Sudden Impact
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sudden Impact | |
|---|---|
 Sudden Impact theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | Clint Eastwood |
| Produced by | Clint Eastwood |
| Written by | Charles B. Pierce Earl E. Smith Joseph Stinson |
| Starring | Clint Eastwood Sondra Locke |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
| Cinematography | Bruce Surtees |
| Editing by | Joel Cox |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | December 9, 1983 |
| Running time | 117 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | The Enforcer |
| Followed by | The Dead Pool |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Sudden Impact is a 1983 movie and the 4th film in the Dirty Harry series, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. The movie is probably best remembered for Harry's catch phrase "Go ahead, make my day", often incorrectly attributed to the original movie in the franchise. In 2005, it was voted in a poll by the American Film Institute as the sixth most memorable line in cinema history.
[edit] Plot
Several years after the foiling of The People's Revolutionary Strike Force, Dirty Harry is back to foil a new cold-blooded killer, who may be more dangerous than himself.
Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke) and her little sister were gang raped years ago, after a female friend of the gang had persuaded them to come to the fair. The brutal rape left the sister almost vegetative. Jennifer is now out for revenge. She kills her attackers one by one, shooting them first in the genitals then between the eyes, except for the female who is shot in the heart.
In the beginning of the film, Jennifer is seen with one of the rapists named George Wilburn {Michael Maurer). It is early morning and she is with him in a car when she kills him. After the murder, she leaves without a trace. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in the meantime is seen in a court room where he has brought a young blonde haired suspect named Mr. Hawkins (Kevyn Major Howard) to trial. The case is dismissed as a travesty because Harry did not have the right to seize the evidence used to prove Hawkins guilty.
After insulting Hawkins in the elevator, Harry goes to his usual coffee diner and orders the usual black coffee. The waitress tries getting his attention by pouring massive amounts of sugar into his coffee and Harry, who is reading a newspaper, does not notice. As he walks out, he takes a sip of coffee and spits it out in disgust. As he returns to complain, he sees that the open signs were switched to closed. A robbery ensues but Harry stops it, going in the back way where he shoots up the gang of robbers. One is left alive and grabs the waitress as hostage, but Harry points his .44 Magnum handgun at him and says a very famous line written by Joseph C. Sinston, "Go ahead, make my day."
The police arrive shortly afterward when the robber drops his gun. Jennifer, meanwhile, is shown at an art exhibit but claims that she must miss it because she needs to visit someone up north. She arrives at a hospital to visit her vegetated sister, Elizabeth. Jennifer tells of what she did to George Wilburn and then leaves her sister. Later that night, Harry is at a mobster named Threlkis' granddaughter's wedding party. Harry antagonizes Threlkis (Michael V. Gazzo) in front of his own granddaughter, accusing him of killing a young hooker. Threlkis freaks as Callahan pulls out papers where the hooker may have confessed everything, and he dies of a heart attack.
The following day, Callahan and the rest of the cops are investigating the car containing the deceased George Wilburn in it. Wilburn has his genitals shot and his head with a bullet in it. Shortly afterwards, Callahan is talking to his superiors, Captain Briggs (Bradford Dillman), Lt. Donnelly (Michael Currie) and the Chief. He is lectured about how he handled the Threlkis case, and Callahan is defensive on how that case was his to handle. His superiors demand that Callahan relax and take a vacation.
After Callahan leaves a restaurant that same night, he is attacked by three of Threlkis's hitmen. After killing two of them, one escapes. Lt. Donnelly then orders Callahan to not be so reckless and demands he take a break with "peace". Out in the forest, Callahan practices shooting with his .44 Automag handgun. His friend Horace King (Albert Popwell) shows up shortly afterwards to talk to him, convincing him he had the best place for Callahan to go for a vacation.
Driving home in San Francisco late at night, Callahan is attacked by Hawkins and his buddies. The chase results in Hawkins and his friends dead, having driven off a pier into the water in their car. Lt. Donnelly sees that this is the last straw and orders Callahan to investigate the Wilburn killing. Callahan relucantly agrees and is sent down to San Paulo (Santa Cruz). Without realizing it, Jennifer Spencer has also gone down to San Paulo to fully exact revenge on her rapists who live there. Her story for staying at San Paulo is to renew the carousel house and paint the merry-go-round horses at the San Paulo Fairgrounds (Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk). While walking on the beach at the fairgrounds, there is a flashback of Jennifer's rape and it is shown what actually happened.
During the time in San Paulo, Callahan receives a bulldog named Meathead from his friend Horace. He also stops a bank robbery in progress when he arrives, and he saves the life of young Officer Bennett (Mark Keyloun). While taking Meathead for a walk, he runs into Jennifer Spencer (who falls off of her bike when Meathead barks at her). The two have a brief exchange of words and then part. At night, Callahan walks into a bar for a beer and meets the malicious Ray Parkins. After insulting Ray, Callahan demands to know if anyone knows George Wilburn. When he tells how Wilburn died, Ray just starts a raucous laughter which pursues to a laugh riot.
