Sudden Impact (1983)

Clint Eastwood: Harry Callahan

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [Callahan dares a crook to shoot his hostage] 

  Harry Callahan : Go ahead, make my day.

• Crook : [during a diner robbery]  What's you doing, you pighead sucka?

  Harry Callahan : Every day for the past ten years, Loretta there's been giving me a large black coffee. Today she gives me a large black coffee, only it has sugar in it, a lotta sugar. I just came back to complain. Now, you boys put those guns down.

  Crook : Say what?

  Harry Callahan : Well, we're not just gonna let you walk out of here.

  Crook : Who'se we sucka?

  Harry Callahan : [slowly drawing his .44 Magnum]  Smith and Wesson... and me.

• Harry Callahan : Listen, punk. To me you're nothin' but dogshit, you understand? And a lot of things can happen to dogshit. It can be scraped up with a shovel off the ground. It can dry up and blow away in the wind. Or it can be stepped on and squashed. So take my advice and be careful where the dog shits ya!

• Burly Detective : What do ya think, a gang hit, screwed-up drug score, unlucky John, or an unhappy love affair? Huh? Don't tell me this shit's gettin' to ya. Not Harry Callahan. Say it ain't so.

  Harry Callahan : No, this stuff isn't gettin' to me. The knifings, the beatings, old ladies being bashed in the head for their Social Security checks, teachers being thrown out of a fourth-floor window because they don't give As, that doesn't bother me a bit.

  Burly Detective : Come on, Harry. Take it easy.

  Harry Callahan : Or this job, either. Having to wade through the scum of this city, being swept away by bigger and bigger waves of corruption, apathy and red tape. Nah, that doesn't bother me. But you know what does bother me?

  Burly Detective : What?

  Harry Callahan : You know what makes me really sick to my stomach?

  Burly Detective : What?

  Harry Callahan : Is watching you stuff your face with those hot dogs. Nobody, I mean NOBODY puts ketchup on a hot dog.

• Harry Callahan : Swell!

• Captain Briggs : Don't you lecture me, you son of a bitch! Do you know who I am? Do you know my record?

  Harry Callahan : Yeah... you're a legend in your own mind.

• Harry Callahan : Do you know the emergency phone number for San Francisco General? Well, why don't you call them right now and have them send down an ambulance. Tell them there's two sorry-looking assholes here with multiple contusions and various abrasions and broken bones.

• Jennifer Spencer : I saw the commotion the other day; you're either a cop or public enemy number one.

  Harry Callahan : Heh. Some people might say both.

  Jennifer Spencer : Really, who?

  Harry Callahan : Oh, bozos with big brass nameplates on their desk and asses the shape of the seat of their chairs.

  Jennifer Spencer : Why?

  Harry Callahan : Ah, it's a question of methods. Everybody wants results but nobody wants to do what they have to do to get them done.

• Ray Parkins : [approaching Callahan]  Well hey there, cutie. Wanna buy me a drink?

  Harry Callahan : [uninterested]  Not today.

  Ray Parkins : Come on, sailor. There must be something you want to ask me. You might get lucky!

  Harry Callahan : Only with humans.

• Captain Briggs : Think things over, Callahan. Get with it. It's a whole new ball game these days.

  Harry Callahan : Funny. I never thought of it as a game.

• Eddie : Hey, can't you see our sister's in mourning? Why don't you get the hell out of here?

  Harry Callahan : [to Eddie and Carl]  Why don't you boys suck some fish heads, huh?

  [punches Carl and is about to punch Eddie] 

  Mrs. Kruger : [with a gun]  Don't even think about it!

  Harry Callahan : I'll come back, when you're less bereaved.

• [Horace King fires two shotgun blasts at the target] 

  Harry Callahan : Not bad.

  Horace King : Not bad, my ass! You've got to strain the remains for the fingerprints.

  Harry Callahan : Well, this is the .44 Magnum Auto-Mag and it holds a 300-grain cartridge. And, if properly used, it can remove the fingerprints.

• [Harry, Lt. Donnelly & Capt. Briggs are meeting in the Commissioner's office, after Harry's confrontation with Threlkis the gangster] 

  Captain Briggs : [shouting]  In more than 30 years of police work, this is the single, most OUTRAGEOUS transgression of authority I ever heard about. What the HELL did you think you were doing?

  Harry Callahan : My job.

  Captain Briggs : Is it your job, to harass & incite an old man into a heart attack?

  Harry Callahan : My job is to investigate homicide. That old man happens to be one of the biggest crime lords on the west coast. How the hell was I supposed to know he was gonna vapor-lock?

  Captain Briggs : But you hoped he would?

  Harry Callahan : The Doker case is mine. It was at a standstill. I was just trying to break it loose.

  Captain Briggs : Sure, with threats and intimidation!

  Harry Callahan : Any way possible!

  Captain Briggs : Are you aware that you have destroyed MONTHS - of intelligence & surveillance work? We're talking thousands of dollar, hundreds of man-hours? Special investigations has been BUSTING ITS ASS preparing a case against Threlkis.

  Harry Callahan : He would have just snaked his way out of it. Maybe we saved the taxpayers a little money.

  Captain Briggs : [with contempt]  I ought to bust your ass down to traffic. Or better yet, kick it off the force! You're a dinosaur, Callahan. Your ideas don't fit today.

  Harry Callahan : Just what ideas are these? That murder's a crime? That it shouldn't be punished?

  Captain Briggs : [sneering]  Hey, don't you lecture me, you son-of-a-bitch. You know who you're talking to, huh? You know MY record?

  Harry Callahan : [disgusted]  Yeah. You're a legend in your own mind!

  Captain Briggs : [angrily]  Goddamn you, Callahan!

