Watch Blade: Trinity’s Jessica Biel Destroy A Camera With Her Archery Skills

Blade: Trinity star Jessica Biel became so good with her bow and arrow she accidentally destroyed an expensive camera. The original Blade starred Wesley Snipes as the titular hunter, a half-human/half-vampire hybrid. Due to its fantastic action and Snipes’ central performance, it became a surprise success in 1998 and helped make comic book movies cool again. Guillermo del Toro directed 2002 follow-up Blade II, where the hunter teamed his sworn enemies to stop The Reapers, an evolved, borderline unkillable new strain of vampire.

Both of the original Blade movies are considered gems, but Blade: Trinity went very wrong during production. Guillermo del Toro departed to make dream project Hellboy and screenwriter David S. Goyer took over. His original concept was a Mad Max-style adventure where vampires had taken over the world, but this was scrapped due to budget issues. Wesley Snipes was so unhappy over the direction the movie took – including adding new sidekicks dubbed The Nightstalkers with spin-off potential – that he became difficult to work with during filming. He would never talk with his co-stars out of character and would often communicate through post-it notes. In one ending shot for the movie where Blade was supposed to awaken on a morgue table he simply refused to open his eyes, which were later added with CG.

Blade: Trinity is now best remembered for its behind-the-scenes problems than the actual movie. It did provide a good vehicle for Ryan Reynolds, however, who has since admitted his Hannibal King performance was a prototype for his take on Deadpool. Another key member of The Nightstalkers is Abigail Whistler, played by Jessica Biel. Abigail is the daughter of Blade’s partner Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who trained her in secret to take over his war on vampires. One of Abigail’s main weapons is her bow and arrow, but Biel’s commitment to training led to a costly accident during filming.

In Blade: Trinity’s climactic scene, Abigail has to shoot a special arrow at main villain Drake – AKA Dracula – that will release a special, vampire eradicating virus. During filming for this key moment, Jessica Biel was instructed to aim for the camera, which was covered by plexiglass to protect the crew. There was a tiny opening for the lens but Biel’s aim was so perfect she shot the arrow right into it, destroying a camera worth an estimated $300,000.

While Jessica Biel nailed the physical aspects of her Blade: Trinity role, the Abigail Whistler character didn’t give her much to work with. The way Abigail listens to blaring music on her iPod during fights was also criticized since rendering her hearing essentially worthless hardly seems like a good idea in a combat situation. The underwhelming performance of Blade: Trinity killed off chances for a spinoff, though an alternated ending was shot that featured The Nightstalkers facing off with a vampire/werewolf hybrid.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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