FAQ for
Dredd (2012) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Dredd can be found here.

No. This is an original film based on the Judge Dredd character from the British comic 2000 AD, and is unrelated to the 1995 Sylvester Stallone film adapted from the same source.

In the 36 years that Judge Dredd has been appearing in comics, his face has never been shown fully. Most fans agree that never showing Dredd's face helps to make Dredd a personification of justice; he's not just a citizen with a normal face, he's the law, and the helmet is the only face he needs. The faces of Dredd and his clone, Rico, are shown as young boys in the story The Return of Rico (Case Files vol 1), and the face of their clone Father, Fargo (to whom they should be identical), is shown in Dredd Angel (Case Files vol 8). In parts of The Dead Man/Necropolis (Case Files 14) Dredd's face is shown in full but is obscured by horrific injuries.

Dredd first appeared in the second issue (or "prog" as they are known) of the weekly British comic 2000 AD published on 5 March 1977.

Open to interpretation. Anderson hands Dredd her badge and walks off convinced she's failed her assessment but Dredd has actually passed her. The implication is that whilst Dredd is convinced that Anderson has what it takes to be a judge he leaves it to her to decide if she wants to be. The last scene shows Anderson carrying a helmet and a new gun walking towards the bikes, suggesting she has learned of Dredd's evaluation and decided to become a Judge

Judge Dredd's weekly adventures are collected in a series of volumes known as The Complete Case Files (currently 20 volumes). Although there's lots to recommend in Dredd's early output, including classic stories such as The Cursed Earth and The Day The Law Died in volume 2, these early volumes are a sometimes less than ideal place to start reading because of their uneven narrative tone and art style. The Complete Case Files 3 - 5 are, by common consent, the point at which the strip overcame its growing pains and turned into something really interesting - and make an ideal jumping on point for new readers.

Yes. Most of the movie is shot in 3D, using RED MX, SI2K, and Phantom Flex highspeed digital cameras, however it also contains some elements that were converted to 3D in post production.

No. Dredd was written and filmed long before The Raid. Dredd's screenplay was written in 2008 and leaked online in 2010. Principal photography on Dredd took place between November and December 2010. The Raid did not go into production until November 2010, and was filmed in March 2011. Until the Summer of 2010, Raid director Gareth Evans had been planning to make an entirely different film and put The Raid together over the next nine months. Dredd producer/screenwriter, Alex Garland:

---

Honestly, I really don't believe that The Raid ripped off Dredd. And we didn't rip them off either. The timing doesn't allow for it - not that time-based logic has stopped many film journalists from suggesting that we stole their material

---

The song used in the original theatrical trailer for Dredd is the Skream remix of La Roux's In For the Kill. The song playing during Dredd and Anderson's raid on the slo-mo den is Poison Lips by Vitalic. When the Clan's Techie, played by Domhnall Gleeson, is observing the monitors the song playing is Matt Berry's Snuffbox from the TV series of the same name. All other music heard in the film itself is the work of the film's composer, Paul Leonard-Morgan - whose original soundtrack album can be found on itunes or Amazon.

The characters of most interest to new or casual readers seem to be Judge Death and the Dark Judges, whose first appearances are drawn by Brian Bolland and can be found in The Complete Case Files volumes 3 and 5, and in the utterly superb full-colour epic Necropolis, which is reprinted in Case Files vol 14 and is written and drawn by Dredd's co-creators, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. They also appear in volume one of Judge Anderson's Psi Files, in a story which serves as a bridge between their appearance in volumes 5 and 14 of The Complete Case Files. The origins of Judge Death are explored in volumes called Young Death and My Name Is Death.

The Apocalypse War (found in The Complete Case Files vol 5) is probably the best of Dredd's epic adventures, and is written and drawn by Dredd's co-creators, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, as is the superb Judge Death epic Necropolis (Case Files vol 14). The Dredd tale which most readers agree represents the best combination of story and art in the strip's history - and which offers a much darker, more sophisticated view of Dredd, Megacity One and the Justice System - is America, by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil; a story whose focus is on the lives of ordinary citizens under the totalitarian rule of the judges, and in which Dredd essentially plays the part of the villain.

