10 Dystopian Sci-Fi Films Where The State Wins

Pete Travis and Alex Garland did the unthinkable back in 2012, producing a version of 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd that captured the energy of the comic while delivering on the violence and action, and keeping star Karl Urban under his helmet from titles to credits.

Set in the year 2080, in post-apocalyptic metropolis Mega City One, the film follows the ultimate judge, jury and executioner as he takes an assignment to battle his way to the top of Peach Trees, a 200-storey high-rise slum, and assassinate drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) who resides in the, uhh, penthouse suite. Along for the ride is Dredd's rookie partner, Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), whose psychic abilities help the big man spot trouble before it happens. And the pair succeed in bringing "order" and "justice" to the tower block, blasting away wave after wave of the apartments' inhabitants before throwing Ma-Ma off the roof.

But the success of Dredd's mission relies on us focusing on him and his partner's developing relationship, not the wider implications of the assignment. As a representative of the Mega-City super state, Dredd has annihilated most of Peach Trees' able-bodied residents and restored martial order, with no acknowledgement for the conditions that put - and keep - the tower block's inhabitants in squalor. The machinery of the state has triumphed, but the devastation it leaves behind will be felt for generations.