A deleted scene where Sly Stallone's titular Judge Dredd fought off an attack by clones would have briefly turned the 1995 blockbuster into a monster movie. The character of Judge Dredd made his debut in the UK comic 2000 AD during the 1970s, and he is a ruthless lawman in a post-apocalyptic city plagued with crime. Dredd is a cult icon, but he's had a troubled time with live-action projects.
Actors like Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger circled a Judge Dredd movie, with the latter once star set to fight supernatural foe Judge Death in a movie directed by Tony Scott. Sylvester Stallone eventually put on the helmet for 1995's Judge Dredd, but despite some impressive production design, the movie is a goofy mess. It fundamentally misunderstood its main character and saddled him with an insufferable "comic" sidekick. The movie was supposed to be PG-13 but it was so violent the MPAA would settle for nothing less than an R-rating.
Even so, harsher moments of violence like Judge Griffin (Jürgen Prochnow) having his arms and legs ripped off onscreen, had to be taken out to avoid an NC-17. The movie's story sees Dredd framed for murder by his evil brother Rico (Armand Assante), and the finale reveals Rico wants to rule over Mega-City One with an army of clones created from his own DNA. During the final battle, Rico demands the unfinished clones are hatched to attack Dredd, but while they are briefly seen waking up, they suddenly disappear. It turns out a scene was filmed with the clones attacking, which was later cut.
Reportedly, the deleted Judge Dredd clone scene would have seen Dredd blasting a few of these weak, unfinished clones into goo. The way the scene plays out now, Dredd and Hershey (Diana Lane) see the clones waking up - and then suddenly the lab is rocked by an explosion. It's possible the scene was cut to reduce the movie's overall violence, though another reason might be that while the clone suits looked good on the set, they didn't look very convincing on camera.
The scene's deletion leads to a weird plothole in Judge Dredd's finale, and the final battle feels choppy as a result. Judge Dredd ended up being a financial dud for the studio, and any plans for a sequel were quickly abandoned. Dredd later returned to the big screen for the 2012 movie of the same name, but while that was another box-office disappointment, it received a much more positive critical response. Karl Urban's performance as the title lawman, in particular, was praised.