Blade At 25 - 17 Easter Eggs And Trivia From The Marvel Vampire Movie Classic

On August 21, Blade, starring Wesley Snipes in the title role, turned 25 years old. And, skeleton CGI aside, it holds up very well. Slick, sleek and violent, Blade has style to spare. From the opening fight scene in the blood-soaked vampire club, to the final look at Blade hunting vampires in Moscow, every shot in the movie is framed like the splash page of a comic book.

The action, filled with slow-motion sparring and shooting, is more Hong Kongese than American, both in the way that it's filmed and in the way that it's cut together. Extended shots show off long sequences of punches, counters, and reversals that tell a story on their own, rather than being shoehorned between the exposition.

The movie received mixed reviews from critics at the time of its release, but the fans loved it, which resulted in two sequels. An MCU Phase Six reboot, starring Mahershala Ali as Blade, is currently scheduled to debut on February 14, 2025. Nothing says "happy Valentine's Day" like vampire mayhem.

Here are 17 Easter eggs and bits of trivia about Blade--a superhero film ahead of its time. Did we miss any good ones? Let us know in the comments. And while you're at it, take a look at what we previously learned about the movie from producer Robert Engelman and cast member Eric Edwards.

Early in the film, we see Blade's mother being brought to the hospital, after an attack by a vampire induces labor. If we pause the film, we can see from her ID that her full name is Vanessa Brooks.

This is different from Blade's origin in the comics; there, Vanessa is a pregnant brothel worker who goes into labor at the brothel. When the "doctor" arrives, it's actually Deacon Frost, who bites and infects her.

The medical resident in this shot is played by Shannon Lee, the daughter of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

Racquel, the woman who lures men into the vampire nightclub, is played by former adult actress Traci Lords. Between 1984 and 1986, Lords appeared in a number of adult films, with it only being revealed in 1986 that she was under age 18 while appearing in them. The films made during that time were banned in the United States. After her time in the adult film industry, Lords had roles in mainstream movies like Cry-Baby, Virtuosity, and Underworld. She also appeared on Married…with Children, Roseanne, and Melrose Place.

Blade's car is a modified 1968 Dodge Charger. The Dodge Charger has a long, proud history in American action cinema, starring in Cannonball (1976), the Dukes of Hazzard franchise, and most recently the Fast and Furious franchise.

Whistler refers to the vampires as "Hominis Nocturna," which roughly translates from Latin as "Men of the Night."

We see Blade looking at a map of the city, and if we pause the film, we can see that the location is New Orleans.

We learn in the movie that vampires predate Christianity, and have been around for "thousands of years." That explains why crosses "don't do squat" to vampires, despite popular folklore stating otherwise. It also broadens vampires to a more worldwide phenomenon, as opposed to only existing in a Westernized context.

Director Stephen Norrington cameos in this scene, where he plays a vampire who bites a woman in public.

The song that the Japanese schoolgirl band, Bang-Wa Cherry plays is called "Chin Chin," which is Japanese slang for "penis."

The massive Pearl costume took actor Eric Edwards about 45 minutes to put on--he had to coordinate getting into it with two puppeteers, who controlled the left and right arms.

The movie playing on the TV in Frost's Lair is Mortal Kombat (1995).

The faces that we see in the subway are cardboard cutouts, except for one of them--digital animation supervisor Richard Baily has an uncredited cameo.

Wesley Snipes' one-liner in this scene is a reference to the Evil Dead franchise, which uses the phrase "dead by dawn" as a common callback. The full name for Evil Dead II (1987) is Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn.

The lobby scene in The Matrix (1999) shares some striking similarities with this scene, where Blade storms Frost's compound. Both include the SWAT armor-clad guards, the slow motion shooting, and the use of water to accentuate the action. They also both have high-octane techno music--originally, the Blade filmmakers wanted Prodigy to score the movie, but the band was unfortunately unavailable.

The scene where Blade bites Karen has explicit sexual undertones. Sexuality has long been part of vampire lore, and similar to how Little Red Riding Hood was used as a cautionary tale for girls against predatory men, vampire tales were used as cautionary tales against sexual promiscuity. This scene subverts the trope and reimagines the vampire attack as a consensual act that intimately bonds the two participants.

The movie's original ending had Frost actually turn into La Magra, a whirling dervish of blood. Due to negative test screening responses, they redid the ending with the Frost vs. Blade sword fight instead. The original ending is available on the physical media home releases.

In total, 88 people and vampires die over the course of the film.