Blade II

Blade II
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay by	David S. Goyer
Produced by	Peter Frankfurt Wesley Snipes Patrick Palmer Avi Arad (executive)
Starring	Wesley Snipes Kris Kristofferson Ron Perlman Leonor Varela Norman Reedus Luke Goss
Cinematography	Gabriel Beristain
Edited by	Peter Amundson
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Production companies	Marvel Enterprises Amen Ra Film Imaginary Forces
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	March 22, 2002 (2002-03-22)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Czech Romanian
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$155 million

Blade II (also known as Blade II: Bloodhunt) is a 2002 American superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Blade. It is the sequel of the first film and the second part of the Blade film series, followed by Blade: Trinity. It was written by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the previous film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, and had Wesley Snipes returning as the lead character and producer.

The film follows the dhampir Blade in his continuing effort to protect humans from vampires. The movie received generally mixed to positive reviews, but became the best-reviewed and the highest grossing film in Blade series; it also introduced the cinema public to Del Toro's traits.

Plot

Over the two years since the death of Deacon Frost, Blade (Wesley Snipes), has been trying to find his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who survived his suicide attempt. With the aid of Scud (Norman Reedus), his new weapon designer, Blade tracks Whistler to eastern Europe; where he is in possession of a large vampire gang. Interrogating the last-surviving member, Rush (Santiago Segura), Blade finds Whistler locked in a tank and kept alive to torture. Blade brings Whistler back to the lair, and rids him of his vampirism with a cure developed by Dr. Karen Jenson.

Meanwhile, a crisis has arisen in the vampire community. A mutated strain of vampirism (dubbed the "Reaper virus"), originated from Jared Nomak (Luke Goss), is sweeping through their ranks. The Reapers are stronger and much harder to kill than common vampires, being almost invulnerable to any weapon with the exception of sunlight. They also have a ravenous hunger, requiring more feeding than vampires, and anyone they bite, Human or Vampire, becomes a Reaper.

In order to combat the mutants, the vampire overlord Eli Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann) sends his minion, Asad (Danny John-Jules), and daughter Nyssa (Leonor Varela) to find and strike a truce with Blade. After ascertaining that the Reapers are a threat to vampires and humans alike, Blade reluctantly allies with the vampires. He teams up with the Bloodpack, an elite group of vampires originally assembled to kill him. The group consists of Asad, Nyssa, Reinhardt (Ron Perlman), Chupa (Matt Schulze), Snowman (Donnie Yen), Verlaine (Marit Velle Kile), her lover Lighthammer (Daz Crawford), and Priest (Tony Curran). Blade plants an explosive on the back of Reinhardt's head to keep him under control.

The group starts at a vampire nightclub; while Whistler acts as a sniper to guard Scud in the team's transport. The group finds out that the Reapers are immune to silver, physically stronger than normal vampires, and resistant to normally crippling injuries. Priest is bitten, transformed and subsequently mercy-killed; Lighthammer is bitten but conceals the bite. Outside, Whistler disappears and Scud is attacked by several Reapers, which he drives off with UV lights. Blade fights Nomak, who is immune even to Blade's anti-coagulant spikes. After a stalemated battle, Nomak retreats because of the sunlight. Whistler returns after the battle and reveals his finding of the Reaper Nest down om the sewer. Nyssa dissects a dead Reaper to learn more about them; Scud and Whistler make ultraviolet weapons for the team.

Upon entering the Reaper nest, the group spreads out. Lighthammer transforms into a Reaper and kills Snowman. He then chases down Verlaine who kills both herself and him by exposing them both to sunlight. Chupa and Reinhardt begin provoking and assaulting Whistler, who sprays Chupa with a Reaper pheromone. This attracts a horde which kills Chupa, while Whistler runs off. Asad and Nyssa walk into a nest and Asad is pulled underwater and killed. Blade saves Nyssa and uses a UV-emitting bomb which destroys all of the Reapers with the exception of Nomak. Nyssa and Reinhardt escape the blast.

Damaskinos' forces betray and capture Blade, Whistler, and Scud. It is revealed that the Reapers' exist as a result of Damaskinos' efforts to create a stronger breed of vampires. Nomak, the first Reaper, is his own son; and thus is Nyssa's brother. Scud is also revealed to be one of Damaskinos' familiars. However, Blade, having been suspicious of him since the beginning of their involvement with Damaskinos, kills Scud with Reinhardt's bomb after he reclaims it. Believing the Reapers are gone; Damaskinos plans to dissect Blade to learn the secret behind Daywalkers'. He traps Blade and begins draining his blood. Whistler escapes and frees Blade, killing Damaskinos' human lawyer Karel Kounen in the process. Whistler takes Blade to the Blood pool where Damaskinos drinks blood and Blade restores his strength and fights his way through Damaskinos' henchmen and kills Reinhardt.

