Summary
- Blade’s fights define the films with expert choreography and distinct style, setting them apart from other Marvel movies as R-rated extravaganzas.
- Blade’s emotional depth shines through in moments like finding Whistler’s body, showcasing Wesley Snipes’ range beyond action.
- Blade’s defiance remains iconic as he confirms there’s only one Blade in a hilarious jab at Marvel Studios during a surprise return cameo.
Wesley Snipes’ performance as Blade is one of the most iconic comic book movie roles of all time, and his various films make it clear as to why. The actor and martial artist embodied the effortless coolness of Blade across four movies, familiarizing audiences with the bloody day-walking vampire slayer in the late 90s and early 2000s. While the Blade films may be uneven in quality, Wesley Snipes’ career as the character has produced plenty of iconic moments.
For the most part, the fights of the Blade franchise are what defines the films, with expertly choreographed battle sequences that make full use of Wesley Snipes’ real martial arts background. The films’ distinct style, gore, and tone also sets them apart from other Marvel films, being R-rated extravaganzas of murder and bloodletting with unapologetic amounts of violence. That being said, Blade can occasionally dip into genuine emotional stakes when he needs to, quickly resurfacing as an action and superhero movie icon.
10 Blade Shuts Down A Vampire Nightclub
Blade
One of the most memorable scenes from the Blade trilogy is, surprisingly, one of its first, which perfectly surmises who Blade is and what the world he lives in looks like. The scene features an unsuspecting partygoer who gets lured into attending a rave by two seductive vampire women. When he joins the dance floor, the fire sprinklers activate, bathing the crowd in blood, much to his horror. Luckily, Blade soon appears to save the day, wordlessly beginning a killing spree on the bloodsuckers.
What follows is one of the most captivating fight scenes in any superhero movie, set to the driving beat of powerful late 90s techno. Blade takes time to show off his personality during his gruesome kills, fist-pumping and flashing his pearly whites to show off how much he enjoys his job killing vampires. This is not only one of the most iconic scenes in the entire franchise, but one of the single best opening moments of a superhero movie ever.
9 Blade Opens Fire On A Police Officer Familiar
Blade
It isn’t just vampires that the wrath of Blade extends to. Many times throughout the films, the Daywalker frequently makes his hatred of human familiars who help the undead hoping to join their ranks known just as much as the vampires they serve, if not more so. To Blade, vampire familiars are the lowest of the low, and he demonstrates as much in a scene with Officer Krieger, a human abusing his position as a cop to do his dark master’s bidding.
When Krieger manages to get away thanks to Blade’s love interest, he wastes no time trying to intercept him, firing into a crowd with his massive pistol in broad daylight without a care in the world. This scene demonstrates how much Blade is willing to break the laws of humans to put a stop to the vampire menace, unafraid of who gets injured in the crossfire. It’s this cold, heartless demeanor that makes Blade so compelling as a comic book hero.
8 Blade Tears Through Damaskinos’ Men
Blade II
Being half a vampire himself, the temptation of indulging in human blood is just as alluring for Blade as it is for his foes. While he mostly manages to control his cravings, the few instances in the Blade films in which Blade does drink human blood are always a treat. Blade’s powers give him a boost in strength and speed after drinking blood, meaning a literal bloodbath is often just the pick-me-up Blade needs to even some unforgiving odds in a fight.
The best example of this is Blade II‘s fight scene against Damaskinos’ men, who come out swinging with full riot gear and electrified batons at Wesley Snipes. Fresh from a dip in a massive pool of blood, Blade is able to fight them off swiftly with his bare hands alone, making fools out of even the most elite vampire soldiers. His effortless defeat of Ron Perlman’s Reinhardt with a brutal vertical slice is merely icing on the cake, throwing his own question, “Can you blush?“, back at him.
7 Blade Finds Whistler’s Body
Blade
High-flying action isn’t the only thing worth remembering about the Blade movies. While it’s true that heartfelt emotional storytelling might not be the series’ strong suit, the original trilogy of films did find some quiet moments to let Wesley Snipes’ untouchable Blade persona let his guard down for a few precious seconds. The single most powerful emotional beat in the first movie has to be Blade finding the corpse of his armorer, mentor, and father-figure, Abraham Whistler.
Earlier, Blade downplays his emotional connection to Whistler, but upon finding his corpse, Blade gives the closest thing he can to an emotional response. He struggles to meet the gaze of Whistler’s body as he slowly pulls a white sheet off of it, his body language growing cold with sadness. It’s a shame the sequel immediately undoes the importance of this beat by bringing Whistler back, but the efficacy of the scene still stands nonetheless.
6 Blade Intimidates The Bloodpack
Blade II
Blade isn’t above toying with his prey when he wants to, which comes into play when he meets the Bloodpack in Blade II. The Bloodpack are an expert group of vampire assassins assembled specifically to kill Blade, making it all the more awkward when they’re forced to team up with him to fight off the bigger threat of the Reaper vampires. Understanding his delicate situation, Blade takes the chance to quickly take control of the situation.
