"BLADE" (1998)

ProductionDr.alt91/9/96

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PURPOSESONLY

It's 1967, the Summer of Love and --

BOOM! Entry doors swing open as PARAMEDICS wheel in a FEMALE BLEEDER, VANESSA (20s, black, nine months pregnant). She's deathly pale, ~pewing founts of blood from a SAVAGELY SLASHEDTHROAT

A SHOCK-TRAUMATEAM swarms over her, inserting a vacutainer into an artery to draw blood, wrapping a blood pressure cuff around her arm. As the trauma team continues their work, we INTERCUT the following with FLASHES --

2 INSIDE HER BLOODSTREAM 2

The sound of a HEART BEATING, ~ounding as we whip-snake through. CORPUSCLES floating in amber plasma. Erythrocytes, leukocytes, neutrophils and eosinophils.

3 BACK IN THE TRAUMA WARD, 3

A Paramedic reaches for Vanessa's blood-spattered wallet, pulling out her driver's license, glances at the I.D. picture --

NURSE #1 (withstethoscope) She's not breathing!

The RESPIRATORY THERAPIST feeds an endotracheal tube down the woman's ruined throat, attaches that to an Amblu bag --

4 INSIDE VANESSA'S BLOODSTREAM, 4

the rhythmic expansion of the artery walls, pulsing with each successive surge of blood as the HEART BEATS FASTER AND FASTER, taking us --

5 BACK TO THE TRAUMA WARD 5

as Vanessa starts spasming violently. It takes three staff members just to hold her down.

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6 IN UTERO, 6

A CHILD, alive but unborn, shifting in a sea of amniotic fluid, surrounded by the white, protective substance known as vernix caseosa. The HEARTBEAT races like a locomotive now. The unborn child shifts, turns its head towards us --

-- and opens its eyes.

BLADE

Main credits end.

Various angles. A city teeming with NIGHT-LIFE. PREDATORS lounging under sodium vapor lamps. Subway trains rushing past. An ill wind blowing refuse and leaves. Suddenly --

-- we're inside a black Mercedes 850, whipping down the street. Raquel, a wasp-wasted woman, sits behind the wheel·. 20s, rich, sickeningly attractive. Hungry eyes.

Squirming around in the passenger seat is DENNIS, a model/actor boy-toy with a ~ub-zero IQ and a ''fuckme sideways" grin.

Raquel eyeballs Dennis "if looks could devour".

Raquel slides a manicured hand up his thigh, squeezes his groin. Dennis MOANS. She pulls her hand away, downshifts.

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Industry never sleeps, and certainly not this grisly facility. Raquel leads Dennis around the back of the plant, where a host of WORKERS are loading refrigerated trucks with product.

Raquel just smiles, heads on into the plant via a loading door. The workers ignore her.

Dennis follows Raquel through the bowels of the plant, catching glimpses here and there of carcasses being rendered or hacked apart.

Through one partially open door we see what might be a line of BODYBAGS being trundled into the back of a truck via a hook and chain pulley-system. Dennis pauses, trying to get a better view, while Raquel heads towards --

A STEEL DOOR

at the end of a hall. Raquel keys an adjacent intercom. A VOICE answers, offering a verbal challenge in a language we've never heard, laced with a devilish cadence.

Raquel responds in kind. Dennis turns, still distracted by what he's seen, having half-heard the strange exchange --

Raquel turns back, shutting him up with a hungry kiss. As the clench coPtinues, the door behind them opens

MUSIC assaults us -- a beat so heavy it could jar the fillings from your teeth. Brutal "DARKCORE"along the lines of Prodigy or Underworld.

Raquel and Dennis move past a hulkin9 DOORMAN, making their way down a narrow stairway. Dennis is suitably impressed.

THE CLUB

is elite, underground -- an "abattoir-chic" version of an old-time juke joint with a greasy, dangerous vibe. White-tiled walls and floors for easy hosing, chromed fittings, run-off gutters, drains. No bar.

BODIES

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writhe on the strobe-lit dance floor. Leather. Latex. Tattoos. Body-piercings. A D.J. wearing head-mounted spotlights orchestrates the tunes on twin-decks.

Raquel pulls Dennis out onto the dance floor. They sway.

A lupine-featured GAULTIER GIRL with a streak of white running through her raven hair moves in behind Dennis, pressing up against him. Rachel Williams as the Angel of Death -- we'll call her MERCUR~.

Mercury flicks her tongue against Dennis' ear -- it's been pierced with a silver post which clicks against her teeth. Tattooed across her back is a swirling, black tribal vortex.

Dennis is now sandwiched between Raquel and Mercury, the three of them dry-humping their way to every man's glory.

The beat gets LOUDER. The action heavier. The atmosphere more narcotic. People are stri~ping off their clothes, sweating like fiends. It's a virtual orgy. ·

Dennis laughs, reveling in the hedonism. Everything rises to a fever pitch --

Raquel just smiles -- then Dennis notices a DROP OF SOMETHING spattering his hand. It looks like blood. Dennis looks up, concerned --

-- MORE BLOOD DROPLETS are falling. Raquel's face is sprinkled with them now. Dennis stops danci~g. What is this?

Raquel turns her face toward the ceiling, as if washing herself in a summer shower. Now the other club goers ~re looking up too --

BLOOD SHOWERS DOWN

from sprinkler heads in the ceiling, drenching the dancers. The club goers love it, thrusting their heads back, mouths open wide to receive the crimson offering.

Horrified, Dennis recoils, turning towards --

RAQUEL,

whose face morphs, for one split-second, into a preternatural, canine-extended snarl.

,-. (CONTINUED)

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11 CONTINUED: 2 11

Dennis SCREAMS, pushes away from Raquel, only --

-- Mercury has fangs now too. In fact, everyone in the club does. with the exception of poor Dennis. That's because they're~ vampires.

Dennis tries to run, but the burly Doorman blocks his exit, brutally SMASHING his fist into Dennis' face.

Dennis falls, dazed. The club-goers close in around him. They make a ~ame of it, shoving him from one person to another, their pale faces leering like twisted jack-o-lanterns.

The strobe lights quicken to a seizure-inducing intensit¥· Dennis spins, tumbling into Raquel's arms. She shoves him forward -

Dennis lands on the floor, falling at someone's boot-clad feet. He looks up. A DARl<FIGURE sits in the shadows, unnoticed until this moment. As the blood-shower drizzles to a stop above, the figure moves into the light. Time screeches to a halt --

A BLACK MAN,

towers above Dennis, wearing a leather longcoat -- a sneer of cruel contempt etched upon a face tempered by a lifetime of horror. His name is BLADE.

Blade whips open his long coat, shrugging it off, revealing an arsenal of high-tech weapons strapped to his body:

6-point adjustable body armor, an assault rifle with an

ultra-violet entry light, a pair of custom-made, hand-tooled MACH autos -- raw, unfinished, unpolished -- made for killing, not show.

In addition, Blade has a custom automatic cross-bow, a bandoleer of gleaming, silver stakes, an Indian-style katar punching dagger -- and last, but certainly not least, his namesake -- a sword which is secured in a back-scabbard.

CLOSE ON BLADE

A gaze as cold and pitiless as a midnight sun. The vampire club-goers stare back. Nuclear silence. And then --

All hell breaks loose. With a SNARL, Ra9uel charges at Blade, moving at superhuman speed, practically a blur --

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11 CONTINUED: 3 11

Blade draws his guns, FIRES inmultiple directions -- silver-tipped dum-dum bulletwhich explodeson contact. Vampire blood fountains, theirbodies instantlyincinerating into swirling clouds of black-ash.

Blade continues FIRING, then -CLICK!- magazinesempty. Next. He holsters the MACH autos, swingsup his assault rifle, calmly flicks on the T.Nentry lightmounted above

MERCURY

races across the room -- we've never seen anythin~move so fast. Blade's rounds stitch a line of FIREPOWER Justbehind her, but she vanishes through a doorway.

THE OTHER VAMPIRES

surge towards Blade. He retaliates -- a shaft of blinding UV "sunlight" cutting across them. They rear back, skin smoking from the light's corrosive effects. Bladeo~ens FIRE, pumping round after round of wooden fragmentation bullets into the crowd -- vampire genocide.

The strobe lights flicker as the mayhem mounts: Someof the vampires try to flee, scurrying up the stairs, butthe exit quickly becomes clogged with incinerating bodies

-- then Blade's rifle jams. He drops the rifle, reaches over his shoulder and -SCHIN.GGG!-unsheathes his swordwith a double-handed grip.

THE SWORD

Four acid-etched feet of blood-soaked titanium alloy. An edge so sharp it could cleave a shadow in two.

Blade moves like lightning, hacking his way into TWO CHARGINGVAMPIRES, cutting one of them clean in half

ON THE FAR END OF THE CLUB,

a LATEX-CLAD VAMP makes a break for it. Blade flings his sword, sending it spinning end over end -- THUNK! The sword punches into the vampire's heart. The hellish creature combusts, dies.

Beat. Blade retrieves his sword, then senses --

SOMETHING

rising up behind him. In a flash, Blade swings his sword downward, cutting off the vampire's right hand at the elbow. The severed limb falls to the floor --

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11 CONTINUED: 4 11

--but itdoesn't slow thecreature down. It SLAMS into Blade. Blade flies backwardsthirty feet, tumbling over tables, slamming into therear wall so hard that plaster rains down fromthe ceiling.

Blade suddenly findshimself wrestling with a feral-faced, knife-wielding ni9htmare namedQUINN. Wild eyes, truly insane. The vampire rearsback itshead, stabbing the knife repeatedly into Blade's (armored)chest --

Blade SMASHES Quinn acrossthe face,knocking him back across the room. Quinn risesup, charging again --

Blade unholsters the cross-bow securedto his leg. With a flickof a switch the arms ofthe bow -SNAP!-open, drawing the bow-string taut. Blade FIRES --

The bolt hits Quinn in the shoulder,catching him mid-air, throwing him backwards and nailing him to the wall. As Quinn reaches over with hisother hand to pull out the stake

Blade FIRES AGAIN. A secondbolt slams intoQuinn's other arm, effectively pinning him like abutterfly to·a board. Blade strides over.

Blade sheathes his sword.

Blade unclips an incendiarydevice fromhis combat harness, arming it --

Quinn unleashes a stream ofvampire invectives.

Blade tosses the device atQuinn. WHOOMPH! Quinn ignites. Blade turns, surveying hiswork, ignoringthe HOWLING pyre behind him.

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11 CONTINUED: 5 11

DENNIS

sits huddled in a corner, pissing his pants. As Blade approaches, he cringes back

Blade simply 9rabs Dennis by the jaw, tilting his head upward, rotating it from side to side -- looking for bite marks. There aren't any.

Just then, we hear the sound of APPROACHING SIRENS. Blade looks up sharply. From the stairs we can hear CARS STOPPING, FOOTSTEPS

ON THE STAIRS

as the POLICE enter, swarming into the club.

THEIR POV

All evidence of the vampires is gone, with the exception of a few piles of ash and the blood-drenched walls -- everything else has been burned away by the acidic process of the creatures' accelerated decomposition.

As for Blade, he's nowhere to be found. Quinn is still nailed to the wall, HOWLING ·ashe burns.

PARAMEDICS rush past the Police, training their fire extinguishers on Quinn. By the time the CO2 mist dies down, though, Quinn is nothing but a charred "scorpse".

PARAMEDIC #1 (gagging) Christ, what a mess!

Meanwhile, the Police have surrounded Dennis.

POLICEMAN #1 What happened here? (re: Quinn) Who did this?!

Dennis can only stammer, still terrified.

Blade exits into an alley, climbing up from an access grating set low in the wall. As he walks towards the street, he sweeps his longcoat fon,ard to conceal his weapons.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 9 .

•

OUT IN THE STREET

Blade proceeds along, unnoticed by the POLICE andRESCUE PERSONNEL who have arrived on the scene.

CAMERA FOLLOWS a BAGGED CORPSE as it's rolled into the autopsy room by an ASSISTANT.

CURTIS WEBB, the forensic pathologist (30s, white bread, a little on the smarmy side) steps forward, unzips the bag --

It's Quinn, what's left of him, anyway. Burnt to a charcoal briquette, limbs twisted horribly, oozing fluids.

Curtis turns his head, grimacing, wafting the air.

