A beat.
Fire reflecting in Ma-Ma’s eyes. As they narrow.
MA-MA
Call 911.
Cut to:
EXT. MEGA CITY ONE – NIGHT
Sirens in Mega City One.
Blue lights strobing the night.
Four Judges, straight-line formation, on bikes.
We see them each in turn.
They are Judges Chan, Alvarez, Kaplan, and Lex.
Each more hard-bitten than the last.
They pull up at the south entrance of Peach Trees.
As they get off their bikes, we see Alvarez is armed differently to the other three. Instead of a handgun, he carries a bulky machine gun.
EXT. PEACH TREE BLOCK ⁄ SOUTH ENTRANCE – CONTINUOUS
Lex approaches the three Judges who are already on the scene.
Lex is very like Dredd. Same build. Same granite face. Speaks with total economy in a low growl.
LEX
Got a 10-24 from this block. Two judges under fire, requesting urgent assistance. And you’re standing outside.
JUDGE
Block’s under lock-down. Malfunction with their defence system.
Lex glances at the blast doors.
Alvarez, the heavy-weapons judge, walks over to the intercom. Speaks into it.
ALVAREZ
Open up. Now.
A beat.
Then …
… the heavy door starts to rise.
Lex looks back at the judges.
LEX
You’re relieved.
INT. PEACH TREE BLOCK ⁄ SOUTH ENTRANCE – CONTINUOUS
Seen from a CCTV point of view, Lex, Alvarez, Kaplan and Chan enter the darkened entrance.
The two Judges on the outside watch them.
Until the blast door suddenly slams shut again.
Reveal –
INT. PEACH TREE BLOCK ⁄ MEDICAL CENTRE – CONTINUOUS
– that the CCTV image is being watched by the Paramedic.
He jumps up, runs to his security, and punches in the code to unlock it.
INT. ATRIUM – CONTINUOUS
Lex, Alvarez, Kaplan and Chan stand at the base of the atrium.
It’s the bottom of a pit of Hell.
Dark, apart from the glow of emergency lighting.
LEX
So what we got here?
CHAN
Two judges trigger a turf war. Judges die in pursuit of duty.
LEX
And the perps who killed the judges?
Chan gestures at the bodies.
CHAN
Laid out here.
LEX
Sounds right.
PARAMEDIC
Excuse me.
The four Judges turn.
See the Paramedic, who has approached them from the shadows.
PARAMEDIC
That’s not what’s happened. I’ve been here right from the start. This killing is all because of one gang – the Ma-Ma Clan. And from that fire up there, I’d say at least one of your two judges is still alive.
Lex gazes at the man a beat.
LEX
You prepared to testify to that?
PARAMEDIC
Sure.
Chan shoots the Paramedic in the head.
INT. LEVEL 199 ⁄ CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Dredd exits a stairwell into a corridor of level 199. One level down from Ma-Ma’s penthouse base.
One end of the corridor opens into the atrium, where we can see the glow of flames from the fire he has started.
Smoke hangs in the air. Gives everything a strange, heavy atmosphere.
Ahead of Dredd is an elevator lobby.
The digital display by the call button shows the elevator moving between floors, upwards through the building.
The elevator gets closer and closer to level 199.
As the countdown is about to reach his floor, Dredd takes aim, to catch whoever is inside as the doors open –
– but the elevator continues to the floor above.
No sooner has it passed –
– than there is a sound behind Dredd.
He turns, fast, firing.
Coming out of a doorway, a Clan member is almost shot in half by the volley.
On Dredd’s gun –
– a warning light flicks on.
Dredd glances down.
On the digital display it reads: AMMUNITION LOW.
Cut to:
INT. MA-MA’S BASE – CONTINUOUS
Elevator doors open, revealing the four Judges.
The four Judges exit.
Waiting for them are Ma-Ma and Kay.
LEX
One million credits.
MA-MA
A million?
LEX
You got a problem with a judge. Know who he is?
MA-MA
No.
LEX
I do. One million.
Beat.
MA-MA
Fine.
LEX
Kaplan, protection detail on client. Chan and Alvarez, we’re flushing him out.
ALVAREZ
Got it.
Lex turns back to Ma-Ma.
LEX
Where’s the other one? The rookie.
MA-MA
We’ve got her here.
LEX
Dead or alive?
MA-MA
Alive.
LEX
Make her dead.
INT. LEVEL 199 ⁄ SMOKE-FILLED CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Smoke hangs in a corridor.
Bright sparks swirl in the air, floating up from the fire.
And the sparks, through the smoke, are changing their movement …
… as Dredd appears through them, gun raised.
INT. LEVEL 199 ⁄ SMOKE-FILLED CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Lex, Chan and Alvarez appear out of a stairwell.
Lex silently gestures to the other two Judges – telling them to fan out.
They nod, and move, each taking a different direction.
INT. LEVEL 199 ⁄ SMOKE-FILLED CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Dredd moves forwards.
