Dracula 2000

In 2000 London, wealthy antiquary Matthew Van Helsing runs an antique shop on the site of Carfax Abbey, a business inherited from his grandfather, the Dutch physician and polymath Abraham Van Helsing. Solina, Van Helsing’s American secretary, orchestrates a heist with her boyfriend, Marcus, and their crew—Trick, Nightshade, Dax, and Eddie—to infiltrate the shop's fortified high-tech vault in search of riches. Instead, they discover a sealed silver coffin. While attempting to open the coffin, Eddie and Dax are impaled by spikes, spraying the coffin with blood and alerting Van Helsing to their presence. Assuming the coffin must contain Van Helsing's valuables, the group escapes with it aboard a plane to New Orleans, and Van Helsing pursues them with his apprentice, Simon Sheppard, in tow. Aboard their plane, Nightshade unlocks the coffin, revealing the withered body of Dracula. Having been awakened by the blood on his coffin, Dracula attacks and vampirizes Solina and her group. Rejuvenated, Dracula shares a telepathic link with Mary Heller, an English expatriate who sees him as he sees her. Following a Louisiana swamp crash, Dracula emerges to vampirize anchorwoman Valerie Sharpe after killing her cameraman, while local authorities take the other victims to a makeshift morgue. He then travels to New Orleans to find Mary. Haunted by dreams of an unknown Dracula, Mary clings to her resentment toward the father she blames for her late mother’s mental decline. Upon arrival, Van Helsing and Simon thin the vampire ranks, but Dracula infiltrates a police station to claim Solina, leaving a trail of slaughtered officers in their wake. Van Helsing confesses he is the 19th-century original; having survived since Dracula's 1897 attacks, he has cheated death for over a hundred years by harvesting the vampire's blood via leeches and hiding behind his own family tree. Despite a century of effort, Van Helsing cannot kill Dracula, the primordial vampire who reviles God, silver, and Christian cultures. Conceived after his prolongation began, Mary is Van Helsing’s contemporary daughter—a child born into a shared bloodline with the vampire himself. Petrified by his true identity, Van Helsing’s wife fled with Mary to escape both the monster and the man, fearing the latent vampirism taking root in her daughter's blood; however, Van Helsing secretly tracked their every move and grieved in silence after his wife’s death. Dracula is led to Mary's home by her friend Lucy Westerman, whom he seduces and vampirizes. There, he confronts and kills Van Helsing. On her return, Mary finds her father's carcass and is ambushed by Dracula and his brides: Solina, Valerie, and Lucy. Simon rushes Mary into a church to escape Dracula, but the vampire easily invades the sanctuary. Though they escape into a cemetery, Dracula intercepts them and abducts Mary, craving a born equal over a mere sired thrall. On a rooftop, Dracula transforms Mary and reveals that he is Judas Iscariot, the Apostle who betrayed Jesus Christ to the Sanhedrin for a bribe of thirty pieces of silver. After Jesus was crucified, Judas hanged himself in contrition, only to be cursed by God with eternal life as the world’s first vampire. Dracula blames Jesus for his damnation because he had foreknowledge of his betrayal and failed to avert the prophecy. Seeking revenge, the fallen Apostle aims to spite Christ by causing the world to be overrun by vampires. Dracula’s immortality is a choice; he refuses to seek the grace or forgiveness required to end his eternal life. After Simon kills Valerie, he is subdued by Solina and Lucy and brought to Dracula, who offers his blood to Mary. Mary feigns biting Simon, then turns on the brides and stabs Dracula, proving her free will remains intact. Matched in strength, Mary loops a crucifix cable around Dracula’s neck and drags him off the roof. As the sun consumes him, Dracula looks to the crucifix as Judas, freeing Mary from her curse before finally perishing. Returning to the United Kingdom to claim the Van Helsing estate, Mary assumes watch over Dracula’s remains with Simon steadfastly at her side. Despite being able to stand in the sunlight without burning pain, Mary’s eyes briefly flicker with an eerie glow, suggesting she has not fully returned to normal.