Curtis turns back, makes note of the blackened stump where Quinn's arm used to be, the·ruined throat

MICROSCOPE POV

of a slide-mounted blo,d smear stained with Wright stain (blue ink). What we see is a collection of donut-shaped pink things (red blood cells) intermingled with some small blue specks (platelets) and the occasional larger, light-blue blobs (white blood cells).

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 10.

Curtis sits on a stool nearby, slowly nodding.

Curtis takes a look for himself.

Curtis taps a computer print-out he's holding.

Karen removes her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

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14 CONTINUED: 2 14

Karen rolls her eyes, lets loose a tired sigh.

The dead of night, not a mouse in the house. Curtis and Karen, each garbed in a mask, stand on either side of Quinn's body, which now rests on the autopsy table.

QUINN'S BODY

A preliminary exploratory Y-incision has been made across the chest, stretching from s·houlderto shoulder, then continuing on down the abdomen. Ribs and cartilage have been cut open to expose the heart and lungs.

Curtis pauses, studying Quinn's disfigured face -- the features seem much less damaged now -- almost as if the corpse were healing itself.

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Curtispulls out apenlight, flicks it on. He leans over Quinn, shining the light intoone of his eyes.

Curtis looksup from thecorpse, grinning beneath his mask.

Karen is growing increasinglyannoyed with Curtis' whining.

QUINN

suddenly bolts up from the autopsytable, sinkinghis fangs into Curtis' jugular. He snaps the ~an'sneck in two for easier access, sucking inblood like a livingvacuum.

Karen stumbles backwards, turning towards thedoors --

QUINN

rises from the table, flinging Curtis' twitchingbody aside. He curls his blood-soaked lips back, baringviper-like fangs, emitting a GUTTURAL GROWL

BOOM! Karen bursts through a pair of swingingdoors, rushing into a corridor populated by PERSONNEL.

Quinn is upon her in a half-second, wrapping ahand about her throat, heedless of the panicking crowd.

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His mouth opens/morphs disturbingly wide as he sinks his fangs into Karen's carotid artery and starts to nurse --

ON KAREN

The sound of RUSHING BLOODpounding through her skull. Everything spinning.

ON QUINN,

orgiastic, in the grip of a feeding frenzy --

A HAND

reaches in from off-screen, 9ripping Quinn by his hair, yanking him back, spinning him around

BLADE

stands behind Quinn, firing off a volley of punches into Quinn's face. Quinn st~ggers back, dropping Karen.

Blade FIRES off a final punch, Quinn reels. Blade unholsters one of his MACHs, taking aim, but before he can fire, he himself is shot by --

TWO POLICEMEN

who are standing at the end of the hall, weapons drawn. olade spins on them, seemingly unaffected by the gunshot.

The policemen hesitate, confused, and we're --

BACK TO QUINN,

moving through the corridor like a human tornado, heading for a bank of nearby windows -- SMASH!!! Out goes Quinn.

Quinn lands on the roof of an ambulance parked four stories below, CRASHING straight through it --

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Quinn drops in alongside an apoplecticOLD WOMANstrapped to a gurney. He SNARLS. Behindher oxygenmask, the old woman's eyes widen in disbelief.

Quinn kicks the back doors of the ambulanceopen, then pauses and rips the woman's oxygen lineout for good measure, before loping off into the night.

Blade looks down, SEES Karen bleeding her lifeaway on the floor. She reaches a hand out to him, beseeching. Blade pulls away from her grasp, takes a step towardsthe exit then hesitates.

A flicker of doubt washes across Blade's face. He looks down at Karen once more, wrestlingwith his conscience, finally making a decision.

DOWNTHE HALL,

MORE POLICEMEN arrive, immediately opening FIRE--

Blade hauls Karen up, turning to face thewindow before him. It's a good thirty feet to the roof of the adjacent building, a parking structure, and --

-- Blade heaves Karen across the gap as if shewere a sack of potatoes. She lands on her shoulder,clutching it in pain --

As BULLETS ~ascade around him, Blade l~aps,clearing the impo~sible distance -- almost. He snagsthe ledgeof the adjacent parking structure with his lefthand, a last-second save --

Blade GRUNTS, heaves himself up, crouching besideKaren. BULLETS continues to SPANG. Karen SCREAMS as Bladescoops her up and heads for

HIS '69 OLDSMOBILE 442,

which is parked nearby. Midnight-black. The definitive high-performance heavy-metal muscle machine withan engine big enough to power an Apollo rocket.

Blade sets Karen down in the passenger seat, climbsbehind the wheel.

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Blade places a hand on her shoulder, another aroundher elbow and without any consideration to discomfort -CRACK!- brutally pops it back in place.

Blade keys the ignition. The engine ROARS to life,belching fumes through the dual exhaust. Blade floors it, burning serious rubber as the Olds vanishes from sight ina HAIL OF LEAD.

22 BACK AT THE DEMOLISHED MORGUEWINDOW 22

as the policemen stare numbly in open-mouthed astonishment.

Blade pilots the Olds down the streets, moving through a series of increasingly degenerating neighborhoods, coming at last to the sprawling warehouse district.

The Olds approaches a mammoth industrial facilit¥ that's been cordoned off b¥ cyclone fencing and razor wire. Ultra-violet floodlights illuminate the area, while an army of security cameras keep a watchful eye.

Blade glances at Karen, cursing himself for giving into his emotions. He hits a remote secured to the sun visor --

A gate grinds open. We follow the Olds as it cruises around the back of the building, heading down a concrete loading ramp. At the bottom of the ramp, a heavy iron door rises. Blade's Olds disappears into the darkness.

More UV lights flicker on. We're in a massive loading elevator which HUMS as it ascends, eventually reaching its destination with a BOOMING CLANG. The doors at the rear glide open. Blade guides the Olds out.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 16.

Set up in an old ironworks, the place looks likea cross between an auto junkyard and an armory. Equipmentis strewn everywhere -- mills, old furnaces, guttedvehicles, an ad hoc surgical theater -- all of it jerry-rigged ina brutal, oily-tech.

Blade climbs out of '_heOlds. He opens the passengerdoor and pulls Karen out, carries her in his arms. We hear the sound of HEAVY MACHINERY being operated and SEE --

A SILHOUETTE

standing at an industrial lathe, working away.

After a beat, the silhouette reaches for the off switch, killing the lathe.

ABRAHAM WHISTLER (60s)

hobbles out of the shadows, leaning heavily on a cane. Gimlet-e¥ed, bitter, his right leg encased in a metalbrace. Though his face is lined wi~h wrinkl~s and hi~ ~airh~s long since gone gray, we sense he could kick the living shit out of any man half his age.

Blade stares Whistler down. Finally, Whistler turns a~d heads over to the operating theater.

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Bladenods, lays Karen down on the operating table. Whistler turns on an overhead light. Karen is sheathed in sweat,ashen. She's losta lot of blood.

Whistler snaps on a pair of s~rgical gloves, probes the wound inKaren's neck with an antiseptic swab -- there's capillary damage around the perimeter of the wound, the tissue looksbruised, gangrenous.

Whistler looksup at Blade, suddenly interested.

Blade shakeshis head.

Whistler cracks open a smell"ingsalt capsule and waves under Karen'sno~e. As she starts to stir, Whistler reaches for a massive syringe filledwith caustic-looking fluid. Karen seesthe syringe, resists

Blade forcesKaren back. Whistler readies the syringe.

Whistlersinks the needle intoKaren's neck and depresses the plunger. "Hurt"doesn't begin to describe what Karen experiencesnext. Imagineundergoing childbirth while someonepumps battery acidthrough your veins.

Karen SHRIEKS,her body going intouncontrolled ~aroxysms. The woundon her neck beginsto smoke as the antidote attacks thepoisonous vampire venom.

,... (CONTINUED)

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28 CONTINUED: 2 28

Karen clutches at Blade's arms, di9ging her nails in. She stares up at him with unflinching intensity, likea child desperately searching for assurance.

ON BLADE,

uncomfortable playing the roll of nursemaid. He'd like nothing more than to be done with this, but theonly thing he can do is hold Karen while she rides out the seizures.

KAREN'S POV

growing darker by the moment. The last thing shesees is Blade staring down at her -- then the night closes in.

CLOSE ON a monitor featuring footage taken at thevampire clubmassacre.

A WITHERED, CLAWED HAND

moves into frame, hoLding a remote. With a tapof a button, the monitor goes dark.

PULL BACK TO REVEAL a large, minimalist conferenceroom the House of Erebus, seat of the vampires' legislative assembly.

Gathered around a massive table are the TWELVE VAMPIRE LORDS, representing a "rainbow" of racial colors --names like PALLINTINE, VON ESPER, ASHE, BAVA. Two of them, the FAUSTINAS, are identical tNins -- lethal-lookingwomen with alabaster skin.

carafes filled with blood are situated along the table.

At the head of the table is GAETANO DRAGONETTI, current vampire "Overlord". Parchment skin stretched over skull-like features. Incalculably ancient, but stilldeadly and virile as a viper.

Dra9onetti speaks. He uses the "secret tongue" -- the ancient vampire language.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 19.

Silence. Dragonetti fumes. The overlord ispissed. He reaches for an intercom, tappingit.

Seconds later the boardroomdoors open --

DEACON FROST,

a mere "Underlord" in thevampire hierarchy, steps forw-ard. Strikingly handsome, younger, lessconservative than his superiors, fueled with a passionate intensity. Amongst the vampire community he's knownas an agitator. He's also the vampire equivalent of a racialsupremacist.

At the moment, though, Frost looksmore likea smug schoolboy who's been sent tosee the principal. He takes a look around the room, thenbows his head inmock penitence.

Frost lifts his head and matchesDragonetti's gaze.

This causes quite a stir amongst the other vampires. Frost might as well have slapeed Dra9onetti in the face. The conversation continues 1n English from this point on.

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29 CONTINUED: 2 29

Frost steps forward, emboldened.

Dragonetti looks apoplectic. LORD PALLINTINE interjects.

r DRAGONETTI

(cutting him off) The shadows suit us, Frost. We've existed this way for thousands of years. Who are you to challenge our ways? You're not even a pure-blood --

Dragonetti slams his fist down, cutting Frost off. The carafe nearby cracks, a single trickle of blood oozing out. He rises, indicating the others --

Dragonetti spits out the last word like it was toxic. To his credit, Frost stands his ground, looking to the others.

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29 CONTINUED: 3 29

Frost stabs an accusing finger at the overlord.

Dragonetti GROWLS like an beast, raking hisclaws acrossthe tyro vampire's face, knocking him to the ground.

Frost picks himself up, touches the gashes onhis cheek. An uneasy silence permeates the room. Frost looks athis fingers, licks the blood from them, laughs.

,,... extinct. ' Frost smiles at Dragonetti a_ndcalmly exits the room. CAMERA FOLLOWS him, then holds on the fractured carafe yet another trickle of blood ooz~ng from it.

ON KAREN as she comes to. Her wounds have been bandaged. She rises, a little shaky, takes in her surroundings --She's in a spartan room, like a monk's cell. A collection of knives and daggers are scattered about. In the center of these rests Blade's sword, dominating all else.

on a nearby table Karen spies a few personal effects. Amidst these is a TATTERED DRIVER'S LICENSE. Karen picks it up, inspecting it --

LICENSE (VANESSA'S),

the same one we glimpsed in the prologue. Vanessa's faded photo stares back at us, her face marred by long-dried blood-stains.

Karen sets the license down and moves towards the door

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 22.

We hearVOICES now. Karen rounds a corner and SEES --

BLADE

strapped intoa surgical restraintchair. His shirt is off, his body slickwith sweat. Whistler finishesstrappin9 Blade in,then standsback, holding up a gas-powered pistol injector,hesitant --

Whistler nods, fitting Bladewith a biteguard. Then he presses thepistol-injector against Blade'scarotid artery.

Blade shakesviolentlr, grinding his teeth through the bite guard, veinscording inhis neck. He clutchesWhistler's hand, holding ittightly ashe fightshis way through the hellish seizure. To his credit,Whistler never lets go.

Mentor and student stare atone another asthe mysterious serum runs itsviolent course. We understand that these shared moments,oddly private intheir horror, are the glue which binds thetwo vampire hunters together.