Meanwhile, Nomak enters Damaskinos' stronghold seeking revenge on his father. Nyssa, disillusioned with her father, betrays Damaskinos by sealing off their escape route to the heliport. Damaskinos is killed by Nomak after failing to negotiate with him. Nomak then bites Nyssa, infecting her with the Reaper virus while drinking her blood. Blade then confronts Nomak and the two engage in a brutal fight. Eventually, Blade fatally stabs Nomak in his only weak spot. With his revenge complete, and wanting to end the suffering, Nomak pushes the blade further in; killing himself. Blade carries Nyssa outside; fulfilling her wish to see sunshine with her own eyes. She dies peacefully.

With the crisis over, Blade goes to London where he tracks Rush down and kills him.

Cast

• Wesley Snipes as Eric Brooks / Blade: a half-vampire "daywalker" who hunts vampires. Wesley Snipes stated that while such a character is not going to have much emotional depth, he then stated: "there's some acting involved in creating the character and making him believable and palatable."
• Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler, Blade's human mentor and weaponsmith.
• Ron Perlman as Reinhardt, leader of the Bloodpack, who bears a particular grudge against Blade. He also seems to be a racist, cracking a joke about Blade's skin color. Guillermo del Toro also referred to him as a "Nazi" in the movie's commentary.
• Leonor Varela as Nyssa Damaskinos, an unapologetic, natural-born vampire and daughter to Damaskinos. She is unaware of his darker activities, and does not realize that he values his experiments more than her.
• Norman Reedus as Josh / Scud, a young, pot-smoking weaponsmith who aids Blade in Whistler's absence.
• Thomas Kretschmann as Eli Damaskinos, an ancient vampire who is obsessed with creating a superior race of vampires as his legacy.
• Luke Goss as Jared Nomak, Patient zero and carrier of the Reaper virus. He bears a grudge against his father, Eli Damaskinos for creating him.
• Matt Schulze as Chupa, a pugnacious member of the Bloodpack who bears a particular grudge against Whistler.
• Danny John-Jules as Asad, a "well-mannered" member of the Bloodpack. He seems to be the least volatile and most intelligent member.
• Donnie Yen as Snowman, a mute swordsman and member of the Bloodpack. Yen also served as the fight choreographer for the film.
• Karel Roden as Karel Kounen, a "familiar", Damaskinos's human agent and lawyer.
• Marit Velle Kile as Verlaine, a red-haired member of the Bloodpack and the lover of Lighthammer.
• Darren "Daz" Crawford as Lighthammer, a hulking, hammer-wielding member of the Bloodpack with Māori facial tattoos. He and Verlaine seem to be romantically involved. However, he is infected during the attack on the House of Pain, and subsequently turns.
• Tony Curran as Priest, an Irish-accented member of the Bloodpack. He is the first Bloodpack member to be infected by the Reaper Virus, and begins to turn. Blade exposes him to sunlight to finally kill him in an act of mercy, as his transformation into a Reaper is agonizing.
• Santiago Segura as Rush, a vampire flunky in Prague. He seems to be much more timid and cowardly than most vampires.

Production

Following the success of the original film, New Line and Marvel made plans for a sequel in 1999. It is said that the film was going to introduce Hannibal King and Frank Drake in the series as well as a time travel storyline where Blade goes years in the future. Guillermo del Toro was hired to direct Blade II by New Line production president Michael De Luca after Stephen Norrington turned down the offer to direct the sequel. Goyer and Frankfurt both admired director Guillermo del Toro and believed his dark sensibilities to be ideal for Blade II. Frankfurt first met del Toro when Frankfurt's design company, Imaginary Forces, did the title sequences for Mimic. "I admired Mimic and got to know Guillermo through that film," says Frankfurt. "Both David Goyer and I have been fans of his since Cronos and were enthusiastic about him coming on board. Guillermo is such a visual director and has a very strong sense of how he wants a movie to look. When you sign on with someone like Guillermo you're not going to tell him what the movie should look like, you're going to let him run with it." Like Goyer, del Toro has a passion for comic books. "Guillermo was weaned on comic books, as was I," says Goyer. "I was a huge comic book collector... my brother and I had about twelve thousand comic books that we assembled when we were kids, so I know my background." Tippett Studio provided computer-generated visual effects, including digital doubles of some of the characters.

