The story focuses on Blade, a half-human, half-vampire who has made it his mission in life to kill as many vampires as possible. He comes into conflict with Deacon Frost, who is attempting to released La Magra, the vampire blood god, thus bringing about hell on earth.
A somewhat unexpected success, grossing $130 million worldwide, it was the first of the modern age of movies based on comics, paving the way for films such as the X-Men and Spider-Man.
The Cast
- Wesley Snipes as Blade (Eric Brooks)
- Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost
- Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler
- N'Bushe Wright as Dr. Karen Jenson
- Donal Logue as Quinn
- Udo Kier as Vampire Elder Dragonetti
- Traci Lords as Racquel
- Kevin Patrick Walls as Officer Krieger
- Tim Guinee as Dr. Curtis Webb
- Eric Edwards as Pearl
Trivia
- Blade is one of only two Marvel-based movies (the other being Blade II which does not feature the Marvel logo. The apparant reason for this is the R-rating/18 certificate awarded to the movie.
- A cameo by Stan Lee was cut from the final edition of the movie.
- Although the characters of Blade and Frost originated in comics, the character of Whistler was actually created for a Spider-Man cartoon and then went on to be added to the comics.
- This is not Udo Kier's first vampire role. He stared as Dracula in Blood for Dracula (1974).
- Dialogue by Blade and Deacon Frost respectively references The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and The Lost Boys (1987).
- 'La Magra' means 'the thin one' in both Spanish and Italian.