Taunting Ron Perlman’s Reinhardt, Blade manages to quickly subdue him in hand-to-hand combat, planting a remote-activated bomb on the back of his head to maintain control over the Bloodpack. The way Blade is able to take command of such a threatening situation is truly iconic, but it’s the way he joyfully taunts the vampires set on killing him here that makes the scene truly one for the books. Whoever said work couldn’t be fun clearly has never seen Blade goad a reaction out of his vampire prey.
5 Blade Fights Vampire Ninjas
Blade II
After the incredible opening of Blade, the first action sequence of Blade II had big shoes to fill. While the sequel might not have been able to reach the same heights of greatness as its bloody predecessor, the opening fight scene of Blade II is still one to remember. The fight begins against the dramatic backdrop of a series of massive floodlights, as Blade is descended upon by ninja vampire assassins.
Admittedly, the choreography isn’t quite as good here, and the fight sports a few shots comprised of awkward, rubbery CGI. Still, getting to see Blade back in action is a real treat, and the daring arena of the fight and moments of genuinely impressive hand-to-hand combat more than make up for its flaws. At the end of the day, vampire ninja assassins are too cool of an inclusion to not be noteworthy in any film, let alone Blade II.
4 Blade Kills Deacon Frost
Blade
Deacon Frost is the primary antagonist of the first Blade movie, and just so happens to be the vampire who turned Blade’s mother, as well. This devastating realization makes Deacon Frost an even more despicable villain than he already was, and makes Blade’s ultimate defeat of him that much more satisfying. It doesn’t hurt that he also manages to do so in the most over-the-top killing blow ever conceived for film.
At the end of his confrontation with Deacon, Blade takes a moment to say the single most iconic line in all the Blade movies, “Some mother******s are always trying to ice skate uphill“, before tossing a needle of blood-exploding catalytic chemicals in the air. Blade then kicks the needle straight into Frost’s forehead, causing him to expand and explode in a massive shower of blood. For this scene alone, Blade makes a name for itself as one of the greatest R-rated action movies ever.
3 Blade Blows Up Scud
Blade II
Blade II sees Blade accrue more allies than just the tired and weary vampire hunter Whistler to join him in his crusade against the undead. Newcomer Scud, played by Norman Reedus, aims to help outfit Blade with the latest in vampire-killing technology, though Whistler immediately dislikes him. It turns out that his instincts were correct when Scud reveals himself to be a double agent, a familiar of the vampires who traps Blade with the reveal that the bomb he planted on Reinhardt is a dud.
However, Blade is never one to be caught off-guard, quickly replying that he had suspected Scud as a turncoat for some time. If that weren’t enough, he made sure to swap out the dud with an actual working bomb, rewarding Scud for his treachery by blowing him to smithereens at the press of a button. This scene demonstrates that Blade didn’t survive hunting vampires and their associates for years by being too naive.
2 Blade Confirms That There’s Only One Blade
Deadpool & Wolverine
Few could’ve expected Wesley Snipes to ever return to the big screen as Blade after wrapping on the notorious set of Blade: Trinity. But thanks to a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine, Snipes got to return as the Daywalker for one last hurrah, joining the titular mutants in their quest to escape the MCU’s multiversal wasteland. During the charge into Cassandra Nova’s fortress, Blade readies a rocket launcher, claiming that he’s never met a variant of himself.
His precise wording that “There’s only ever gonna be one Blade“, followed by Deadpool’s deadpan stare into the camera, is a hilarious jab at the production woes experienced by the MCU’s Blade. It very well could be that Wesley Snipes remains the only Blade, and the actor’s defiant statement of such in his surprise return to the role is a delicious joke at Marvel Studios’ expense. Despite not happening in an actual Blade movie, this brief line is already a defining moment of Snipes’ Blade.
1 Blade Kills Dracula Himself
Blade: Trinity
Among the three main Blade cinematic appearances, Blade: Trinity has by far the least to offer. Still, the film holds a few diamonds in the rough worthy of praise against the wider catalog of Wesley Snipes Blade moments, specifically the final fight against Drake. Drake is explained to be the modern-day alias of Dracula, the most famous vampire of all, making this showdown a fitting end to the mainline trilogy of Blade movies.
Drake’s longsword and single sleeve of medieval armor is a great match against Blade’s signature straight sword, nodding to the vampire lord’s ancient origins. His transformation into a demonic beast presents one of the scariest monsters in the entire trilogy, but it’s Drake’s final words to Blade that are more alluring than the fight itself — “Sooner or later, the thirst always wins.” This ominous prediction of the future of Blade is an ending note chilling enough to be noteworthy compared to the entire franchise.