"Feeling lucky, punk?" or "Do you feel lucky, punk?" are paraphrases of
Clint Eastwood's most famous line from the original
Dirty Harry from
1971.
You might say that
Arnold Schwarzenegger is to "
I'll be back" as Clint
Eastwood is to "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
Here's the scene: "Dirty" Harry Callahan has just been in a gunfight, and is standing
over a bad guy a few feet away. The bad guy is on the ground, with a gun
on the ground right next to him. Harry has his Magnum pointed straight
at the guy. The bad guy has a hesitant look on his face. Harry sees this
and famously says,
I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
This being a
Hollywood movie, you can probably guess what happens next.
We'll just say that the bad guy makes a decision, and we promptly learn
whether he chose... poorly.
The quote is so well known, it's fair to say it has entered the
collective subconscious. That is to say, people know it, even if they have never seen the movie, and don't know where
it comes from.
It's really the only thing to say when you've got a big gun
pointed at an enemy frozen with fear and hesitation. (like that happens a lot... but anyway)
It is often parodied and referenced; here
are some just off the top of my head:
- Grand Theft Auto III: When the Triads are trying to kill you, sometimes
they say "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
- The Mask: Jim Carrey pretty much quotes the last part of the scene
verbatim, near the end of the movie, while doing an Eastwood impression.
See also
A man's got to know his limitations.
This is completely off-topic, but since I've already mentioned GTA3 and Dirty Harry in the same writeup, I cannot resist. The remote control car missions in GTA3 are clearly inspired by the 1988 Dirty Harry movie "The Dead Pool". Not a great movie, but anyway, there you go.