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Judge Dredd - Who goes There?

Started by The Legendary Shark, 21 February, 2024, 09:23:18 PM

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The Legendary Shark

This one is close to my heart. It's one of the last two Dredd scripts commissioned by Zarjaz before the unthinkable happened. It's a love letter to one of my favourite films and it breaks my heart that I'll never see it in print. Still, this is the next best thing, right?

So open the popcorn, dim the lights, and enjoy...


Judge Dredd

Who goes There?

20~~~^~~~20



NOTE: THIS STORY FOLLOWS ON, 160 YEARS LATER, FROM JOHN CARPENTER'S 1982 FILM, 'THE THING,' SO, IF NOTHING ELSE, IT'S A GOOD EXCUSE TO WATCH IT AGAIN FOR RESEARCH!



PAGE ONE (4F)(TITLES).


PAGE ONE, FRAME ONE:

Justice 12 flies through an Antarctic rad-blizzard.

CAP                            Antarctica, winter 2142.


CONTROL (JAG)                  Control tzzzustice twelve, reading increasedsszzz zzzzssst...

HENDRY (FROM JUSTICE 12, JAG)  Control, please repeat... Control? Control, respond.





PAGE ONE, FRAME TWO:

Aboard Justice 12, flight deck. The pilot, Judge Hendry, talks into a comm. In the co-pilot's seat is the grizzled Judge Tutor Carpenter.

HENDRY                          Hendry to Dredd, long-range comms down. Rad-blizzard.  E.T.A. two minutes.


CARPENTER                      Concise. Excellent.


HENDRY                          Well, Carps, you know The Chin – not one for small talk.





PAGE ONE, FRAME THREE:


In the rear of Justice 12, Judge Dredd addresses a group of cadets (Nikki, Margaret (top class cadet), Scotty, Douglas (steadfast), Dykes, James (athletic), Erickson, Robert (unsure), Barnes, William (reckless), Stern, Eduard (Dredd wannabe), and Chapman, Sally (fearless)). Also aboard, somewhere, is Med Judge Carrington. They are all in cold weather gear. No need to get them all in – just a cast list for you.)


DREDD                          Give me a standard search grid. Cadet Nikki, take point. Still no contact with the survey team so stay sharp. Weapons authorised.





PAGE ONE, FRAME FOUR:


Justice 12 lands on the ice. The rad-blizzard is easing.

DREDD (JOIN)                    Cadet Erickson, that means safety off.





######





PAGE TWO (6F).



PAGE TWO, FRAME ONE:


Justice 12 has landed and Judge Dredd, Med Judge Carrington at his shoulder, leads the cadets out into the rad-blizzard. The cadets know what they are doing – already fanning out. Carrington is reading a med-scanner, Dredd and all the cadets have their Lawgivers in their hands.


CARRINGTON                      Maybe something north-east, three hundred metres... coming this way...

DREDD                          What?

CARRINGTON                      Can't tell. Too much interference.





PAGE TWO, FRAME TWO:


A dog comes running out of the easing rad-blizzard. Bullets slap into the snow around it from an unseen gunman.


SFX (GUNSHOTS, OFF)            BAM BAM BAM


SFX (BULLET IMPACTS)            PAFF PAFF PAFF






PAGE TWO, FRAME THREE:


Ignoring the dog, which keeps on running, Dredd aims his Lawgiver in the direction of the gunshots. Carrington and some of the cadets are throwing themselves to the ground.


DREDD (JAG)                    Cease fire now, Creep!






PAGE TWO, FRAME FOUR:


Dredd runs into the rad-blizzard towards a Lawgiver gunshot.


SFX (LAWGIVER, OFF)            B'DAM

DREDD                          Drokk!








PAGE TWO, FRAME FIVE:


The rad-blizzard has almost petered out altogether. Cadet Eduard Stern stands over the body of a dead civilian scientist, Lawgiver still smoking. The dead scientist's brains are scattered on the snow and his rifle is still in his hand. Dredd has just arrived.


DREDD                          Cadet Stern?


STERN                          He was shooting at you, Sir. In my judgement...





PAGE TWO, FRAME SIX:


Is Dredd furious or disappointed? Cadet Stern certainly can't tell.

DREDD                          Get back to the ship, Stern. Turn your Lawgiver over to Judge Tutor Carpenter and await instructions.





######






PAGE THREE (3F).


PAGE THREE, FRAME ONE:


The Big Reveal! The frozen remains of MacReady and Childs from the end of John Carpenter's The Thing. Med Judge Carrington is scanning the bodies. The rad-blizzard has passed and the sky is clearing.

CARRINGTON                      Great. All this way for hundred and sixty year old ice-rubes. They couldn't have mentioned that?





PAGE THREE, FRAME TWO:


Dredd senses danger.

DREDD                          Our jurisdiction, our problem regardless... That smell...






PAGE THREE, FRAME THREE:


Carrington is concerned by a reading on his scanner.


CARRINGTON                      Oh stomm... Dredd, there's traces of alien d.n.a. here...