Kruger (Jack Thibeau), one of the rapists, goes fishing at the beach the following morning only to be followed by Jennifer and murdered in the same fashion Wilburn was. When his body is reported to the cops, Callahan shows up only to be yelled at by Chief Jannings (Pat Hingle) for continually interferring with the San Paulo's police job. Back in the San Paulo police office, Callahan asks Bennett to find out anything he knows about the case. Harry finds a picture of Jannings' son's friends on the wall, and he has Bennett investigate that too. At dusk, Callahan stops by Mrs. Kruger's fish market only to be kicked out after brawling with her brothers Eddie (Russ McCubbin) and Carl (Robert Sutton).
Callahan is attacked by the missing hitman who was hired by Threlkis later that night at the motel, and he ends up shooting him. Ray Parkins (Audrie J. Neenan) talks to Tyrone (Wendall Wellman), another rapist, about what is happening. Tyrone disregards her and tells her to leave his store. Later that day, Tyrone is also killed by Jennifer. Callahan meets up with Jennifer again, this time at an outdoor restaurant. The two talk again in a more polite manner and converse about the murders. Upon hearing Callahan is a cop, Jennifer becomes worried that he is on to her.
Now with Wilburn, Kruger and Tyrone dead, Ray Parkins calls Mick (Paul Drake), the leader of the rapists, to come down for help from Las Vegas. When Callahan finds Tyrone dead, he heads over to Ray's house at night and sees Jennifer's car parked out front. Jennifer hides, and Callahan goes inside to find Ray. Mick attacks Callahan, and after a brawl, Callahan takes Mick as prisoner to the police station. Then Jennifer enters and confronts Ray. Ray Parkins being a woman, she is shot first in the heart and then the head.
Meanwhile, Mick is bailed out by Eddie and Carl while Callahan returns to Ray Parkins' house only to find the woman dead. Horace is seen driving up to Callahan's motel that same night to visit him- he is carrying his powerful shotgun and some alcohol. Upon arrival into Callahan's room, Horace is greeted by Mick, Eddie and Carl, who slit his throat and steal his gun. After buying a few beers, Callahan meets up with Jennifer late at night by the pier. The two talk and this time Jennifer invites Callahan up for a drink at her place, where he sleeps with her (although it is most unlikely that the two engaged in sexual intercourse). After a brief sleep, Harry gets out of bed when it is still dark and goes to Mrs. Kruger's fish market after Officer Bennett informs him that Eddie and Carl bailed Mick out.
As Callahan leaves after receiving no cooperation from Mrs. Kruger (Nancy Parsons), he is ambushed by Mick, Eddie and Carl. A melee ensues with Callahan being dumped into the water, his .44 Magnum handgun lost. Jennifer is then seen going to the house of Alby (Matthew Child), who is Chief Janning's son. She prepares to kill Alby only to find out that Alby is in a vegetative state just like her own sister. Jennifer is stopped cold by Jannings who orders her to drop her gun. After doing so, Jannings explained how he covered up the rape because he was a public figure and the guilt drove Alby insane which caused him to drive straight into a wall.
Suddenly Mick arrives with Eddie and Carl who takes Jennifer hostage then shoots Jannings when Jannings reaches for the gun. At the film's climax, Eddie and Carl (led by Mick) manage to turn the tables on Jennifer, and are set to gang-rape her again at the same fairground (actually the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk). Jennifer puts up a fight and seeks shelter in the carousel where she turns it on and hides in it. After desperately fleeing from the merry-go-round, Jennifer runs out followed by Mick and his two friends, but Callahan's silhouette appears on the boardwalk, and he is holding the .44 Automag handgun. While Eddie and Carl are killed, Mick is left, using Jennifer as a shield. With nowhere left to go, Mick forces her up the roller coaster (Giant Dipper) where they stop at the turnaround point and Mick taunts Callahan who is watching below. Jennifer is able to punch Mick after he gets too cocky and Callahan takes the bait and fires 4 times into Mick's chest. The rapist topples off the roller coaster and directly down onto the moving merry-go-round where he impales himself on the horn of a unicorn.
Justice is finally given to Jennifer at the end of the movie.
[edit] Trivia
- Ronald Reagan used the "make my day" line in a speech threatening to veto legislation raising taxes.
- Harry is seen wearing Gargoyles sunglasses - the sunglasses were later made famous by Arnold Schwarznegger in The Terminator (1984).
- Bradford Dillman is seen in the film as Captain Briggs; in the previous film, The Enforcer, he portrayed Captain Jerome McKay. It is unknown if McKay and Briggs are distant relatives. Hal Holbrook played Lieutenant Briggs in Magnum Force.
- Contrary to popular belief, the .44 Automag used by Callahan was not an AMT firearm, but one built specifically for this film. [1]
- Harry drives a tan 1974 Plymouth Satellite sedan, similar to the one he had in the last film, The Enforcer. In the previous film, he drove through the front of a liquor store although his unmarked cruiser in the film was fire-bombed by a Molotov cocktail.
- Roberta Flack sings "This Side of Forever" for the end credits of this movie; which is an extended version of the usual Dirty Harry end credit theme.
| The Dirty Harry films |
|---|
| Official films Dirty Harry | Magnum Force | The Enforcer | Sudden Impact | The Dead Pool |
