Blade II (2002)

Blade II is a 2002 American vampire superhero action 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. It was written by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the previous film. Guillermo del Toro assumed director duties, and Wesley Snipes returned as the lead character and producer.

The film follows the Dhampir Blade in his continuing effort to protect humans from vampires.

PLOT SUMMARY

The film begins at a blood bank. A homeless man walks into the clinic and sits by another homeless man (Luke Goss) with a scar running down his chin. A nurse takes the latter man into a room with several people waiting where he is to be drained of blood, but kills his captors and reveals himself to be a new breed of vampire.

Two years have passed since the climax of the first film, and Blade (Wesley Snipes) has been trying to find Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who survived his suicide attempt. He has been sweeping across Russia and eastern Europe, searching for his old friend and mentor, enlisting the aid of a young man, Scud (Norman Reedus), to design him a new line of gadgetry and weaponry. In the first scene, Blade fights his way through a large gang of vampires, leaving one of their vampires, Rush (Santiago Segura), alive. Blade tells Rush he will be back for him. Blade finds Whistler locked in a tank by a gang of vampires who were keeping him alive for purposes of torture. Blade rescues Whistler and brings him to Prague.

Meanwhile, a crisis has arisen in the vampire community. What appears to be a more developed strain of vampirism (dubbed the “Reaper virus“) is sweeping through their ranks, giving its carriers new characteristics. The original carrier of the strain is Jared Nomak (the homeless man from the beginning of the film). Stronger than common vampires, the Reapers have three-way jaws, leech-like suckers and hearts encased in a thick layer of bone, making them invulnerable to any weapon barring sunlight. They also have a “ravenous” hunger, requiring more feeding than vampires, and even their dead victims become Reapers. The reapers also appear to be immune to silver and garlic. In order to combat the virus, the vampire elder (overlord) Eli Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann) sends his minions, Asad (Danny John-Jules) and Damaskinos’ daughter Nyssa (Leonor Varela) to find and strike an uneasy truce with Blade. Upon meeting Eli Damaskinos and his familiar Karl Kounen (Karel Roden), Blade learns of the vampire community’s plight. They concede to him that the Reapers are the greater evil and once they finish the vampire population, they will descend on humankind.

To this end, Blade teams up with the Bloodpack, a group of vampire warriors and assassins who were originally assembled to kill him. The group consists of Rheinhardt (Ron Perlman), Chupa (Matt Schulze), Snowman (Donnie Yen), Verlaine (Marit Velle Kile), Lighthammer (Daz Crawford) and Priest (Tony Curran). The group starts at a vampire nightclub which goes wrong after one of the Bloodpack members is bitten by a reaper.

After a battle against numerous Reapers in their hive within the sewers that cost the lives of some of the Bloodpack, Blade is apprehended by Damaskinos’ forces, along with Whistler and Scud. It is revealed that, in his efforts to create a new race of vampires (immune to sunlight and silver), Damaskinos (using his own son) turned Nomak into the first reaper. Scud is also revealed to be one of Damaskinos’ “familiars”. Blade however, is aware of Scud’s status and kills him with a bomb (that Scud had assumed was a dud). With the reapers gone, Damaskinos planned to dissect Blade to create more daywalkers. However, Whistler escapes and rescues Blade. Blade fights his way through Damaskinos’ henchmen, which ends with Rheinhardt being killed.

Meanwhile, Nomak has entered Damaskinos’ stronghold seeking revenge on his father. Just before he can escape to his helicopter, Damaskinos is betrayed by Nyssa (who has become disillusioned with her father’s extreme methods) and is killed by Nomak after trying to negotiate with him. Nomak bites Nyssa (In order to “complete the circle”), and then attempts to leave. He is then confronted by Blade. After a brutal fight, Blade finds the weak spot in Nomak’s physical defenses and jams his sword beneath his arm, bypassing the bone shield around his heart. Nomak then pushes it through, killing himself. With Nomak dead, Blade then carries Nyssa (who was infected with the Reaper virus by Nomak’s bite) outside for the sunrise to honor her last wish to see the sunlight, and die as a vampire. When the sun rises she disintegrates in his arms.

In the film’s last scene, Blade disposes of Rush in a strip club booth, stating “Now you didn’t think I’d forget about you” and stabbing him in the head through the glass.

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