Reacts to a movement in the smoke.
Brings his gun to bear, as the smoke momentarily clears.
Revealing nothing.
Just a shadow.
INT. MA-MA’S BASE ⁄ CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Kaplan leads Ma-Ma and Kay down a corridor, towards Ma-Ma’s penthouse.
KAY
I’ll do the girl.
Ma-Ma gives Kay the nod.
Kay peels off.
INT. LEVEL 199 ⁄ SMOKE-FILLED CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Back to the sparks.
Dredd seeing something ahead.
Through the haze and pinprick points of brightness –
– the shape of another Judge.
The shoulder pads. The curve of the helmet.
Cut to –
– the reverse view.
Chan pulling back into an alcove, drawing his weapon.
Chan lifts his glove and speaks into his mike.
CHAN
(quiet)
Just eyeballed him.
Cut to –
– Lex, elsewhere in the smoke-filled corridors, lifting his glove.
LEX
Don’t take him one on one. Stick with the plan.
Cut to:
Chan.
CHAN
(quiet)
Copy that.
Chan lowers his glove.
Then calls out.
CHAN
You there. Identify yourself.
Cut to:
Dredd. Also ducked into an alcove, weapon drawn.
DREDD
Dredd. Sector Thirteen.
Ahead of him, Chan steps out of cover.
CHAN
Chan. Sector Nine. Responding to your 10-24.
Chan walks towards Dredd.
CHAN
Good to see you, Dredd.
DREDD
Likewise. You alone?
CHAN
Negative. Three-man squad. Closing on my vector right now.
Chan smiles.
So relax. Cavalry’s here.
Beat. On Dredd. His sixth sense, catching bullshit.
It’s Chan’s smile.
Then:
DREDD
Two.
CHAN
… Two?
DREDD
Two of us called in the 10-24. Wondering why you haven’t asked about the other one.
Beat.
Then Chan lifts his left glove …
CHAN
Lex – move it –
Chan is cut off –
– as, with ruthless precision, Dredd hits Chan with one blow to the throat.
Chan’s windpipe has been crushed.
He can’t breathe.
As Chan’s hands move up to his neck, as if trying to push it back into shape –
– Dredd steps away.
Cut to:
INT. LEVEL 199 ⁄ SMOKE-FILLED CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Lex hooking up with Alvarez.
Joining to move fast down the corridor.
Turning a corner.
Seeing, ahead of them, the silhouette shape of a Judge.
Their guns immediately snap to him.
But they don’t shoot, as the figure takes a hesitant, drunken step towards them.
Revealing himself as Chan.
A final strangled noise comes out of Chan’s blood-filled mouth.
Then he drops to his knees. Hard.
Then falls face down and lies still.
Lex and Alvarez exchange a glance.
Cut to:
INT. LEVEL 199 ⁄ SMOKE-FILLED CORRIDOR – CONTINUOUS
Dredd, who backs through a doorway.
As the door closes behind him, pulled shut by a hydraulic mechanism that slows the door on its final inches –
– Lex and Alvarez appear, guns drawn.
Lex gestures at the door.
Alvarez nods.
INT. SLO-MO MANUFACTURING BASE – CONTINUOUS
Dredd looks around at the space he has just entered.
Apartment walls have been knocked out, as have sections of ceiling and floor. All to accommodate pipes, tanks, heaters, condensers …
… and racks of large compressed-gas canisters, the size of a scubadiver’s air tank.
The machinery for the large-scale manufacture and refining of the slo-mo narcotic.
This is Ma-Ma’s manufacturing base.
As the Workers see Dredd, and scatter, cut to –
INT. MA-MA’S BASE ⁄ ROOM – CONTINUOUS
Kay.
Looking at a variety of objects, laid out on a table. Objects taken from Anderson.
There is her gun. Ammunition clips. Lock knife. Med-kits. Plasti-cuffs.
And the photo of Anderson and her parents.
Kay picks the photo up.
Then –
– turns to Anderson, who is kneeling in front of him.
KAY
Bet you thought you were going to make your parents proud. Not much chance of that now.
Anderson’s head is down, not meeting Kay’s gaze. No hope left for her. Defeated, it seems.
Kay puts down the photo. Then …
KAY
Always wanted one of these.
… and he picks up Anderson’s Lawgiver.
Kay shakes his head.
KAY
You were shit out of luck when you ran into the Ma-Ma Clan.
Kay turns over Anderson’s gun in his hand, appraising it.
Anderson’s eyes stay down.
KAY
But don’t feel too bad. I’ve seen a lot of judges in my time, and you just weren’t cut out for it. If it wasn’t today you got killed, it would have been tomorrow. At best the day after.
Beat.
Anyway. Today it is.
He looks back at Anderson.
Any last words, bitch?
Beat.
Then –
ANDERSON
That’s funny.
Anderson raises her head.
