BLADE

BLADE 

by

David S. Goyer

Darkness, BLOOD-CURDLING SCREAMS. Presentation credits roll as we

FADE UP ON:

INT. HOSPITAL, INNER-CITY TRAUMA WARD - NIGHT

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,

spewing founts of blood from a savagely slashed throat --

A SHOCK-TRAUMA TEAM swarms over her, inserting a vacutainer into an

artery to draw blood, wrapping a blood pressure cuff around her

arm --

NURSE #1

(with stethoscope)

She's not breathing!

SENIOR RESIDENT

Intubate her!

The RESPIRATORY THERAPIST feeds an endotracheal tube down the woman's

ruined throat, attaches that to an Amblu bag --

RESIDENT

Blood-pressure's forty and falling --

The woman starts spasming violently. It takes three staff members

just to hold her down.

SENIOR RESIDENT

Jesus, her water's broken --

(calling for help)

She's going into uterine contractions --

CAMERA PUSHES IN on the woman as she bolts upright, SCREAMING to wake

the dead. We PLUNGE INTO the darkness of her mouth and find

ourselves --

INSIDE HER BLOODSTREAM

The sound of a HEART BEATING, pounding as we whip-snake through --

CORPUSCLES

floating in amber plasma. Erythrocytes, leukocytes, neutrophils and

eosinophils.

The rhythmic expansion of the artery walls, pulsing with each

successive surge of blood as the HEART BEATS FASTER AND FASTER,

taking us --

IN UTERO,

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.

CUT TO:

A SWORDBLADE

cleaving the darkness, radiant light slicing across gleaming Damascus

steel. Words acid-etched in the weapon's fine-tempered surface:

BLADE

Main credits end.

EXT. INNER CITY, INDUSTRIAL GHETTO - NIGHT

A decaying no man's land populated by condemned buildings and HUNGRY

HOMELESS. Steam rises from manhole covers, drifting across the

litter- lined streets. Suddenly --

A black Mercedes 850 appears over the crest of a hill, ROARING past

us, stereo system belting out FILTER.

INT. MERCEDES - NIGHT

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 sub-zero IQ and a "fuck me sideways" grin.

DENNIS

So where we going?

RAQUEL

It's a surprise.

DENNIS

I likes surprises.

Raquel eyeballs Dennis -- "if looks could devour".

RAQUEL

What do you have down there, little

man?

DENNIS

Heat-seeker.

RAQUEL

I'll bet.

Raquel slides a manicured hand up his thigh, squeezes his groin.

Dennis MOANS. She pulls her hand away, downshifts.

EXT. VACANT LOT - NIGHT

The 850 threads a narrow alley into a vacant lot, BRAKES hard. Raquel

and Dennis climb out. She leads him into --

EXT. MEAT PACKING PLANT - NIGHT

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.

DENNIS

What the fuck are we doing here?

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

workers ignore her.

INT. MEAT PACKING PLANT - NIGHT

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. But Dennis doesn't have enough time to be disturbed by

the vision, because he's being pulled away by Raquel, led down --

A STAIRWELL

We are in the basement now. At the end of the hall is a steel door,

with perhaps, just the faintest HINT OF MUSIC heard coming from

beyond. Raquel knocks.

A "peep-hole" slat opens and a BLACK LIGHT shines into Raquel's eyes.

A VOICE behind the door offers a verbal challenge, speaking a

language we've never heard, laced with a devilish cadence.

Raquel responds in kind. The door opens. Raquel gives Dennis a

knowing wink, enters. Dennis follows.

INT. CLUB - NIGHT

Raquel and Dennis move past a hulking 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

writhe on the strobe-lit dance floor. A heavy S&M scene. Leather.

Latex. Tattoos. Body-piercings.

A D.J. wearing head-mounted spotlights orchestrates the tunes on

twin- decks. MUSIC assaults us -- a beat so heavy it could jar the

fillings from your teeth. Brutal "DARKCORE" along the lines of

Prodigy or Underground.

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 MERCURY.

Mercury flicks her tongue against Dennis' ear -- it's been pierced

with a silver post which clicks against her teeth. Tattooed across

her back in black is a swirling, 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 stripping off their clothes, sweating like

fiends. It's a virtual orgy.

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

pitch --

DENNIS

(over the music)

Fuck, I need a drink!!!

Raquel just smiles -- then Dennis notices a DROP OF SOMETHING spatter

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 dancing. What is this? Some kind of fucked up

performance art?

Raquel turns her face toward the ceiling, as if washing herself in a

summer shower, now the other club goers are 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 into a preternatural snarl. Her canines extend,

tapering to razor-sharp points. Her tongue flicks, lizard-like as

fingernails sharpen into claws. All this while the whites of her eyes

BLEED RED, pupils oscillating hypnotically.

RAQUEL

What's wrong, baby?