Finally, Blade slum~s forward inhis restraints, exhausted. In that moment,as if sensingher presence, he looksup and SEES --

KAREN

She draws back, fearful. She looks for an exit, SEES anotherdoorway. As shemakes for it, sheknocks aside a tarpaulinwhich was concealing --

A LARGETANK

filled with swirling bloodplasma, chokedwith electrical leads and biomedical sensors, emitting a low-pitched BUZZING, likean industrialtransformer.

SOMETHING

floats within thetank, suspended in the murky fluid --the corpse of an emaciated OLDMAN. Impossibly pale,withered, drifting about like amedical oddity preserved in formaldehyde, its face hidden behind a long veil ofhair --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 23.

THUMP! The corpse SLAMS up against the glass. Karen backpedals, startled. Its eyes are open now, pupils blown. It snarls, revealing twin fangs.

Karen stifles a sob, turning and running right into --

BLADE,

who now blocks the exit, sword in hand. Karen retreats a step, wary --

Whistler has entered the room from a second doorway. Karen looks from Whistler to Blade, trapped between them. Whistler nods at the tank.

Whistler raps his cane against the tank. The creature snaps at it reflexively.

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31 CONTINUED: 2 31

The vampire snaps at Whistler's cane again, following the silver tip back and forth like a fish after a lure.

Karen backs away. She's seen enough.

She turns and runs from the room. Whistler shrugs, rolls his eyes -- one of those "can't please everyone" gestures.

Whistler pulls a hospital I.D. from his pocket, handing it to Blade.

Karen leans against a packing crate, watching --

BLADE

as he suits up for his nightly hunt strapping on body armor, loading ammunition. He pauses to inspect one of his modified MACHs, sighting down the length of it.

Whistler fires up a cigarette, then starts nonchalantly fueling up Blade's Olds.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 25.

CLACK! Blade pulls the trigger on an empty chamber,then checks his next weapon --

Blade picks up his customized rifle with the UV entry light, flicking on the beam.

Karen shakes her head, incredulous --

Karen stares at Blade, not liking the undercurrent of that. Whistler gestures to the windows --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 26.

32 CONTINUED: 2 32

Whistler shrugs. As far as he's concerned, there's nothing else to say. Karen is still protesting, though.

Whistler sighs. He doesn't suffer fools gladly.

Blade slings his CAR-15 onto his shoulder, impatient. He starts towards the Olds, gesturing.

Whistler tosses a small metal canister to Karen.

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32 CONTINUED: 3 32

Karen stares at Whistler, horrified, as we --

c~ro:

Blade drives. Karen's mind is still reeling from information overload.

Blade nods, his expression stone.

A beat of awkward silence ensues.

As they come over a rise in the road, the glare from the sinking sun blasts its way through the windshield. Karen averts her gaze, pulling the sun visor down.

The reaction, innocent enough under normal circumstances, does not go unnoticed by Blade.

c~ro:

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 28.

We are deep in the narrow stacks of a sepulchral archive. Exactly what and where this place i~ will become more clear later on. But for now -

The CAMERA DRIFTS through the warren of aisles. Along the way, #e glimpse a HULKING SILHOUETTE cowerin9 behind a series of Japanese shoji screens. Then we find --

FROST

tucked away in a carrel, surrounded by books and scriptures, with only the SICKLY GLOW of his laptop to provide light. on the screen is a DIGITIZED IMAGE -- a page taken from an ancient manuscript, which the computer appears to be decoding.

Frost pauses, SEEING Dragonetti emerge from the shadows.

Frost studies Dragonetti, a self-satisfied g~in_on his face. If the act was intended to unnerve Dragonett1, it succeeded, though the ancient vampire would never admit it.

Frost shuts the lid on his laptop, rising, drawing intimidatingly close to Dragonetti.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 29.

A beat as the young turk stares his elder down. Dragonetti is the first to lose his nerve, turning away.

CAMERA DRIFTS back to the hulking silhouette, which has been eavesdropping on the conversation, quivering in fear.

Blade brin9s the car to a stop. Karen looks at him. His eyes are hidden behind his glasses, his expression stone.

Karen climbs out, but before she can say anything, the Olds is already ROARING off down the street. She watches it vanish, then draws her attention to the PEOPLE around her -- everyone of them a potential enemy.

Karen crosses the lobby, stepping into an elevator. Just as the doors are closing, a WOMANand TWO MEN duck in alongside her.

Silence, the uncomfortableness of an elevator ride magnified tenfold. Karen can FEEL the eyes of her fellow passengers upon her. Finally succumbing to paranoia, she hazards a glance -- would she be able to tell if these people weren't human? The woman turns to Karen, smiles --

Karen surreptitiously fishes the "vampire mace" from her pocket, clutching it -- and now one of the men turns to look at her, nodding --

The elevator doors open. Karen hurries out, heads left, finds herself in a deserted hallway. She looks back---- then skips a heartbeat as the trio also step out! As Karen raises the canister of mace --

-- the trio turn and head down to the right. Karen breathes a sigh of relief, shakes her head.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 30.

,,. 40 INT. KAREN'S APARTMENT, LIVING ROOM - DUSK 40 I Karen enters quickly. She picks up the phone, dials 911. After a few moments, a VOICE answers --

Karen hesitates before answering, then thinks better of it and hangs up.

Moving hurriedlf now, Karen pulls a suitcase from the closet, throws it on the bed. She starts tossing clothes inside, then catches sight of -

HER OWN REFLECTION

in the vanity mirror. Karen studies herself for a moment, bringing a hand to the bandaged wound at her throat.

Just then, we hear a CLICK from the entry way outside. Karen freezes, listening. SOMEONE is out there. Karen fishes the vampire mace Whistler had given her out of her pocket, moving cautiously back towards the living room --

As Karen rounds the corner, she nearly runs into --

A ROOKIE POLICE OFFICER,

GIDEON, fresh-faced, barely into his 20s. He jumps back, equally startled.

Karen relaxes a few notches, mollified by Gideon's flustered demeanor. He smiles, takes a quick glance around the room, then studies the bandages on Karen's neck.

Karen nods.

BLADE - Prod.Draft - 9/19/96 31.

In the blink of an eye Gideon's affable charm v·anishesas he unholsters his gun.

Karen GASPS. She has a half-second to act in which she triggers a spray of vampire mace into Gideon's face. Gideon stumblesback, blinded, cursing, rubbing the heel of his palm against his eyes --

Karen expects pyrotechnics -- but the end result is little more than an annoyance. A second later, Gideon is simply blinking, ~niffing his fingers,confused

Gideon forces Karen against the wall, placing the gun againsther head --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 32.

42 CONTINUED: 2 42

Blade's hand enters from off-screen, clamping down around Gideon's gunhand, squeezing hard enough to wring water froma stone. Gideon sinks to his knees, GASPING as his finger bones snap like kindling. Blade looks to Karen --

-- then fires a fist into Gideon's face.

Blade punctuates the statement with another blow, then lifts Gideon up and flings him clear across the room. Gideon tries to rise, but Blade is all over him, kicking the shit out of the rogue cop until he sinks to the floor in a half-conscious haze.

Blade stands over Gideon's limp form, fists clenched, breathing heavily, touching down after his adrenaline high. Finally, he looks to Karen

Karen nods, glances at Gideon

Blade kneels next to Gideon. He turns the man's head, inspects the neck, the skin behind the ear

Blade pushes aside Gideon's hair, revealing a tiny, cryptic symbol tattooed intothe man's scalp.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 JJ •

42 CONTINUED: J 42

Just then, Gideon MOANS. Blade drags the man up so they're eye to eye.

Blade and Karen are standing by Gideon's police cruiser. Blade shoves Gideon against the hood. He finds Gideon's keys, moves to the trunk, opens it --

IN THE TRUNK -

A sophisticated medical cooling unit for transporting organs. Blade o~ens the unit, coolant vapor hisses out. Inside are plastic bags containing blood.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 34.

Gideon mumbles through a split lip andchipped teeth --

WHAM! Blade plants Gideon's face intothe hood of the car. Gideon GROANS, coughs --

Blade releases him, then draws one ofhis MACH autos.

Karen steps in front of Blade, shieldingGideon.

Karen grabs Blade's arm, wrestling with him,trying to push his hand away. As the two of them struggle,Gideon makes~ break for it, stumbling across the lawn. 9ladepushes Karen aside, takes aim, FIRES --

-- but Gideon ducks into an alley, disappearingfrom sight. Blade spins on Karen, enraged

But Karen's defiant, she's not backing down.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 35.

43 CONTINUED: 2 43

Blade's face split-second morphs into a bestial snarl, distortin~ with fury. We see a split-second flash of WHITE FIRE in his eyes -- something utterly inhuman -- and then, just like that, it's gone again.

Blade turns to leave, but Karen reaches for his arm, angry as hell.

Blade heads for his Olds, yanking the door open.

We are soaring through the air above the gleaming city skyline, moving towards the Edgewood Towers whose windows reflect the rising moon.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 36.

Mercury,the lupine Gaultiergirl from Frost's club, glides beneath thewater, surfacingat the deep end. We SEE --

FROST

lounging ina chair, 3tudyinghis laptop which rests beside him. On screen isthe samemanuscript we glimpsed before, the lapto~furiously decrypting the ancient language. Next to Frost 1s Quinn, who appears to be sulking.

OFFICER GIDEON

waits nearby, cradling his ruined hand, his battered face cast downward.

Frost just shakes his head, disgusted.

Gideon stammers. In the blink of an eye, Frost lifts Gideon from the floor, dangling the Officer over the deep end of the pool by his throat

Gideon GURGLES as Frost'sfingernails pierce his flesh. In a flash, Frost sinks his fangs downward, tearing out Gideon's throat with animalistic fury.

Mercury rises fromthe water, dripping wet. She crosses to Frost. He kisses her hungrily,still clinging to Gideon all thewhile. Mercury pullsback fromthe kiss, flicking a tongueover her lips, tastingthe blood.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 )7.

Frost drops Gideon into the deep end of the ~ool. Gideon's body sinks downward, his police badge twinkling like sunken treasure.

The Holliston Clinic is your basic inner-city blood-barter establishment where desperate transients parley their plasma into cash. A series of refri9erated trucks are parked out back, with PEOPLE loading medical transport cases into them.

BLADE

emerges from a nearby alley, then cautiousl¥ crouches behind one of the trucks. He ~laces something against a nearby door and activates it with a BEEP. Just then, we hear the · SCUFFLE OF FEET --

Blade whirls, drawing his sword, wheeling at an APPROACHING SHADOW, stopping mere millimeters from decapitating --

KAREN,

her eyes wide with fright. Blade's sword vibrates from the tension in his forearm, having drawn just the slightest taste of blood.

Blade lowers his sword. Karen remembers to breathe. He Blade shakes his head, amazed.

THEIR POV (THE ALLEY)

Blade's car sits at the mouth of the alley. A TRIO of OMINOUS SILHOUETTES are gathered around it.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 38.

Blade looksback to Karen, conceding the point. It's then that she notices the building they're crouching by.

As Blade speaks, the charge on the door EXPLODES and

-- BLOWS the door off its hinges. An ALARM rings.

The silhouettes at the Blade's car come running. Blade grabs Karen by the wrist, dragging her inside.

Blade enters, swinging his rifle around for all to see.

POTENTIAL DONORS scramble for the exit. Behind the counter, TANAKA, a male nurse, reaches for an alarm button. Blade vaults over the counter, aiming his rifle.

BLADE -Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 39.

POW! Blade backhands him across the face hard enough to loosen his teeth. Karen flinches, stepping forward

Blade pins Tanaka's head to the wall, turning it to the side -- revealing the man's glyph. It's different than Gideon's, looking more like a Japanese kanji character.

Blade grips Tanaka by his collar, shoving him through a doorway --

Karen and Blade SEE supply cabinets, cots, a number of locked refrigeration units. Blade FIRES into the door handle of one of the units, tears it open -- the fridge is stacked floor to ceiling with plastic packets of blood.

Blade opens FIRE, sweeping his rifle around the room, shooting everything in sight. Glass cabinetry SHATTERS, ampoules and vacutainers go flying. Tanaka cowers, arms wrapped about his head.

Blade stops shooting. He leans down towards Tanaka, placing the end of his rifle against the man's forehead. Tanaka looks like he's about to ~et his pants.

Blade pulls back his rifle, leaving a red indentation mark where the end of the rifle barrel pressed into Tanaka's skin. He starts towards the exit. Karen follows.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 40.

