". The-Numbers. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
4. "Blade II (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo, LLC. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
5. "Blade: Trinity (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo, LLC. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
6. "Blade". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
7. "Blade (1998)". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
8. "Cinemascore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
9. "Blade II". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
10. "Blade II (2002)". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
11. "Blade: Trinity". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
12. "Blade: Trinity (2004)". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
13. "Blade: The Series: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
14. "Blade". Metacritic. Retrieved August 23, 2019.

External links

• Blade Trilogy at AllMovie