2000AD
JUDGE DREDD
in
OLD PALS' ACT
(6 pages)
Script: ALAN GRANT Art: CAM
KENNEDY Lettering:
PAGES 1 and 2
1. Mega-City One.Day. Longish
shot. Exterior view of the JAY SILVERHEELS CONDO. Judge Dreddis
riding his bike up the steps leading into the building.
Theres a(legal) street market in progress at the side of
the condo building;
we dont need to see it
now, but wellbe visiting it later.
CAPTION: YOURE
NOT THE LAW, JOE. I AM.
2. Interior, condo. Grim Dredd
rides his bike along acorridor flanked with apartment doors.
Theres some faded grafitti on awall: CHOPPER FOR OZ, with
the famous smiley face.
CAP: YOUWERE NOTHING
WITHOUT ME. I BIRTHED YOU,NOURISHED YOU, POLISHED YOU
UP, KEPT YOU GOING WHEN TIMES
WERE HARD.
3. Viewed from behind Dredd.
Hes stopped his bike outside aparticular door, its
nameplate unreadable here. Dredds bike cannon openfire at
the door, BAMBAMBAMBAM!, blasting it off its hinges.
CAP: I MADE YOU THE BEST
THERE IS. THETOUGHEST, MOST LAW-ABIDING ROUGHNECK
COP THIS CITYS EVER
SEEN.
4. Close shot, low angle. We
see part of the Lawmaster, andDredds boot. But the main
focus of the panel is the nameplate from theblasted apt. door,
which lies on the ground next to Dredds boot. Itreads: J.
WAGNER.
CAP: GAVE YOU A NICE LINE IN ONE-LINERS,
TOO, Eh, JOE?
DREDD BLN: ANYBODYHOME?
5. Interior, Wagners
apartment. John Wagner - as he is now;please make him
recognisable - is sitting in an old-fashioned bathtub fullof
soapy water in the centre of the living room. Hes naked,
sittingreading in the bath - the book hes reading is BUTTON
MAN.He looks up to see Dredd, still seated on his bike, framed in
the apt.doorway. The bath-tub has some hi-tek additions to it,
which welldiscover shortly. The apartment walls are lined
with comic posters,for:
STRONTIUM DOG, ROBOHUNTER,
ALSBABY, BUTTON MAN, ACE TRUCKING Co., BAD CITY BLUE, THE
MEAN TEAM,HELL-TREK, THE BALLS BROTHERS, and any other stories
John might havewritten/co-written for 2000AD (***REFS required
for artist.)
CAP: I ALWAYS KNEW YOUD
COME FOR ME ONE DAY, JOE--
DREDD: JOHN WAGNER -
a.k.a. JOHNHOWARD, a.k.a. T.B. GROVER,a.k.a. RON
CLARK, RICK
CLARK, F. MARTIN
CANDOR ANDSUNDRY OTHERS--
LINK: YOURE UNDER
ARREST, CREEP!
6. Seen from behind Wagner,
staring at Dredd.
DREDD: CHARGES INCLUDE
INCITING VIOLENCE THROUGH DISTURBING IMAGERY -
USING
BANNED STIMULANTS, NAMELYCAFFEINE
- AND NICOTINEABUSE.
LINK: GET OUT OF THE BATH,
WAGNER!
7. Same shot, only now Dredd
has drawn hisLawgiver gun and points it at Wagner. One of
Wagners hands movessurreptitiously towards a small
electronic control panel set in the bathrim next to him.
CAP: I KNOW YOU TOO WELL, JOE.
I MADE YOU. I CAN PREDICT YOUR EVERY MOVE. YOU
CAN NEVERGET ONE OVER
ON ME--
DREDD: I SAID GET OUT OF THE
BATH!
8. Wagners hand has
depressed a control stud. Twinmachine guns built into the end of
the bath closest to Dredd suddenly openfire.
SHAKO-SHAKO-SHAKO-SHAKO! Dredd dives off his bike as shots burst
allaround him.
CAP: SEE?
PAGE 3
1. Dredd is on the apt. floor,
loosingoff a couple of shots, BLAM! BLAM! But Wagner has hit
another controlstud; rockets at the rear of the bath flare into
life, WOWFF!, ripping thebath from its fittings and pipes,
SHRIPP! The bathtub swivels,heading towards the room window.
DREDD: DROKK! HESGOING
TO MAKE A CLEAN GETAWAY!
2.Exterior view of the condo.
The rocket-propelled bathtub comes bursting outthrough the apt
window. CRAASH!
WAGNER: SAYONARA, JOE!
3. Much the largest on the
page, two-thirds of the pageif possible. The rocket-powered
bathtub comes swooping down towards theground, where the
previously mentioned street market is in progress. Lotsof stalls
of different kinds, including BLAND COMIX. We mightsee a large
advertising poster-billboard: GREAT NEW COMPU-GAME! MEAN
TEAMversus HELL-TREK! Above and behind, Dredd - now back on his
bike -comes soaring out of the window in hot pursuit. He might be
shooting again,his shots ricocheting off the bathtub (but of
course causingno harm to any innocent market traders or shoppers,
who look up inalarm).
DREDD: YOU CAN ADD ATTEMPTED
ESCAPE TO THE LIST--
LINK: NOT FORGETTING PUBLIC
NUDITY!