######






PAGE FOUR (2F).



PAGE FOUR, FRAME ONE:


A John Carpenter's Thing lunges out of a snowdrift at Dredd, who is bringing his Lawgiver to bear. The Thing is Classic Thing – all heads on stalks and bits of dog and men and monsters, teeth and claws and tentacles and eyes and fronds and slime and all that good stuff!


DREDD                          Drokk! Plastimorph!

THE THING                      eeeeeeeeeeeeee!






PAGE FOUR, FRAME TWO:


Dredd fires an incendiary round at the Thing, engulfing it in white-hot phosphor flames.


DREDD                          Hot-shot!

SFX (LAWGIVER)                  B'FAM


SFX (PHOSPHOR FLAMES)          WHOOMPH

THE THING                      eeeeEEEEEEEEGH!





######






PAGE FIVE (5F).



PAGE FIVE, FRAME ONE:


Dredd barks into his helmet mike. The Thing is little more than smouldering charcoal.


DREDD                          Dredd to all - Standard plastimorph protocols. Search by twos, Lawgivers to incendiary. Cadet Nikki, coordinate and control.






PAGE FIVE, FRAME TWO:


Aboard Justice 12, Hendry is firing up the engines. In the co-pilot's seat, Judge Tutor Carpenter is excited.


CARPENTER                      Damn! No two Snowcone Runs are ever the same, eh!? This'll be great experience for them!

HENDRY                          Yeah, if they live through it. Hendry to Dredd, you coming back aboard?






PAGE FIVE, FRAME THREE:


A hologram of Dredd's head on Hendry's console.


DREDD                          Negative. Take off and purge the area, standard scan and burn. We'll deal with this location.






PAGE FIVE, FRAME FOUR:


Justice 12 takes off.

HENDRY (FROM JUSTICE 12)        Roger that.

CARPENTER (FROM JUSTICE 12)    Cadet stern! I Told you to...






PAGE FIVE, FRAME FIVE:


Justice 12 wobbles in the air.


CARPENTER (FROM JUSTICE 12)    ...Oh Jovus Grud Almighty...


THE THING (FROM JUSTICE 12)    eeeeeeeeeee


HENDRY (FROM JUSTICE 12)        Stomm! You've gotta be drokkin' kiddin' me!*






######






PAGE SIX (4F).



PAGE SIX, FRAME ONE:


Later. It's all over. Carrington and Dredd stand over the remains of Childs and MacReady. The cadets are burning Things on pyres like 20 year veterans. They've even managed to save four shell-shocked members of the civilian survey team (Turman-Foster Co).


CARRINGTON                      Guess these two dealt with this lot all those years ago. Guess you'd call 'em heroes.

DREDD                          Guess you'd call 'em dead. Make sure they get burned with the rest.   

DREDD (SHORT JOIN)              Dredd to Justice Twelve, come in.






PAGE SIX, FRAME TWO:


More or less the same as the last frame, emphasising the fact that this all seems routine.


COMM (HENDRY, JAG)              Sorry about that, Dredd – We kinda' crashed. Wasn't bad but it took us a while to get the antidote into Stern. Two or three days and a really good plastic surgeon, he'll be fine.

COMM (HENDRY, JOIN)            Couple more sites to lase – be with you in ten.






PAGE SIX, FRAME THREE:

Justice 12 has landed on the ice and the cadets are helping the survivors aboard. Dredd will be the last to embark.


DREDD                          At the double, cadets! We got other places to be!






PAGE SIX, FRAME FOUR:


Justice 12 flies away, over a clear and beautiful Antarctic vista.


COMM (CONTROL, JAG)            MC1 Control to Justice Twelve, reading you back on grid. Any problems down there, Dredd?


DREDD (FROM JUSTICE 12)        Negative, Control. Just a routine thing.



STRAP:                         THE END.


* This line was added by the Zarjaz Editorial Team, the only change requested :-)
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nxylas

You know that Andrew Lewis is reviving Zarjaz, right?
AIEEEEEE! It's the...THING from the HELL PLANET!

The Legendary Shark


I did not know that, no. Thanks for the heads-up.

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Le Fink

One of my fave films too, enjoyed that. "Plastimorph" ha! I hope you see it drawn one day  :thumbsup:

Barrington Boots

You're a dark horse, Boots.

Trooper McFad

Enjoyed that Shark - loved the film back in the day, not seen it in a long time.
The future take on it is good 👍🏻
Citizens are Perps who haven't been caught ... yet!

The Legendary Shark


Thanks, guys. I'm glad you enjoyed it  :)

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




GoGilesGo

Very very good. to echo the otehr comments, I'd love to see this in print.

loved the idea of a 'Snowcone Run'. Touché.

The Legendary Shark

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GoGilesGo

I'm sure you have read Thing From Another World from Dark Horse. John Higgins art so tooth adjacent.

But have you ever read Things? a really intriguing take on the events of the film from The Thing's POV

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

Le Fink

Nice article on the film (1982) in The Graun yesterday:

How we made The Thing