One of the Dirty Harry franchise’s most memorable lines is “Go ahead, make my day,” but which of the movies did Clint Eastwood’s titular character say the line? While Eastwood had prior success on TV with Rawhide, it was his role as the Man with no Name in Sergio Leone’s A Fistful Of Dollars trilogy that made him an instant movie star. He’s maintained that status for decades, starring in and directing acclaimed projects like Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Easily one of his most famous characters is Harry Callahan, a San Francisco police officer with the nickname “Dirty Harry” due to taking on the “dirty jobs” no one else wants. Dirty Harry was originally offered to John Wayne and Frank Sinatra, the latter of whom was attached briefly before dropping out. Dirty Harry was a huge success upon release, so much so that a sequel was quickly put into production. Magnum Force sought to address the accusations of fascism leveled at the original and saw Harry taking down a group of vigilante cops.
Eastwood would return to the series periodically in the years that followed, which ended with the fifth entry The Dead Pool in 1988. The original Dirty Harry saw the title character utter some famous one-liners, like “Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?” One of the most quoted lines from the series is “Go ahead, make my day,” which is sometimes attributed to the first film. In fact, it came from the fourth entry, 1983’s Sudden Impact.
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This is the only entry in the Dirty Harry franchise directed by Clint Eastwood himself and marked the character’s big-screen return after a seven-year gap. Sudden Impact saw Harry chase after a serial killer, who turns out to be a woman named Jennifer who is seeking vengeance on the men who raped her and her sister a decade prior. Jennifer is played by Sondra Locke, Eastwood’s then-partner, with the story originally being developed as a solo starring vehicle for her before rewrites made it a Dirty Harry sequel.
The “Go ahead, make my day” line comes early in Sudden Impact, where Harry stops a diner robbery. After shooting the other criminals, one attempts to take a waitress hostage. Instead of putting his gun down, Clint Eastwood’s Harry keeps his gun pointed and spits out the line, which makes the robber put down his weapon. Dirty Harry’s quote was famously later used by President Ronald Reagan in a 1985 address. It even made its way onto the AFI’s list of Greatest Movies Quotes, ranking at number 6, with “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” from Gone With The Wind taking the top spot.