20 Best Judge Dredd Quotes

Judge: Twelve serious crimes reported every minute. Seventeen thousand per day. We can respond to around six percent.
Anderson: Which six percent?
Judge: Your show, rookie. You tell me.

Chief: [on Anderson] So how'd she do? Is she a pass or a fail?
Judge: She's a pass.
Chief: Knew she would be.

Ma: You're a piece of work, Dredd. But so am I. You think I didn't know I'd get busted some day? Goes with the territory. This entire level is rigged with enough high explosives to take out the top fifty stories. If they go, the rest go too.
[holds up her arm]
Ma: Like the jewelry? It's a transmitter, synced to my heartbeat. My heart stops, the building blows, and everyone in it... ash. You got no way out, Judge. Put your gun down.
[Dredd doesn't respond]
Ma: Do you know how many people live in this block?
Judge: This isn't a negotiation. Your sentence is death.
Ma: You can't afford to take the risk.
[Dredd lowers his aim and shoots her in the stomach. She collapses onto her bed, bleeding]
Judge: We're a kilometer above ground. What do you figure the range is on that thing? Could it get through a hundred levels of concrete? How about two hundred? Let's find out.
[He hauls her to her feet and drags her to the window]
Judge: Citizen Ma-Ma, your crimes are multiple homicide and the manufacture and distribution of narcotics. How do you plead?
[He doses her with Slo-Mo, she says nothing]
Judge: Defense noted.
[He throws her out the window into the atrium, and she plunges to her death. From the ground floor, the detonator on her wrist activates, signalling the bomb... and nothing happens]
Judge: Yeah.

[first lines]
Judge: America is an irradiated wasteland. Within it lies a city. Outside the boundary walls, a desert. A cursed earth. Inside the walls, a cursed city, stretching from Boston to Washington D.C. An unbroken concrete landscape. 800 million people living in the ruin of the old world and the mega structures of the new one. Mega blocks. Mega highways. Mega City One. Convulsing. Choking. Breaking under its own weight. Citizens in fear of the street. The gun. The gang. Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos: the men and women of the Hall of Justice. Juries. Executioners. Judges.

Judge: Can't execute a perp on 99%. Save me a lot of paperwork if you just confess right now.

Judge: Choke on it Dredd!
[throat chops Chan]
Judge: Choke on that.

[while heading into the homicide scene, Dredd indicates a beggar by the door]
Judge: Rookie, judgment?
Anderson: Vagrancy: three weeks iso cubes. But prioritize murders?
Judge: Correct.
[to vagrant]
Judge: Don't be here when we get back.

Judge: Inhabitants of Peach Trees, this is Judge Dredd.
Ma: Let him talk.
Judge: In case you people have forgotten, this block operates under the same rules as the rest of the city. Ma-Ma is not the law... I am the law. Ma-Ma is a common criminal; guilty of murder, guilty of the manufacture and distribution of the narcotic known as Slo-Mo, and as of now under sentence of death. Any who obstruct me in carrying out my duty will be treated as an accessory to her crimes... you have been warned. And as for you Ma-Ma... judgement time.

Judge: Open up. Open up!
Paramedic: Negative, Judge. You know what's going on out here.
Judge: We need a place to defend.
Paramedic: Then you better find someplace else. This is a medical facility. Neutral ground.
Judge: Neutral? You're not neutral. You're choosing sides.
Paramedic: Peach Trees has been sealed by blast doors designed to withstand attack. No one's getting out. No one's coming in. And you have every Clan affiliate in the block after your blood. There are no sides. You're already dead.

Judge: I'm wondering when you'd remember you left your helmet behind.
Anderson: Sir, a helmet can interfere with my psychic abilities.
Judge: Think a bullet might interfere with them more.

Judge: Let's talk.
Zwirner: Talk about what, Judge?
Judge: Release the hostage, unharmed, and I guarantee you a sentence of life in an iso-cube, without parole.
Zwirner: Life without parole? That's the deal you're offering?
Judge: Only if you comply. Your crimes include multiple homicide and the attempted murder of a judge. If you do not comply, the sentence is death.
Zwirner: You know, you aren't a very good negotiator, Judge. You want to know why? You got no fucking leverage! Now here's the deal: you let me walk out of here, or I'm gonna blow her fucking brains out! Okay?
Judge: [aims his Lawgiver] Negotiation's over.
Zwirner: Hey, what are you doing? Didn't you hear what I said? I'll kill the bitch!
Judge: Yeah, I heard you, hotshot.
Zwirner: What?
Judge: I said, "Hotshot."
[He fires a heat-seeking round that flies into Zwirner's mouth, killing him and freeing the hostage]
Control: Control to Dredd, come in. Is your pursuit resolved?
Judge: Affirmative.

Judge: Citizens of Peach Trees. This is the law. Disperse immediately, or we will use lethal force to clear the area. You have been warned. You now have 20 seconds to comply.
Big: It's you doing the complying, Judge. There's 10 of use, only two of you. Why don't you step out from behind that doorway or we'll gonna blow the fuck out of you.
Judge: Ten seconds to comply.
Japhet: Fuck you, Judge.
Big: You got five.
Judge: Thanks for the heads up.

Chief: Sink or swim. Chuck her in the deep end.
Judge: It's all a deep end.

[last lines]
Judge: Mega City One. 800 million people living in the ruin of the old world and the mega structures of the new one. Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos: judges.

Judge: Rookie, you're ready?
Anderson: Yeah.
Judge: You don't look ready.

Anderson: Sir, with backup inbound, I think we should wait until the odds have shifted in our favor.
[Dredd says nothing]
Anderson: Wrong answer?
Judge: You're the psychic.

Anderson: [reads Kay's mind] Sir, he's thinking about going for your gun.
Judge: Yeah.
Anderson: [reads it again] He just changed his mind.
Judge: Yeah.

Judge: Mind explaining yourself, rookie? Abetting a felon is not just a fail offense. It's a crime.
Anderson: I already picked up the fail when I lost my primary weapon. I'm not gonna be a Judge and I don't need to be a mind reader to know it. He's a victim, not a perp and until my assessment is formally over, I'm still entitled to dispense justice. And that's what I just did by letting him go. Maybe that will be the one difference I do make.

Judge: Negotiation's over. Sentence is death.

Judge: What's the price of a Judge these days?
Judge: Million. Split four ways.
Judge: Three ways now.
Judge: Suits me.
Judge: Doesn't sound like much. To betray the law. Betray the city.
Judge: Save that shit for the rookies. 20 years I've been on the streets. You know what Mega City One is, Dredd? It's a fucking meat grinder. People go in one end, and meat comes out the other. All we do is turn the handle.