Blade II (Blu-ray)

Blade II

NOTE: Sequel to Blade (1998).

Prologue: At the Parizska Blood Bank in Prague, Czech Republic, JaredNomak [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 vampirefangs. Jared laughs hysterically. Suddenly, his chin cracks open revealinga 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, shothimself, after being brutally beaten and bitten by vampires. When Blade [Wesley Snipes]learned that the vampires were keeping Whistler alive, he followed theirtrail through Eastern Europe--first to Moscow, then to Romania, and now tothe Czech Republic. When Blade discovers that the vampires are keepingWhistler in stasis in a halfway house, he breaks into the house andrescues him, after killing a number of vampires with silver stakes andbullets made of silver nitrate and garlic extract. One acceleratedretrovirus 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 newassistant named Scud [Norman Reedus] who doesn't get along very well with Whistler, nowthat he's returned. The High Council of Vampires has created a group ofsix warriors, referred to as the Bloodpack, who are being trained to fightagainst Blade. However, a vampire virus called the Reaper Strain hasmutated in Jared Nomak who passes the virus to everyone he bites. Sincethe Reaper virus makes carriers extremely voracious, Nomak (and each ofhis victims) need to feed daily, and they feed on both humans andvampires. The numbers of Reapers, noticeable because they resemble nosferatu with their bald, blue-veined heads and pointy ears, are increasing exponentially, and thevampires 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 thevampires than Blade ever did, Vampire Overlord Eli Damaskinos [Thomas Kretschmann] has sent amessage to Blade, requesting a truce and asking him to join with thevampires and actually lead the Bloodpack against the Reapers. Bladeagrees, but the Bloodpack--Lighthammer, Verlaine, Priest, Snowman, Chupa,and Reinhardt--are not happy being led by the Daywalker they were trainingto 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 thedetonator, 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 bystaking out places where vampires congregate, such as blood banks and safehouses, figuring these places will also be attractive to the Reapers.First on the list is the House of Pain, an old hotel converted into asafehouse sheltering some 200-300 "suckheads," all dancing and feeding. Asthe Bloodpack searches the building, Reapers begin emerging from thesubbasement. About 1/2 hour before dawn, the Reapers attack. The Bloodpackmanages to take out several Reapers with ultraviolet guns, but Nomak getsaway, even after being injected with the anticoagulant EDTA, and a Reaperbites Priest, requiring that Priest be destroyed in the rising sun.Lighthammer also gets bitten, but he hides it. In this first battle withthe Reapers, Blade learns that Reapers are impervious to silver, EDTA, andgarlic, and they rapidly bounce back from almost any wound, includingsilver stakes thrust into their chests. How in the world can thesecreatures 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, KarelKounen, has informed Damaskinos of Priest's death and warns the Overlordthat he is playing a dangerous game, one that could result in hisdaughter's death. Damaskinos informs Kounen that his "friend inside" saysthat everything is going as planned. Friend inside? Who could that be? Oneof the Bloodpack? Nyssa? Whistler?

Outside the House of Pain, Scud and Whistler, who have been workingsurveillance from the van and on the roof, have managed to capture aReaper who was trying to escape down a manhole into the sewers but gotstuck. For some odd reason, this Reaper is dying. Blade surmises that theReaper's body, having gone several hours without feeding, is beginning tofeed on itself. Since he is dying anyway, this provides Nyssa with anopportunity to perform an autopsy and learn more about the Reapers. Shelearns that the barbed tongue contains a nerve toxin to paralyze thevictim while the Reaper feeds. Their hearts are encased in bone, making itvirtually impossible to shove a stake through them. The only thing thatseems to affect them is exposure to sun and to ultraviolet light.Unfortunately, these are also deadly to vampires, which is going to makeit difficult for Blade to destroy the Reapers without harming his vampireallies.

