Judge Dredd is a 1995 American science fiction action film based on the 2000 AD comics Judge Dredd. It is directed by Danny Cannon and stars Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd, a law enforcement officer in the crime-ridden futuristic metropolis of Mega-City One. Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Jürgen Prochnow, and Max von Sydow appear in supporting roles. It was filmed entirely at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom, and released by Buena Vista Pictures on June 30, 1995.
The film is set in the 22nd century and depicts a dystopian world. Following an unspecified disaster that turned Earth into a "cursed" wasteland, the survivors established a corps of Judges whose role combines that of police, judge, jury and executioner. In Judge Dredd, Dredd, one of the most dedicated Street Judges, has been framed for murder by his own half-brother — the psychotic Rico, who plots to take over Mega-City One with an army of superhuman clones. The film was produced by Charles Lippincott and Beau E. L. Marks, with a screenplay by William Wisher Jr. and Steven E. de Souza.
Judge Dredd went into general release on June 30, 1995. It grossed $113.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $85-90 million, and was considered a box-office disappointment at the time. It received negative reviews from critics, and is often considered to be one of Stallone's worst films, but its visual style, effects, music score, stunts and action sequences were praised, and the film was nominated for four Saturn Awards.
Plot
In the future, the Earth has become a deadly wasteland called the Cursed Earth. The few survivors live in overcrowded "Mega-Cities" plagued by rampant crime. To combat this, a new order of law enforcement has emerged: Judges, officers who act as police, jury, and executioner.
In 2139, in Mega-City One, a crime epidemic threatens to overwhelm the Judges' dwindling resources. The strict and feared Judge Dredd assists rookie Judge Hershey in violently quelling a block war. In the same raid, Dredd apprehends Fergie, a hacker and recent parolee, hiding in a city-owned robot. Dredd sentences him to five more years for property destruction. Hershey criticizes Dredd's unyielding approach to the law and his solitary nature. Dredd, in response, reveals that nine years earlier he judged and ordered the execution of his best friend and fellow Judge, Rico, for committing a massacre.
Meanwhile, Rico, secretly imprisoned at the Aspen Penal Colony, receives a covert message. He escapes and returns to Mega-City One. He retrieves his Judge uniform and Lawgiver gun, and reactivates a decommissioned ABC Warrior, a combat robot, to serve him. Disguised as Dredd, Rico shoots and kills reporter Vartis Hammond, a critic of Dredd and the Judges' violent law enforcement.
Evidence incriminates Dredd, who is put on trial before the Council of Judges, including his mentor Chief Justice Fargo and Judge Griffin. Despite Hershey's defense, Dredd is convicted when DNA from the bullets found in the scene matches his own. Fargo retires to spare Dredd's life, requesting leniency as his last act. Dredd is sentenced to life imprisonment while Fargo embarks on the "Long Walk", the final task of a retired Judge to enforce the law in the Cursed Earth until their death.
On the transport to the penal colony, Dredd is coincidentally seated next to Fergie. Their transport is shot down by the Angel Gang, a group of cannibalistic scavengers. Fargo intervenes to help Dredd escape the gang, and the Judges sent after him by Griffin, but is mortally wounded. Before dying, Fargo reveals that Dredd and Rico are clones created by the Janus Project, a genetic engineering program designed to produce perfect Judges using DNA formed from the best traits of the Council, including Fargo. However, following Rico's turn to criminality, the project was abandoned and its existence concealed. Fargo warns Dredd that Griffin conspired to conceal Rico's survival, frame Dredd, and force Fargo's retirement to reactivate the Janus Project, and urges Dredd to stop him.
In Mega-City One, Rico terrorizes the city, killing Judges to weaken their forces. Griffin uses the chaos to convince the Council to unlock Janus and clone a new Judge army to ruthlessly enforce the law. When the Council tries to reverse its decision, Griffin has Rico eliminate them. At the Janus lab in the Statue of Liberty, Rico replaces the original DNA sample with his own to cultivate clones with free will as his "family", refusing to let them be controlled as he was. When Griffin protests, Rico has the ABC Warrior kill him.
Dredd and Fergie return to the city and team up with Hershey, who has uncovered the Janus Project. Together, they infiltrate the lab, where the ABC Warrior injures Fergie and captures Hershey. Rico confronts Dredd for betraying him, but asserts that they are family and offers Dredd the chance to lead the clones alongside him; Dredd refuses. As Fergie disables the ABC Warrior, Rico prematurely activates the clones for backup, causing the lab to explode and destroying them. Dredd pursues Rico to the top of the statue, ultimately throwing him to his death.
Back on the ground, Dredd's name is cleared after the city's supercomputer broadcasts the truth about Janus. The remaining Judges ask Dredd to become Chief Justice, but he declines, preferring to work as a street Judge.
