21 Best Street Smarts in the Movies (+ Audio Clips)

Updated: Oct 8, 2025

A selection of street smarts from movies, as rated by Movie-Sounds.org's visitors, with soundbites in MP3 and WAV format.

1 If you're smart, you can be a hero. If you're dumb, you can be dead.

Ted De Corsia as Joseph Rico in The Enforcer (1951)

2 Look, son. Being a good shot, being quick with a pistol, that don't do no harm, but it don't mean much next to being cool-headed. A man who will keep his head and not get rattled under fire like as not, he'll kill you.

Gene Hackman as Little Bill Daggett in Unforgiven

3 Roll your window down. Start there. See, you got to hear the street. You got to smell it, you know? You got to taste that _, feel it.

Denzel Washington as Detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day (2001)

4 Watch how we do things. Ooo, I guarantee you're gonna see how the best survive. We make an art out of staying alive.

Joey Lawrence as Oliver in Oliver & Company (1988)

5 I always think everything could be a trap, which is why I'm still alive.

Chris Sarandon as Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride (1987)

6 Now remember, you don't aim a gun at a man unless you intend to shoot him. And you don't shoot a man unless you intend to kill him. No warning shots.

Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man in Phantasm (1979)

7 When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.

Eli Wallach as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

8 If you get stopped by a cop in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you.

John Travolta as Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction

9 A little piece of advice. You see an agent... you do what we do: Run. You run your _ off.

Joe Pantoliano as Cypher in The Matrix

10 You already figured the streets out? -Yeah, well, it's... It's all about smiles and cries.

Ethan Hawke as Officer Jake Hoyt in Training Day (2001)