English
The film begins with an opening narration about Dracula, told by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds):
- In the movies, Dracula wears a cape and some old English guy always manages to save the day at the last minute with crosses and holy water, but everybody knows the movies are full of shit.
- The truth is, it started with Blade and it ended with him. The rest of us were just along for the ride.
Being unaware of the existence of vampires, the world considers Blade to be a serial killer—the vampires capitalize on this misconception and succeed in framing Blade (Wesley Snipes) for the killing of a familiar posing as a vampire. During the ensuing manhunt, the FBI locate and attack the hideout. During the siege, Whistler is mortally wounded and perishes after setting the hideout self-destruct. With his mentor gone, Blade allows himself to be captured.
The police prepare to hand Blade over to a group supposed federal agents, who are, unknown to them, vampires. But he is rescued by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel). The two head a group of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers, formed by Blade's mentor to assist him. King and Abigail reveal that Danica Talos (Parker Posey), who vampirized King, has located Drake. Talos hopes that by resurrecting him, Drake will help save the vampire race by producing more daywalkers, and eliminate Blade. In his first confrontation with Blade, Drake shows an affinity for Blade, as they are both "honorable warriors". Ironically, while Drake is delivering his speech about honor, he is hiding behind a baby he has taken hostage; however, he appears to consider humans as unworthy of any consideration unless they first prove themselves. During the chaos, King is incapacitated by Drake.
Blade eventually learns of a bioweapon the Nightstalkers had created called Daystar, an airborne virus capable of killing every single vampire in the world. However, there are two catches. The first is that Drake's blood must be infused with the virus. As he is the first vampire, his DNA is still pure, which, infused with Daystar, will make it work to its maximum efficiency. The second: the virus could possibly kill Blade, since he is half-vampire.
Blade and Abigail learn of the vampire "final solution", which involves a warehouse where hundreds of homeless humans are being kept "alive" in a chemically induced coma, trapped in body bags. This keeps in line with vampires needing live food sources if the entire vampire race were to take over the world. Blade has all of them put out of their misery, shutting down their life support.
The two return to find the Nightstalkers have been all but wiped out. The only exception is King, who has been kidnapped by Drake, and a young girl named Zoe (Haili Page), the daughter of one of the Nightstalkers. Blade and Abigail go to the Talos building to save their friends.
Meanwhile, King is chained and tortured for information about Daystar. When this fails to get any information from him, Talos threatens that she will bite King and leave him to feed on Zoe. Drake tries to convince the young Zoe to become a vampire so that she wont have to die after he tells her that there is no God, heaven or angels, Zoe simply states to Drake "My friends are coming to kill you". Blade and Abigail eventually enter the building, and the fighting begins. Abigail kills Talos' brother Asher (Callum Keith Rennie) and King kills Jarko Grimwood (Triple H) while Blade engages Drake in a sword battle. In the end, Blade impales Drake with the Daystar arrow, and releases it into the air, killing all the nearby vampires, including Talos. As Drake dies, he praises Blade for fighting with honor and tells him that through Blade the vampire race will survive. Dying, he offers Blade a "parting gift"; he also warns him that the thirst will eventually win.
