The Scorpio Killer
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| Dirty Harry character | |
|---|---|
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| "Scorpio" | |
| Real Name: | Charles Davis |
| Date of Birth: | November 14, 1938 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race | Caucasian |
| Height: | 5'10" |
| Weight: | 150 lbs. |
| Location | San Francisco, CA |
| Weapon of Choice: | 30-06 Sniper rifle, MP40, 9 mm Walther P38 |
| Family | Father (deceased), Mother (deceased), Sister (deceased) |
| Whereabouts: | Deceased |
| Enemies | Inspector Harry Callahan, Cops, and Everybody else |
| Portrayed by: | Andrew Robinson |
"The 'Scorpio' Killer" is a fictional character in the film Dirty Harry, played by actor Andrew Robinson. The character was loosely based on the real-life Zodiac Killer, who went on a killing rampage in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s, and who has never been caught.
Originally, Audie Murphy was approached to play the Scorpio Killer, but unfortunately he died in a plane crash before his decision on the offer could be made. The part eventually went to a relative unknown, Andy Robinson, who was discovered by Clint Eastwood who saw him in a play, and thought he would be perfectly cast. Film director Don Siegel also gave a nod, stating that he hired Andy because he has the face of a choir boy. Robinson's portrayal was so chilling that after the film was released he reportedly received several death threats and was forced to get an unlisted telephone number. In real life, Robinson is a pacifist who despises guns. In the early days of principal photography, Robinson would flinch violently every time he fired. Siegel was forced to shut down production for a time and sent Robinson to a school to learn to fire a gun convincingly. Nonetheless, he still blinks when he shoots.
In the film, not much is revealed about the character other than that he is a serial killer who is responsible for four murders or maybe more; his victims including two young teenage girls (one of whom he raped and buried alive), a young African-American boy, and a police officer in disguise of a Catholic priest. He works as the caretaker at Kezar Stadium. He threatens the city of San Francisco to murder one person each day until he is paid a full ransom of $200,000 (originally $100,000, but upgraded after a double-crossing stakeout by Inspector Harry Callahan and his partner).
As a result of a written messages sent to City Hall by Scorpio stating that he has buried a teenage girl alive, Inspector Callahan is sent to pay the ransom, and goes from phonebooth to phonebooth all over the city in order to save the girl. Eventually he encounters the killer at Mount Davidson and is severely beaten by him, during which Scorpio announces that he does not in fact intend to release the girl, and plans to kill Callahan too. Luckily Callahan's partner Chico Gonzalez saves him and Callahan inflicts a serious stab wound in Scorpio's left leg, after which he is pursued into Kezar Stadium and is illegally tortured and arrested by Callahan.
No charges are brought against Scorpio, who upon his release gets deliberately beaten up by a thug in order to frame Callahan for police brutality. He then sends his final threatening message to City Hall, that he has recently hijacked a schoolbus, and demands the ransom again from the City of San Francisco to be delivered to him at the Santa Rosa Airport, where a jet airplane will be waiting for his arrival. Harry pursues Scorpio into a cement factory where a gun battle ensues between the two foes. After shooting him in the shoulder, Harry asks Scorpio if he thinks he has fired all his bullets, and whether he "feels lucky". Scorpio pushes his luck too far by grabbing for his gun, whereapon Callahan shoots him fatally, thus ending his killing spree once and for all.
In a later novelization of the film, the character of Scorpio was referred to as Charles Davis, an escaped Canadian mental patient from Springfield, Massachusetts. It has been suggested that he drafted himself to the Vietnam War and suffered severe critical trauma, before the events in the film. He chose his alias "Scorpio", since he was born on the date of the astrology sign, for an attempt to forever forget about his real name.
Scorpio is considered to be Dirty Harry's arch rival, but he was never mentioned in any of the film's sequels, though there are two small references to him. One is in the final sequel The Dead Pool, where a news reporter was planning to do an interview to Inspector Callahan's career and another reference is within the tie-in novelization of the second sequel The Enforcer.
[edit] Victims
- Sandra Benson (Swimmer)
- Charlie Russell
- Officer Collins
- Ann Mary Deacon
[edit] Trivia
- The climax of the film, where Scorpio hijacks a schoolbus, was based on one of the Zodiac Killer's threatening messages.
- The handwriting in the letters sent by Scorpio to the City of San Francisco is based on the handwriting of the Zodiac Killer.
- During the famous episode of Comedy Central's Mystery Science Theater 3000, satirizing the infamous B-movie "Manos" The Hands of Fate, Tom Servo impersonates Scorpio on the schoolbus in Dirty Harry during Manos' monotonous start (an endless, roaming montage of countryside landscapes) yelling, "Row, row, row your boat boat, gently down the stream -- Sing, dammit! Sing!"
- Scorpio seems to have a mullet type hairstyle when he was in the stadium
