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Released
1988 · FILM

The Dead Pool

Veteran cop “Dirty” Harry teams up with rookie partner Al Quan to stop a twisted dead‑pool game that’s targeting the city’s most powerful citizens—before the next predicted kill lands on his own badge.

“Dirty Harry just learned a new game.”

Directed by
Buddy Van Horn
Written by
Harry Julian Fink, Rita M Fink
Rated
MPA · R
Runtime
91 min
ActionCrimeMystery

Synopsis

In his final film adventure, Dirty Harry Callahan returns alongside his partner Al Quan to investigate a series of systematic murders targeting prominent figures. As the investigation unfolds, Harry discovers that the killings are part of a sinister game designed to predict such deaths, but by the time he uncovers the truth, it may already be too late.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 22

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Ron SpangShot by Jack N GreenScored by Lalo SchifrinDesigned by Edward C Carfagno

Box Office

1988 · Box office

⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.9× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$37.9M

Budget$20.0M
Worldwide gross$37.9M
break-even (2.5×)

Opening weekend: $9.1M — 24% of its US run.

Opening week (7-day): $17.1M — 45% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 1,831 theaters

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Also known as

  • Dirty harry 5 - Das Todesspielde
  • Dirty Harry V - Das Todespielde
  • Dirty Harry V - Das Todesspielde
  • La Dernière Ciblefr
  • Scommessa con la morteit

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