Blade and Karen return to theOlds. He keys the ignition, lets the engine idle. They'reparked down the street from the blood clinic. Karen looksto Blade, needling him --

Blade points

THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD

Tanaka rushes from the clinic, climbingbehind the wheel of a Mustang parked nearby. He takesoff

Blade follows the Mustang, CLICKINGon acell-phone scanner mounted on the dash. Nwnbers flashon the LCD screenas it searches for a signal, then locks onto it. We hear a DIAL TONE, then a number being dialed --

A "real" voice comes on the line:

VOICE (filtered, on scanner) Yes?

Karen looks to Blade, impressed.

Tanaka speeds, shouting into the speaker phone --

VOICE (filtered, on speaker) Pearl is feeding --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 41.

Tokyo town . A black edifice, no windows, secured parking, no signage except for a purple neon scroll above the entrance -- a FLASHING KANJI, just like the glyph tattooed on Tanaka's neck.

Tanaka's Mustang pulls into the crowded parking lot. He climbs out, flagging away the VALETS, heads inside --

WHIP PAN TO

Blade's Olds stopping a few blocks down the street.

Blade kills the engine, studying The Black Pearl.

Blade indicatesa graffiti-covered wall which has been scrawled with various designs that look like post-modern hieroglyphics.

Blade continuesto scan the area, pointing out a few more likelycandidates --

BLADE -Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 42.

Blade reaches intothe back seat, retrieves his sword and a satchel. He snaps open his shotgun, loads it.

Bladeand Karen climb out. He lets his shotgun fal1 within the folds of his lon9coatand starts across the street. Karen follows, hurrying to k~ep up with him.

Blade enumerates the followingon his fingers:

Blade holds up one of his MACH autos.

Karen takes the weapon from him, eyes all over it.

Blade takes the gun back, snorting derisively.

,... (CONTINUED) '

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 43.

Blade spins around a corner, only to be challengedby a HULKING DOORMAN at the entrance of the Pearl.

CRASH! The front door flies open as the Doorman's body sails through. Blade enters, Karen at his heels

The 'Pearl' is an all-hours strip club cum casino catering exclusively to Japanese ZAIBATSU CLIENTELE. Dimly lit, the air thick with cigarette smoke, deafening MUSIC. Go boards, pachinko machines, sexy little MANGA WAIFS in schoolgirl outfits doling out drinks --

STR!PPERS writhe in the circular "pit" tables surrounded by HOWLING grab-ass men . But that's nothing compared to --

THE MAIN ATTRACTION,

who's doing a bump and grind down the runway, shaking a body worthy of a schoolboy's wet dream. Her attire? A leather S&M face mask, nipple rings, 6-inch spikes, and a pair of panties to hida her modesty.

Blade scans the room -- just in time to see Tanaka ducking into a back hallway. Blade pushes towards the rear of the club. Karen follows.

ON THE STRIPPER

as she catches sight of Blade and freezes in mid-routine. The stripper pulls off her hood. Long black hair with a streak of white tumbles down her back -- it's Mercurv.

Blade and Karen head past the bathrooms. At the end of the hall is a door marked "OFFICE". A SUMO-TYPE GUARD moves to intercept them --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 44.

Blade plants a hand over theguard's face, shoving him back into the bathroom as he KICKSopen the office door

Tanaka spins around, startled, tries to throw apunch --

Blade traps Tanaka's arm, levering theman up andover. He CRASHES into a shelving unit, taking thewhole thing down with him. Karen winces. Bladegrabs a handfulof Tanaka's hair, yanks his head up --

Blade's eyes glow.

Blade drops Tanaka, moves to a wall of filing cabinets. He searches the wall a moment, then finds.a trig9er. Hits it --·the cabinets slide apart, revealing a hidden elevator.

Behind Blade, Tanaka pulls a handgun from a desk drawer, swinging it up --

Blade unholsters one of his MACH autos faster than any gunslinger in history. He FIRES over his own shoulder, BLOWING Tanaka back against the wall. Then he motions to the elevator and nods to Karen

The elevator descends. Then a tone CHIMES, signaling the end of the ride. The doors hiss open --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 45.

I " Blade and Karen enter the narrow, maze-like "stacks" of the vampire archives, weaving their way through shelves of climate-controlled, digitized records. It's cold down here. Their breath comes out in frosty plumes.

Blade pulls a CD-~OM from the shelves, its spine labeled in indecipherablevampire glyphs. He pauses, hearing a DISTANT WHISPER. Blade signals quiet, silently leading Karen through the stacks towards

PEARL'S LAIR

A vestibule of sorts, leading to a larger bed chamber constructed of rice paper shoji screens and tatami mats. Candles glow within, illuminating a MONSTROUSLY OBESE SHADOW beyond the translucent rice paper walls.

The shadow speaks ina tremulous, bird-like voice -- the secret tongue. As Blade draw his sword, the massive shadow freezes--

Blade slidesopen the nearest shoji screen. Nothing Karen's seenup until this point could prepare her for the archive's curator

PEARL,

a nine-hundred-pound andro9ynousvampire of Asian origin, lounging amidst pillowed ricemats, wearing a communications headset. Think of across between Divine and Jabba The Hutt.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 46.

Skin the complexion of buttermilk, so corpulenthe can barelr move, so engorged with blood that he'sactually sweating it from the pores of his skin.

Pearl is surrounded by a nest of monitors andkeyboards which have been affixed to counter-balanced arms --this way, Pearl can access information without leavingbed.

Lying next to Pearl, dwarfed by the vampire'smassive size, is the chalk-white body of a recently-drained NAKEDBOY.

At the sight of Slade, P~arl's eyes widen in fear --

Frost ~aces the length of his pool, wearing a hands-free communications headset, grinning.

As Blade listens, Pearl reaches for his trackball, attempting to delete the document currently on his monitors -- but Blade lunges forward, sinking the tip of his sword into Pearl's fleshy throat. Pearl freezes.

Frost's DEEP LAUGHTER drifts from the speakerphone.

Frost settles into his chair, enjoying the cat and mouse.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 47.

Frost han9s up, moves over to an intercom, keyingit, trying to keep his excitement in check.

Blade tosses his satchel on the bed, opens it. Insideis a hand-held TN lamp hooked up to a nine-volt battery. Pearl eyes the device, fearful

Blade looks to Pearl's monitor and SEES a digitized image, the SAME MANUSCRIPT Deacon had been studying earlier.

Pearl hesitates. Blade turns on the lamp. Pearl HOWLS as the harsh light falls on him. Blade flicks the lightoff.

Pearl cringes, GROWLING, his face smoking profusely. Exposure to the TN rays, even for one short second, hasmade his face blister like a plague victim's.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 48.

Pearl hesitates again -- Blade turns on the lamp for a longer time. Pearl thrashes, covering his face. His hands blacken, the skin sizzling away to expose the finger bones beneath. Karen has to avert her gaze --

Blade turns off the lamp. Pearl SNARLS, his body quivering with poisonous rage. He can't contain himself

Blade leans in close so he's eye to eye with Pearl.

Pearl's momentary fanatical zeal vanishes as he realizes he's said more than he ought to. He sweats blood, his flaking, slug-like lips quivering.

Pearl casts a sidelong glance away from Blade. Blade follows the vampire's eyes to an armored door, then he stands back, handing the UV rig to Karen.

Blade approaches the vault door, sizing up its locking mechanism. He pulls an explosive charge from his combat belt and secures it to the door, arming it with a BEEP!

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 49.

64 CONTINUED: 2 64

Pearl LUNGES from his bed. Karen triggersthe TN rig, flash-frying him to a blackened crisp. Pearlquivers, his enormous body smoking like a piece of charredmeat.

Blade looks back at Karen, impressed. She shrugs.

MOMENTS LATER,

BOOM! The charge goes off and Blade kicks thedamaged door in, knocking it clear off its hinges

Ancient papers flutter through the smoky air likewind-bor~~ leaves. On the walls are a series of glass-encased documents, dozens of pages -- fragments of an ancient, illuminated manuscript.

Blade steps forward, studyin9 the pages. The significance of the find is not lost on h1m --

Blade and Karen spin----

QUINN,

Mercury, and a number of other vampires stand at the entrance to the vault.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 so.

Karen triggers the UV light, but Mercury ducks under it, ripping it from her hands, crushing it. In a split-second, the she-demon has her claws around Karen's throat.

As Blade reaches for his rifle, the vampires converge on him like quicksilver, knocking Blade back against the glass panels. The panels SHATTER, sending glass and prophecy pages every which way.

While on the ground, Blade snatches up one of the prophecy fragments even as he is hauled back up. The vampires fling Blade against the vault wall, pinning him.

Quinn lifts up his "arm". A skeletal forearm has grown from the stump. It's got cartilage, sinew, and muscle, but no flesh yet.

Blade struggles violently, but Quinn is upo~ him, ~o~ndin9 his fist into Blade again and again and again -- giving him payback with compounded interest. When it's over, Quinn steps back, winded --

Blade's head hangs down. He gasps, wincing, every breath sending a red hot poker to his gut. Quinn grabs a hold of Blade's jaw, torcing his head up.

Quinn pulls Blade's jacket open, SEES the bandoleer of stakes. He tugs one out, admiring it.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 1/19/96 51.

65 CONTINUED: 2 65

Quinn stabs the stake into Blade'sshoulder. Blade CRIES OUT, tries to pull free. Karen,who's being held by Mercury, averts her gaze.

As Quinn reaches for another stake, Blade startsto laugh.

It's then that Quinn notices the micro ear-coil radio receiver in Blade's ear. Aswe MOVE IN on it,we hear a tiny VOICE squawking from it

BOOM!!! The wall of the vault EXPLODES INWARD,. knocking Quinn and the rest of his cronies to their feet.

WHISTLER

stands in the smoking hole where thewall used tobe, brandishing his cane in one hand and an automaticrifle in the other. He balances the rifle against his hip likean over-the-hill gunslinger and OPENS FIRE on the vampires.

As Whistler lays down his COVER FIRE, Blade dragsKaren up, the two of them retreating back through the newlycreated exit.

Whistler is wearing a backpack which he now shrugs off. He tosses it at the vampires and runs. CLOSE ON the backpack as it skids across the floor. We SEE a LED timer on it --

The three of them find themselves in a subway tunnelrunning parallel to the archives and --

WHOOSH!!! A train is hurtling towards them. Bladeand the others flatten against the tunnel wall as it THUNDERS by. Whistler sucks air, wheezing from overexertion.

Blade GRUNTS as he yanks the stake from his shoulder.

BLADE -Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 52.

Whistler taps a tiny radio headset curled around his ear.

CLOSE ON thebackpack bomb as the timer reaches zero. An EXPLOSION ripsthrough the vault, mushrooming outward

Zaibatsuclientele pause as a RUMBLING TREMOR shakes the cocktailtables, sending gla~ses TINKLING about.

WhistlerWHOOPS with excitement,loving every minute of it. As the train'srear carsweeps past them, Whistler starts across thetracks.

But his triumph is short-lived,for now we SEE --

THE VAMPIRES

surging intothe tunnel likea pack of hungry wolves on high-octane. A dozen ofthem now -- armed Asian enforcers from theclub above --with Quinn and Mercury in the lead.

DOWN THETUNNEL,

ANOTHERTRAIN is approaching,gaining fast, HEADLIGHTS blinding. Blade shoves Karenforward, out of its path, then DIVES afterher. They rollto safety on the other side of the tracks just as -

TWO VAMPIRES

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 53.

leap after them, hoping to clear the tracks. But they're just a half-second too late and --

WHAM!!! The vamps are struck by the train engine like bugs against the grille of a speeding car.

Karen drags herself~) -- through the flickering gaps between the rail cars rushing past them, she glimpses Quinn and the remaining vampires, trapped on the other side of the track --

Then she SEES Whistler, unnoticed by Quinn and Mercury, ducking down a maintenance access shaft.