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 all

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

game 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 intensity. 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 DARK FIGURE sits in the shadows, unnoticed until this moment. The

figure stands, moves into the light as time screeches to a halt --

A BLACK MAN,

towers above Dennis, wearing dark glasses and 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, a modified CAR-15 assault rifle with

an ultra-violet entry light, two Casull .454 revolvers, a "Demon"

automatic cross-bow, a bandoleer of mahogany stakes, an Indian-style

katar punching dagger -- and last, but certainly not least, his

namesake -- a silver 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, Raquel charges at Blade, moving

at superhuman speed, practically a blur --

Blade draws his Casulls, FIRES in multiple directions --

MACRO BULLET SHOT

as a round roars through the air towards Raquel. A silver-tipped dum-

dum bullet which explodes on contact.

WHAM! The round punches a fist-sized hole through Raquel's chest,

continuing on into the vamp behind her! Vampire blood fountains. Both

creatures tumble forward, their bodies liquefying into puddles of

black oil which go gurgling down the run-off drains.

Blade continues FIRING, then -CLICK!- magazines empty. Next. He

holsters the Casulls, swings up his assault rifle, calmly flicks on

the UV entry light mounted above --

MERCURY

leaps twenty feet straight up into the air. We've never seen anything

move so fast. She CRASHES through a glass skylight, disappearing into

the night just as --

-- a shaft of blinding UV "sunlight" cuts across the vampires. They

rear back, skin smoking from the light's corrosive effects. Blade

opens FIRE, pumping round after round of wooden fragmentation bullets

into the crowd -- vampire genocide.

The strobe lights flicker as the mayhem mounts. Some of the vampires

try to flee, scurrying up the stairs, but the exit quickly becomes

clogged with liquefying bodies --

-- then Blade's CAR-15 jams. The remaining club-goers see their

opening, surge forward en masse --

Blade drops the rifle, reaches over his shoulder and -SCHINGGG!-

unsheathes his sword with a double-handed grip.

THE SWORD

Four acid-etched feet of blood-soaked Damascus steel. An edge so

sharp it could cleave a shadow in two.

Blade moves like lightning, hacking his way into TWO CHARGING

VAMPIRES. Blade spins again, cuts ANOTHER VAMPIRE 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 convulses, dies.

Beat. Blade retrieves his sword, then senses --

SOMETHING BIG

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 --

-- but it doesn't slow the hulking creature down. It SLAMS into

Blade. Blade flies backwards thirty feet, tumbling over tables,

slamming into the rear wall so hard that plaster rains down from the

ceiling.

Blade suddenly finds himself wrestling with a feral-faced six-foot-

something nightmare named QUINN. The vampire rears back its head,

jaws stretching wide. Every inch of his face is covered with ritual

scarification patterns and Maori-like tribal tattoos.

Blade forces an elbow against Quinn's throat, trying to keep him at

bay. With his other hand he reaches to his bandoleer, pulls out a

stake -- CRUNCH! Blade shoves the stake through the vampire's larynx.

Quinn gurgles, clutches at his throat.

Blade rolls out from under, unholsters the cross-bow secured to his

leg. With a flick of a switch the arms of the bow -SNAP!- open,

drawing the bow-string taut. Blade FIRES --

The bolt hits Quinn in the shoulder, throwing him backwards and

nailing him to the wall. As Quinn reaches over with his other hand to

pull out the stake --

Blade FIRES AGAIN. A second bolt slams into Quinn's other arm,

effectively pinning him like a butterfly to a board.

UP ABOVE,

mounted in one of the corners, is a security camera. Blade fires a

cross-bow bolt straight into the lens.

Blade strides over, placing his sword against Quinn's chest.

BLADE

Where is Deacon Frost?

Quinn glares, trying to speak, gagging on the stake still lodged in

his trachea --

BLADE

Got something in your throat.

Blade yanks the stake free. The vampire laughs, air whistling through

his ruined larynx.

QUINN

Fuck you, Day-walker, I ain't saying

shit --

BLADE

Frost.

Quinn responds with a slew of rapid-fire vampire invectives. Blade

sees he's getting nowhere fast, calmly sheathes his sword. He unclips

a white phosphorous grenade from his combat harness --

QUINN

You won't stop him, Blade. The Tide's

rising, the Sleeper's gonna --

Blade shoves the grenade in Quinn's mouth, pulls the pin. WHOOSH!

Quinn goes up like a roman candle. Blade turns, surveying his work,

ignoring the howling pyre behind him:

All evidence of the vampires is gone -- with the exception of a few

oily-black puddles. Clothes, jewelry -- it's all been burned away by

the acidic process of the creatures' accelerated decomposition.

DENNIS sits huddled in a corner, having pissed his pants. As Blade

approaches, he cringes back --

DENNIS

Please don't --