Dracula 2000 (also known as Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 and internationally as Dracula 2001) is a 2000 American gothic horror film co-written and directed by Patrick Lussier and produced by Joel Soisson and stars Gerard Butler, Christopher Plummer, Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Omar Epps, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Jeri Ryan and Jennifer Esposito. The plot follows Dracula, who arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 21st century and seeks out Mary Heller, the daughter of Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula 2000, the promotional title of which is Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, builds upon Bram Stoker's original 1897 novel Dracula, with Count Dracula resurrected in contemporary America. The film was a critical and commercial failure, though two direct-to-video sequels, both written and directed by Lussier, were produced.
Plot[]
Matthew Van Helsing, a descendant of 19th-century Dutch physician Abraham Van Helsing, owns an antique shop built over the site of Carfax Abbey in London in 2000. One night, with Van Helsing upstairs, his secretary, Solina, allows a group of thieves, led by her boyfriend, Marcus, into the shop. The thieves infiltrate the shop's underground high-security vault and find a sealed silver coffin protected by a deadly defense system. Based on the level of security surrounding the coffin, Solina and Marcus decide that the coffin must contain valuable content, so they escape with it and flee to New Orleans. When Van Helsing discovers that the coffin has been stolen, he boards a plane to America, telling his apprentice, Simon Sheppard, to remain in London. Simon, ignoring these instructions, follows his mentor.
Aboard their plane, one of the thieves manages to open the coffin, revealing the dormant body of Count Dracula. Dracula awakens and attacks and turns the thieves and Solina, causing the plane to crash in the Louisiana swamps. Dracula survives the crash, turns news reporter Valerie Sharpe who is reporting the crash, kills her cameraman, and travels to New Orleans, where college students Mary Heller and Lucy Westerman are living. Estranged from her family, Mary has recently been experiencing nightmares of a strange, terrifying man - Dracula.
Van Helsing and Simon arrive in New Orleans and destroy the newly turned vampires left in Dracula's wake, except Solina and Marcus. Afterwards, Van Helsing reveals to Simon that he is in fact the original Abraham Van Helsing, who defeated Dracula in 1897. Because he was unable to destroy Dracula permanently, Van Helsing hid the body and prolonged his own life by regularly injecting Dracula's blood (filtered via leeches) until, one day, he could discover a way to kill Dracula permanently. Simon is intrigued as to why Dracula hates all things Christian and wonders why he is also particularly vulnerable to silver. Van Helsing also tells Simon about his daughter, Mary, whose mother took her from England after the truth about his identity came to light. Since Mary was conceived after Van Helsing began his injections, she shares blood and a telepathic link with Dracula, who senses her existence and is in New Orleans to find her.
Van Helsing and Simon try to reach Mary before Dracula does but fail to do so before Dracula turns Lucy into a vampire. Dracula and his three new brides, Solina, Lucy, and Valerie, corner Van Helsing and kill him. Simon and Mary escape, only for Dracula to capture them shortly after that. On a rooftop, Dracula transforms Mary and reveals his true identity: the Apostle Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus for a bribe of thirty pieces of silver. After Jesus was crucified, Judas tried to hang himself in shame, but the rope snapped, and God cursed him to live forever as a vampire. Mary finally understands why the legendary vampire is vulnerable to silver and hates Christian iconography. Solina and Lucy appear with Simon, who has killed Valerie earlier with a stake, and Dracula tells Mary to bite him. However, Mary fakes the bite, and together she and Simon decapitate the two remaining brides. An enraged Dracula tries to throw Mary from the rooftop, but Mary wraps some cable from a large crucifix around Dracula's neck, and they both fall from the roof. Dracula hangs as he attempted to do two thousand years before, but the rope does not break this time, and he burns in the first sunlight.
Mary survives the fall and is cured of her vampirism by Dracula saying, "I release you" before he dies. In the end, she doubts whether the sun has truly killed Dracula. Embracing her heritage as a Van Helsing, she returns Dracula's ashes to the vault beneath Carfax Abbey and vows to watch over them should he ever rise again.