Written by Mr. Mouseburger 16th Jul 2006
Kindly submitted by Ten Day Rip
Scorpio is the criminal mastermind who has tried to hold the city of San Francisco to ransom for the measily sum of $200,000. His initial attempt failed, but this time he has kidnapped a bus full of schoolkids and taken them to - yes, you guessed it - an abandoned industrial complex.
Callaghan has been suspended by this point in the film, due to his general irreverance for officialdom as well as being falsely accused of beating up Scorpio. This does not stop him from pursuing Scorpio though and having jumped on the bus, it has crashed, allowing Scorpio to escape.
Scorpio grabs a child who is fishing and uses him as a human shield. He did not count on Callaghan complete disregard for human life in pursuing his nemesis. Harry shoots Scorpio in the arm, which causes him to release his grip on the child.
Callaghan walks up to Scorpio and says:
"I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking did he fire six shots, or only five? To tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and it'll blow your head clean off, you could ask yourself a question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
This is a verbatim repeat of the challenge he offered to a street hood earlier in the film, who ultimately decided it was not worth going for his gun and he surrenders. In this instance it proved to be the wrong decision, as Harry's magnum was spent.
Obviously Scorpio has to tempt fate and see if Callaghan is bluffing, so he makes a grab for his gun. Big mistake!. Callaghan's gun had one bullet left, and Scorpio killed and blasted back into the lake, where he subsequently sinks.
One of the best "Shot" deaths ever! (oh, what the heck, one of the best deaths ever, period! I'm surprised it only got a 50%) the physical state of both men was priceless, and the monologue was dirty brilliance! But shouldn't "Drowning" be added?
No spelling errors, period!
P.S. I just found out, can you believe this is Robinson's big-screen debut?!
Yes, this is indeed a good death in a very good film, although it is a fiarly mainstream death, hence the score i suppose.
I enjoy dirty harry films with even more appreciation these days thanks to the Simpsons TV character "McGarnacle" who is unashamedly based on Callaghan and equally as irreverent.
Should probably have Contrived Self Defense, Falling and Drowning.
Scorpio was completely loathsome and evil, one of those villains you love to hate, and his comeuppance was finely done. See you later, punk.
Tiny typo - "SCorpio" (first word)
yes, i think these are fair enough, although i am less certain of falling, he falls into water, so the fall alone would not have killed him.
Actually, if you view the first "Do you feel lucky?" scene, you will see that Harry only fired five shots. He had already released the hammer on his revolver when the robber said "I gots to know!" So, when he pulled the hammer back again, the revolver then cycled to a spent round, therfore the "click" when Harry pulls the trigger! Had the robber gone for his gun, he would have ended up the same as Scorpio, minus the water.
Actually I believe your incorrect, view the Bank robbery scene a couple more times. Dirty Harry did fire all six rounds prior to confronting the wounded shot gun Bank robber. The six shots are as follows: #1 hitting the first robber with shot gun in right shoulder. #2 Returning fire at second robber who jumps into passenger side window of getaway car,this round is a miss. #3 this is the shot that most people miss, it's off camera, as the car speeds towards Harry he fires at it off camera, but the sound of his .44 cal. can clearly be heard on film, this shot is also a miss. #4 & #5 are shots by Harry into front windshield of tan ford getaway car killing driver bank robber #3. #6 The second bank robber climbs out of tipped on its side getaway car"passenger window" and fires at Harry, Harry takes aim and shoots this robber sending him thru plate glass store window. This observation was made from DVD release version.
ADDITION : To my reply.
Harry's .44 cal revolver was in fact empty, and he bluffed the wounded shotgun bank robber. This is why after Harry cocked and dry fired his empty .44 cal revolver at the "I gotta know punk" he smiled and grinned,he was letting the punk know "you had a chance and blew it". Harry would never lower the hammer on a live round, and cock his gun to an empty round when facing a dangerous criminal who's within inches of a weapon that he just used to shoot at him. He's Dirty Harry not Stupid Harry.
Anonymous User Wrote:
On screen Harry fires 5 shots. There are a couple ambiguous shots that could be his or the bank robbers. After he is done shooting, Harry appears to quickly do something with his gun and maybe put something in his pocket before he looks down to see the blood on his leg. I think he took the sixth bullet out of his gun in order to mess with the bad guys head.
I personally found this to be one of the most disappointing climaxes in cinema history. Don't believe me? Think about it: throughout the whole movie Scorpio works in the shadows and so we're thinking that he's just hiding his true strength and thus will engage in a truly epic climax with Dirty Harry. I'm not talking about the magical, fantasy-land epic; I'm talking about the 2006 version of Casino Royale climax epic (sinking building, nice!). Or perhaps the Alcatraz Island climax epic from The Enforcer. Anyway this one I found particularly disappointing since Scorpio proved to be a coward and ran like Hell rather than actually having the guts to take on Harry. With all that cowardice I do find it kinda hard to believe that he felt lucky.
The drowning catorgory doesn't belong 'here,' either.
I was so glad when he died.
Yes he would have lowered the hammer on a live round, it is safe to do on all modern revolvers, unless he was carrying and old Colt Single Action Army revolver which was unsafe to carry w/ 6 rounds loaded. S&W Model 29, the gun he carried in the film, has what's called a transfer bar. Unless the trigger is pulled -and held- the gun will fire. If the user holds the hammer with the thumb, releases the trigger once the hammer is free to move and lowers the hammer the transfer bar prevents the firing pin from striking the bullet's primer. You can bang the hammer with a rock and that gun will not fire. Otherwise what is he going to do with the gun, you can't carry a revolver cocked. That's called single action and the trigger pull is VERY light. There are two things that would have happened in real life. One he wouldn't have carried that gun. Only Detroit authorized police to carry and issue 44 magnums. SFPD would have issued him a 38 special, police officers can't use whatever gun or caliber they want. Second he'd never be able to cock his gun. Police revolvers were Double Action only, meaning you can't cock it. Cocked, or single action, makes it far too easy for a gun to go off under stress. In the movie Harry only fired 5 times, he lowered the hammer on the 6th so when he turned around and cocked the gun again the cylender rotated past the live 6th round and he dry fired on the first spent shell fired.