Even now, the end of the train is hurtling into view, ROARING towards them some sixty miles an hour. In another instant it will be alongside them --

-- and here comes Quinn and Mercury, RUSHING towards them now that their path is clear. Karen has one terrified second in which to realize what Blade is about to attempt before he LUNGES forward and --

-- snags a safety rail on the back of the rear car just as it storms past! The action would have ripped a lesser man's arm clean out of its socket, Blade on the other hand, only has to contend with sheer, unmitigated agony as he

-- holds on for dear life, still clutching Karen in his one-armed grip. He hauls her up onto the coupling foot-plate, then SMASHES open the emergency exit door. Karen climbs inside, Blade starts to follow but --

BEHINDTHEM,

ouinn is still coming! Racing along the tracks on foot, gaining on the goddarnnedtrain! Closing fast. Too fast.

QUINN

springs forward, snagging Blade's ankle with his "good" hand. The vampire's weight threatens to haul Blade down, who's still half-in, half-out of the car. Blade reaches to his back-scabbard, unsheathes his sword --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 54.

69 CONTINUED: 2 69

THUN](! Blade brings the sworddown on ouinn's good arm, cutting it off at the wrist! Quinn falls to the tracks, tumbling head over heels back intothe darkness --

THE AMPUTATED HAND,

which continues to clutch atBlade's ankle, starts to incinerate. With a cry ofdisgust, Blade kicks the thing away.

Karen helps Blade inside. PASSENGERS takeone look at the pair and head for the other endof the train, quickly exiting through the doors betweenthe cars. Blade sinks to the floor, exhausted. He's lookingashen now. The whites of his eyes are shot throughwith red.

Karen gets a good look at Blade'swounds -- the front of hi~ jacket is soaked in blood. She reaches forhim

Karen places a hand on his shoulder,another around his elbow and -CRACK!- brutally pops itback inplace. Blade ,,.. CRIES out, in agony. Then he reaches intohis jacket and pulls out the small, 9as-poweredpistol-injector we saw w11istlerinject him with ear1ier. He tries to load one of the ampoules into it, but becauseof his wounds, he's not having much luck --

Karen nods, inserting the ampoule intothe gun. Blade shrugs off his jacket, holds outhis arm. Karen pauses

Karen locates a vein, presses the injectoragainst it -- Blade tenses, grits his teeth, fightsto keep his bod¥ thrashin9 as the serum enters his bloodstream. He grips the wall behind him -- the agony he's going through is excruciating, like nothing we could imagine.

,,,...

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 55.

When it's over, he slumps forward, spent, vulnerable, flushed with sweat. Karen stares at him --

Blade turns away from Karen, filled with self-loathing.

Off Karen's surprised reaction, we --

FADE TO BLACK:

FADE FROM BLACK

Whistler and Karen are situated in a back booth, nursing coffees.

Whistler reaches for a pack of cigarettes, 9ulls one out. He thumbs a match, fires up. Takes a long d=ag --

Whistler studies Karen, exhaling another lungful of smoke.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 56.

Blade crouches in thecorner, shaking, fighting back the effectsof anotherattack.

Whistler shakeshis head, f~ustrated.

Karen nods, concedingthe point forthe moment. An awkward beat passes between them.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 57.

Whistler gestures with his cigarette, then stubs it out.

Karen stares at Whistler, horrified.

Karen nods -- it's all falling into place for her now.

Karen enters. It's dark, just a trace of moonlight.

No answer. Then Karen SEES him -- crouched in the corner of the room like some kind of nocturnal animal.

BLADE -Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 58.

Karen takes a step towards him, then notices the driver's licenseof Vanessa which Blade keeps on his bedside table.

Karen draws closer, refusing to be put off so easily.

r

Bladeglares at Karen, his lambenteyes glowing in the moonlight. The truth ofher statement stingsmore than he'd liketo admit.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 59.

74 CONTINUED: 2 74

Karen exits, leavinghim alone with his demons.

Frost stands at theroof edge looking out at the glimmering cityscape before him. Nearby is the lapto~, almost finished translating the documentwhich we now realize is a page from the Book of Erebus.

BEHIND FROST,

Quinn cradles his amputatedstump with his newly grown arm .

Quinn scowls. Frost glancesup at the moon above, which is nearly full.

CLOSE ON THE LAPTOP,

the translating program stilldecoding the cryptic words.

We're on a stretch of raggedcoastline. At the water's edge we find

FROST,

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 60.

grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He's dressed fromhead to toe in a black motorcycle suit -- boots, gloves; avisored helmet tucked under one arm. Mercury and Quinn are standing nearby, similarly attired.

DRAGONETTI

struggles before them. His wrists have been bound behind his back, his face has been covered with a black condemned man's hood.

Frost steps fonrard, pulling tha hood off, turning him towards the open sea. Dragonetti stares, horrified.

Frost checks his.watch. On the horizon, a SLIVER OF GOLD appears. Frost yanks Dragorietti'scoat back, tearing it from his shoulders. Dragonetti clings to his dignity.

Dragonetti's words cut deeper than Frost ~ould like to admit. Frost lifts a pair of pliers into view.

Quinn grabs Dragonetti from behind, forcing the aging vampire's mouth open. As Dragonetti SHRIEKS, Frost reaches in and methodically rips the Overlord's fangs out.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 61.

76 CONTINUED: 2 76

Frost forces Dragonetti to his knees, the sea foam washing around him. As the first rays of daylight fall upon Dragonetti, he HOWLS. His skin begins to sizzle and smoke, then he catches fire, like paper beneath a magnifying glass.

As the red sun rises in all its glory, Frost flips down the visor of his helmet. Quinn and Mercury follow suit as --

DRAGONETTI

suddenly EXPLODES in a flash of BLINDING WHITE LIGHT.

Once again, the vampire Lords are gathered. Only this time,

FROST

is sitting in Dragonetti's chair. All eyes ar~ on him. He reaches into his pocket, fishing something out, casually tossing it onto the table

DRAGONETTI'S BLOODY FANGS

CLINK across the tabletop, coming to a rest before a terrified Pallintine.

Frost looks at each of the vampire Lords in turn. No one says a word.

Karen and Whistler are at the back of a van, unloading a host of new medical equipment -- from centrifuges to genetic sequencers and beyond.

Blade emerges from his room, looks to Karen. As if by silent agreement, last night's words go unacknowledged. He straps on his bandoleer of stakes, secures his scabbard.

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Karen looks to Blade, who shrugs. She opens a refrigerator, removing a syringe filled with blue fluid.

,...

to treat blood-clots. Vampire blood is thinner than humans, though. Watch what happens when I introduce some into a sample --

Karen gestures to the microscope. Blade takes a look

BLADE'S POV

Vampire blood cells swirling about.

Karen injects the contents of the syringe onto the slide of cells -- the reaction is immediate. The vampire blood turns black, then begins violently bubbling.

Blade lifts his head away from the microscope just in time -- the blood on the slide atomizes, exploding outward in a fine mist which bursts apart the glass lens of the scope.

Whistler chuckles, then limps away.

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78 CONTINUED: 2 78

Blade moves to follow, but Karen stops him --

Blade grudgingly rol~s up his sleeve. As Karen takes her sample, Blade looks to Whistler. The older man brings a handkerchief to his lips, coughing into it.

Karen watches as Blade's blood flows into the vacutainer. She fills the first, then inserts another.

,..

die -- end of story.

Karen finishes. Blade rolls up his sleeve.

Blade slips his MACH autos into a shoulder holster, then shrugs into his leather jacket, donning his sunglasses.

He heads towards the elevator.

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Blade makes his way down a street lined with vendingstalls, passing MERCHANTS peddling exotic vegetables and cheap curios, butcher shops with rows of roast ducks inthe

BLADE'S POV

Even thou9h the streets are crowded, the people seemto make way for him, avoiding eye-contact.

Blade turns into a dark alley, ducking into the door-iayofa hole-in-the-wall herbalist shop.

A bell atop the door JINGLES, announcing Blade's arrival. We're in a dusty, cave-like room filled with baskets and bottle-lined shelves featuring things like "Toad Spleen Extract" and "Barking Deer Wine". Joss sticks burn, sendi1,g wispy tendrils of incense into the air.

At the back of the shop, an elderly CHINESE MAN in a cardigan sits in front of a battered television, watching a boxing match. He's eating a bowl of litchi fruit. On the counter nearby, a SPIDER MONKEY watches attentively.

Kam sets his fruit bowl aside, leads Blade through a curtain into a back room.

Kam hands Blade a leather valise. He opens it -- its lined with tiny ampoules of scarlet-colored serum. Blade pulls one out, holds it up to the light.

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Blade nods. They both know what that "alternative" is.

Blade closes the valise and tucks it inside his jacket.

Kam shakes his head. Blade pulls out the parchment he took frornPear1.

Kam studies the parchment.

Blade nods his thanks and heads back through the curtains.

Blade emerges from the alley into the sunlight, then hears his name WHISPERED on the wind.

VOICE (O.S.) Blade.

Blade spins, scanning his surroundings -- did he really hear his name, or was it just the wind?

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VOICE (O.S.) Over here.

Again, the voice calls him. Blade's gaze settles on --

A MAN

sittin9 on a bench in the deep shade, his face obscured by the Chinese newspaper he's reading. There's a LITTLE GIRL sitting stiffly beside the man -- a look of pure terror written on her face.

The man lowers his newspaper. It's Deacon Frost. He's wearing sunglasses, but otherwise, he's seemingly unprotected by the sun.

Blade reaches for his pistol --

Frost's hand rests on the oack of the girl's neck. We see his claws extend, caressing the flesh beneath her chin.

Blade reluctantly lowers his hand. Frost smiles. He takes in a deep breath of air, savoring it. .

On closer examination we see that Frost is wearing a TRANSLUCENT LOTION on his face. He touches a finger to his cheek, rubs some of the lotion between his fingers.

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Frost watches the marketers stream past, sneering in contempt.

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Frost liftsa silver flask to his mouth, taking a swig of blood. He smacks his lips,sighs contentedly

Blade'shand fallstowards the butt of his MACH. Frost nods towardsthe girl, pressing his thumbnail against the child's jugular. --

Blade and Frost match stares. The wor111hasturned. Now its a test ofwills.

A bead of sweat runs down Frost'sneck, washingaway a minute amount of the sun-blockingcream. The patch of exposed skin instantly blackens.

?rost reaches a hand to his cheek, then gazes upwardsat the sun. He rises, somewhat anxious, taking the littlegirl by the hand. Blade follows, ready to draw --

(CONTINUED}

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82 CONTINUED: 4 82

Frost's eyes flicker towards the street -- a CITYBUS is RUMBLING by. In a heartbeat, Frost hurls the littlegirl fon1ard --

-- out into the path of the oncoming bus! Bladehas a split-second to act. It's Frost or the girl. Bladelooks back at Frost, having decided --

-- but Frost is gone.

cursing, Blade DIVES fon1ard, scooping the girl intohis arms, throwing themselves out of the bus' path. Thebus misses them by a hair. Blade rises, scanning the streetas market-goers gather around him. Frost is nowhere insight.

WHIP PAN TO --

SOMEONE sitting astride a motorcycle, watching Blade from the roof of an elevated parking garage. The rider isclad from head to toe in a helmet and black leather Mercury.

Blade's Olds cruises into the gated grounds. It zips down the ramp way into the loading elevator.

BACK BY THE TRAIN TRACKS -

Mercury's cycle rolls into frame. She picks up a radio handset and keys it.

Blade enters through the loading elevator, finding Karen and Whistler hard at work. She turns as he approaches -- SEES him back-lit by the sun. She looks pale, the whites of her eyes are streaked with red.

,....

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Blade nods,not buying her explanation. He shoots a glance to Whistler,which doesn't go unnoticed by Karen.

Karen turns,heading forthe back of the workshop.

Karen entersa dingy bathroom, turning on the overhead bulb. She studiesher reflection inthe mirror above the sink, then grimaces as shepeels the dressing from her wound -- the wound isclearly infected,gangrenous.

Karen spins, startled. Bla<festandsbehind her. He grips her jaw, turning her headso he can better view the wound.

Karen nods, shaken. As shemoves to leave,Blade reaches for her arm, stopping her.

3LADE For what it'sworth, I'~sorry.

Blade exits, leaving Karen alone. Karen moves to a grimy bathroom window, watching the sungo down, an unmistakable look of dread creeping overher.

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Windy. Urban desolation. Blade stands onthe perimeter of a sprawling cardboard and plywood squatter'sghetto which has sprung up around the city dump. CHILDREN andDOGS forage for salvageable items, while in thedistance, dumptrucks grind over the dunes of refuse.

