Know The Mark
NOTE: Sequel to Blade (1998).Prologue: At the Parizska Blood Bank in Prague, Czech Republic, Jared
Nomak [Luke Goss] has come to donate blood. As he is being led into the donation room,
he is informed that his blood is of a rare phenotype. Bad news for Jared;
good news for the blood bank, the phlebotomist says and bares his vampire
fangs. Jared laughs hysterically. Suddenly, his chin cracks open revealing
a gaping maw with a barbed tongue. He pounces on the phlebotomist's neck,
and blood flies everywhere.Two years have passed since Blade's mentor, Abraham Whistler, shot
himself, after being brutally beaten and bitten by vampires. When Blade [Wesley Snipes]
learned that the vampires were keeping Whistler alive, he followed their
trail through Eastern Europe--first to Moscow, then to Romania, and now to
the Czech Republic. When Blade discovers that the vampires are keeping
Whistler in stasis in a halfway house, he breaks into the house and
rescues him, after killing a number of vampires with silver stakes and
bullets made of silver nitrate and garlic extract. One accelerated
retrovirus detox shot later, and Whistler [Kris Kristofferson] is back among the living.Much has happened in the last two years. Blade has taken on a new
assistant named Scud [Norman Reedus] who doesn't get along very well with Whistler, now
that he's returned. The High Council of Vampires has created a group of
six warriors, referred to as the Bloodpack, who are being trained to fight
against Blade. However, a vampire virus called the Reaper Strain has
mutated in Jared Nomak who passes the virus to everyone he bites. Since
the Reaper virus makes carriers extremely voracious, Nomak (and each of
his victims) need to feed daily, and they feed on both humans and
vampires. The numbers of Reapers, noticeable because they resemble nosferatu with their bald, blue-veined heads and pointy ears, are increasing exponentially, and the
vampires fear the Reapers will first wipe them out then start on humans. Soon...
you do the math.Now that the Reapers are presenting an even bigger threat to the
vampires than Blade ever did, Vampire Overlord Eli Damaskinos [Thomas Kretschmann] has sent a
message to Blade, requesting a truce and asking him to join with the
vampires and actually lead the Bloodpack against the Reapers. Blade
agrees, but the Bloodpack--Lighthammer, Verlaine, Priest, Snowman, Chupa,
and Reinhardt--are not happy being led by the Daywalker they were training
to kill. To assure their cooperation, Blade plants a silver nitrate bomb,
courtesy of Scud, on the back of Reinhardt's [Ron Perlman] head. Blade holds the
detonator, and it is set to explode should anyone tamper with it.Accompanied by the vampires Asad [Danny John-Jules] and Nyssa [Leonor Varela],
daughter of Overlord Damaskinos, Blade and his Bloodpack begin their search for Nomak by
staking out places where vampires congregate, such as blood banks and safe
houses, figuring these places will also be attractive to the Reapers.
First on the list is the House of Pain, an old hotel converted into a
safehouse sheltering some 200-300 "suckheads," all dancing and feeding. As
the Bloodpack searches the building, Reapers begin emerging from the
subbasement. About 1/2 hour before dawn, the Reapers attack. The Bloodpack
manages to take out several Reapers with ultraviolet guns, but Nomak gets
away, even after being injected with the anticoagulant EDTA, and a Reaper
bites Priest, requiring that Priest be destroyed in the rising sun.
Lighthammer also gets bitten, but he hides it. In this first battle with
the Reapers, Blade learns that Reapers are impervious to silver, EDTA, and
garlic, and they rapidly bounce back from almost any wound, including
silver stakes thrust into their chests. How in the world can these
creatures be stopped, and whose side should Blade be on anyway,
considering that both Blade and Nomak are enemies of the vampires?Meanwhile, back at the High Council, Damaskinos' lawyer, Karel
Kounen, has informed Damaskinos of Priest's death and warns the Overlord
that he is playing a dangerous game, one that could result in his
daughter's death. Damaskinos informs Kounen that his "friend inside" says
that everything is going as planned. Friend inside? Who could that be? One
of the Bloodpack? Nyssa? Whistler?Outside the House of Pain, Scud and Whistler, who have been working
surveillance from the van and on the roof, have managed to capture a
Reaper who was trying to escape down a manhole into the sewers but got
stuck. For some odd reason, this Reaper is dying. Blade surmises that the
Reaper's body, having gone several hours without feeding, is beginning to
feed on itself. Since he is dying anyway, this provides Nyssa with an
opportunity to perform an autopsy and learn more about the Reapers. She
learns that the barbed tongue contains a nerve toxin to paralyze the
victim while the Reaper feeds. Their hearts are encased in bone, making it
virtually impossible to shove a stake through them. The only thing that
seems to affect them is exposure to sun and to ultraviolet light.
Unfortunately, these are also deadly to vampires, which is going to make
it difficult for Blade to destroy the Reapers without harming his vampire
allies.Scud spends the rest of the night working to build UV grenades out of
phosphor rods. The next morning, meaning to use daytime, the only
advantage they have over the Reapers, Blade, Whistler, Nyssa, Asam, and
the Bloodpack, armed with UV guns, UV grenades, and large-scale UV bombs
go down into the sewers. They split into three units. Whistler goes with
Chupa and Reinhardt down the east tunnel. Lighthammer, Verlaine, and
Snowman go in the opposite direction, and Blade goes with Asam and Nyssa.