From here there are multiple endings:
- Theatrical ending: As Blade fought honorably, Drake gives him a "parting gift" by transforming his body into a replica of Blade's just before he dies. The FBI captures the body of who they think is Blade and thus call off their manhunt for Blade. In the morgue Blade's body reverts into that of Drake's. Hannibal's voiceover tells the viewer that Blade is still out doing what he does, and that the war will never end.[citation needed]
- Unrated ending: The body captured by the FBI is Blade, but he's not really dead. He sits up abruptly in the morgue, attacks the FBI agents, and appears ready to bite a nurse on the neck. The ending is ambiguous as to whether Blade retains his humanity or gives in to his vampire thirst, thus becoming the new vampire messiah as Drake predicted. This is the ending seen on the director's cut of the film, and commentary on the DVD indicates it was the ending director Goyer intended.[citation needed]
- Werewolf ending: The Daystar virus circles the globe and wipes out all vampires. Blade walks off into the sunset, his long battle finally over. The final shot is of the Nightstalkers battling a new enemy... werewolves. This version of the ending was used in the novelization of the film and is included on the DVD as an extra; however, it was rejected for use in the film itself early on in production, due to similarities to the vampires versus werewolves in the Underworld series, the discontinuity with the back story, and for simply being too silly in Goyer's opinion
I vampiri riescono ad incastrare Blade (nome di battaglia del loro più temibile cacciatore), incolpandolo della morte di un umano (un familiare travestito da vampiro), uccisione avvenuta al termine di un inseguimento automobilistico. Blade, ripreso dalla televisione e ricercato dall'FBI, viene scovato nel suo rifugio. Il suo mentore e amico, Abraham Whistler, fa allora esplodere tutto l'edificio, sacrificando se stesso per proteggere i segreti e la vera identità di Blade (il cui nome è Eric Brooks, nato da donna morsa in gravidanza, mezzo vampiro, soprannominato il "Diurno" per la sua capacità di resistere alla luce solare).
Dopo esser stato catturato da una polizia corrotta che lo lascia alla mercé dei vampiri, Blade è aiutato a scappare da un gruppo di umani cacciatori di "non morti", i Nightstalkers (cellula, dotata di armi tecnologicamente avanzate, che fa parte di una più ampia organizzazione per la lotta contro la minaccia vampiresca), capitanati da Hannibal King e Abigail Whistler, figlia di Abraham. Il gruppo, di cui fa parte anche una biologa cieca di nome Sommerfield, chiede ed ottiene l'aiuto di Blade contro Danica Talos, una potente leader dei vampiri, che è riuscita nell'intento di trovare e risvegliare dalle profondità di un'antichissima ziqqurat in Iraq il progenitore della loro specie, Dracula, o Drake. Talos spera così di poter finalmente liberarsi dell'odiato "Diurno".
Blade e Abigail scovano un fabbricato in cui i vampiri, con la complicità delle autorità, usano gli umani come fonte di nutrimento a livello "industriale": è una sorta di banca del sangue che raccoglie migliaia di corpi di senzatetto, raccolti per l'America, mantenuti in coma farmacologico, ma morti cerebralmente. Blade, mosso a pietà, spegne il complesso sistema di macchine che li mantiene in vita.
Drake, intanto, grazie alla propria capacità di assumere le sembianze altrui, si è introdotto nella base del gruppo di Blade e li elimina uno ad uno ad esclusione della figlioletta della biologa e di Hannibal, portandoli al proprio covo per tendere un tranello al "Diurno". Scoperta la carneficina, Blade e Abigail si preparano alla vendetta, portando con sé un prototipo di virus (creato dalla biologa): tale morbo ha "l'ambizione" di liberare l'umanità dalla razza dei vampiri, contaminando il loro progenitore Drake/Dracula.
Mentre Danica Talos tortura Hannibal e Drake tiene con sé la bambina, Blade e Abigail fanno irruzione nel palazzo dell'organizzazione di Talos, liberano il loro compagno e mettono al sicuro la bambina, sgombrando il campo dai gregari per giungere allo scontro finale con Dracula. Questi attende Blade. I due ingaggiano un duello a colpi di katana.
A sfida conclusa, il "Diurno" è in procinto di soccombere: Abigail, fissata sulla punta di una freccia un'ampolla contenente il virus letale per i vampiri, la scocca contro Drake, che la evita. Blade raccoglie la freccia e la conficca nel costato di Drake. Attraverso l'aria, il virus si diffonde rapidamente nel covo dei vampiri e risulta efficace: i vampiri sopravvissuti a Blade ed Abigail, periscono assieme a Drake.
La pellicola termina con Blade nell'atto di riprendere la sua missione indefessa di dare la caccia ai non morti. Dopo i titoli di coda è presente una breve sequenza che vede Blade a bordo della sua auto.