Directed by John Boorman. Written by James Dickey, based on his novel of the same name.

Lewis Medlock

• Sometimes you have to lose yourself before you can find anything...A couple more months, she'll all be gone...from Aintry on up. One big dead lake.

• I sleep at night. I have no worries. I am becoming myself, as inconsequential as that may be. I am not something that somebody shoved off on me. I am what I chose to be, and I am it.

Dialogue

[Lewis and Ed take a wrong turn looking for the river]

Lewis: Well, we fucked up.

Griner: Where you goin' city boy?

Lewis: We'll find it. We'll find it.

Griner: It ain't nothin' but the biggest fuckin' river in the state.

Lewis: The first explorers saw this country, saw it just like us.

Drew: I can imagine how they felt.

Bobby: [about the rapids] Yeah, we beat it, didn't we? Did we beat that?

Lewis: You don't beat it. You never beat the river chubby.

Lewis: Machines are gonna fail and the system's gonna fail...then, survival. Who has the ability to survive? That's the game - survive.

Ed: Well, the system's done all right by me.

Lewis: Oh yeah. You gotta nice job, you gotta a nice house, a nice wife, a nice kid.

Ed: You make that sound rather shitty, Lewis.

Lewis: Why do you go on these trips with me, Ed?

Ed: I like my life, Lewis.

Lewis: Yeah, but why do you go on these trips with me?

Ed: You know, sometimes I wonder about that.

Mountain Man: What the hell you think you're doin'?

Ed: Headin' down river. A little canoe trip, headin' for Aintry.

Mountain Man: Aintry?

Bobby: Sure, this river only runs one way, captain, haven't you heard?

Mountain Man: You ain't never gonna get down to Ain-.

Ed: Well, why not?

Mountain Man: 'Cause. This river don't go to Aintry. You done taken a wrong turn. See uh, this here river don't go nowhere near Aintry.

Bobby: Where does it go, then?

Mountain Man: Boy, you are a lost one, ain't ya?

Bobby: Well, hell, I guess this river comes out somewhere, don't it? That's where we're goin'. Somewhere. Look, we don't want any trouble here.

Ed: If you gentlemen have a still near here, hell, that's fine with us.

Bobby: Why sure. We'd never tell anybody where it is. You know somethin', you're right, we're lost. We don't know where in the hell we are.

Toothless Man: A still?

Bobby: Right, yeah. You're makin' some whiskey up here. We'll buy some from ya, we could use it, couldn't we?

Mountain Man: Do you know what you're talkin' about?

Ed: We don't know what we're talkin' about, honestly we don't.

Mountain Man: No, no. You said somethin' about makin' whiskey, right? Isn't that what you said?

Ed: We don't know what you're doin' and we don't care. That's none of our business.

Mountain Man: That's right. It's none of your god-damned business, right.

Ed: We got quite a long journey ahead of us, gentlemen.

Toothless Man: Hold it. You ain't goin' no damn wheres.

Ed: This is ridiculous.

Toothless Man: Hold it, or I'll blow your guts out all over these woods.

Ed: Gentlemen, we can talk this thing over. What is it you require of us?

Mountain Man: What we, uh, "re-quire" is that you get your god-damn asses up in them woods.

Mountain Man: Now, let's you just drop them pants.

Bobby: Drop?

Mountain Man: Just take 'em right off.

Bobby: I-I mean, what's this all about?

Toothless Man: Don't say anything, just do it.

Mountain Man: Just drop 'em, boy. [To Ed - at knifepoint] You ever had your balls cut off, you fuckin' ape? Looky there, that's sharp. Bet it would shave a hair.

Toothless Man: Why don't you try it and see? [To Bobby] Take off that little ol' bitty shirt there, too. [To Mountain Man] Did he bleed?

Mountain Man: He bled. [To Bobby] Them panties. Take 'em off. [After attacking him] Hey boy, you look just like a hog....[Holding Bobby's nose as he straddles him from behind] Come on piggy, give me a ride...Looks like we got us a sow here, instead of a boar....I bet you can squeal. I bet you can squeal like a pig.

Bobby: Weee!

Mountain Man: Weeeeeeee!

Bobby: Weee!

Mountain Man: What do you want to do now?

Toothless Man: [grinning] He's got a real pretty mouth on him, don't he?

Mountain Man: Ain't that the truth.

Toothless Man: [to Ed] You gonna do some prayin' for me, boy. And you better pray real good.

Lewis: What are we gonna do with him?

Drew: There's not but one thing to do. Take the body down to Aintry. Turn it over to the Highway Patrol. Tell 'em what happened.

Lewis: Tell 'em what exactly?

Drew: Just what happened. This is justifiable homicide if anything is. They were sexually assaulting two members of our party at gunpoint. Like you said, there was nothin' else we could do.

Ed: Is he alive?

Lewis: Not now. Well, let's get our heads together. [To vengeful Bobby] Come on now, let's not do anything foolish. Does anybody know anything about the law?

Drew: Look, I-I was on jury duty once. It wasn't a murder trial.

Lewis: A murder trial? Well, I don't know the technical word for it, Drew, but I know this. You take this man down out of the mountains and turn him over to the Sheriff, there's gonna be a trial all right, a trial by jury.

Drew: So what?

Lewis: We killed a man, Drew. Shot him in the back - a mountain man, a cracker. It gives us somethin' to consider.

Drew: All right, consider it, we're listenin'.

Lewis: Shit, all these people are related. I'd be god-damned if I'm gonna come back up here and stand trial with this man's aunt and his uncle, maybe his momma and his daddy sittin' in the jury box. What do you think, Bobby? [Bobby rushes at the corpse, but is restrained] How about you, Ed?

Ed: I don't know. I really don't know.

Drew: Now you listen, Lewis. I don't know what you got in mind, but if you try to conceal this body, you're settin' yourself up for a murder charge. Now that much law I do know! This ain't one of your fuckin' games. You killed somebody. There he is!

Lewis: I see him, Drew. That's right, I killed somebody. But you're wrong if you don't see this as a game...Dammit, we can get out of this thing without any questions asked. We get connected up with that body and the law, this thing gonna be hangin' over us the rest of our lives. We gotta get rid of that guy!...Anywhere, everywhere, nowhere.

Drew: How do you know that other guy hasn't already gone for the police?

Lewis: And what in the hell is he gonna tell 'em, Drew, what he did to Bobby?

Drew: Now why couldn't he go get some other mountain men? Now why isn't he gonna do that? You look around you, Lewis. He could be out there anywhere, watchin' us right now. We ain't gonna be so god-damned hard to follow draggin' a corpse.

Lewis: You let me worry about that, Drew. You let me take care of that. You know what's gonna be here? Right here? A lake - as far as you can see hundreds of feet deep. Hundreds of feet deep. Did you ever look out over a lake, think about something buried underneath it? Buried underneath it. Man, that's about as buried as you can get.

Drew: Well, I am tellin' you, Lewis, I don't want any part of it.

Lewis: Well, you are part of it!

Drew: IT IS A MATTER OF THE LAW!

Lewis: The law? Ha! The law?! What law?! Where's the law, Drew? Huh? You believe in democracy, don't ya?

Drew: Yes, I do.

Lewis: Well then, we'll take a vote. I'll stand by it and so will you.

Taglines

• This is the weekend they didn't play golf.

• What did happen on the Cahulawassee River?

• Four men ride a wild river. A weekend turns into a nightmare.

Cast

• Jon Voight - Ed Gentry
• Burt Reynolds - Lewis Medlock
• Ned Beatty - Bobby Trippe
• Ronny Cox - Drew Ballinger