  Police Commissioner : Gentlemen, that's enough! Inspector, your methods are unconventional to say the least. Well, you get results. But often your successes are more costly to this department in terms of publicity & physical destruction than most other men's failures!

  Lt. Donnelly : Commissioner, now I...

  Police Commissioner : [cuts Donnelly off]  Please, Lieutenant! The press will have a field day with this latest escapade. There may be further civil & legal repercussions. As a matter of fact there may even be attempts at retaliation. I think it would be wise if the inspector took some time off.

  [Briggs nods approvingly] 

• Lt. Donnelly : Harry, these bastards are not a bunch of junkies. In their minds you killed Threlkis, same as if you pulled the trigger. They're not gonna stop, they're gonna keep comin' after you.

  Harry Callahan : Good, that way we'll know where they are.

  Lt. Donnelly : You're incredible Callahan!

• Horace King : So I heard you got a forced vacation.

  Harry Callahan : [takes his Magnum out]  Uh-huh.

  Horace King : You still use the Magnum .44?

  Harry Callahan : Pretty powerful. You want see?

  Horace King : Sure.

  Harry Callahan : [shoots a tree stump and some metal. Tons of wood splinters go all over the place and the bullets make shattering circles in the metal] 

  Horace King : Look, you got start being careful. I think you really should go on vacation.

  Harry Callahan : Forget it. I never take a vacation.

  Horace King : Well either that or quit.

  Harry Callahan : That's good idea right there. I really should quit. Then I can handle the law my own way.

  Horace King : Yeah, but then you'll be a JAMF.

  Harry Callahan : Uh huh. And what is a JAMF?

  Horace King : Jive ass mother...

  Harry Callahan : [cutting off just in time]  Forget I asked.

• Lt. Donnelly : So this is your idea of rest and relaxation? Peace and quiet?

  Harry Callahan : [exasperated]  Look, am I on the job or not?

  Lt. Donnelly : Yes, you are.

  Harry Callahan : Good. Then I'll get on it.

  Lt. Donnelly : It's not what you think. Remember that cock-shot stiff up near the cliff house?

  Harry Callahan : Yeah.

  Lt. Donnelly : He's been in the city for a few years now. Mostly clean, but definitely out in the shade. He seems strictly small-time. But maybe he just didn't get caught.

  Harry Callahan : What's your point?

  Lt. Donnelly : He came from San Paolo, born and raised. I want you to get down there and find out whatever you can.

  Harry Callahan : What is THIS bullshit?

  Lt. Donnelly : It's a murder case, Harry! Look, you wanna work, then work! You got you assignment, get on it!

  Lt. Donnelly : [as Harry is leaving]  Take all the time you need. You don't have to hurry back!

• Chief Lester Jannings : So you're the famous Harry Callahan. So I'm going to tell you two things. We don't have any trouble in this town and we don't need any from you. Got it?

  Harry Callahan : [bitter]  Aye-aye, sir.

• Police Commissioner : I think it would be wise if the Inspector took some time off.

  Harry Callahan : Are you suspending me, sir?

  Police Commissioner : No, I'm saying you take a vacation until this cools off.

  Harry Callahan : But I'm not up for a vacation!

  Police Commissioner : Callahan, I'm not going to fence with you. Take a few days off.

• Harry Callahan : Looks like I owe you one, meat head.

• [Bennett finds Jennifer's gun on Mick] 

  Harry Callahan : Run it through Ballistics. I think you'll find that his gun there was used in *all* the killings.

  Officer Bennett : So it's over?

  Harry Callahan : Yeah, it's over.

• Harry Callahan : [Turning around, pointing his gun at Horace's nose]  Good morning, Horace.

  Horace King : Sweet Sister Sadie, where the hell did you get that?

  Harry Callahan : I've had it a while. I just thought I'd get used to it.

  Horace King : I heard about the car. Fabulous, coming after you in tanks.

  Harry Callahan : Yeah, ther're making those these days. For sheiks and business executives, hoods. Impregnable to about anything but artillery.

  Horace King : Well, you got that covered.

• Jennifer Spencer : So what now?

  Harry Callahan : Now, I guess I'll have to...

  Jennifer Spencer : [cutting him off]  read me my rights? And where was all this concern for my rights when I was being beaten and mauled? And where were my sister's rights when she was being *brutalized*? There is a thing called justice, Callahan, and is it justice that they should all just walk away?

• Coffee Shop Waitress : Hey, mister. Is that your dog?

  Harry Callahan : Why? Do you want him?

• Harry Callahan : [enters his darkened hotel room] 

  Harry's dog (Meat Head) : [growls] 

  Harry Callahan : [flicks on the light to see a white English bulldog with a small card attached to him saying - A GIFT FOR YOU] 

  Harry Callahan : [looks at card] 

  [ENJOY - FROM HORACE] 

  Harry Callahan : Damn you, Horace!

  Harry's dog (Meat Head) : [starts spraying on the rug] 

  Harry Callahan : Swell.

• Bar Patron : [after slugging Ray Parkins]  Are you looking for trouble, pal?

  Harry Callahan : I'm looking for friends of George Wilburn.

  Bar Patron : What'd he do?

  Harry Callahan : He lost his balls... he got killed.

  [the whole bar starts laughing] 

• Lt. Donnelly : Helluva way to spend the night off, Harry!

  Harry Callahan : You joining the act, too?

  Lt. Donnelly : No, for chrissakes! Back off a little! I'm worried about your ass. You're either gonna get it shot off or kicked outta here!

  Harry Callahan : So what else is new?

• Harry Callahan : [to Sao Paulo suspect he's chased down with the Retirement Home bus]  I suppose I ought to

  [sarcastically] 

  Harry Callahan : read you your rights?