Go ahead, make my day
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"Go ahead, make my day" is a phrase said by the character Harry Callahan from the 1983 film Sudden Impact.
In 2005, it was chosen as #6 on the American Film Institute list, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.
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[edit] Origins
In the opening scene of the movie, Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) goes into a diner for a morning cup of coffee. A hold-up ensues during which the waitress is held at gun-point by the gunman, who holds his gun to her head and threatens to shoot. Instead of backing off, Harry pulls his .44 Magnum and aims it straight at the man's head and dares him to shoot, saying with clenched teeth and in his characteristic rough grumble, "Go ahead, make my day".
[edit] Usage
Harry's statement in the movie implies a number of meanings, any one or more of which can be implied in common usage of this phrase: That the robber's "threat" does not scare Harry, that the robber's action would be exactly the excuse Harry needs to retaliate, that whatever harm the man causes to the waitress would not compare to the harm Harry causes to him, that Harry would enjoy the revenge/retaliation.
This phrase is commonly used in the same situations, though probably not anywhere near as dramatic, as in the film. Person A would threaten to do something, and Person B would respond, "Go ahead, make my day."
[edit] Influences, spoofs and parodies
- U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in threatening to veto tax-increase legislation, said "I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day."[1]
- This line is also parodied in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan while he is buying a gun and he says "Make my day, Jew."
- In the comic G.I. Joe a kid holds up a restraunt and tells the cashier to give him his money or he could make his day.
- In 'Back to the Future III' Marty uses this line, in conjunction with the famous scene from 'Taxi Driver', in front of a mirror in his underwear.
- In the movie Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton says "Go ahead, make my millennium."
