‘Blade II’: There’s a Giant Plothole in the Film Involving a Major Character’s Death
Marvel fans have been waiting to hear updates on the upcoming Blade revival. The highly anticipated addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe will resurrect a character that helped launch Wesley Snipes into superhero history in 1998.
While Snipes will not be taking on the part in the latest version (that role will be filled by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali), the buzz about the new addition has shined renewed attention on the past series of films. Some fans have noticed a glaring plothole in the series’ second installment.
‘Blade’ was an early Marvel effort
Back in 1998, Blade was one of Marvel’s first forays onto the big screen. An earlier effort (1986’s Howard the Duck) had flopped hard, and Blade showed more promise for moviegoers. Indeed, the film did extremely well, making millions at the box office and launching a successful franchise that included two follow-up films. Blade and its sequels were packed with talent and hinted at the Marvel that was to come. Clearly, audiences had an appetite for comic book content brought to life in the theater.
Unfortunately, Marvel hadn’t yet learned how to fully capitalize on that audience desire. In fact, the company licensed Blade to New Line Cinema, seeing only around $25,000 of the millions the film ultimately earned.
It’s safe to say that Marvel has grown to learn from that mistake as the company has been making eye-popping profits off their films for years (and pouring millions into the budget to keep fans stunned with each upcoming installment).
‘Blade II’ has a plothole fans can’t ignore
One of the tropes of the comic book genre is that those who are dead don’t always stay dead. Whether it’s because audiences like a character too much to kill off for good or because the plot calls for a hero who was previously written out, fans of the genre are used to plot twists that bring back the dead.
However, it didn’t sit well with everyone when it happened in Blade II. The issue involves Abraham Whistler, a vampire hunter and Blade’s mentor (played by Kris Kristofferson). At the end of the first film, Whistler — on a lifelong vengeful rage against vampires after his family was murdered — is tragically bitten and left to transform into his own worst enemy. When Blade returns to the scene, Whistler begs for the mercy of death, but Blade cannot bring himself to kill his mentor. Whistler then takes the gun and shoots himself. While the death isn’t shown entirely on screen, we see Whistler’s hand open and the gun fall, indicating that the bullet had hit home.
When Whistler returns in Blade II, it’s explained that Whistler was already too far into the transformation for the bullet to work, but viewers call foul. The gun was loaded with bullets specifically designed to turn vampires to ash. Human or vampire, Whistler’s pull of the trigger should have been his final act.
What will the new ‘Blade’ be about?
The new Blade is largely shrouded in mystery, and, of course, that means fans are chomping at the bit to figure out more! As Nerdist reports, we mostly know about the creators, including Stacy Osei-Kuffour as writer and Bassam Tariq as director.
We can also assume that Blade will be one of the darker films within the MCU, as the source material and the character’s film history have trended toward the eerie and macabre. Even though the film had an original theatrical release of November 2023, it has since been pushed back to September 2024, so fans will have to keep waiting a while!