MOMENTS LATER,

Blade is winding his way through the maze ofmakeshift homes and ashcan fires. A CROWDquickly closes in aroundhim, suspicious. A BRUTISH MAN steps fon.'ard

The man turns to his fellow squatters, WHISPERING. After a heated debate, a GAUNT WOMAN steps fon.'ard,motioning

Whistler and Karen sit at a work table. Karen islooking at a blood smear slide through a microscope.

Whistler nods.

Whistler looks intrigued. Karen continues.

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Whistler can hardly believe what he's hearing.

Karen pauses we can see in her expression that there's something she's been holding back.

At that moment, the lights in the workshop flicker, then go out. Karen looks around the room, alarmed.

A few seconds pass. The back-up generator still hasn't activated. Whistler moves to the window --

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87 CONTINUED: 2 87

As Whistler reaches for a flashlight wehear the sound of GLASS SHATTERING coming from the other endof the workshop. Whistler shines the flashlight in that direction. We hear MORE SOUNDS now -- WATER DRAINING, GLASS TINKLING.

Whistler raises a finger to his lips, signaling silence. He edges forward, Karen falling in behind him.

THE TANK

containing the vampire has been smashed open. It'sempty now, with ~ust the steadily draining blood seepingacross the floor 1n a widening pool -- and a trail of BLOODY FOOTPRINTS leading away.

Karen scans the shadows. Whistler moves the flashlight ina slow circle, shining the beam over every inch of theroom. And just as he's about to complete his circuit --

THE ANCIENT VAMPIRE

leaps from where it had been hiding overhead! Karen SCREAMS. Whistler is knocked to the floor, the flashlight spinning from his hand --

The blood-soaked vam~ire lands atop Whistler, HISSING likea cobra. And just as it's about to strike -- ZZZZING! Whistler withdraws a silver rapier which had been hidden inside his cane. He lunges forward --

-- but the vampire ducks beneath the sword thrust, throwing itself at back Whistler. As the two of them struggle, Whistler SCREAMS --

Karen runs to a shelving unit where Whistler's weapons are stored, grabs one of the modified pistols.

She tries to draw a bead on the creature -- FIRES, misses, FIRES again -- she's getting more unnerved as the seconds tick by and she can't get off a clean shot anymore because she might hit Whistler too and Karen hesitates now as --

-- suddenly it's right in front of her, rushing fop,ard, fangs bared!

The vampire knocks Karen back against the wall. It's at her throat, sinking its claws into her neck, its pale face leering at her from behind a cowl of blood-slick hair.

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87 CONTINUED: 3 87

And just as it's about to bite --

-- Whistler reaches in from behind, YANKING the vampire's head back, FIRING a pistol into its skull. The creature slumps --

Karen cries out, disgusted, flinging the corpse away from her. As it continues to writhe --

THUNK! Whistler swings his cane-rapier down on the creature, brutally decapitating it. Finishing the job. Then he looks to Karen, winded.

Whistler spins, eyes wide. He knows that voice.

DEACONFROST

steps into the pool of illumination thrown off by the flashlight, followed by Mercury and Quinn.

Blade is led to a ~lywood cabin crowded with candle-lit altars -- garish pictures of Saints and demons abound, alongside bottles of roots and herbs steeped in alcohol, human bones, voodoo dolls .

MIRACIA

sits on a sagging couch outside, clutching a deck of well-thumbed Bjcycle playing cards. She's ancient, with a mouthful of gold-capped teeth and cataract-clouded eyes. Blind.

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Blade approaches, uneasy. Miracia deals out the playing cards on a rickety table, setting them in nine pileswhich take on a cross formation.

Blade tosses a handful of bills on the table. Miracia nods, then flips over the first card in the center pile -- a one-eyed Jack. She sighs, grave --

Blade removes parchment fragment from his jacket and sets it on the table. Miracia traces her fingers over the ancient paper, touching her fingertips to her lips.

She runs her hands over each line as if it were written in Braille. Some of the candles gutter, then extinguish themselves as the wind around them rises.

Miracia's fingers search the parchment again.

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Blade stares at Miracia, shaken.

The old woman nods, reaching for a smolderingcigarette.

Miracia shrugs, spreading her hands.

Miracia sits back, slumping into her chair. The candles have burnt themselves down to nothing.

MIRACI.?\ I am tired. Dawn is coming.

Blade rises, looking to the horizon. Incredibly, dawn is comin9. As he stands there, mystified, the wind picks up, sweeping the parchment fragment out of his hand.

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88 CONTINUED: 3 88

He tries to snatch it back,but the fragment is quickly borne away. He watches itdisappear into the sky, then turns back

Miracia is gone. Blade glancesaround him, but she's nowhere to be found.

CAMERA PULLS BACK,

isolating Blade amidst theghostly squalor. He raises a hand to shieldhis eyes fromthe morning sun.

The irony ofhis situation isnot loston him.

Blade stepsout fromthe elevatorinto the workshop --

The placehas been trashed. It looks like a tornado has toucheddc ·m in.hisabsence. Blade pulls out one of his MACHs, caucious --

-- and thenhe stops dead inhis tracks.

WHISTLER

has been strungup by his arms against the far wall, tortured and left for dead. In response to Blade's voice, a MOAN escapesthe dying man's lips.

Blade rushes to thewall, cuttingWhistler down with his sword, gently lowering him intoa chair. As he cradles the old man in his arms, Blade seesthe primary wound -- two ragged puncturemarks alongWhistler's throat.

Whistler opens his eyes, strugglingto speak

Whistler spasms and coughs,wincing from the pain.

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But Whistler isshaking his hand.

Blade's ata complete loss.

Whistler clutches at Blade's arm, his eyes burning with conviction.

As much ashe'd liketo deny it, Blade knows that Whistler isright. He pulls a stake-·fromhis bandoleer, hesitates.

Whistler grips Blade's hand, holding ittight -- an echo of the actionKaren witnessed when Whistler was injecting Blade with theserum.

Blade fightsback tears. With a wretched moan, he turns his head anddrives the stake intoWhistler's chest. Whistler GASPS, continuesto grip Blade's hand --

Gradually,the lightdies fromWhistler's eyes. His grip slackens. The old man isgone. Bladeturns away, catching sight of --

A SHARPVIEW-CAMCORDER

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resting nearby, labeled, "PLAY ME". Blade reaches forthe camcorder, cues the tape Frost's face appears onthe tiny built-in screen.

Frost touches a deep gash which runs across his cheek.

A FURNACE,

Blade stands before the open flames, heating his sword in the fire. He withdraws it -- it's molten red.

Blade turns now to the medical equipment Karen brought from the hospital. ·rnthe midst. ofit we SEE the canister labeled 11EDTA11 •

Blade douses the molten hot sword into the EDTA canister. The refrigerated liquid reacts with the heat, causing the sword to STEAM and HISS.

When Blade withdraws the smoking sword, we SEE that the gleamin9 steel has changed colors, taking on a bluish tinge, Just like the EDTA it was iM1ersed in. Blade smiles to himself, satisfied.

Sparse decor in a Nee-Japanese vein. Minimalist lighting. The walls are glass. Recirculating pumps send a constant stream of water cascading down them.

Karen is escorted into the room by Mercury. She gestures to a chair at the end of a long table. Karen sits.

FROST

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leans forward out of the shadows, resting his elbowson the table, hands steepled together.

A cigarette appears in Frost's hand. In the blinkof an eye, the cigarette is lit, burning. The movementsare so quick we barely have time to register them.

Frost crosses over to Karen, leaning in close.

Frost runs a fingernail acr6ss her cheek. She flinches.

Frost smiles. Karen tries to keep calm, hoping to reason with him.

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90 CONTINUED: 2 90

Frost reaches out to Karen, placing his fingers against her temple. As he speaks, we SEE BRIEF, VIOLENT FLASHES of what he's describing -- a vision of the vampire apocalypse:

We are in an underground chamber (one which will shortly be known to us as the Temple of Night). A TIDAL FLOW OF BLOOD surges fotvard, collecting into a whirling cyclone. And out of that swirling blood-mist --

Every door and window of the bank is BLOWN OUTWARD as a TORRENT OF BLOOD flows down the entry steps.

A SERIES OF SHOTS

as the Blood Tide expands, manifesting into an hemispherical "bow-wave" of BLOOD-RED ENERGY which mushrooms outward through the city streets like a manga nuke explosion. PEOPLE, cars -- anything in the flash-flood's path is swept up and carried away as the Biblical deluge ROARs ' onward.

Finally, the Blood Tide subsides, leaving the city a dripping, crimson wasteland.

THE PEOPLE

are rising now -- only they're not people anymore. They're vampires. An endless army of them.

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Karen steps away fromFrost, reeling from the vision he's given her.

Frost settles back into his chair, smiling.

Frost pushes a button. With a HUM the ceiling above slides open, revealing something Karen wishes she'd never seen --

LIVING BLOOD BANKS

Sedated HUMANS hang above her, suspended by wires like nightmarish angels, hooked up to IV feeds which replenish various nutrients as their blood is drained from them. Shunts have been implanted in their forearms which serve as taps.

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Karen turns away, oven.rhelmedby revulsion.

Frost stares at Karen with an intense, uncompromising gaze.

Just then, an alarm RINGS. A GUARD rushes into the room --

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93 CONTINUED: 2 93

The ALARM continues ringin9 throughout as we SEE a series of assortedshots. Blade moving throu9h the penthouse complex likea lethal shadow, risingup behind one vampire after another,ending their liveswith a quick stake or a well-placed shot.

Frost'speople arepanicking as reports of Blade's progress flood in. He rushes for theexit, shouting orders

Bladerounds a corridor andSEES a series of curtained windowswith mechanical "blackout"shutters slowly lowering overthem. Blade unslingshis shotgun, FIRING into one shutteredwindqw after another

SHAFTS OF BRILLIANT SUNLIGHT

slice through the hall asthe shutters are blown apart.

TWOGUN-WIELDING VAMPIRES

moveto stop Blade, but they'recaught inthe sudden swath of sunlight and are quicklyburning up before our eyes.

A THIRD VAMPIRE

leaps at Blade. He spins, flippingthe vampire over his shoulder, sending him straightthrough awindow

The vampire tumbles earthward,SCREAMING as the sun'srays ignitehis body, falling likea human comet.

Blade unsheathes his sword andheads out into thehall --

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To Blade's right is Frost's inner chamber. ANOTHERVAMPIRE approaches, Blade readies his sword --

Blade thrusts his EDTA-enhanced sword through the vampire's chest. Immediately, the vam~ire begins to boil from the inside out, as if he were being microwaved. The creature SHRIEl<Sand atomizes -FWOOSH!- flying apart in a fine-beaded spray of blood mist which splatters the walls.

Frost hurries through the complex, trailed by Mercury and a coterie of vampire bodyguards.

on Blade. Up ahead are a set of steel doors with a time-lock mechanism. Blade draws a MACHauto, BLASTS away at the lock, then shoulders the doors open --

We are in a windowless, vault-like room dominated b¥ a series of high-tech STAINLESS STEEL SARCOPHAGI. Think of a h-yperbariccoffin, each unit possessing a small face-plate window through which the sleeping subject can be viewed.

Blade unsheathes his sword. He grabs the lid of the first sarcophagus, HEAVING upward. With a PNEUMATICHISS, the lid rises, belching out a cloud of condensation mist.

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As the mist clears, revealing the occupant within, Blade raises his sword, ready to plunge it downward -- only it's not Deacon Frost who rests beneath him, it's --

VANESSA,

Blade's mother!!! Although some thirty years have passed since the events of our prologue, Vanessa looks exactly the same -- vibrant, beautiful, full of life. Naked as Lady Godiva, unsettling. Her eyes open.

Blade gasps, uncomprehending.

Vanessa rises from the sarcophagus, tears staining her cheeks.

Blade falters, his mind reeling. What he's seeing is incomprehensible -- his mother is dead. Yet, here she is in the flesh, reaching out to him and --

-- flashing a mouthful of viper·-likefangs! She SNARLS and strikes, brutally raking her claws across Blade's face, knocking the sword from his grasp

A TRIO OF BLACK-CLAD VAMPIRES

led by Mercury step from the shadows where they'd been waiting all along. They're armed with TASERS Nhich they FIRE en masse --

Blade is hit by the taser darts from all sides. He writhes as electricity courses through him, then collapses in a heap. He labors to lift his head, looking up at Vanessa --

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102 CONTINUED: 2 102

As if on cue, Frost appears at Vanessa's side, wrapping a proprietary arm about her waist, kissing the nape of her neck. She leans into him -- an act of practiced intimacy. •

• VANESSA

Yes.