Anyone wanting to know more about the history and psychology of Dredd should seek out Brothers of the Blood and the most recently collected epic, Tour of Duty (collected in two books, subtitled The Backlash and Megacity Justice); which both centre much more on the character of Dredd himself and his relationship with the city and his job. Both books give new readers the background necessary to get the most out of Origins - by Dredd's creators, Wagner and Ezquerra - which explores the events that shaped the creation of the city, the justice system, and Dredd himself.

Readers seeking Dredd stories that reflect the gritty tone and themes of the film, should seek out The Pit or Total War, the latter of which is a spiritual successor to and continues many of the themes explored in the classic Dredd story America. Tour of Duty covers similar territory to the inter-judicial conflict and mutant prejudice of the film (Anderson is a mutant), and Mandroid depicts Megacity One as the kind of place that crushes the humanity of its citizens in the same manner as the film. Anyone interested in the character of Anderson, featured in the film, can get some background in the series of reprints called The Psi Files.

Before throwing her through the window, Dredd states that he doubts the range of the transmitter would be long enough to set off the bomb if Ma-Ma were on the ground floor; his theory is proven right when she hits the ground.

Despite being the leader of her criminal organisation and used to getting her own way, she knew that she needed Lex's expertise in dealing with Dredd so when he stuck to his guns over the price (one million credits) she knew she had no choice but to concede defeat.

The standard issue firearm for Judges in Dredd's world is a large handgun called the Lawgiver which is capable of semiautomatic and fully automatic fire. In the 2000 AD comic strip, there have been two models of the Lawgiver, the smaller Mark I and the larger Mark II. The gun's defining feature is its ability to fire multiple different kinds of ammunition, as chosen by the gun's user. In the comics, there are typically six types of fire available: (1) Standard: typical handgun ammunition, (2) Ricochet: bullets coated in rubber, allowing them to bounce off of walls and hit targets from the side or behind, (3) Heat-seeker: bullets that lock on to a target and pursue it around corners and obstacles, (4) High-ex: bullets containing small but potent explosive charges, (5) Incendiary: bullets that ignite and burn their target, and (6) Armor-piecing: dense, heavy-duty bullets for armored or robotic targets. Later stories have added various extra bullet types, including a stun gun feature, tear gas rounds, "Exorcist Bullets" designed for supernatural foes, and electronic tracker rounds. The ammunition type is selected via a dial on the side of the gun. The grip of the Lawgiver contains a palm-print scanner that allows the owner of the gun to fire it, but causes the gun to self-destruct if anyone else tries to use it.

In the 1995 film Judge Dredd, the Lawgiver is based on the Mark II from the comics, with some changes. The rounds this version can fire are: (1) Standard, (2) Armor-piercing, (3) Grenade: similar to the high-ex from the comics, (4) Flare: mainly used as a standard flare gun but also used like the Incendiary bullets from the comics, (5) Double-wammy: fires two standard bullets at diagonal angles to hit multiple targets. The film version of the Lawgiver is voice-controlled, allows rapid-fire, and rather than exploding when used by someone unauthorized, it lethally electrocutes the intruder. It also tags each round with the user's DNA, so the killer of each target can be identified. The Lawgiver from the 2012 film Dredd is very similar to the one in the 1995 film. It too is based on the Mark II design, and it is also voice-controlled. It fires the following types of rounds: (1) Full Metal Jacket: the new standard bullet, (2) Incendiary: a round that causes a large fiery explosion, (3) Hotshot: a round that ignites the target like the Incendiary from the comic, (4) Armor-piercing, (5) Stun, (6) High-explosive. This lawgiver has a screen on the side of it displaying the current type of ammunition and how many rounds remain, a rapid-fire option, and its grip has a DNA reader that causes the gun to explode if anyone but the user attempts to fire it.

As of May 2013, the film has made just over $40 million dollars worldwide from a production budget of around the same sum. Films generally have to earn more than double their budgets to earn a sequel.