The Asphalt Jungle quotes

View Quote Doc: What boxes have you opened?
Louis: Cannonball, double-door, even a few Firechests, all of 'em.
Doc: Can you open a vault with a time-lock and a re-locking device?
Louis: Sure.
Doc: What do you use? Lock or seam?
Louis: Seam...
Doc: How good are you as a pick-lock?
Louis: I can open anything in four minutes.

View Quote May Emmerich: Oh Lon, when I think of all those awful people you come in contact with - downright criminals - I get scared.
Alonzo Emmerich: Oh, there's nothing so different about them. After all, crime is only... a left-handed form of human endeavor.

View Quote Truck Driver: [referring to stray cats] I run over one every time I get a chance. Some people feedin' cats and some kids haven't got enough to eat.
Gus: [Tosses the customer out by his coat-tails] If I ever see you runnin' over a cat, I'll kick your teeth out.

View Quote Are you a man, or what? Trying to gyp and double-cross with no guts for it. What's inside of you? What's keeping you alive?

View Quote Everything is here, from the observed routine of the personnel to the alarm system, the types of locks on the doors, the aging condition of the main safe, and so forth and so forth. Take my word for it, Mr. Emmerich, this is a ripe plum ready to fall...Perhaps you know my reputation. I've engineered some very big things.

View Quote Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit.

View Quote I haven't carried a gun since my twenties. You carry a gun, you shoot a policeman. Bad rap, hard to beat. You don't carry a gun, you give up when they hold one on you.

View Quote It's not anything strange that there are corrupt officers in police departments. The dirt they're trying to clean up is bound to rub off on some of 'em but not all of 'em. Maybe one out of a hundred. The other ninety-nine are honest men trying to do an honest job....[One by one, he switches on police radios] We send police assistance to every one of those calls. Those are not just code numbers on a radio beam, they're cries for help. People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on twenty-four hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same in every city in the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had [he flips off all four radios] - just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over. Think about it. Well gentlemen, three men are in jail, three men dead, one by his own hand. One man's a fugitive - we have reason to believe seriously wounded. That's six out of seven, not bad. And we'll get the last one too. In some ways, he's the most dangerous of them all, a hardened killer, a hooligan, a man without human feeling or human mercy.

View Quote Oh, I suppose a fellow should stick to his own trade, but uh, I know some pretty big men around here that might not be averse to a deal like this - if they're properly approached. Highly respectable men, I might add...It might mean a lot more money for all of us.

View Quote One way or another, we all work for our vice.

View Quote Put in hours and hours of planning. Figure everything down to the last detail. Then what? Burglar alarms start going off all over the place for no sensible reason. A gun fires of its own accord and a man is shot. And a broken down old cop, no good for anything but chasing kids, has to trip over us. Blind accident. What can you do against blind accidents? One thing I ought to have figured and didn't was Emmerich. I know why I didn't. I'm not kidding myself. It was the extra dough he promised. I got hungry. Greed made me blind.

View Quote They'll be paid off like house painters - they'll be told nothing about the size of the take. Sometimes, men get greedy.

View Quote They'll listen to reason. This is a very bad jolt for them. And it's possible they'll be willing to buy the jewels back, no questions asked, for as high as twenty-five percent of what they're worth.

View Quote Why don't you quit cryin' and get me some bourbon?