Frost kisses Vanessa. Then he kneels and reaches into Blade's jacket, · retrievingavial of Blade's serum.

Frost crushes the vial in his fist. Blade struggles to reach Frost, stretching a palsied hand upwards --

Blade stares at Vanessa uncomprehending.

Blade's eyes widen in shock. Frost simply laughs.

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102 CONTINUED: 3 102

Frostswings his fist into Blade's skull. Everything goes black.

CtrrTO:

FADE IN as Blade opens his eyes, still groggy, his face beaded with sweat. Feverish. His hands have been bound tightly behind his back with manacles and chains.

KAREN

sits nearby, #atching him. From the steady rocking motion and the SOUNDS of traffic outside, it's evident that they are inthe back of a moving truck.

As he struggles to sit up, she crosses over to him. Blade shutshis eyes for a moment, fighting a wave of pain.

Karendoesn't respond. Instead she looks away. How in the world is she supposed to tell him this?

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Karen forces herself to meet his gaze.

Blade stares at Karen, disbelieving. Who could imagine a more horrifying irony? She's crying now. She can't help it.

BladP.'shead sinks, the last vestiges of hopedraining out of him.

And then, as if the final stake were beingpounded in, the truck lurches to a stop. We hear the ENGINE beingkilled, then FOOTSTEPS approaching, and then a seriesof BOLTS BEING SHIFTED as --

-- the back of the truck is thrown open. Froststands there, grinning, flanked bY-"Mercury,Quinn,Vanessa, and a throng of other VAMPIRE ASSOCIATES.

Blade and Karen are dragged from the back of thetruck, which is revealed now to be an armored car.

THE BANK OF EREBUS

rises up before them. A towering beaux-arts edifice situated in the heart of the city's high-priced financial district -- one of the many institutions owned andoperated by the vampire enclave.

Dozens of limos and assorted cars are pullingup aroundthe bank, VAMPIRES of every ilk climbing out from them. They've come to see Blade, the Day Walker, who will turntheir fabled prophecy into a reality.

The vampires WHISPER amongst themselves as Karen andBlade are led through them. Among the gathered faceswe recognize those of Bava, Pallintine, and the other Lords.

FROST

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glances up at themoon overhead, which has reached the zenith of its nightlytravel. He nods insatisfaction, then starts up the marble stepstowards a grand, triple-arched entrance flanked byCorinthian columns. Karen and Blade are dragged along afterhim.

Frost leads his vampires intoa high-ceilingedatrium, moving towards a bank of elevators -- oneof the doors of which is outfitted with ahigh-tech hand-keyIO system.

Frost places his palm on the ID screen. The screen GLOWS GREEN. In response, the doors HISS open.

Blade and Karen are pulled inside the elevator. The control panel buttons have vampireglyphs, rather thannumbers. Frost presses the bottom one. The doors closewith a WHOOSH and the car descends -- down, down, down.

Frost glances over at Karen, smiling amiably.

The elevator CHIMES, having arrived at itsdestination. The doors HISS open, revealing -

A vast, barrel-vaulted chamber lined with recessed tombs stretches out before us -- an underground cathedral of sorts, wrought from alabaster and marble. Restrained. Elegant. Replete with dark splendor.

We get the sense that the Temple has only recently been reoccupied, as evidenced by the jerry-rigged lighting system of cables and work-lights strung throughout -- like a tomb being excavated.

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Blade and Karen are led to the middle of the room, where a stone altar rises up from a dais. Blade is roughly thrown to the ground. He kneels there, eyes cast downward. Broken. His system being assaulted by the devastating effects of the Thirst.

Quinn and Mercury pick their way through Blade's discarded gear. Quinn picks up the punching dagger, admiring it.

Frost turns to Mercury, who's been holding Blade's scabbarded sword.

Mercury draws the sword, handin9 it to Frost. · Hesights down the length of it, testing its weight. With a flick of his wrist, he lashes out, slashing Blade's cheek open.

Blade feebly st.rugglesto rise. Frost clubs him on the back of the neck with the sword pommel. Blade crumples. Karen tries to pull free,but Quinn holds her tight.

Frost reaches down, dragging Blade's head up by his hair. Karen watches on as Frost continues to taunt him.

He crouches down so he's eye to eye with Blade.

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Blade shivers, grits his teeth, it's like he's goingthrough heroin withdrawal.

Frost turns to the others, motioning.

The other vampires retreat, dragging Blade along with them. Karen is left alone with Frost and Quinn.

frost motions and Quinn drags Karen towards

THE MOUTH OF A PIT

some forty feet deep, its lichen-encrusted stone walls worn smooth over time. As Frost gestures to the yawning darkness beneath them, Quinn forces Karen towards the edge.

Frost reaches out, caressing Karen's neck, puncturing the soft flesh beneath her chin with a razored fingernail.

Frost nods. Karen struggles against Quinn, but it's no good. In a manner of seconds, she's falling -

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-- making a decidedly rough landingon a heap of bones far below. She GROANS, taking stock ofher battered body.

UP ABOVE,

Deacon watches from the lip of the pit,amused.

And with that, he's gone, stepping away fromthe pit.

We are in a small, elevated antechamberwhich issituated above the main vampire sanctuary.

BLADE,

now weakened to the point of collapse, futilelystruggles as Mercury and her cohorts secure him to a retro-fitted, high-tech restraining device clearly installedto account for his own, unique strengt~s.

FROST

approaches, still carrying Blade's sword.

Frost cocks his head to the side, studying Blade's face.

Blade struggles to lift his head, forcing himself tomatch Frost's gaze, shaking with hatred.

{CONTINUED)

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Frost just smiles and shakeshis head.

Frost lifts up Blade's s~ord,methodically slitting Blade's wrists one by one. He makesthe cuts lengthwise,opening up the ~e~halic and basilic veinswith almostsurgical precision.

Blood wells up from the fresh wounds, runningdown Blade's forearms, collecting in a cistern beneathhis feet.

Frost watches the steady, inexorable process,then nods, satisfied. He looks to the others who aregathered behind him, watching on with silent reverence.

Frost leads the others from the sanctuary. Bladestruggles futilely against his bonds, crying out in frustration,his body eventually sagging from exhaustion.

VANESSA,

has remained behind. Blade stares at her. As terrible as his physical torment is, his mother's betrayal isworse.

{CONTINUED)

,,...

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,... ; 109 CONTINUED: 2 109

She draws closer, caressing her son's face. There's just a hint of creepy erotj~ism in her action, a dash of incest.

Vanessa pauses, looking back, smiling cruelly.

And with that, she's gone, melting into the shadows.

Karen rises, wary, taking in her shadowed surroundings.

HEAPS OF HUMAN BONES

are piled a9ainst the pit walls -- skulls, rib-cages, femurs, tibias -- all ~icked clean of flesh. Some of the skulls have large, canine-like fangs -- the remnants, no doubt, of long-deceased vampires.

Suddenly we hear a WHISPER of sorts, the soft CLINKING of bone fragments grinding together --

Karen spins, trying to place the source of the sound. Then she hears the SOUND again. Behind her now, closer.

Karen looks up with a growing sense of dread.

A FACE

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emerges from the darkness. Pallid, cadaverous, shedding its desiccated flesh. Lidless eyes like black marbles slick with Vaseline. A mouth like a raw wound.

Karen backs away, realizing who she's standing before.

What~ to be Curtis SNARLS, knocking Karen back into the drift-pile of bones. It pins her to the ground, kneeling above her, GURGLING through its gutted trachea.

Karen SCREAMS, trying to force the revenant away from her, but it lunges closer, lolling its distended ton9"-leoverher mouth in a pathetic approximation of a French kiss.

She fumbles behind her, choking, grabbing hold of a human femur, blindly swinging it upward --

CRACK! The blow shatters the Curtis-thing's jaw. It rears back, falling to the side.

Karen crawls out from under its weight, swinging the femur again and again

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Karen pummels the howling horror, driving it back until the femur actually splinters in half. The creature's head hangs at an awkward an9le now, its neck broken -- but still itadvances, dragging itself back up.

Sobbing, Karen retreats, clutching the splintered femur like a makeshift dagger.

CUrtis charges at her, a blur of slashing claws. At the lastmoment, Karen ducks, thrusting the bone dagger up into curtis' chest --

Curtis impales himself, right through the heart. For one split-second, his eyes widen in surprise --

--and then he 9oes intoa death-spasm, vomiting up a spray of caustic vampire blood-bile, spattering Karen. She sinks to her knees, GASPING, as the thing that used to be Curtis shrivelsup, melting away into burbling puddle.

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After a beat, Karen rises and moves to the pitwall, running her hands over the lichen-slick surface, searchingfor a way out. The mortar between the brickwork is ancient, crumbling.

Karen looks to the ground, reachin9 for one ofthe splintered femurs. She pounds it into the mortarbetween two bricks -- and it holds, working as a makeshiftpiton.

Karen reaches for another broken femur, lodging it a foot above the first. She hauls her body up now, suspendingher weight from the two makeshift pitons. Again, theyhold.

Trem.blingfrom exertion, Karen pulls the right piton free, hanging solely from her left hand now. Though her handhold is precarious, she manages to swing the right handup again, pounding that piton another foot above the left.

In this slow, torturous manner, Karen begins to climbher way up out of the pit.

Blade hangs, head slack, eyes half-lidded and lusterless. His skin has grown ashen as his life's blood has been bled away. ·

Mercury appears before him, accompanied by Quinn. She bends in close to kiss Blade lightly on the lips.

Quinn draws alon9side her, hefting Blade's punching dagger. He places it against Blade's throat, slowly applying pressure. At this point, Blade's too weak to even resist.

Quinn releases Blade, disgusted.

As Mercury and Quinn exit, the CAMERA DROPS DOWN to the cistern beneath Blade's feet. We follow the blood which has collected there as it flows into a crude drain and --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 98.

-- emerges fromthe ceiling of the sanctuary below. The stream of blood isdirected down the channels of a spiral column, where itfinally pools into a waiting chalice.

PULL BACK TO REVEAL

the sanctuary in full. A large circular chamber, the perimeter ofwhich is linedwith recessed alcoves housing the remains ofthe vampire ancients, set into the sanctuary walls like cells in ahive.

DEACON FROST

stands in the center of thechamber, allowing Vanessa to disrobe him. Having finished,he turns to face the other vampires, naked as the dayhe was born.

A hush settles upon them. There's an excitement in the air, a sense that something remarkable isabout to happen.

The vam~ires bellow out a CHORUS OF CHEERS,their voices resonating off the stone walls like thunder.

Karen's hands appear over the lip of thebone pit. She heaves herself up, collapsing onto the floor--

-- but there's no time to rest. Even nowshe can hear the VAMPIRES CHEERING. She drags herself toher feet, letting the voices guide her.

Karen slips around a corner, guarded, searching. She SEES Blade strung up before her, seemingly lifeless. She releases him. Blade crumples to the floor, lyingstill. Karen is at his side in an instant --

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 99.

Blade's eyes flicker open, fixin9 on her. Inhuman. He's shaking like an alcoholic going into delirium tremens.

Vanessa hands Frost the chalice containing Blade's blood. He lifts it up for all to see.

Frost draws the chalice to his lips and begins to drink. The vampires begin to chant en masse, led by a TRIO OF VAMPIRE PRIESTS -- some long-forgotten invocation in the vampire tongue.

,,..

Blade tries to sit up, gripping Karen's wrist --

He clutches his stomach, experiencing phenomenal pain.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 100.

Blade suppresses a shudder. Simply keeping himselffrom attacking her takes every ounce of his resolve.

Karen matches Blade's gaze, steeling herself. The truth is, she's terrified.

Blade stares back at her. At this moment, he wants what Karen is offering more than anything he's ever desired. And so he rises --

Frost continues drinking down the blood, when suddenly, a force seizes his body. He throws his head bac~, eyes rolling to white, flinging the chalice aside.

