Anderson empties the clip.
When the muzzle stops flashing, the man’s face is completely gone.
He remains standing, because Anderson is holding him upright, as she pulls another ammo clip from his belt.
Then she lets him go.
As he’s falling, she’s sliding in the new clip.
Then she turns, and shoots the man she dropped with the kidney punch.
Cut to:
INT. MA-MA’S ANTEROOM – CONTINUOUS
Ma-Ma and Kaplan react to the burst of gunfire.
In the silence that follows:
MA-MA
Kay’s dead.
KAPLAN
Get a gun. Find somewhere to hide.
MA-MA
Where are you going?
KAPLAN
I’ve got the girl cold. I see her first, I shoot her. She sees me first, she hesitates, then I shoot her.
Cut to:
INT. MA-MA’S BASE ⁄ CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Anderson, moving fast in classic sweep, gun raised in two-handed grip.
Rounding a corner.
Finding the corridor is clear.
Tense beats, as she moves towards the next blind spot.
A T-junction.
She swings around it, and –
– finds Kaplan.
He’s side on to her.
His head turns.
KAPLAN
Lower the gun, rookie. I’m your back-up.
A beat on Anderson’s face.
Only just long enough –
– for us to realise she’s reading him.
Then she unloads into Kaplan’s chest.
Cut to:
INT. SLO-MO MANUFACTURING BASE – CONTINUOUS
Bullets punching the cover around Dredd.
Dredd moves for another place to hide.
But as soon as he reaches fresh cover, he is driven out by further volleys of bullets.
Finally, he finds himself behind a short section of wall. A remainder of the apartment walls that once stood. Five foot long.
Nothing to hide behind where he just came from, because everything is shot to pieces.
Nothing ahead but clear air.
Dredd’s options just ran out.
He knows it.
And on the other side of the wall, Lex knows it too.
Cut to –
– Lex.
Unhurried.
LEX
Armour piercing.
The setting on his gun changes.
He takes aim at a midway point on the wall.
A final beat.
Then Lex fires.
Cut to –
– a bullet rifling out of Dredd’s stomach.
We’ve seen a lot of bullets hit people up to now. This one is different. Almost understated.
The visual impact is not in what the bullet has done, but in who it has hit.
In the wall opposite Dredd, a single hole is drilled.
Dredd looks at the hole a moment.
Then down to the hole in his lower torso, from which blood is running.
Down on to his utility belt. Down his leg.
Starting to pool on the tread under his boot.
DREDD
Damn.
A beat.
Then Dredd starts to slide down the wall.
Landing in a seated position.
And when he looks up, Lex is standing over him.
Gun trained on Dredd’s head.
A beat between the two Judges.
Then:
DREDD
Wait.
Beat.
LEX
‘Wait’?
Lex hesitates.
Are you kidding me? Did you just say: ‘Wait’? Judge Dredd. The Judge Dredd. Finally gets on the wrong end of a gun. And what he says is ‘Wait’.
Lex shakes his head, incredulous.
You know what? I expected more of you. (Hitting his stride.) I mean, wait for what? Wait for me to change my mind? Wait for another two or three seconds of life, because you’re so fucking weak you can’t stand to see it end?
DREDD
No.
Abruptly, shockingly, Lex gets drilled with bullets.
They smash through his chest and helmet. Through his mouth and teeth.
As he drops, reveal Anderson, standing behind.
DREDD
Wait for her to shoot you.
Cut to –
– Dredd’s gloved and bloody fingers popping a pouch on his utility belt.
Pulling out a med-kit.
Cut to –
– Dredd taking a compressed antiseptic foam canister from the med-kit.
Cut to –
– Dredd sticking the nozzle into his bullet wound, and depressing the spray.
The wound fills with a foam, which solidifies instantly.
Cut to –
– Dredd pulling another instrument from his utility belt. A weird little device which looks like a stapler. And pretty much is a stapler.
He holds the device up to the entry wound, and depresses it.
A small clamp punctures the flesh either side of the bullet hole, then contracts, stapling the wound shut.
Cut to –
– Dredd taking ammunition clips from Lex’s utility belt.
Ejecting the clip on his own weapon.
Slotting a fresh clip home.
Then turning to Anderson.
DREDD
Ready?
ANDERSON
Yeah.
A shared beat between then.
Dredd nods.
DREDD
You look ready.
Cut to:
INT. MA-MA’S PENTHOUSE – CONTINUOUS
Dredd and Anderson are moving through the base.
Cat and mouse through the space. Around corners. Through doorways.
Two Clan Members are despatched.
Silence between Dredd and Anderson.
All hand gestures. Tension building. As they close in on a shut metal door at the end of a corridor. Beside which is a numbered keypad.
But before they reach it –
– Anderson suddenly turns, kicks open a side door.
Revealing the CCTV room.
INT. MA-MA’S BASE ⁄ CCTV ROOM – CONTINUOUS
The room looks empty.
But Anderson enters, followed by Dredd. Weapons drawn.
Anderson straight to the bank of monitors, then reaches to the cavity underneath the console –
– and hauls out the Clan Techie.
CLAN TECHIE
Please, don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I’m not armed! And –
His gaze flicks between the two Judges, and the guns trained on him. Sensing imminent death. Looking for the out.
CLAN TECHIE
– and I can help you!
DREDD
How?
The Techie gestures back to the corridor outside.
CLAN TECHIE
Ma-Ma’s in her private quarters – but it’s behind ten inches of steel. There’s no way inside without the keypad combination! And I can give it to you! I installed it myself!
ANDERSON
I don’t need your cooperation to get the combination from you.
She puts her hand on the Techie’s shoulder to hold him steady. Then closes her eyes. Reads him. Then –
– opens her eyes.
Frowning slightly.
But doesn’t release the Techie.
Instead, closes her eyes, and reads him again.
Cut to:
INT. UNDEFINED SPACE – CONTINUOUS
Inside the Clan Techie’s head.
Similar to the undefined space that existed inside Kay’s head.
The Clan Techie and Anderson in the same positions relative to each other as they are in the real world, as –
– Anderson’s hand reaches out to touch the Clan Techie’s cheek.
Flash cuts to –
– three snapshots of the
Clan Techie being brutalised, losing his eyes, getting punched, weeping alone –
– ending on Anderson with her hand cupping the face of the Techie.
Except the cheek she touches is that of a boy.
Nine. Skinny. Anxious-looking.
Gazing back at Anderson uncertainly.
Cut to:
INT. MA-MA’S BASE ⁄ CCTV ROOM – CONTINUOUS
Anderson removing her hand.
Beat.
Then:
ANDERSON
Go.
The Clan Techie doesn’t understand.
ANDERSON
Get out of here. Leave the block and don’t come back.
The Clan Techie doesn’t need to be told again.
He starts running, out of the CCTV room, and is gone.
Dredd turns to Anderson.
DREDD
You want to explain yourself, rookie? Abetting a felon is not just a fail offence. It’s a crime.
ANDERSON
I already picked up the fail when I lost my primary weapon. I’ll never be a judge, and I don’t need to be a mind-reader to know it.
She turns to Dredd. Stares him down.
But you haven’t yet told me that. And until the assessment is formally over, I’m still entitled to dispense justice. And that’s what I did: by letting him go. (To herself.) Maybe that will be the one difference I do make.
She walks past Dredd.
The combination to Ma-Ma’s quarters is four-nine-four-three-six. Let’s finish this.
INT. MA-MA’S PENTHOUSE
Ma-Ma stands with her two Bodyguards.
They can hear the shooting echoing down the concrete corridors towards them. They know what’s coming.
Ma-Ma reaches down to the low table beside her bed.
Picks up a device.
A thick metal bracelet, that clips around her wrist like a single handcuff.
As it ratchets shut –
– it emits an electronic bleep. And a single LED light on it starts pulsing.
The pulse of a heartbeat.
INT. MA-MA’S PENTHOUSE ⁄ MASTER BEDROOM – CONTINUOUS
Dredd and Anderson enter Ma-Ma’s private room.
Ma-Ma stands watching from the rail.
Reveal – Ma-Ma’s Bodyguards hiding.
Dredd and Anderson both sense them.
At that moment – the Bodyguards swing out.
The Judges and the Bodyguards exchange fire. The Bodyguards are killed, and Anderson is hit.
Throughout, Ma-Ma doesn’t move her hands from the rail. We pick up a shot of Ma-Ma’s hand holding the rail, with the bracelet visible.
When the explosion of gunfire is over –
– the two Bodyguards are dead, and Anderson is lying on the floor, wounded.
Dredd and Ma-Ma are facing each other across the room. The only two left standing.
Dredd’s gun levelled at Ma-Ma’s head.
Ma-Ma still standing, relaxed, hands on the rail.
MA-MA
You’re a piece of work, Dredd.
Beat.
But so am I. You think I didn’t know I’d get busted some day? Goes with the territory.
She smiles.
My base is rigged with enough high explosives to take out the top fifty levels of the block. And if they go, the rest go too.
She holds up her arm. Shows the bracelet.
The LED light pulses with her heartbeat rhythm. Echoed now with a soft audio.
MA-MA
Like the jewellery? It’s a transmitter, synched in to my heartbeat. My heart stops beating, the building blows. Everyone in it. Ash.
Beat.
You got no way out, Judge. Put your gun down.
Another beat.
On Dredd.
Then:
DREDD
No.
Ma-Ma frowns.
MA-MA
… Do you know how many people live in this block?
DREDD
This isn’t a negotiation. Your sentence is death.
MA-MA
You can’t take the risk.
DREDD
Yeah. I can.
Dredd suddenly dips the gun. Fires.
Ma-Ma spins round. Hit in the leg. Falls back.
Dredd holsters his gun.
Walks over to Ma-Ma. Bleeding out.
Stands over her. Looking down at the pulsing bracelet.
DREDD
We’re a kilometre above the ground. What do you figure the range on that thing is? Get through fifty levels of concrete? Hundred? Two hundred?
Beat.
Let’s find out.
He reaches down, and hauls her up.
Stops against the glass.
Dredd looks at her a beat.
Then leans down. Picks up a slo-mo inhaler from the coffee table.
And jams it in her mouth.
As he depresses the button:
DREDD
Citizen Ma-Ma. Your crimes are multiple homicide, and manufacture and distribution of narcotics. How do you plead?
Ma-Ma can’t answer. So much gas is being pumped into her that we can see it escaping through the sides of her mouth and nose.
DREDD
Defence noted.
He tosses the inhaler.
Then punches her one last time.
And she flies backwards, smashing though the window in a shower of glass.
Then she’s in free-fall. With nothing but two hundred storeys of thin air between her and the concrete atrium floor.
And as she’s falling, the slo-mo drug is taking hold.
INT. ATRIUM – CONTINUOUS
Beautiful, weird free-fall sequence.
Looking up at the fire blazing around level 190.
Through the smoke and flames, Ma-Ma drops, punching a hole in the smoke with the turbulence from her massive body.
All seen in the grip of the drug.
Watching the balconies drift past.
The surprised faces of the block citizens watching.
Flash cut to –
– slo-mo of Ma-Ma’s continuing fall.
Ma-Ma.
Alone.
Looking down, just as she –
– hits the atrium floor.
Head first. Very slowly.
Hypnotic to watch …
… Her skull crushes, flattening.
And the rest of her massive body follows.
As the body is slowly pulped, go to –
INT. ATRIUM
Cut to –
– a close-up on the bracelet. On Ma-Ma’s bloodied wrist.
The pulsing light stops.
INT. ATRIUM
Dredd.
Standing. At the smashed window.
Waiting.
Beats pass. And nothing happens.
Dredd nods to himself. Then turns away.
EXT. MEGA CITY ONE – SUNRISE
The sun rising over the city.
EXT. PEACH TREE BLOCK ⁄ SOUTH ENTRANCE – CONTINUOUS
The Peach Tree hologram switches back on.
INT. PEACH TREE BLOCK ⁄ SOUTH ENTRANCE – CONTINUOUS
The blast doors start to rise.
Dredd and Anderson stand side by side as the doors rise.
Both bloodied, both wounded, both standing independently.
In silence.
A beat.
Clunk.
The doors are fully open.
They turn to each other.
DREDD
Your assessment is now over.
Anderson unclips her rookie badge, and hands it to Dredd.
Dredd looks at it.
But says nothing.
Anderson starts walking away from Dredd.
EXT. PEACH TREE BLOCK ⁄ SOUTH ENTRANCE – CONTINUOUS
Dredd follows Anderson out, into a throng of Medics, Judges, and among them –
– the Chief Judge.
The Chief Judge approaches Dredd.
CHIEF JUDGE
Wh
en I heard you’d called a 10-24, thought I’d better check it out. Seeing as I forced the rookie on you.
She looks up at the mega block.
What happened in there?
DREDD
Drug bust.
CHIEF JUDGE
You look like you’ve been through it.
DREDD
Perps were uncooperative.
CHIEF JUDGE
Aren’t they always?
The Chief Judge nods to where Anderson is being treated by the Medics.
CHIEF JUDGE
So how did she do? Is she a pass or a fail?
On Dredd.
Looking towards Anderson.
As Dredd watches, two Medics approach her –
– and she brushes them away.
Then, underplayed:
DREDD
She’s a pass.
The Chief Judge nods.
CHIEF JUDGE
Knew she would be.
Pull back from the scene.
Judges entering Peach Trees, where sunlight is punching back into the darkness as the roof shields reopen.
The Chief Judge looking up at the monolithic megablock, where a holographic peach tree flickers.
And Dredd walking back to his bike alone.
Fade in –
CONTROL
(over radio)
All responders in vicinity of sector five leisure complex, we have weapons fired in astrodome. Four suspects on foot …
CONTROL
(over radio)
Suspect wanted in connection with three judge slayings seen leaving in dark-coloured vehicle, heading for North Boundary Road …
CONTROL
(over radio)
Responders needed in sub-sector twenty, flyover five. Block riot has spread east. Judges on the ground requesting immediate support …
End on the Skaters in the skatepark, as we first encountered them.
The End.
Dredd
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE FILM
Also by Alex Garland
novels
THE BEACH
THE TESSERACT
THE COMA
(with Nicholas Garland)
screenplays