The Dead Pool

Not to be confused with Deadpool (film).
This article is about the 1988 Dirty Harry crime film. For other uses, see Dead pool (disambiguation).

The Dead Pool
Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold
Directed byBuddy Van Horn
Screenplay bySteve Sharon
Story by
Based on
Characters
by
Produced byDavid Valdes
Starring
CinematographyJack N. Green
Edited by
Music byLalo Schifrin
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • July 13, 1988 (1988-07-13)
Running time
91 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$31 million[2]
Box office$37.9 million[3]

The Dead Pool is a 1988 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by Steve Sharon, and starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan.[4] It is the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry film series and is set in San Francisco, California.

The story concerns the manipulation of a dead pool game by a serial killer, whose efforts are confronted by the hardened detective Callahan. It co-stars Liam Neeson (in his first action film) and Patricia Clarkson, with Jim Carrey in his first dramatic role. The film also features an appearance by future Mario voice actor Charles Martinet.

It is the only film in the series not to feature Albert Popwell, an actor who had played a different character in each of the previous four films, as well as the only one to be recorded in Dolby Stereo.

At 91 minutes, it is the shortest of the five Dirty Harry films. Like those films, The Dead Pool is notable for coining catchphrases uttered by Clint Eastwood's gun-wielding character, one of which is: "Opinions are like assholes; everybody has one".[5]

  1. ^ "THE DEAD POOL (18)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  2. ^ Box Office Information for The Dead Pool. Archived March 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The Wrap. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "The Dead Pool". Turner Classic Movies. United States: Turner Broadcasting System. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  5. ^ The effectiveness of this phrase is somewhat diluted in the cleaned-up television version, which goes, "Opinions are like airheads; every unit has one".