Blade: Trinity

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Blade: Trinity
Promotional poster for Blade: Trinity
Directed by	David S. Goyer
Written by	Comic Book: Marv Wolfman Gene Colan Screenplay: David S. Goyer
Starring	Wesley Snipes Kris Kristofferson Ryan Reynolds Jessica Biel Dominic Purcell
Music by	Ramin Djawadi RZA
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	December 8, 2004
Running time	113 min.
Language	English Esperanto
Preceded by	Blade II
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Blade: Trinity is a 2004 film, written and directed by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the screenplays to the first two Blade movies. It is the third and final film in the Blade trilogy, following on from Blade and Blade II and it is based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, played by Wesley Snipes. The title alludes to the trinity formed between Blade, Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler in the movie. The story continues on in Blade: The Series.

It was originally expected that Guillermo del Toro, who directed Blade II, would direct. He passed on the project, however, to work on his "dream project" Hellboy.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Reception 4 Music 5 Products used in the film 6 Production notes 7 Trivia 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Plot

The vampires succeed in framing Blade for the killing of several humans (familiars being used as bait). Blade, now in the public's eye and wanted by the FBI is chased down to his hideout where Abraham Whistler triggers the building to explode, sacrificing himself. After getting captured by the vampire controlled police, Blade is rescued by the Nightstalkers, a human clan of vampire hunters. They are led by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) an ex-vampire, and Abigail, the daughter of Blade's mentor, Abraham Whistler. They ask his help to go after Danica Talos (Parker Posey) a powerful vampire gang leader, who has succeeded in locating and resurrecting the ancient first vampire Dracula, or as he is now commonly known as Drake. She hopes that he will finally be able to kill Blade. While causing havoc in modern LA, Drake and Blade face off for the first time, Drake showing a sort of affinity for Blade, as they are both "honourable warriors". After this brief struggle Blade realizes that normal combat won't be enough to take down Drake, and he learns of a bioweapon named the Daystar that the Nightstalkers had been working on, that will wipe out all vampires. The catch: they need a sample of Drake's blood, as his vampiric genes are "pure", to make the virus work. While Blade and Abigail are out hunting, Drake finds their base of operations, nearly killing the entire staff, and capturing Hannibal, who was injured in their last encounter. In a desperate attempt to rescue the soon to be revamped Hannibal, Blade and Abigail storm Drake's skyscraper fortress, and confront him. After a prolonged battle, Blade draws Drake's blood and releases the Daystar, wiping out all vampire life.

From here there are multiple endings:

• Theatrical Ending: As Blade fought honourably, Drake gives him a "parting gift" by transforming his body into a replica of Blade's just before he dies. The FBI captures the body of who they think is Blade and thus call off their manhunt for Blade, but the body transforms back into the corpse of Drake at the morgue. The movie ends with Blade driving off into the night to continue the unending war against the vampires. This is the version of the ending seen in the theatrical version of the film.

• Director's Cut Ending: The body captured by the FBI is Blade, but he's not really dead. He sits up abruptly in the morgue, attacks the FBI agents, and appears ready to bite a nurse on the neck. The ending is ambiguous as to whether Blade retains his humanity or gives in to his vampiric thirst, thus becoming the new vampire messiah as Drake predicted. This is the ending seen on the director's cut of the film, and commentary on the DVD indicates it was the ending director Goyer intended.

• Werewolf Ending: The Daystar virus circles the globe and wipes out all vampires. Blade walks off into the sunset, his long battle finally over. The final shot is of the Nightstalkers battling a new enemy... werewolves. This version of the ending was used in the novelization of the film and is included on the DVD as an extra, however it was rejected for use in the film itself early on in production, due to similarities to the vampires vs. werewolves film Underworld, the incontinuity with the backstory, and for simply being too silly in Goyer's opinion.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Wesley Snipes	Blade
Kris Kristofferson	Abraham Whistler
Ryan Reynolds	Hannibal King
Jessica Biel	Abigail Whistler
Parker Posey	Danica Talos
Cascy Beddow	Flick
Dominic Purcell	Dracula / Drake
Callum Keith Rennie	Asher Talos
Paul Anthony	Wolfe
John Ashker	Campbell
Mark Berry	Chief Martin Vreede
Eric Bogosian	Bentley Tittle
Steve Braun	FBI Agent Wilson Hale
Michel Cook	SWAT Member
Scott Heindl	Gedge
John Michael Higgins	Dr. Edgar Vance
Triple H (Paul Michael Levesque)	Jarko Grimwood
Natasha Lyonne	Sommerfield
Patton Oswalt	Hedges
Haili Page	Zoe
James Remar	Ray Cumberland
Ron Selmour	Dex
Françoise Yip	Virago

[edit] Reception

The film's American box office take proved disappointing, at around only $50m. Internationally it was somewhat more successful, pulling the film's overall gross to $130m, matching the first Blade's take but coming behind Blade II, which grossed $150m worldwide.

[edit] Music

The music score is composed by Ramin Djawadi & RZA. The soundtrack is on New Line Records.

1. "Fatal" (The RZA)
2. "I Gotta Get Paid" (Lil' Flip Feat. Ghostface Killah & Raekwon Of Wu-Tang Clan)
3. "When The Guns Come Out" (Wc, E-40 & Christ Bearer Of Northstar)
4. "Thirsty" (Ol' Dirty Bastard And Black Keith)
5. "Daywalkers" (Ramin Djawadi & The RZA)
6. "Party In The Morgue" (Kool Keith Presents Thee Undatakerz)
7. "Skylight" (Overseer)
8. "Hard Wax" (Manchild)
9. "Bombs Away" (Paris Texas)
10. "Weapons Of Mass Distortion" (The Crystal Method)
11. "This Blood" (Black Lab)
12. "Blade's Back" (Ramin Djawadi)

[edit] Products used in the film

• An Alienware laptop can be seen in the FBI office close to the beginning of the film.
• Blade's car is a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T.
• An issue of the Tomb of Dracula Marvel Comic makes a cameo appearance. This is the comic series that originally introduced Blade, Deacon Frost and Hannibal King.

