DELIVERANCE

Four Atlanta businessmen decide to go whitewater canoeing down the Cahulawassee River in the remote northern Georgia wilderness before it becomes dammed. Lewis Medlock is an avid outdoorsman and survivalist who leads the group, and Ed Gentry has been on several trips, but lacks Lewis's self-confidence, while Bobby Trippe and Drew Ballinger are novices.

In route to their launch site, the men, in particular Bobby, are rude toward the locals, who are in turn become hostile to the "city boys". At a local gas station, Drew engages a young banjo-playing boy in a musical duel with his guitar. The duel is mutually enjoyable, and some of the locals break into dance at the sound of it. However, the boy does not acknowledge Drew when offered a friendly handshake.

The four friends travel down the river in two canoes, which briefly become separated. Ed and Bobby encounter a pair of mountain men emerging from the woods, one carrying a shotgun and missing his two front teeth. Following a disagreement, the men force Bobby to undress and the unarmed man rapes him, demanding that he "squeal like a pig".

Ed tries to help, despite being tied to a tree, and held at gunpoint. After raping Bobby, one of the mountain men begin to threaten Ed claiming "he had a purty mouth". Before the mountain man can force himself on Ed, Lewis sneaks up and kills the rapist with his bow and arrow while Ed snatches the shotgun from the other mountain man, who flees into the woods. After a heated debate between Lewis and Drew, Ed and Bobby side with Lewis' plan to bury the body and continue on as if nothing had happened. The four continue downriver, but the canoes reach a dangerous stretch of rapids. As Drew and Ed reach the rapids in the lead canoe, Drew falls into the water without his life jacket.

The canoes collide on the rocks, throwing the three remaining men into the river and smashing one of the canoes. Lewis breaks his thigh bone and the other two are washed ashore alongside him in a gorge. Lewis, who believes Drew fell out of the boat because he was shot, encourages Ed to climb to the top of the gorge and ambush the other mountain man, who they believe is stalking them from above. Ed reaches an overhang and hides out until morning, when a man appears above him and aims a rifle at him; a panicked Ed takes his bow and arrow and clumsily shoots and manages to kill the man, but falls backwards onto one of his own arrows. He inspects the body and confirms it is the toothless man from before, but he is now wearing dentures. Ed and Bobby weigh down the body in the river to ensure it will never be found once the river is dammed, then do the same to Drew's broken body when they encounter it downriver. The three men carefully fabricate a cover story for local authorities to explain Drew's death.

Finally reaching the small town of Aintry, a critically injured Lewis is taken by ambulance to the hospital. Ed and Bobby lie about their adventure to Sheriff Bullard in order to escape a possible triple murder charge. Their cover up is almost blown when Ed thinks he has overheard Bobby secretly telling the sheriff the truth, but Bobby convinces him otherwise. Ed and Bobby visit Lewis in the hospital, where the doctor is contemplating amputating his broken leg. While being closely observed by a police officer, a worried Ed whispers to Lewis that they need to change their cover story. A coy Lewis relaxes him by pretending that the head trauma has wiped his memory clear of everything after the canoe collision. Sheriff Bullard does not believe the men and reveals that Deputy Queen is suspicious of them because his brother-in-law went hunting a few days earlier and has not yet returned. However, he has no evidence to hold them, so he tells them to leave, warning them never to return.

The three men part, vowing to keep their story of death and survival a secret for the rest of their lives.

Ed reunites with his wife and son, but remains traumatized, having a nightmare about a bloated hand rising from the lake.

After enduring violence and tragedy, the survivors fabricate a cover story and return to civilization, haunted by their experiences and lies.

The film’s ending underscores the irreversible trauma inflicted by the wilderness and its human threats, leaving survivors grappling with guilt and the burden of secrecy. Their return to urban life is shadowed by the psychological cost of survival, questioning both their morals and the thin line separating civilization from chaos.