Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

Lewis: Sometimes you have to lose yourself 'fore you can find anything.
Mountain Man: What do you want to do now?
Toothless Man: [grinning] He got a real pretty mouth ain't he?
Mountain Man: That's the truth
Toothless Man: [to Ed] You gonna do some prayin' for me, boy. And you better pray good.
Doctor: Explain this to me again. I didn't know somebody could shoot themself with their own arrow.
Mountain Man: I bet you can squeal like a pig. Weeeeeeee!
Bobby: Weee!
Mountain Man: Weeeeeeee!
Bobby: Weee!
Lewis: Do know what's gonna be here? Right here? A lake. As far as the eyes can see. Hundreds of feet deep. HUNDREDS of feet deep. Did you ever look out over a lake and think of somethin' buried underneath it? Buried underneath it. Well man, that's just about as buried as you can get.
Sherrif Bullard: Don't ever do nothin' like this again. Don't come back up here.
Bobby: You don't have to worry about that, Sheriff.
Bobby: I had my first wet dream in a sleepin' bag.
Ed: How was it?
Bobby: Great.
[pause]
Bobby: There's no repeatin' it.
Ed: Look, what is it that you require of us?
Mountain Man: What we, uh, "re-quire" is that you get your god-damn asses up in them woods.
[Lewis and Ed take a wrong turn looking for the river]
First Griner: Where you goin' city boy?
Lewis: We'll find it. We'll find it.
Second Griner: It ain't nothin' but the biggest fuckin' river in the state.
Mountain Man: You ever had your balls cut off you fucking ape?
[preparing to bury Drew in the river]
Ed: Drew was a... a good husband to his wife Linda, and... you were a wonderful father to your boys, Drew... Jimmy and Billy Ray. And if we come through this, I promise to do all I can for 'em.
[pause]
Ed: He was the best of us.
Lewis: Your name Griner?
First Griner: What you wanna know for?
Lewis: Can you and your brother drive two cars down to Aintry for us?
First Griner: Drive 'em down there for what?
Lewis: Me and my buddy here are taking a canoe trip down the Cahulawassee. We'd like our cars to be down in Aintry when we get there. Be there about Sunday noon.
First Griner: [sarcastically] Canoe trip?
Lewis: That's right, a canoe trip.
First Griner: What the hell you wanna go fuck around with that river for?
Lewis: Because it's there.
First Griner: It's there all right. You get in there and can't get out, you gonna wish it wasn't.
Ed: [to Lewis, whispering] Look, Lewis, let's go back to town and, ah... play golf.
Lewis: [ignoring Ed] I'll give you thirty dollars to take those cars down to Aintry.
First Griner: I'll take fifty.
Lewis: Fifty, my ass.
Ed: Lewis, don't play games with these people!
First Griner: Whud you say?
Lewis: I said "fifty, my ass."
Ed: [whispering urgently] Lewis!
First Griner: I'll do it for forty.
Lewis: Mm-hmm...
[to Ed]
Lewis: You good for ten?
Ed: Sure.
Sherrif Bullard: [Ominously to Ed] Let's just wait and see what comes out of the river.
Bobby: There's no end to it.
[Ed just killed a man believed to be the second rapist]
Bobby: That's him? I mean... he wasn't just some guy out hunting, was it?
Ed: [shouts] You tell me!
Lewis: This is the one! There she is.
[Lewis pushes aside tree branches and we see the river for the first time]
Ed: Looks good. Looks good.
Lewis: [mournfully] Couple more months, and she'll all be gone.
Bobby: [offscreen] Ed! Lewis!
Ed: Even up as far as here?
Lewis: From Aintry on up. One big, dead lake.
Lewis: [to Bobby, angrily] OVER HERE!
Taxi Driver: Right there's the town hall. Right over there's the old fire station. Played a lot of checkers over there, sure did. All this land's gonna be covered with water - best thing ever happened to this town.
[a truck in front of the cab is carrying a small church building on a flatbed trailer]
Taxi Driver: We might have to wait a minute for the church to get out the way.
Ed: Night has fallen. And there's nothin' we can do about it.
Bobby: We beat it, didn't we? Didn't we beat that?
Lewis: You don't beat it. You don't beat this river...
[last lines]
Ed: [waking from a nightmare] No!
Martha: Ed? What's the matter?... It's all right... it's all right... shhh... go to sleep... go to sleep...
Ed: No matter what disasters may occur in other parts of the world... or whatever petty little problems arise in Atlanta... no one can find us up here. Good night, Lewis.
[first lines]
Lewis: You w- you wanna... you wanna talk about the vanishing wilderness?
Bobby: Lewis, listen - what are you so anxious about this?
Lewis: Because they're buildin' a dam across the Cahulawassee River; they're gonna flood a whole valley, Bobby, that's why. Dammit, they're drownin' a river; they're drownin' a river, man.
Bobby: [about Drew] I really didn't know him.
Lewis: Why do you go on these trips with me, Ed?
Ed: [somewhat defensively] 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.
Ed: [Lewis accurately shoots a fish in the river with an arrow; Ed raises his beer can in salute] Here's to you, Lewis.
Lewis: Now you listen, Ed. Damn it, we can get out of this thing, without any questions asked. We get connected up with that body, and the law, this thing's gonna be hangin' over us the rest of our lives. We've gotta get rid of that guy.
Drew: Just how're you gonna do that, Lewis? Where?
Lewis: Anywhere. Everywhere. Nowhere.
Drew: I'm a-goin' with you, Ed, and not with Mister Lewis Medlock, 'cause I done seen how he drives these country roads he don't know nothin' 'bout.
Mountain Man: Now let's you just drop them pants.
Lewis: Can that chubby boy handle himself?
Ed: Bobby? He's rather well thought of in his field, Lewis.
Lewis: Insurance? Shit. I never been insured in my life. I don't believe in insurance. There's no risk.
Lewis: [Ed and Lewis are driving to find the river and come to a dead end] Well, we fucked up.
Mountain Man: Looks like we got us a sow here instead of a boar.
Lewis: Anybody know anything about the law?
Drew: I was on a jury once.
Bobby: Which way we goin', this way or that way?
Lewis: I think downstream would be a good idea.
Drew: Goddamn, you play a mean banjo.
[Lewis and Drew are arguing about whether to bury the dead mountain man]
Drew: It is a matter of the law!
Lewis: The law! Ha! The law! What law? WHERE'S THE LAW, DREW? HUH?
[sarcastically]
Lewis: You believe in democracy, don't you?
Drew: Yes, I do.
Lewis: Well, then we'll take a vote. And I'll stand by it. And SO WILL YOU.
[points menacingly at Drew]
Lewis: We killed a man, Drew. Shot him in the back. A mountain man. A cracker.
Bobby: Mister, I love the way you wear that hat.
Old man: [after taking off his hat and examining it] You don't know nothin'.
Bobby: Hey, what happens if we flip this thing over?
Lewis: Now that you brought that up, hang onto your paddle. And if you hit any rocks, don't hit 'em with your head.
Bobby: [indicating a junk car by a rural gas station] That's my '51 Dodge. No, that's my car! That's my car! Whooee! All my youth and passion... spent in that back seat. It's all gone, you see? It's all gone - rust and dust.
Bobby: Lewis, is this how you get your rocks off?
Bobby: Talk about genetic deficiencies-isn't that pitiful?
Mountain Man: [to Bobby] Them panties. Take 'em off.