[edit] Production notes

• This is the first movie in the Blade Trilogy series to have the Marvel Comics logo shown before the movie although the logo was shown on the back of the DVD covers of Blade II.
• Blade's traditional serum injections were dropped for this film in favor of a serum inhaler. In Blade: The Series, this inhaler is dropped for the return of the serum injections.
• This movie was billed as "the last film of the Blade series". It is unknown if this statement stands to be true, although the ending that featured Abigail and Hannibal was said to be the setup for a future film starring the two characters (see next entry).
• David Goyer had prepared this particular sequel as grounds for a spin-off focusing on the Nightstalkers, but between the lacklustre box-office and lack of audience interest, the spin-off has yet to garner mention again; however, a TV series created for Spike TV called, Blade: The Series, features Blade's character in continuing adventures. The lead is not played by Wesley Snipes, but by rapper / actor, Kirk "Sticky" Jones). The series picks up where the third movie in the series ends.
• For a limited time, the DVD release included a comic book that covered Abigail and Hannibal's origins prior to freeing Blade within the film.
• Abigail Whistler was created exclusively for the film, much like Whistler himself was for the original. Although Whistler did appear in the Spider-Man animated series before his film appearance, Goyer claims that Whistler was taken directly from him, right under his nose.
• The international auxiliary language Esperanto features several times throughout the film, including on some street signs, when Abraham Whistler talks to the newspaper vendor, and in the William Shatner film Incubus that Hannibal King watches.
• The character of Rachel van Helsing (from Tomb of Dracula) was originally supposed to be one of the Nightstalkers. When the producers found out that a movie called Van Helsing was also in production, they changed the character to Abigail Whistler to avoid any confusion.
• Originally, Blade was to finally have an on-screen sex scene in this film, after not including a sex scene in Blade II, nor Blade. Both Wesley and David Goyer stated this on the Blade II DVD commentary. For reasons unknown, the planned sex scene was scrapped altogether.
• The film's opening chase scene was originally scripted for its predecessor Blade II, but was scrapped due to budget concerns. The director of this edition of Blade wanted to include the scene, regardless of how much it was to cost. Another scene that was included, yet was originally scrapped, was the Vampire Blood farm scene (which featured human victims who were brain dead yet kept alive for their blood supplies). This scene was supposed to be featured in the first Blade movie. The director again wished to include it, to demonstrate the superiority of the vampire race, and that they are beginning to take over the world.
• In Blade II, Wesley Snipes defeated the vampire security guards by using a few wrestling moves (which included a standing suplex and other moves). Two years later, WWE superstar Triple H was cast into the film as Jarko Grimwood. Triple H used a lot of wrestling moves also, including a running powerslam, and his signature move, The Pedigree.
• The part of Jarko Grimwood was originally smaller, but was expanded by David Goyer. Goyer was so impressed with Triple H's work ethic, acting, and sense of humor, that he expanded the part to include Triple H's visibility.
• Apart from the running powerslam move, Ryan Reynolds (who played Hannibal King) took the brunt of Triple H's wrestling moves, refusing to allow a stuntman to "do his job".
• Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds went through a grueling training regime all in an attempt to keep fit and stay true to their comic book counterparts. Dominic Purcell, Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds all went on a strict diet as well, which according to the DVD extras, was something none of them particularly enjoyed. In her commentary, Biel and Reynolds both express relief at never again having to eat the protein bars they consumed during training.

[edit] Trivia

• The first scene shows Danica Talos and the other vampires unable to see in total darkness, while Drake can.
• Drake's demonic alter ego has three-way jaws and a leech-like sucker similar to those seen possessed by the Reapers in Blade II, as do the Pomeranian and Rottweilers to which Asher Talos has ported the vampire virus.

[edit] See also

• Blade The first movie in the trilogy.
• Blade II The predecessor to this movie.
• The Blade Trilogy
• Blade: The Series follows the events of the third film.

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Blade: Trinity on Marvel.com
• Blade: Trinity at the Internet Movie Database
• Blade Movies hype at the SuperHeroHype!

v • d • e Marvel Comics films
Live action	Single films	Howard the Duck (1986) • The Punisher (1989) • Captain America (1991) • The Fantastic Four (1994) • Ghost Rider (2007) • Iron Man (2008) • Luke Cage (TBA) • Namor (TBA) • Ant-Man (TBA)
	Franchises	Blade: Blade (1998) • Blade II (2002) • Blade: Trinity (2004) Daredevil: Daredevil (2003) • Elektra (2005) Fantastic Four: Fantastic Four (2005) • Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) The Hulk: Hulk (2003) The Incredible Hulk (2008) The Punisher: The Punisher (2004) • The Punisher 2 (TBA) Spider-Man: Spider-Man (2002) • Spider-Man 2 (2004) • Spider-Man 3 (2007) X-Men: X-Men (2000) • X2: X-Men United (2003) • X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) • Wolverine (TBA) • Magneto (TBA)
Animated	Single films	The Invincible Iron Man (2007) • Doctor Strange (2007) • Teen Avengers (TBA)
	Franchises	The Ultimates: Ultimate Avengers (2006) • Ultimate Avengers 2 (2006)