Continuity mistake: During the scene on the football pitch where Callahan is torturing Scorpio to force him to say where the kidnapped girl is, there are several shots as if from Callahan's viewpoint. As the camera switches between the two characters, the white painted lines on the pitch mysteriously move or even vanish underneath Scorpio. (01:06:50)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Don Siegel
Starring: Clint Eastwood, John Vernon, Andrew Robinson, Reni Santoni
After attempting to hunt Scorpio several times, each time with varying amounts of disregard for standard police rules, and each time a complete failure, Scorpio hijacks a school bus, and Harry goes 100% vigilante. Harry chases him down, shoots him in the shoulder, points the gun at him, and gives him the famous "Do ya feel lucky, punk?" threat. Scorpio think's he's bluffing, and tries to retrieve his gun, but Harry executes him with the last bullet in the chamber.
JJ Lison
More mistakes in Dirty Harry
Harry Callahan: What are you going to do with those?
Doctor: Going to cut your pants off.
Harry Callahan: No. I'll take them off.
Doctor: It'll hurt.
Harry Callahan: $29.50, let it hurt.
Trivia: When Harry is being run all over town by Scorpio, he passes a wall which bears the graffiti "Kyle", the name of Clint Eastwood's son.
Question: When Harry delivered his famous "do you feel lucky" monologue at the start, did he know his gun was empty? And when he repeated it at the end, did he know the gun was loaded?
Chosen answer: That question is the entire point of the first scene. You're meant to wonder whether he knew or not. At the end of the film, you're given the impression he does know, and is hoping the killer will attack him, giving him an excuse to fire.
The way I see the scene, he knows that he still has one round, and he is giving Scorpio a chance to live. He will only fire if he has to.
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Answer: He certainly knew at the start, which is why he felt confident in pointing the gun at the (disarmed) robber and pulling the trigger. Harry knew he was bluffing, but passed it off so well the robber wasn't sure. At the end of the film, again, he knew he had one bullet left and wanted to bait Scorpio into attacking him, giving him an excuse to fire.