The Wonders of Blade: A Film That Paved the Way for Superhero Movies

It's interesting to go look at the film now and see if we could work out what shots this was used for exactly. My guess would be given that it's a steel blade that it definitely stood in for some real close-ups. Given that it's a steel blade, it's like in Lord of the Rings obviously they have all these different swords but for the extreme close-ups that was all like high-quality steel blades. Yeah, and the grind on this it's clearly hand done um but I feel like Tony's work because it's just so good. Amazing, i thought this was a great sword design also a great movie. I mean the first Blade when that came out in 98 before the whole current Marvel madness that was a great movie. Coming across an article recently that said we should all pay homage to Blade for showing how to do a serious superhero movie that still made fun of itself because it is like I mean we used to at Ilm, we used to joke that everything that um that Chris Christopherson says in that movie could be muttered to you by uh someone a crazy person sitting on the park bench next to you there's a war going on but somehow it works. Totally works no i love playing Blade's one of my favorite movies and I really do think that we have it to thank for our it is like its DNA is still happening in our superhero movies.

Great Design Throughout Great Props Great Costumes

This sword the glaive that he has he's got that shotgun with the spikes in the front and then the costume with the long trench coat and like the battle vest that's all great designs. There is also this thing that happens to cosplayers who want to do Blade and other movies like it which is when you have a blade that's mounted to your back it turns out it's impossible for you to draw it okay because you can't pull it out enough to get out of it scabbard so uh on the rpf there's endless discussions of cosplayers figuring out ways to pull a bunch out of the side of this cabinet so you can pull it out. I think it's called a standby props guy that's the secret just get your props assistant exactly.

The Blade Itself

I love that it's a steel blade I mean you know that that feels like a rare thing to find in a film Blade yes yeah and again really suggest that it would have been used for some kind of insert work because of course they would never you know swing that near another actor oh god no. And it's dull it's not gonna it's not going to slice them but it is still incredibly dangerous yeah and it's got some heft to it yeah no it's got a real weight to it it's a lovely piece yeah.

The Art of Design in Blade

Oh i i didn't even notice these like the glitter clips of vampire glyphs I think those repeat throughout the movie you see them in some of the sets and the blood temples and things like that so again just more great design. And Blade makes me want to go watch the film again I haven't seen believe I think I'm going to go watch it this evening I'm pretty sure look for the sword tell me if you find it it is not the spark effect it's also uh frankly it is it is unique to come across a film used weapon that uh feels so right right right like usually the blade's really light or this feels real yeah this feels like if i came across real Blade this is what he would be holding.

A Message from the Author

The day walker sword um brandon this is always so nice when you visit thank you sir hey I thought you'd enjoy seeing this one thank you i'm not saying thank you for leaving me the blade uh no just for bringing it the blade's going to auction you could own it

