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						Witchblade: The Movie: The two-hour movie basis for the series, is based on a comic book of the same name. The protagonist is homicide detective Sara Pezzini, whose mother died when she was a child and whose police officer father was murdered. Her partner is Danny Woo, and her father's former partner and best friend, Joe Siri, is her boss.  She and Danny are staking out mob boss Tommy Gallo ~ whom she believes had something to do with the death of a childhood friend, Maria, (who had fallen into the dirty world of drugs, alcohol and prostitution) ~ when a skirmish errupts and she has to follow his companion ~ a known hitman ~ into a museum (which is called the Midtown Museum, but appears to be based on The Cloisters). Sara loses him momentarily, and finds herself distracted and fascinated by a medieval gauntlet ~ a luminous red jewel 'eye' opens on the piece, but she seems not to notice.  She's brought back to the here and now by a mysterious man dressed in black, whom she tells to get out as she sees the assassin move in another gallery.  He leaves, but never goes far. Sara and the hitman get into a shooting match, which hits the case the gauntlet is resting in, and as Sara moves away from the bullets, the armor slips onto her hand ~ and deflects the bullets.  As if in a dream, Sara sees the head of one of the suits of armor move as a bullet hits a pipe.  There is a huge explosion. ; Next thing we see is Sara outside, confused but unharmed, and she discovers that the gauntlet is still on her wrist, but it has transformed itself into an innocuous-looking bracelet, with a large red jewel. That night she has strange dreams, of woman warriors and fire.  As Sara has more time with the artifact , which she soon learns is called the Witchblade, more of it's powers are demonstrated - not only can it defend her from attack, but it also transforms into a sword and it gives her psychic ability. She is able to see bits and pieces of her friend's murder, and she ultimately learns Gallo was the one who killed her, but she's too late to save Danny from the same fate.  The man in black from the museum ~ whom we discover is Ian Nottingham, an employee of enigmatic billionaire Kenneth Irons ~ has set Gallo and Sara up to bump into each other at an old theater (the Rialto) the mob boss wants to buy as a nightclub.  Sara leaves Danny to check things out on her own, but he's discovered and brought before Gallo, who shoots the cop.  It's made clear that Ian wants Sara pushed into using the Witchblade, and the cold-blooded murder of her partner is enough.  She explodes into action, using the Witchblade to kill several of Gallo's men ~ but Gallo himself escapes. Later on, while Sara is in Joe Siri's office, he tells her Gallo's lawyer is saying that she and Danny started the fight.  Of course she objects, and Joe tells her he wants her to calm down, but he also tells her ~ at her insistence that he's holding something back from her ~ that she's adopted.  Jake McCartey, a relative newcomer to the station, has asked to be Sara's partner to replace Danny ~ who has appeared to Sara at his graveside as a ghost (and had suggested she ask Siri about her background).  Siri tells the distraught Sara that she can take a week off to figure out what the he** is going on, but in exchange she has to accept Jake as her partner.  He doesn't want her running around alone.  She reluctantly agrees, and turns to Kenneth Irons and Ian Nottingham for answers. Irons is a powerful but mysterious man who has an art gallery dedicated to the Witchblade and it's wielders in his palacial residence. Nottingham is even more intriguing; apparently he's been raised by Irons to be his agent and an aid to whomever wears the gauntlet.  We see flashback scenes indicating Ian with Irons at perhaps age ten or so, and he looks to be at least in his late twenties at current day, yet Irons looks not at all older. Irons is one of very few men who have tried on the Wtichblade, but got only a scar on his hand and a psychic connection to the gauntlet's wearer for his efforts ~ and possibly "eternal" youth. Irons tells Sara that she?s one in a long line of female warriors who have been chosen by the Witchblade, and he shows her a gallery of women throughout history, all of whom have the bracelet or the gauntlet on their arm.  After she leaves and gets into the inevitable final conflict with Gallo ~ during which Sara learns that he also killed her father ~ she ultimately declines to kill him in cold-blood, and we see Irons ~ who seems to have been able to 'see' the fight ~ leaning against a window, expressing his dissapointment in her.  Apparently his motives aren't as pure as he has been trying to imply.  Next morning, Sara receives a call from Ian, who tells her to read the morning paper ~ Gallo has apparently committed suicide...or as Sara suggests, he may have had help.   While Ian doesn't confirm this, he also doesn't deny it, and you're left with the feeling he may have different ideas about the Witchblade, justice, and the woman who wears the gauntlet than his supposed employer.
Yancy Butler as Sara Pezzini David Chokachi as Jake McCartey Anthony Cistaro as Kenneth Irons Will Yun Lee as Danny Woo Eric 'Kaos' Etebari as Ian Nottingham Kenneth Walsh as Joe Siri Conrad Dunn as Tommy Gallo
					Episode 1 ~ Series Premiere (6/12/01):~ Parallax: Sara's role in the Rialto Theater incident is questioned during a hostile meeting, which includes her new partner, Jake, Joe Siri and another man in authority, who seems to have a grudge against her dad. His name is Bruno Dante, and he informs her Joe Siri is retiring and that he, Dante, will be Siri's replacement. Siri nods, sadly ~ he had wanted to tell her himself.  Sara leaves the meeting abruptly, and Siri arranges for Dante to smooth over the Rialto issue with a promise of a favor later on.  Sara and Jake get a call about shots fired.  Sara hasn't a clue that it's Ian and three men pursuing him (who have motocycles) who are firing at each other.  All four men show remarkable, almost superhuman agility and stamina. As Sara and Jake arrive, they find one of the men dead, one on the ground, as well as an innocent bystander; Ian, as usual, has melted into the scenery.  Jake takes a bullet in the shoulder as the fourth man takes off, but Jake tells Sara to go after the guy. She jumps on one of the motorcycles, and although she does lose him, she gets a glimpse at his abilities. [Amazing sequence, btw!] Sara gets back to the shooting location to find several emergency vehicles there, and the injured man sees Ian over Sara's shoulder, goes for a gun, and she shoots him, not realizing he was probably aiming for Ian. He manages to whisper something about Black Dragons before he dies. Later on, Jake shows us a slightly surprising side for a pretty-boy ex-surfer who no one takes seriously, as he gets classified informaiton from a CIA website about the Black Dragons. Danny shows up at the morgue, and gives Sara a few confusing puzzle pieces, and Ian saves her life from Mobius. As usual, all roads lead to Irons and Nottingham ~ Kenneth Irons' company, Vorschlag Industries, was involved in creating the bio-technology utilized in evolving the Black Dragons, a special- forces unit of experimentally bred super-soldiers, and Ian Nottingham is one of two Dragons left.  The other is Hector 'Moby' Mobius, who is the man Sara had chased earlier, and who is stalking Nottingham to get to Irons...to kill him. Continued on next page
Yancy Butler as Sara Pezzini David Chokachi as Jake McCartey Anthony Cistaro as Kenneth Irons Will Yun Lee as Danny Woo Eric 'Kaos' Etebari as Ian Nottingham Kenneth Walsh as Joe Siri Peter Mensah as Bruno Dante Nestor Serrano as Mobius Kathryn Winslow as Vicki Poe
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