Cast
Other actors include Maurice Roëves as Warden Miller, James Remar as the Block Warlord, Pat Starr as Lily Hammond, Lex Daniel as rookie Judge Brisco, Angus MacInnes as Judge Silver, Peter Marinker as Judge Esposito, Mark Moraghan as Judge Monroe, Louise Delamere as Judge Meeker, and Al Sapienza as Judge Gellar. Adrienne Barbeau provides the voice of the Hall of Justice Central Computer. James Earl Jones provides the narration to the film's opening text crawl.
Production
Development Prior to production, the producer Edward Pressman had the script rewritten by Walon Green, Rene Balcer, and Michael S. Chernuchin. Early in development, Renny Harlin, Richard Donner, Peter Hewitt, and Richard Stanley were considered to direct the film.
Director Danny Cannon was hired on the strength of his previous film, The Young Americans. Cannon was a long-time fan of the Judge Dredd comics. He created a mock-up poster for a Judge Dredd film that was published in Prog 534 of 2000 A.D. dated August 8, 1987. Cannon described his vision as "the Ben-Hur of comic book movies," and turned down an offer to direct Die Hard with a Vengeance to make the film.
Casting Early in development, Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for title role, before Sylvester Stallone was cast, even though Stallone had never heard of the character when he was cast. Cannon initially pursued Joe Pesci for the part of Fergie, but the actor turned it down.
Stallone and his co-star Armand Assante wore blue contact lenses to match von Sydow who plays their genetic 'father'. Assante deliberately mimicked Stallone's speech patterns to better reflect their characters' relationship as siblings.
Jürgen Prochnow, who played Judge Griffin, was coincidentally the longtime German-language dub actor for Stallone.
Design
The film's production designer was Nigel Phelps. Judge Dredd was his first feature film as sole production designer, he had previously worked on several high-profile music videos, and was a concept artist under Anton Furst. He hired Peter Young, with whom he had previously worked on Batman, as set decorator. Leslie Tomkins was the supervising art director.
Stallone personally selected Gianni Versace to design futuristic yet functional attire for the film. Versace created numerous rejected designs for Dredd's outfit, before landing on the final look.
The Statue of Liberty face was built in Lenox, Massachusetts, by a subsidiary of executive producer Andy Vajna's company Cinergi.
Special and visual effects The visual effects were realized by Douglas Trumbull's company Massive Illusion, with designs by Kiesler-Walczak. Additional effects were provided by Digital FilmWorks, The Magic Camera Company, Amalgamated Pixels, and Atomic Pictures.
The prosthetic make-up designs for Mean Machine Angel were created by artist Chris Cunningham (credited as 'Chris Halls'), supervised by Nick Dudman.
The production initially intended to use an actor in a suit to depict the ABC Warrior, but Danny Cannon insisted they build it for real using animatronics. The hydraulics-powered effect was created by Joss Williams and controlled by five remote operators.
Filming Filming took place at Shepperton Studios in England, with some location filming in Iceland. The producers initially wanted to shoot the film in the United States, but Cannon insisted on keeping production in the United Kingdom, the natural home of the character.
Music Although film composer David Arnold was originally set to score the film, having collaborated with director Danny Cannon on his previous film The Young Americans, Arnold was replaced by film composing veteran Jerry Goldsmith, but as post-production dates fell further and further behind, Goldsmith was forced to drop out of the project as well, due to prior commitments to score other films (First Knight and Congo). Prior to leaving the project, Goldsmith composed and recorded a short piece of music that would eventually be used for the film's trailers and advertising campaigns. In the end, Alan Silvestri was selected as the new composer and would go on to score the final film. He initially recorded the soundtrack with the Sinfonia of London. But following changes made to the film in post-production, Silvestri had to make extensive adjustments to his score by re-recording segues and cues in Hollywood, though some of the music from the London sessions remains in the finished film.
The end credits song for the film, "Dredd Song", was written and performed by the English alternative rock band the Cure. The song appears on disc three of their 2004 rarities box set Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978–2001 (The Fiction Years) as well as on the film's soundtrack album. The song "Judge Yr'self" by the Manic Street Preachers was originally going to be on the soundtrack. Their guitarist Richey Edwards disappeared in early 1995, and since the song was the last written with him in the band, it never made it to the final soundtrack listing. The song was not released until 2003, when the band released Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers).
In 1995, Epic Records released a soundtrack album featuring seven tracks from Silvestri's score (all performed by the Sinfonia of London but most were not versions used in the film) and songs by the Cure, The The, White Zombie, Cocteau Twins, Leftfield. The UK edition also had Ryo Aska and Worldbeaters with Youssou N'Dour (only the first two songs are heard in the film over the end credits).
In 2015, Intrada Records issued a greatly-expanded two-disc, limited-edition album featuring all the music Silvestri recorded for the film. The album also includes the trailer music conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. This had only previously released as a re-recording – conducted by Joel McNeely – on the Varèse Sarabande compilation entitled Hollywood '95.
Release