BSP 2014 Advent Calendar: Day 14

Welcome to Day 14 of Bam Smack Pow’s 2014 Advent Calendar! Only eleven more days left until Christmas, and that means eleven more superhero films will be mined for trivia. For Day 14, we give you …

Dredd (2012)

“I am the law!” The words Sylvester Stallone roared which haunted not criminals, but the fans who adored 2000 AD and the real version of Judge Dredd — the comic book version. It took seventeen years to correct the mistake of 1995’s Judge Dredd, and the end results were worth the wait. Raw, brutal, and uncompromising, Dredd was a treatise on violence, crime, and punishment. With a faithful portrayal of the feared judge by Karl Urban, the film garnered positive reviews from critics and the fans rejoiced. The box office, though, was another story. Performing poorly due to it’s R-rated nature, a sequel was not immediately ordered. There is currently an official petition to get a sequel off the ground.

Dredd was directed by Pete Travis, written by Alex Garland, and starred Keith Urban as Judge Dredd, Olivia Thirlby as Judge Cassandra Anderson, Lena Headey as Ma-Ma, Wood Harris as Kay, Rakie Ayola as the Chief Judge, Francis Chouler as Judge Guthrie, Daniel Hadebe as Judge Volt, Langley Kirkwood as Judge Lex, Edwin Perry as Judge Alvarez, Karl Thaning as Judge Chan, and Michele Levin as Judge Kaplan.

Trivia

Michael Biehn, Kyle Reese of Terminator (1984) fame, auditioned for the lead role of Judge Dredd.
Karl Urban based his Judge Dredd voice on Clint Eastwood. Consequently, the character of Judge Dredd was inspired by Eastwood’s Dirty Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971). In the comics, Judge Dredd also lives in Rowdy Yates Block. Rowdy Yates was Clint Eastwood’s character in the TV series Rawhide.
Karl Urban didn’t use a double and rode the Lawmaster motorcycle himself.
The initial look of Judge Dredd was inspired by David Carradine’s Frankenstein in Death Race 2000 (1975).
True to the comic book version of the character, Judge Dredd never removed his helmet in the film.
Some of the tattoos seen on Ma-Ma are actually actress Lena Headey’s own real-life tattoos. The make-up artist used some of those as a foundation and expanded on them.
In Ma-Ma’s apartment, there a judge’s helmet hanging on her wall. The helmet has a gold chain attached to it. This is a reference to Judge Dredd’s uniform in the comic book where he has a gold chain linking from his badge to his collar.
The building with shutters is the John Vorster Square Police Station. It’s the station where political activist Steve Bitko died during an interrogation in 1977. The shutters act as defense against bullets from terrorist attacks.
The Peach Tree housing project is named after a restaurant in Shrewsbury, England. The Peach Tree restaurant was where Alex Garland, the creator of Judge Dredd, and producer John Wagner first met to discuss plans for the film.
The Chief Judge, played by Rakie Ayola, is never referred to by name. She is a combination of the comics’ Chief Judge MacGruder and Chief Judge Silver. By looking at the boundary wall and the Fergee Memorials, we can infer the time setting as being Chief Judge MacGruder’s first term in office.
The Hall of Justice is the inside of the University of Johannesburg.
In the Hall of Justice, there is a screen which shows crimes occurring in Mega-City One. One of the crimes, a riot, is assigned to Judge Hershey. In the comics, Hershey was Judge Dredd’s sidekick and, later, his superior. In Judge Dredd (1995) Judge Hershey was portrayed by Diane Lane.
In the comics, Fatties are a part of the population who are so obese that they require a wheel under their stomachs to move. In the film, we see appearances and references to Fatties. The first Fattie was a shooting victim during a car chase. The audience can see his dead body next to his stomach wheel. In Peach Trees, there’s an obese man with a shirt that reads “Fatties.” On a skateboard ramp, there’s graffiti that reads “Fatties Rule!”
The total body count by the end of the movie is 102.
To create the standard-issue Lawgiver sidearms for the judges, Glock 17s were cosmetically modified. In real-life, Glock 17s are popular sidearms for law enforcement.
In the Peach Trees housing project, a futuristic American Flag can be seen. It only has six stars which represents the six mega-states.
During one scene, there is a poster for a fictional movie named Krysler’s Mark. This is a reference to a boy in 2000 AD who is also known as the Judge Child. In the same issue, the Angel Gang is also introduced. The poster also has a director’s credit for Ulf Suhrmuller. The name actually belong’s to the Dredd‘s Art Department Runner.
In the film, graffiti in Peach Trees had the names of several characters from the comics. Examples are “Chopper” and “Kenny Who?”

Make sure to come back each day because we still have eleven more days worth of superhero film trivia for you!

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A special thanks to Eric Dufresne for his amazing geometric superhero art that’s being used as the background for the advent calendar.

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