PAGES 4 and 5
1. OnWagner in the bathtub as
it swoops down to land, shearing off the top ofthe BLAND COMIX
stall. This stall exhibits posters advertising CUDDLY WEEANIMAL
COMIX, HEROIC NICE GUY COMIX, JUDGE PAL COMIX, etc. There are
highstacks of the various comics concerned, starting to sway
andwobble. The stall-holder is concerned.
WAGNER: CLEAR THE WAY! WRITER
COMING THROUGH!
2. On Dredd as his bike lands
in the same place. The wobbling stacksof comics fall down. The
bathtub can be seen in background, zooming off onhover-jets about
a foot above the ground.
DREDD: CLEAR THE WAY!JUDGE
COMING THROUGH!
3. On Dredd, pausing tolook at
whats been uncovered by the fallen comic stacks - behind
themare smaller stacks, with labels like HEAVY VI COMIX, ULTRA VI
COMIX, PUREWAGNER VI COMIX etc. The stallholder, a typical
comicshop type, realisinghes been rumbled, starts to flee
the scene.
STALLHOLDER: DAMN! HES
ONTO ME!
4. Using hisLawgiver, Dredd
shoots the running stallholder in the leg. BLAM! BLAM! Hefalls
sprawling, crashing into another stall - BOYES TOYS, which
isselling models of Wagner-created characters (see Page 2 for
list).
DREDD: LEG-SHOT!
5. The injuredstallholder lies
on the ground in foreground, looking down at his leg indisbelief
- its been shot off just above the knee, leaving a
bloodystump. Dredd calls out to him as he wheels away to continue
the chase.
DREDD: DONT GO AWAY.
ILL BE BACK FOR YOU!
6. Focus on Wagner in the
hovering bathtub as it startsto take off into the air again,
customers and stallholders leaping ordiving aside for safety. In
background, we see pursuing Dredd, loosing offa salvo of shots
after it. BLAMBLAM!
DREDD TH: THESE ROCKETS HAVETO
BE WATER-POWERED--
7. On Wagner in the bathtub,
20 feet up in the air. He looksover the side of the tub at
several bullet-holes made by Dredds shots.Soapy water is
pouring out of them.
WAGNER: Uh-oh!
8. Longish shot, as the
bathtub goes into a tailspinand crashes down into the WORLD OF
FANTASY stall.
NO DIALOG.
9. Wagner and thesmashed
bathtub lie sprawled in the wreckage of the stall. Wagner
looksworriedly towards Dredd, now advancing towards him on foot,
gun aimed readyto fire.
DREDD: THERES NO
ESCAPEFROM THE LAW, CREEP - NOT EVEN IN THE WORLD
OF FANTASY!
WAGNER: N-NO!DONT SHOOT!
10. Close on
Wagnerspleading face. Dredds gun barrel juts
menacingly into panel, aimed atWagners head.
WAGNER: PLEASE, JOE!
WERE OLD PALS!
LINK: I MADE YOU WHAT YOU ARE
TODAY!
11. Upshot, close.
Dredds gun barrel in close foreground,firing several times,
BLAMBLAMBLAM! We can see Dredds grim face, too;no mercy
there.
DREDD: AND NOW YOU HAVE TO PAY
THE PRICE!
PAGE 6
1. Cut to extreme close shot
of an EEG brainread-out. Its going crazy. Very small panel.
BLN OOV: WAGNERS GOING
OFF THE SCALE AGAIN!
2.Pull back, to reveal
were in a storage lab. In close foreground is alarge clear
bell jar containing a human brain floating in liquid
nutrients.The jar has several tubes running into and out of it,
connected to variousmonitoring equipment. A label on the jar
reads JOHN WAGNER.Two lab assistants are by the jar; one of them
is looking at it, and theother is starting to fill a hypo syringe
from a bottle labelled TRANQ. Inbackground we see that the room
is lined with shelves, with dozens of otherbottled brains
standing on them.
LAB GUY: WONDER WHAT THEOLD
COOT DREAMS ABOUT TO GET HIMSELF WORKEDUP
LIKE THIS..?
3. Same, a different view. The
first labguy continues to study the brain and its excited EEG
read-out, while theother holds up the syringe, ejecting a few
test droplets of tranq.
LABGUY: THEY SAY HE WAS A
CLEVER GUY. USED THE MONEY HE MADE FROM WRITINGTO
PRESERVE HIS BRAIN
AFTER DEATH,UNTIL HE COULD EARN ENOUGH TO BUY A
NEW BODY.
OTHER: TRANQREADY!
LAB GUY 2: HE FORGOT ONE
THING, THOUGH--
4. Close shot. The second lab
assistant has taken thelid off the jar, and is injecting the
tranq directly into the preservedbrain. Still studying the brain,
his colleague looks wry.
LAB GUY: BRAINS CANT
WRITE. THEY AINT GOT NOHANDS!
5.Very small panel, same as
panel 1 on this page, only now the EEG reading isback to
normality. NO DIALOG.
6.Final shot, close on the
brain in the jar. It seems to be looking out ofthe panel at us.
CAPTION: HELLO?
CAP: CAN ANYBODY OUTTHERE HEAR
ME..?
THE END
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