Blade is a 1998 American superhero horror film directed by Stephen Norrington and

written by David S. Goyer. Based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name,[4]
it is the first installment of the Blade franchise. The film stars Wesley Snipes as the
titular character with Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson and N'Bushe Wright in
supporting roles. In the film, Blade is a Dhampir, a human with vampire strengths but
not their weaknesses, who together with his mentor Abraham Whistler and hematologist
Karen Jenson, fights against vampires, namely the exceptionally vicious Deacon Frost.

Released on August 21, 1998, Blade was a commercial success, grossing $70 million at
the U.S. box office, and $60.2 million worldwide. Despite mixed reviews from film
critics, the film received a positive reception from audiences and has since garnered a
cult following. It is also hailed as one of Snipes' signature roles.[5] It was followed by two
sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, both written by Goyer who also directed the latter.

Blade was noted as a darker superhero film for its time,[6] as well as being Marvel's first
successful film and setting the stage for further comic book film adaptations.[7][8]

In 1967, a pregnant woman is attacked by a vampire, causing her to go into premature

labor. Doctors are able to save her baby, but the woman dies.

Thirty years later, the child has become the vampire hunter, Blade, who is a human-
vampire hybrid that possesses the supernatural abilities of the vampires without any of
their weaknesses, except for the requirement to consume human blood. Blade raids a
rave club owned by the vampire Deacon Frost. Police take one of the vampires to the
hospital, where he kills Dr. Curtis Webb and feeds on hematologist Karen Jenson, and
escapes. Blade takes Karen to a safe house where she is treated by his old friend
Abraham Whistler. Whistler explains that he and Blade have been waging a secret war
against vampires using weapons based on their elemental weaknesses, such as sunlight,
silver, and garlic. As Karen is now "marked" by the bite of a vampire, both he and
Blade tell her to leave the city.

At a meeting of the council of pure-blood vampire elders, Frost, the leader of a faction of
younger vampires, is rebuked for trying to incite war between vampires and humans. As
Frost and his kind are not natural-born vampires, they are considered socially inferior.
Meanwhile, returning to her apartment, Karen is attacked by police officer Krieger,
who is a familiar, a human loyal to vampires. Blade subdues Krieger and uses
information from him to locate an archive that contains pages from the "vampire
bible".

Krieger informs Frost of what happened, and Frost kills Krieger. Frost also has one of
the elders executed and strips the others of their authority, in response to the earlier
disrespect shown him at the council of vampires. Meanwhile Blade comes upon Pearl, a
morbidly obese vampire, and tortures him with a UV light into revealing that Deacon
wants to command a ritual where he would use 12 pure-blood vampires to awaken the
"blood god" La Magra; and Blade's blood is the key.

Later, at the hideout, Blade injects himself with a special serum that suppresses his urge
to drink blood. However, the serum is beginning to lose its effectiveness due to overuse.
While experimenting with the anticoagulant EDTA as a possible replacement, Karen
discovers that it explodes when combined with vampire blood. She manages to
synthesize a vaccine that can cure the infected but learns that it will not work on Blade.
Karen is confident that she can cure Blade's bloodthirst but it would take her years of
treating it.

Frost and his men attack the hideout, infect Whistler, and abduct Karen. When Blade
returns, he helps Whistler commit suicide. When Blade attempts to rescue Karen from
Frost's penthouse, he is shocked to find his still-alive mother, who reveals that she came
back the night she was attacked and was brought in by Frost, who appears and reveals
himself as the vampire who bit her. Blade is then subdued and taken to the Temple of
Eternal Night, where Frost plans to perform the summoning ritual for La Magra. Karen
is thrown into a pit to be devoured by Webb, who has transformed into a decomposing
zombie-like creature. Karen injures Webb and escapes. Blade is drained of his blood,
but Karen allows him to drink from her, enabling him to recover. Frost completes the
ritual and obtains the powers of La Magra. Blade confronts Frost after killing all of his
minions, including his mother. During their fight, Blade injects Frost with all of the
syringes; the overdose of EDTA causes his body to inflate and explode, killing him.

Karen offers to help Blade cure himself; instead, he asks her to create an improved
version of the serum, so he can continue his crusade against vampires. In a brief
epilogue, Blade confronts a vampire in Moscow.