Del Toro chose not to alter the script too much from the ideas created by Goyer and Snipes. "I wanted the movie to have a feeling of both a comic book and Japanese animation," said the director. "I resurrected those sources and viewed them again. I dissected most of the dailies from the first movie; I literally grabbed about four boxes of tapes and one by one saw every single tape from beginning to end until I perfectly understood where the language of the first film came from. I studied the style of the first one and I think Norrington used a tremendous narrative style. His work is very elegant."

Stepping back into Blade's shoes was a challenge Wesley Snipes relished. "I love playing this role. It's fun as an actor to test your skills at doing a sequel, to see if you can recreate something that you did," Snipes says. Peter Frankfurt adds, "Wesley is Blade; so much of the character was invented by Wesley and his instincts are so spot on. He takes his fighting, his weapons and attitude very seriously. He's incredibly focused, but he's also very cool and fun."

"Wesley knows Blade better than David Goyer, better than me, better than anyone else involved in the franchise," adds del Toro. "He instinctively knows what the character would and wouldn't do, and every time he twists something around, something better would come out."

Filming took place in Prague, Czech Republic including the Barrandov Studios, as well as London from March 12, 2001 and concluded July 2, 2001.

Release

Box office

Blade II was released on March 22, 2002. This was during a period of the year (months March and April) considered to be a bad time for sequels to be released. Despite this, the film became the most successful film of the Blade series, making $80 million in the United States and $150 million worldwide. In its opening weekend, the film earned $32,528,016 from 2,707 theaters but dropped 59% of its earnings in its second week, which brought in $13.2 million. The intake is believed to be affected (in part) by the pull of NCAA basketball Final Four games. The film debuted in the United Kingdom at number one, making $3.6 million from 355 theatres and held the spot for the following week, where it had earned $7.9 million, despite a 47% decline. The film was also number one in Singapore, making $214,000 from 30 theatres.

Critical reception

Reaction to Blade II among critics has been mixed to positive. The film earned a 57% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, stating: "Blade II is a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons." Conversely, James Berardinelli gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, stating: "Blade II is for those undiscriminating movie-goers who want nothing more from a trip to the multiplex than loud, raucous, mindless entertainment."

Home media

The New Line Platinum Series DVD contains several deleted scenes, including a flashback sequence showing Blade's first meeting with Whistler.

A Blu-ray version was released in 2012.

Other media

Main article: Blade II (video game)

A video game of the same name and based on the movie was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on September 3, 2002.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link

Blade II: The Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the film, Blade II. It was released on March 19, 2002 through Immortal Records and Virgin Records, and featured collaborations between hip hop artists and electronic artists. This was similar to other releases from Immortal Records such as the soundtracks for the films Judgment Night (1993) which featured collaborations between rock and hip hop performers, and on the soundtrack for the film adaptation for Spawn (1997) which featured collaborations between rock and electronic artists. This soundtrack appeared on four different Billboard charts.

Track Listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Performer(s)	Length
1.	"Blade" (Theme from Blade)		Danny Saber & Marco Beltrami	3:04
2.	"Cowboy"		Eve & Fatboy Slim	5:31
3.	"I Against I"		Mos Def & Massive Attack	5:40
4.	"Right Here, Right Now"		Ice Cube & Paul Oakenfold	4:10
5.	"Tao of the Machine"		The Roots & BT	3:16
6.	"Child of the Wild West"		Cypress Hill & Roni Size	4:14
7.	"The One"		Busta Rhymes / Silkk the Shocker & Dub Pistols	3:44
8.	"We Be Like This"		Fabolous / Jadakiss & Danny Saber	5:45
9.	"Gorillaz on My Mind"		Redman & Gorillaz	4:29
10.	"Gangsta Queens"		Trina / Rah Digga & Groove Armada	3:54
11.	"PHDream"		Bubba Sparxxx & The Crystal Method / Tom Morello	3:52
12.	"Raised in the Hood"		Volume 10 & Roni Size	3:26
13.	"Gettin' Aggressive" (Mowo! Mix)		Mystikal & Moby	3:38
14.	"Mind What You Say" (Bonus Track)		Buppy	3:59
15.	"Tonight The Stars Revolt!" (Electronic Rock & Nu Metal)	Spider	Powerman 5000	2:45
16.	"The Name Of The Game" (Electronica)		The Crystal Method featuring. Tom Morello	4:21
Total length:				55:62

See also

• Vampire film

External links

• Blade II at IMDb
• Blade II at Box Office Mojo
• Blade II at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blade II at Metacritic
• Blade II at Marvel.com
• Blade II script