And in her eyes, there’s no fear. She’s totally calm, staring death right in the face. Not even blinking.
She may be a failed rookie, but she looks like a judge.
ANDERSON
I was going to ask you that. (Beat.) Bitch.
Kay’s wrong-footed. It’s fleeting, but just for a moment, it’s almost like he’s scared of her.
Then his fingers close around Anderson’s gun.
He lifts it, aiming right at her head.
And squeezes the trigger.
Nothing happens.
Kay frowns.
Sees on the side of the gun –
– a small LED light. Strobing red.
Next to the light, the digital display. Which reads: ID FAIL.
Just as he has time to take this in –
– the gun explodes.
A bright flash, a detonation.
And when it has passed, Kay’s arm is a stump, spraying blood everywhere.
He drops to his knees. Screaming.
Cut short as Anderson rises …
… and delivers a single roundhouse kick.
It contacts Kay’s jaw perfectly, snapping his head sideways.
Breaking his neck.
Cut back to:
INT. SLO-MO MANUFACTURING BASE – CONTINUOUS
Dredd.
Moving through the manufacturing base.
Keeping low, from cover to cover.
Peering out across the lab.
Seeing the door he came through.
Tucking himself behind a counter, he calls out:
DREDD
What’s the price of a judge these days?
Cut to:
Lex and Alvarez.
On the other side of the room, doing the same as Dredd.
Lex silently gestures to Alvarez. Flat palm, held vertical to the ground, curving round.
Alvarez nods. Starts moving.
Then Lex calls back:
LEX
Million. Split four ways.
Back to Dredd.
Both Dredd and Lex are trying to keep the other talking. Dredd to get a fix on Lex, and Lex to allow Alvarez to work his way round.
DREDD
Three ways now.
LEX
Suits me.
Dredd starts to move again.
DREDD
Doesn’t sound like much. To betray the law.
Dredd steals a look across the room towards where he thinks he has made Lex’s location.
DREDD
Betray the city.
LEX
Save that shit for the rookies. Twenty years I’ve been on the streets.
Dredd now thinks he has a clear fix on Lex.
He’s zeroed in on one spot – a long steel workbench.
Which is in fact exactly where Lex is hiding.
LEX
You know what Mega City One is, Dredd? It’s a fucking meat-grinder.
Reveal –
– behind Dredd, while Dredd has been closing in on Lex, Alvarez has been flanking.
LEX
People go in one end.
Dredd doesn’t seem to have seen.
He’s easing forwards, his gun trained on the workbench.
LEX
Meat comes out the other.
Dredd hesitates.
Maybe having heard something. Maybe sensing the trap.
LEX
All we do is turn the handle.
A fraction of a beat.
Then Dredd throws himself sideways, just in time, as rounds from Alvarez’s heavy machine gun trace into the space he occupied only a split second before.
Intense gunplay immediately erupts.
Gunplay version of the hand-to-hand.
Dredd starts returning fire in the direction of Alvarez.
Alvarez does the same in rev
erse.
As does Lex, breaking cover.
The manufacturing base starts disintegrating.
Amidst the glass vaporising, wood splintering, and metal puncturing – – we find Dredd and Alvarez.
Finding a clear line of sight to each other.
Each bringing their guns to bear.
Alvarez fires first.
And nothing happens. The display on his heavy machine gun reads EMPTY.
ALVAREZ
Shit –
Dredd fires.
Click.
Dredd’s weapon also just found an empty chamber.
Both judges realise what’s happening.
Alvarez reaches for his utility belt.
DREDD
Incendiary.
The gun setting changes. Dredd pulls the trigger again.
Click. Still empty.
Alvarez pulls out a fresh clip.
DREDD
Rapid fire.
Click.
Alvarez jams the clip home.
DREDD
Armour piercing.
Click.
Alvarez lifts the gun.
DREDD
High Ex.
Bang.
As Dredd’s last bullet flies out of his gun, the digital display reads: EMPTY.
Then –
– Alvarez’s head is blown off.
It fragments.
The pieces fly apart. Cut to –
– Lex.
In cover, as blood patters around him like rain.
LEX
(under his breath)
Motherfucker.
Dredd calls out.
DREDD
Two-way split.
In Lex, there’s fury behind the steel.
He calls back:
LEX
Yeah. I’d be breaking a sweat. If you hadn’t just run out of bullets.
Lex rises, and starts strafing the room.
As Dredd scrambles for cover, cut to:
INT. MA-MA’S BASE – CONTINUOUS
Anderson.
Moving through Ma-Ma’s base.
She’s unarmed.
But only for a moment.
Ahead of her are two Clan.
She moves up behind them.
She doubles up the first with an extremely vicious kidney punch.
As the first folds over, the second is lifting his machine pistol.
Only to have his wrist folded back on itself, so the barrel is aiming between his eyes.
Anderson forces the trigger down. The muzzle flash of the machine pistol engulfs his whole face.