Scud spends the rest of the night working to build UV grenades out ofphosphor rods. The next morning, meaning to use daytime, the onlyadvantage they have over the Reapers, Blade, Whistler, Nyssa, Asam, andthe Bloodpack, armed with UV guns, UV grenades, and large-scale UV bombsgo down into the sewers. They split into three units. Whistler goes withChupa and Reinhardt down the east tunnel. Lighthammer, Verlaine, andSnowman go in the opposite direction, and Blade goes with Asam and Nyssa.Unfortunately, treachery abounds. When Chupa and Reinhardt get Whistleralone, Chupa beats him up. We lose a partner and Blade loses one, Chupathreatens. Lighthammer completes his evolution into a Reaper and feasts onSnowman, then goes after Verlaine, who has no recourse other than to opena 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 latefor Asam. Chupa falls prey to Reapers. Reinhardt is being followed byReapers, so he sets a UV bomb, but the detonator sticks. Blade radiosorders 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 Reinhardtleft behind. Only after Blade has found the bomb and is surrounded bydozens of hungry Reapers does Reinhardt radio Blade to inform him that thedenotator doesn't work. Holding off Reapers with both hands, Blade kicksat the lever until it finally gives. Ten seconds later, UV light floodsthe tunnels. It fries the Reapers, but it also hits Nyssa and Reinhardt.

Where is Whistler? Whistler has met up with Nomak who, instead ofattacking him, has given Whistler a ring and told him to tell Blade thetruth, which Nomak whispers in Whistler's ear.

Meanwhile, Blade has caught up with Nyssa to find her severely burnedby the UV bomb and badly in need of blood, so he cuts his wrist and makesher 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 achamber deep in Damaskinos' sanctuary. Just as Whistler begins to tellNomak's "truth" to Blade--that the Reaper virus didn't evolve, it wasgenetically designed--Damaskinos, Nyssa, and Reinhardt enter the chamber.Damaskinos explains that he has been searching for a way to rid thevampires 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'timmune to light. Soon, however, Damaskinos thinks he will have created anew pure race of daywalking vampires, immune to silver and sunlight. Allhe needs is to figure out why Blade is immune to light and then programthat quality into his fetal vampires.

Whistler tosses Nomak's ring at Damaskinos' feet. Nyssa recognizes itimmediately as the Damaskinos family crest. Turns out that Nomak isDamaskinos' son, Nyssa's brother! She storms out, followed by her father.Reinhardt takes this chance to beat up on Blade, but Blade pulls out thedetonator to the UV bomb on the back of Reinhardt's head. He presses thedetonator button, but nothing happens. Scud laughs. I designed the bomb tobe a dud, Scud explains as Reinhardt pulls it off his head and tosses itto Scud. Scud then tells Blade how he's been Damaskinos' familiar allalong. 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. Bladethen presses a second button. Goodbye Scud.

Blade is then repeatedly stun-gunned and taken to an operating roomwhere 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 partsin order to search for the key to what makes him a Daywalker. However,Whistler manages to get out of his handcuffs, knock out Reinhardt, andescape through the floor ducts to the operating room. He shoots Kounen,and releases Blade. Blade is drained of blood and severely weakened, soWhistler carries him into a bloodbath where Blade quickly regenerates. Thefirst thing Blade does after leaving the bloodbath is to take out two orthree dozen guards. Next, he slices Reinhardt in half from head to toe.Then he's off to find Damaskinos while Whistler destroys the fetalvampires.

Meanwhile, Nyssa is having it out with her father. She feels totallybetrayed because Damaskinos sent her and her Bloodpack out, expecting themto 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 shedebates where her loyalties lie, Nomak has succeeded in invading the innersanctum where Nyssa has sealed herself and Damaskinos. Damaskinos attemptsto apologize to his son for all that has befallen him, but Nomak bites hisfather's neck anyway. As Damaskinos lay dying on the floor, hisbluish-green blood spilling out, Nyssa takes off her family ring andtosses it in her father's blood. Nyssa then offers herself to Nomak whodives into her neck, too.

Enter Blade. A drawn out fight ensues between Blade and Nomak untilBlade manages to thrust his sword through Nomak's side, the one placewhere his heart is unprotected by bone. Nomak seems almost happy and, infact, thrusts the blade in further, and his body disintegrates. Poor Nyssahas been bitten and can already feel her body changing into that of aReaper. I want to die while I'm still a vampire, she tells Blade. I wantto see the sun. Blade carries her outside. Together, they watch thesunrise 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.