And as the vampire incantation reaches a fevered pitch, we SEE the stone tomb tablets off the vampire ancestors beginning to judder -- as if some force within were trying to break free --

Karen turns her head to the side, baring her neck, offering herself to Blade. Blade opens his mouth. His canines elongate. He lowers his head --

-- and starts to feed. Karen involuntarily stiffens as Blade's teeth puncture her skin and we --

Frost shakes, possessed by an unseen force. A wind picks up from nowhere, swirling about the chamber, accompanied by a strange HUMMING.

Suddenly, one of the tombs BURSTS OPEN. A WRAITH-LIKE SPIRIT rushes outward in a fountain of light, penetrating Frost's body.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 101.

Then ANOTHER TOMB SPLITS APART. Then ANOTHER, and ANOTHER -- until a torrent of SPIRIT-WRAITHS are surging into Frost, buffeting him about like a scarecrow in a cyclone.

Mercury and the other vam~ires ~ack away, apprehensive, humbled by what they're witnessing.

Frost drags Vanessa in towards him, kissing her hungrily and as he does so, she too. is consumed by the occult energy which washes over him.

Her flesh begins to warp and melt, fusing into and flowin9 over Frost, so that the two vampires become as one, morphing into a single, polysexual entity as we --

Blade moans, sinking his teeth deeper. Karen's head rolls back. Her eyes open -- glassy, unseeing -- as a wave of ecstasy overtakes her.

She shudders,her breath quickening, falling into a srnchronousrhrthm with Blade's. Her fingers dig deep into his back,clawing downward, tearing into him --

She'snot Karen anymore -- she's a red blood cell, an erythrocyte,spinning in a river ~f plasma, roaring up Blade's femoralartery, racing towards the pumping chambers ofhis heart which beats like the deafening breath of God, which blots all other sounds out of existence and we're --

CUTTINGBACKAND FORTH NOW

betweenFrost's transformation and Blade's, each of them growing stronger by the second, caught in an ever-increasing feedback loopof expanding energy until

Blade tearshimself fromKaren, his pulse racing as --

-- the invocationof LaMagra reaches critical mass. Frost is consumedby a hellish force, unable to withstand the onslaught of spirit energyany longer.

,... I

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 102.

The moon gleams amidst the heavens. We realizethat it has attained a strange conjunction with the other celestial bodies overhead -- all of them having fallen in line directly above the Bank of Erebus.

- Karen clawing at Blade, tears streaming down hercheeks.

But Blade grips her by her shoulders, shoving her back. Karen stares at Blade, wide-eyed, as if waking from a trance. She touches the raw wounds on her neck, shaken

Blade rises to his full height. His strength has more than returned, it's been doubled by the infusion of real blood. And there's something else in his gaze now too -- an animal tury that was missing bPfore. Blade has taken one giant step closer to the darkness.

Blade pulls at the chains manacled to his ~rists, SNAPPING thea apart like toys. He flexes his hands -- fingernails lengthening to tapered ~oints. And he smiles, offering us a view of his canines, which have elongated into fangs.

The aftermath. Smoke hangs heavy in the air, occluding the area where Frost had stood. As it dissipates, Mercury and the others creep forward, apprehensive --

FROST

,..

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124 CONTINUED: 124,

standswith his backto us, his body trailing wisps of occult fumes. As he slowlyturns, we catch a glimpse of his eyes -- burning with anawesome, inner fire.

For a brief instant,Vanessa's features emerge from his own, as if bubbling theirway tothe surface. But then, Frost's personality reasserts itshold on their new form.

All heads turn

BLADE

stands at the balcony overhead,Karen at his side. He leaps from it, somersaulting downto the floor below, landing on his feet like a predatorycat.

Quinn GROWLS, stepping fon.rard,arm-edwithBlade's punching dagger. He offers his second "newhand" up for view.

(tossingthe dagger to his newhand) and now I'mgonna kill you with it.

Quinn charges. Blade meetsthe vampire head-on,dropping into a low kick and sweepingthe vampire's legsout from under him. He spins behindQuinn --

Blade hooks a finger throughthe metal ring atthe end of his jacket sleeve, pulling out aretractable strangle-wire which he twists around Quinn'sthroat.

,tflll""'

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Blade tightens the wire, decapitatingouinn. The headless body staggers about, then drops tothe cavern floor. Blade scoops up his punching dagger

Mercury and the other faithful vampirescharge en masse. Blade launches a spinning wheel kick intothe first vamp's face, SNAPPING its neck. Mercuryhas Blade's MACH autos. She aims them at him --

As she FIRES, Blade tucks and rolls, knockingone of the 9uns from her hand. The guns spins across the floor,where it's scooped up by --

KAREN,

who takes aim at an approaching vamp, BLOWING it away.

Meanwhile, Blade traps Mercury's other hand, disarmingher, flipping her over his shoulder. He hefts his MACH auto and --

A bloodbath ensues. Blade moves like speed-personified, FIRING off one, two, THREE HEADSHOTS with brain-numbing accuracy, cutting down the vampires where they stand.

It's an orgy of gunpowder smoke and showering bodily fluids and -CLICK!CA-CHING-CLICK!- Blade and Karen have spent their bullets and --

Blade turns to face --

FROST,

who's advancing, clutching Blade's own sword in his hand. He thrusts the sword forward --

Blade presses the 9rip-trigger on his punching dagger - CHING! - the two side blades spread out. We hear the RASP and CLANG of metal on metal as Blade manages to trap the sword-point between two of the dagger blades --

Fro a moment, both men are eye to eye, their weapons locked together. Then, Frost's face flicker, allowing the Vanessa persona to surface. She smiles wickedly --

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-- and Blade hesitates, allowing Frost the opening heneeds. He forces Blade backwards --

What happens next is the most blindingly-fast sword fight ever exposed to celluloid. Both men, fueled b¥ super-human speed, lunge and spin across the cavern floor in a blurred ballet of lethal mo"es.

Frost lands a powerful blow on Blade's shoulde, the sword-edge biting deep into the flesh. Blade SCREAMS. Frost withdraws the sword for another srike --

-- until Blade sees an opening and takes it, slicing Frost's left arm off at the shoulder --

The severed arm releases Blade's sword, but the arm doesn't fall! To Frost and Blade's mutual surprise, the arm floats in mid-air, bleeding red, quivering like a zero-G liquid, then SLURPING back to Frost's arm-stump to re-attach itself!

Undaunted, Blade slices the punching dagger into Frost's mid-section, meeting only liquid-like resistance. The moment Blade withdraws his dagger, Frost's flesh seals itself back up again.

Blade backs away, uncertain -- and Frost laughs, understanding what has happened. His features flicker back and forth between his and V~nessa's, in rapid-fire succession.

Even as Frost utters the words, his body begins to ripple and morph, bleeding red, taking on the characteristics of liquid. He doesn't walk so much now as flow. He's become a three-dimensional creature of animated blood! A blood demon. We realize now that he is transforming into the very same creature we glimpsed in his vision. The prophecy is coming true.

ON KAREN,

as she watches Frost's transformation, wide-eyed. She SEES Blade's discarded sword, reaches for it -- suddenly, a SHADOW moves on the periphery of her vision --

MERCURY

rushes at Karen in a near-blur. The SNARLING hellion is upon Karen in an eye-blink, SLAMMING her down against the · templefloor,pinning her.

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124 CONTINUED: 4 124

BACK TO FROST,

who towers above Blade, swaying back and forth inhis new, liquid-like form.

WHOOSH! Frost rises upwards on a spiraling columnof blood, HOWLING WITH LAUGHTER, then just as suddenly --

-- SPLASHES back to earth, spreading out in awidening pool. In the blink of an eye, he streams through Blade's feet, re-solidifying behind Blade. Blade spins, swingshis dagger

Once a9ain, Frost morphs into blood-form. He racesaround Blade in a series of spouting arcs, turnin9 from blood-form to solid and back again in a series of split-second transformations.

Blade whirls, striking with his dagger and missing every time --

WHOOSH! Frost suddenly dissipates, SPLASHING away into a million zero-G blood bubbles, vanishing. Blade spins, unnerved, trying to pin-point his foe's next manifestation.

8L.\OE Where are you?!

Frost's VOICE answers from all directions.

A DROPLET OF BLOOD

spatters the floor at Blade's feet. Blade looks up --

A SHOWER OF BLOOD

rains from above, coalescing into Frost as he sweeps down on Blade like a giant bird of prey, crushing him against the temple floor.

Frost's arms elongate and liquefy, flowing into two snake-like spouts of blood -- the ~est of Frost remains solid.

_,-

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124 CONTINUED: 5 124

The blood-spouts twist around Blade's neck,melding together, completely encasing Blade's head ina bubble of blood.

Frost sweeps Blade up into his arms. Blade clawsat the blood-bubble as if it were a solid object thathe could dislodge, but his fingers just pass through it!

The two men are in the eye of the hurricane now,enmeshed in a whirling cloud of blood tendrils which spin everfaster. we realize that Frost is reaching critical mass. Ina matter of seconds, his expanding form will explodeoutward, washing the world in crimson.

BACK TO MERCURY

as she wraps a hand around Karen's throat, chokingher.

As Karen struggles, she frees a hand, sliding it downto her hip pocket, digging something out -- Whistler's vampiremace canister!

She forces it up between them, triggering a jet ofTOXIC MIST into Mercury's face.--

Mercury recoils, HOWLING, as the mace blasts a path intoher eyes and clear out the back of her head! The she-vampire GURGLES once, then collapses to the floor, her body instantly combusting. ·

Sickened, Karen rises and lunges for Blade's sword -

BACK TO FROST AND BLADE

Blade is drowning in Frost's blood. His eyes bulge. oxygen bubbles stream from his mouth. Frost leans in close, his face a tYisted mask of insanity.

Frost looks up -- Karen slashes Blade's sword down, severing a number of the blood-tendrils which envelope Blade. The blood-bubble dissolves instantly, flowing away from his face. He gasps, chokes in air --

Frost rears back, horrified. His blood-tendrils don't reform. Instead, the lay where they fell, solidifying into crystalline powder.

,.. (CONTINUED)

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124 CONTINUED: 6 124

Karen flings the sword at Blade.

THE SWORD

s~ins end over end, its mirrored surface reflecting pinwheels of candlelight as Blade catches it by its hilt --

Frost reaches out, clutching at Blade's wrist, preventing him from stabbing the sword downward. The two men struggle for control of the weapon. Frost is genuinely alarmed now, having just witnessed the sword's lethal effect.

Bladetears free of Frost's-~rasp, ready to plunge the sword downward --

--and in that instant, Frost's face shimmers, taking on Vanessa's features. Blade hesitates, stopping the sword in mid-strike --

Frost/Vanessasmiles, forhe's found a final weakness of Blade'sto exploit.

Bladedrives the sword-point downthrough Vanessa's chest, on intoFrost's heart!

( CONTINUED)

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124 CONTINUED: 7 124

Frost and Vanessa HOWLAS ONE, their SCREAMSrising to an unendurable intensity as theirblood boils from within. An instant later, the vampiresgo nova, EXPLODING into an expanding BALL OF LIGHT andATOMIZING BLOOD.

Blade is thrown back offhis feet,having to shield his eyes from the backlash of occult energyas a near TIDAL WAVEOF BLOOD surges over him

Every door and window of the bank isBLOWN OUTWARD by the EXPLOSION. While along the street,manhole covers flip from their moorings, spinning up into theair likedimes, being buoyed by geysers of blood.

Silence, just the steady DRIP-DRIP of liquiddraining. The underworld temple gleams with a crimson sheennow.

ON BLADE

as he stirs. He's been blown clear acrossthe sanctuary by the force of the blast, soaked to thequick by blood. He rises to his fee.the SEES --

HIS SWORD

The intensity of the occult explosionhas shattered the blade into a hundred pieces. He crouches,retrieving the broken hilt.

Blade turns. Karen moves to him, searchinghis eyes. Which side of Blade's soul has won out? Human orvampire?

Then she SEES the tears rimming Blade's eyes,the first he's shed in a lifetime. Human.

They embrace, holding each other thatway fora long, long time. And we --

Blade and Karen stand on the rooftop, watchingas dawn slowly creeps across the silent city.

BLADE - Prod. Draft - 9/19/96 110.

He lifts his face towards the rising sun, letting itswarmth wash over his upturned face.

And on that note we leave them -- TWO FIGURES, silhouetted a-~inst the new day.

,...