Street Smart(1987)

Submitted by Julio M

Oscar Nominee – Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman)

Short pooper:
Reggie (Erik King) kills Smalls (Morgan Freeman) and is arrested for it. Jonathan (Christopher Reeve), alive and free in the end and with his journalistic credibility intact, uses the incident to boost the exposure of his “Street Smart” TV news segment. He and Alison (Mimi Rogers) -who survived her attack- also reconcile.

Longer version:
After Smalls kills “Punchy” (Kathy Baker) because she betrayed him by warning ADA Pike (Jay Patterson) that Smalls still wanted to coerce Jonathan to fabricate those notes -reason for which he was subpoenaed and twice imprisoned for court contempt, when he refused to turn them over-, Pike visits Jonathan in jail and both tells him he knows about the whole ploy and warns him against going through it.

When, as a warning to Jonathan against trying to turn on him, Smalls orders Alison to be stabbed, landing her in the hospital, Jonathan has no other choice but to announce his intention to produce the notes required by the court; after being released, he meets Smalls and promises to provide the necessary alibi which, in turn, gets Smalls acquitted. Enraged, Pike threatens to prosecute Jonathan for fabrication of evidence, but, when Pike clearly indicates this would be out of a personal vendetta and nothing else, Jonathan does not relent and decides to entrap Reggie for attacking Alison.

He elaborates a scheme by which he contacts Darlene (Shari Hilton), gives her $200, asks her to go to Reggie and tell him this came from Smalls. She complies and Jonathan videotapes the whole thing; later, he comes to Reggie and warns him that he will show the videotape to Smalls, which would make it look as if Reggie was also skimming earnings from Smalls, and that he should flee for his life.

Unaware of Jonathan’s scheme and solely due to noticing Reggie’s sudden absence, Smalls comes around looking for Reggie, who, upon spotting him, believes Jonathan kept his word and informed Smalls, and, frightened, tries to run, but ends up falling. When Smalls catches up with Reggie, confused with the way he appears to be acting, Reggie scarily produces a gun and shoots Smalls dead. With the evidence produced out of this incident, Reggie is arrested and Pike finally leaves Jonathan alone.

In the end, Jonathan, with his name and reputation clean and having gotten back together with a recovered Alison, reports Small’s murder as part of this now-famed “Street Smart” news segment on television, with great success.