Unfortunately, treachery abounds. When Chupa and Reinhardt get Whistler
alone, Chupa beats him up. We lose a partner and Blade loses one, Chupa
threatens. Lighthammer completes his evolution into a Reaper and feasts on
Snowman, then goes after Verlaine, who has no recourse other than to open
a manhole cover, killing both herself and Lighthammer in the sunlight.Then the Reapers start arriving, crawling on the sewer floor, walls,
and ceiling. Asam is attacked by a half dozen Reapers crawling underwater.
Blade sets off a UV grenade, killing all the Reapers, but it is too late
for Asam. Chupa falls prey to Reapers. Reinhardt is being followed by
Reapers, so he sets a UV bomb, but the detonator sticks. Blade radios
orders to everyone to regroup, but the only ones left standing are Nyssa,
Reinhardt, and Blade, so Blade goes back to get the UV bomb that Reinhardt
left behind. Only after Blade has found the bomb and is surrounded by
dozens of hungry Reapers does Reinhardt radio Blade to inform him that the
denotator doesn't work. Holding off Reapers with both hands, Blade kicks
at the lever until it finally gives. Ten seconds later, UV light floods
the tunnels. It fries the Reapers, but it also hits Nyssa and Reinhardt.Where is Whistler? Whistler has met up with Nomak who, instead of
attacking him, has given Whistler a ring and told him to tell Blade the
truth, which Nomak whispers in Whistler's ear.Meanwhile, Blade has caught up with Nyssa to find her severely burned
by the UV bomb and badly in need of blood, so he cuts his wrist and makes
her drink his blood. Suddenly, Blade is shot in the back with stunguns.
Kounen and Reinhardt step in. Vampires from the Council round up Whistler,
Nyssa, and Blade and deliver them to Damaskinos.When Nyssa regains consciousness, she is back in her father's study.
She tells him how Blade saved her life and asks whether he is still alive.
Oh, Blade's alive alright. He, Scud, and Whistler are being held in a
chamber deep in Damaskinos' sanctuary. Just as Whistler begins to tell
Nomak's "truth" to Blade--that the Reaper virus didn't evolve, it was
genetically designed--Damaskinos, Nyssa, and Reinhardt enter the chamber.
Damaskinos explains that he has been searching for a way to rid the
vampires of their hereditary weaknesses by recombining DNA. As he talks,
he shows Blade a cylinder filled with hundreds of small fetal vampires.
Nomak was first, Damaskinos says, but Nomak was a failure in that he isn't
immune to light. Soon, however, Damaskinos thinks he will have created a
new pure race of daywalking vampires, immune to silver and sunlight. All
he needs is to figure out why Blade is immune to light and then program
that quality into his fetal vampires.Whistler tosses Nomak's ring at Damaskinos' feet. Nyssa recognizes it
immediately as the Damaskinos family crest. Turns out that Nomak is
Damaskinos' son, Nyssa's brother! She storms out, followed by her father.
Reinhardt takes this chance to beat up on Blade, but Blade pulls out the
detonator to the UV bomb on the back of Reinhardt's head. He presses the
detonator button, but nothing happens. Scud laughs. I designed the bomb to
be a dud, Scud explains as Reinhardt pulls it off his head and tosses it
to Scud. Scud then tells Blade how he's been Damaskinos' familiar all
along. What do you think of that, Scud asks Blade. Two things, says Blade.
One, I've known about you all along and, two, the bomb isn't a dud. Blade
then presses a second button. Goodbye Scud.Blade is then repeatedly stun-gunned and taken to an operating room
where Kounen drives spikes through Blade's body in order to secure him.
Kounen explains that he is going to harvest Blade's blood and body parts
in order to search for the key to what makes him a Daywalker. However,
Whistler manages to get out of his handcuffs, knock out Reinhardt, and
escape through the floor ducts to the operating room. He shoots Kounen,
and releases Blade. Blade is drained of blood and severely weakened, so
Whistler carries him into a bloodbath where Blade quickly regenerates. The
first thing Blade does after leaving the bloodbath is to take out two or
three dozen guards. Next, he slices Reinhardt in half from head to toe.
Then he's off to find Damaskinos while Whistler destroys the fetal
vampires.Meanwhile, Nyssa is having it out with her father. She feels totally
betrayed because Damaskinos sent her and her Bloodpack out, expecting them
to die. He used both of his children, her and Nomak, for his own purposes,
and he used Blade, too. Blade, her supposed enemy, saved her life. As she
debates where her loyalties lie, Nomak has succeeded in invading the inner
sanctum where Nyssa has sealed herself and Damaskinos. Damaskinos attempts
to apologize to his son for all that has befallen him, but Nomak bites his
father's neck anyway. As Damaskinos lay dying on the floor, his
bluish-green blood spilling out, Nyssa takes off her family ring and
tosses it in her father's blood. Nyssa then offers herself to Nomak who
dives into her neck, too.Enter Blade. A drawn out fight ensues between Blade and Nomak until
Blade manages to thrust his sword through Nomak's side, the one place
where his heart is unprotected by bone. Nomak seems almost happy and, in
fact, thrusts the blade in further, and his body disintegrates. Poor Nyssa
has been bitten and can already feel her body changing into that of a
Reaper. I want to die while I'm still a vampire, she tells Blade. I want
to see the sun. Blade carries her outside. Together, they watch the
sunrise before Nyssa burns up in Blade's arms.In the end Blade disposes of Rush, the vampire he had left alive in the beginning of the movie, at the vampires' half-way house.
Orig. title:
Blade II / Blade 2: Bloodhunt / Blade 2: Bloodlust
Score:
67 %
Broadcasted on: