History Film / Dredd

* YourHeadAsplode: The results of a Hi-Ex to the face. [[spoiler:It splatters one of the corrupt judges head's all over the room and a bit more.]]

** Dredd, when cornered by two juves, gives them the option of a body bag or the juve cubes. When they attack him, he uses [[StunGun stun rounds]] on them.

The film revolves around Judge Dredd, a decorated veteran Judge, and Cassandra Anderson, a rookie Judge with a genetic mutation that gave her powerful psychic abilities. After Anderson is assigned to Dredd for her final evaluation, the two respond to a triple murder at a 200-story apartment slum named ''Peach Trees'', where they unknowingly stumble upon the creators of the city's latest drug scourge. In response, prostitute-turned-drug lord Madeleine "Ma-Ma" Madrigal and her ruthless clan trap everyone inside, prepared to protect their empire at all costs. With no way out and the body count rising, the Judges are forced to [[ItsAllUpstairsFromHere fight their way up the tower]] to Ma-Ma, because ThereCanBeOnlyOne Law in Mega-City One.

* ShownTheirWork: The movie shows realistically what happens to a person after a gruesome injury. Those slow-motion shots of bullets deforming and tearing open people's bodies? That's not exaggerated for the sake of {{Gorn}}; that's what a speeding bullet ''really does'' to flesh.

* TooDumbToLive: Yup, the best place for a homeless person to lounge about is directly below the blast door of an apartment complex. It's not like it can drop on you and squish you like a tomato.

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: A well-earned 10 thanks to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath what Ma-Ma does to those three criminals]]. Even without that scene, the movie does ''not'' hold back on showing the various bloody ways humans can be dispatched.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Ma-Ma doesn't kill one of her lieutenants for getting her drug operation exposed, but only out of practical concerns, because Dredd has already killed too many of her soldiers by that point and she's short on manpower.

In the far future, America has become an irradiated wasteland. In the ruins of what was once, the United States lies Mega-City One, a vast, dystopian megapolis riddled with violence and bloodshed that stretches from Boston to Washington D.C--with the streets being plagued by criminals of all stripes. The only force of order remaining in the city is the Judges, a group of law enforcement officials belonging to the Justice Department who acts as JudgeJuryAndExecutioner for any criminal unlucky enough to encounter one.

The film revolves around Judge Dredd, a decorated veteran Judge, and Cassandra Anderson, a rookie Judge recruited due to a genetic mutation from the nuclear fallout that gave her powerful psychic abilities. After responding to a triple murder at a 200-story apartment slum named ''Peach Trees'', as part of Anderson's final evaluation for instatement into the Judges, the two unknowingly stumble upon the creators of the city's latest drug scourge: a dangerous concoction called "Slo-Mo" that lets users experience reality at a fraction of its normal speed. In response, prostitute-turned-drug lord Madeleine "Ma-Ma" Madrigal and her ruthless clan trap the Judges inside, prepared to protect their empire at all costs. With no way out and the body count rising, the Judges are forced to [[ItsAllUpstairsFromHere fight their way up the tower]] to Ma-Ma, because of ThereCanBeOnlyOne Law in Mega-City One.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** The movie shows realistically what happens to a person after a gruesome injury. Those slow-motion shots of bullets deforming and tearing open people's bodies? That's not exaggerated for the sake of {{Gorn}}; that's what a speeding bullet ''really does'' to flesh.
** In the opening sequence, one of the perps is firing a machine pistol while inside a van. The other perp, who is riding shotgun, covers his ears and they communicate with each other shouting, being deafened by the gunfire. The perp also can't put a single bullet into Dredd despite very short distance, too, given their crazy driving.
** Ammo conservation is a serious problem once Dredd and Anderson are locked in the building. Dredd actually runs out late in the film, really heightening the drama when he's up against an armed foe. It's nothing but pure chance he manages to get his hands on more magazines for the final battle.

** Madeline and Madrigal are twin antagonists in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''.

* DangerDeadpan: Exemplified in [[NotSoDifferent Dredd and Ma-Ma]] but evident across most of the characters; not surprising given that the majority of them are either professional highly-armed police officers or hardened highly-armed drug dealers.

* NotSoDifferent: Never outright stated, but a subtle theme of the film.
** Both Caleb and Dredd instruct their ally to shoot and kill an already severely wounded and incapacitated enemy.
** Dredd and Ma-Ma both make almost identical speeches over the building's PA system: they both essentially boil down to "I'm coming for you; anyone who gets in the way will die."
** Dredd and Ma-Ma both resort to fairly brutal means of killing their enemies. Ma-Ma has her victims skinned alive; Dredd burns a squad of mooks alive with an incendiary round.
** Dredd and [[spoiler:Ma-Ma]] are both shot in almost the exact same spot on their bodies.
** Dredd and Ma-Ma both execute an enemy by dosing them with Slo-Mo and throwing them off the 200th floor of the building.
** To make the metaphor visual: when [[spoiler:Ma-Ma]] dies, her blood briefly forms the red 'X' pattern that appears on a Judge's helmet.
** Lampshaded when they finally meet face-to-face. "You're a piece of work, Dredd. But then so am I."

* PreciousPhoto: Anderson keeps a photo of her and her parents when she was a kid in her pocket. [[spoiler:After being captured, Kay has a glance at her photo and drops it to the ground. After his arm gets blown off by Anderson's lawgiver, she gets the photo back.]]

* StupidCrooks: The criminal who survived the car crash from the opening chase scene might have gotten away clean if he'd just slipped away in the crowd while Dredd was inspecting the wreckage, instead of attracting attention to himself by firing off his gun and killing random civilians.

* DeadManSwitch: Ma-Ma uses one linked to a bomb to try and protect herself. [[spoiler:Emphasis on ''try''.]]

* YouWouldntShootMe: Ma-Ma has a DeadManSwitch linked to explosives which have the potential to kill everyone in Peach Trees, and is confident Dredd will not kill her. [[spoiler:He instead ''wounds'' her, then tosses her 200 stories down where the signal won't be able to get through all the steel and concrete.]]

* TurnInYourBadge: At the end, Anderson does this without a single prompt, [[spoiler:knowing full well that she made a couple of failable offenses in her assessment. She then leaves, and can be seen refusing medical treatment in the distance. In the end, however, Dredd gives her a passing grade.]]

* PragmaticVillainy: Ma-Ma. She doesn't want Anderson raped or tortured... because she's still hoping to cover up what's going on. She goes to great lengths to kill Dredd, Anderson and their prisoner... not because she's AxCrazy, but because if the Judges interrogate Kay and find out what her real business is, she's as good as dead anyway, so she has nothing to lose by resorting to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill overkill]]. Long as Kay doesn't spill his guts, anything that went down during Dredd and Anderson's visit could be chalked up to the Judges getting killed in the line of duty.

* PreciousPhoto: Anderson keeps a photo of her and her parents when she was a kid in her pocket. [[spoiler:After being captured, Kay has a glance of her photo and drops it to the ground. After his arm gets blown off by Anderson's lawgiver, she gets the photo back.]]

** Dredd is [[KnightTemplar willing to do anything to uphold the law as written]]. While he cares about Mega City and the people he protects, he tortures and kills perps even when they've already surrendered. Regardless, he is also shown using the proper amount of force when needed and doesn't shoot to kill until the other options are expired. For example not firing on the van in the opening scene until they run over an innocent, and using stun rounds on a pair of scared, stupid kids. He also shows willingness to break the rules when it counts. [[spoiler:Instead of flunking Anderson for losing her primary weapon, he gives her the pass she deserves.]] Likewise, he refuses to execute a murder suspect on a "mere" 99% certainty of guilt.
** Anderson is a conflicted version. Although depicted as a kinder, gentler judge compared to Dredd, she nonetheless kills an unarmed perp at Dredd's urging (as under the law, that's what his punishment is), but is reluctant and then [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone feels awful]] on learning that he had a family. She later only kills perps in immediate self-defense and is insistent on mercy to one who'd been [[ForcedIntoEvil forced into committing his crimes]].

* FanService: Kay undressing Anderson in his mind during his soon-to-expire [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Reason You Suck speech.]] Quickly becomes FanDisservice, though, when she telepathically changes his fantasy into Ma-Ma [[GroinAttack biting his dick off]].
** There's a shot of Anderson [[BareYourMidriff baring her midriff...]] [[AvertedTrope after she's been shot]] [[FanDisservice and Dredd is dressing the wound.]]

* MoreDakka: Ma-Ma takes this approach when she decides to get GatlingGood.

* DeathGlare: Dredd can do this even with his eyes obscured. Also check out the scene when the Clan Techie has trouble convincing the operator that they have an unscheduled war drill, with Ma-Ma hanging on his shoulder giving him a cold lizard stare.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted from before the film begins with Ma-Ma, who is played by the very beautiful Lena Headey, but who has very prominent facial scarring. [[spoiler: Even more averted at the end, when Dredd tosses her off a building and we see in close-up and slow motion the effect of her landing face-first on the ground two hundred storeys below.]]