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthat's a nice nice okay we're ready yeah we're readyvampires of the world cower in fear because i'm holding a daywalker sword uh hi it's adam savage  here in my cave with prop stores brandon allenger hello sir hey good to see you good to see you  brandon shows up here from time to time time bringing some toys and in this case because you  guys are having a really amazing auction yeah i thought you might like to see some of the pieces  that are coming up for sale you know this is the entertainment memorabilia live auction so it's  one of the big ones one of the biggest auctions we do all year and we find some great stuff from all  different films you know all genres and decades of hollywood history but especially sort of the 1970s  on the stuff that i grew up with and love the stuff that i think you maybe have an affinity for  and uh this is the one you save lots for this auction we're this is what we're working on all  year we're trying to find the good stuff so it can be here in this auction and you know we find  some really great pieces and the thing i love about this one this blade sword is you when you  handle it you immediately know this is a real film prop it's not a replica yeah because there's a lot  of weirdness going on yeah it's right rattles a little bit you've got some you've got some  braising on the back here is that from effects work yeah i mean that's what's so interesting  about this i've never seen another one like it but if you look on the other side of the blade yeah  there's this huge coloration these burn effects going on where they basically put some kind of  electric charge on it to get a practical spark for you know when he's swinging it like a madman  in these sword fights and they wanted insert shots i'm sure of just sparks going off as he hits other  swords they did it with electricity or maybe they put it i don't know i mean how do you think they  would do this charge on the blade well it really swings it or i don't know it's a good question  if you want to spark i mean one way to do it is to have power going to the sword and grounded on  the thing you're hitting and get a spark but you don't want to do that to an actor right so then  you've got some effects thing here that looks like it might have been brazed to the steel of  the sword because this is both a ground and then chromed steel blade did tony swan do this one  i know tony swann did the main swords for the film i don't know if this is i mean it would make sense  that it's one of his i just don't know if it may be something a little different because of  the effects nature of it so i can't speak to that definitively sometimes swatten puts a stamp on his  blades but i don't think he did for the the film used blade swords yeah i've seen replicas he did  later that have his stamp on them interestingly the the the grip the handle here is it looks like  it's cast aluminum yeah it's heavy yeah it's so cast aluminum is not a common film process for  props i mean it's been used a bunch um but that is really advanced and expensive right yeah and uh oh  man there's like moving parts it rattles a little bit yeah yeah and so it's it's really fascinating  i mean i love stuff like this where oh well maybe oh i see all right maybe we can take a look  this okay where you find the maker's name marked inside yeah and you can see the two  halves of the aluminum foundry casting yeah and then yeah this comes all rightoh yeah you can see the sharpie mark for where they where they drew the center line  for the fuller um oh my god it's welded onto the thing so they made it's very likely they  made all the blades and then rat tails on them for different i don't know there's any clues as  to who made it but it is very cool to see the handle broken down like that because i didn't  even realize that it's multiple components but of course it makes sense that is super  neat thank you for letting me do that hey i know when i hand things to you there's a fifty percentthe investigation oh it is a really amazing piece and i love that it like that it's steel i mean  obviously they probably had many different swords for the film some steal some in other materials  yes i mean we've definitely seen rubber swords and maybe even balsa wood you know a lot of times for  real action sequences they use very lightweight balsa wood wow because it snaps right so if if it  comes into contact right neck or something that shouldn't it'll just snap as opposed to rubber  where they've got to run a metal core through it of some kind to keep it supported and it can  still be a little bit dangerous but i just loved everything going on the blade with this because  again it's you know you would never see something like that on a replica it's obviously been handled  by an effects team on a film set i mean so you're speculating that maybe they welded something or  soldered something onto it there yeah so what i can see is that somebody ground away some of the  chrome which you would need to do before brazing to it yeah and then i see this brazing artifact  but it looks like there was something put here that got then heated and removed so it could  have been i don't maybe that's for the electrical it could be or they or they maybe put a squib or  something that was activated by hitting it on something i don't know but then you but then  on the opposite side as well this is gluing yes clearly and there's multiple i mean you've got  one there one there one down here at the bottom and yeah i mean that's got to be from some kind  of effect and i don't know if this is just rust from age or if that's somehow connected to the  practical effect i think that's rust for me that's my guess because it it's inconsistent and it  sort of follows you know the thing about steel blades is people don't know you you can never  really touch them without immediately wiping them down otherwise they'll just slowly rise yeah their  finger oils are terrible also i can see that i put the handle on backwards so hold on just a second  we'll fix that we've got reference questions no problem i just uh i don't want to do that  on camera that would be like but you know we were talking earlier about how fascinating it is to see  kind of behind the magician's curtain with props and costumes and to understand how they're made  and really to just see and appreciate the artistry that goes into making something like this and then  the ingenuity that goes into figuring out the practical gag of  how are we going to do this it'd be interesting to go look at the film now and see if we could  work out what shots this was used for exactly and my guess would be given that it's a steel  blade that it definitely stood in for some real close-ups because it's like in lord of the rings  obviously they have all these different swords but for the extreme close-ups that was all like  high-quality steel blades yeah and the grind on this it's clearly hand done um but i feel like  it is tony's work because it's just so good yeah amazing i thought this was a great sword design  also a great movie i mean the first blade when that came out in 98 before the whole current  before the world was marvel mad that was a great movie i came across an article recently that said  we should all pay homage to blade for showing how to do a serious superhero movie that still  made fun of itself because it is like i mean we used to at ilm we used to joke that everything  that um that chris christopherson says in that movie could be muttered to you by uh someone  a crazy person sitting on the park bench next to you there's a war going on but somehow it works it  totally works no i love playing blade's one of my favorite movies and i really do think that we have  it to thank for our it is like its dna is still happening in our superhero movies yeah and great  design throughout great props great costumes this sword the glaive that he has he's got that shotgun  with the spikes in the front and then the costume with the long trench coat and like the battle vest  that's all great designs there is also this thing that happens to cosplayers who want to  do blade and other movies like it which is when you have a blade that's mounted to your back  it turns out it's impossible for you to draw it okay because you can't pull it out enough to  get out of it scabbard so uh on the rpf there's endless discussions of cosplayers figuring out  ways to pull a bunch out of the side of this cabinet so you can pull it out i think it's  called a standby props guy that's the secret just get your props assistant exactly thanks  i love that it's a steel blade i mean you know that that feels like a rare thing to find in a  film blade yes yeah and again really suggest that it would have been used for some kind of  insert work because of course they would never you know swing that near another actor oh god no yeah  and it's dull it's not gonna it's not going to slice them but it is still incredibly dangerous  yeah and it's got some heft to it yeah no it's got a real weight to it it's a lovely piece  yeah oh i i didn't even notice these like the glitter clips of vampire glyphs  i think those repeat throughout the movie you see them in some of the sets and the blood  temples and things like that so again just more great design and blade makes me want to go watch  the film again i haven't seen believe i think i'm going to go watch it this evening i'm pretty sure  look for the sword tell me if you find it it is not the spark effect it's also uh frankly it is it  is unique to come across a film used weapon that uh feels so right right right like usually the  blade's really light or this feels real yeah this feels like if i came across real blade this is  what he would be holding yes yeah the day walker sword um brandon this is always so nice when  you visit thank you sir hey i thought you'd enjoy seeing this one thank you i'm not saying thank you  for leaving me the blade uh no just for bringing it the blade's going to auction you could own it\n"