Five film series featuring Lieutenant Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) - a bad-tempered, right-wing San Francisco policeman, not averse to bending the rules to get his man.
In the first film, 'Dirty Harry' (1971), the maniacal Scorpio Killer is on the loose and Callahan disregards procedure in his efforts to track him down, regularly using his trusty Magnum .44 to dispense his own brand of justice.
The sequel, 'Magnum Force' (1973), sees a group of renegade San Francisco law enforcers using policing methods which even hardened Callahan considers to be beyond the pale. As drugs bosses, pimps and other street low-life drop like flies, Callahan is assigned to track down the loose cannon cops who have decided to take the law into their own hands.
The follow-on, 'The Enforcer' (1976), finds Callahan unwillingly partnered with a female officer (Tyne Daly) when he is charged with tracking down a terrorist group made up of psychopathic hoodlums.
'Sudden Impact' (1983) sees Callahan overstepping the mark one more time, and he is sent 'on holiday' to a small Californian town where he soon antagonises the local Chief of Police, triggers off a wave of murderous mayhem and becomes involved with a rape-revenge killer.
Finally, 'The Dead Pool' (1988) finds Callahan the target of macabre interest when his name appears on an anonymous hit list. It's not that he minds being singled out by killers, it's just that he doesn't like appearing on a list which also features rock stars and TV celebrities.