Ed Gentry quotes from Deliverance (1972)

Ed Gentry

No matter what disasters may occur in other parts of the world, or what petty little problems arise..., no one can find us up here.

Lewis

Is your name Griner?

Whaddya wanna know for?

Lewis

I was wondering if you and your brother could take a couple of trucks down to Aintry for us. We'll be there about Sunday noon.

Take 'em down there for what?

Lewis

Me and my buddy here are taking a canoe trip down the Cahulawassee.

Canoe trip?

Lewis

That's right, a canoe trip.

What the hell you wanna go **** around with that river for?

Lewis

Because it's there.

It's there alright and you get in it and can't git out, you gonna wish it wasn't.

Ed

Maybe we should just go home and play golf this weekend.

Lewis

I'll give you thirty bucks to take those vehicles down to Aintry for us.

I'll take fifty.

Lewis

Fifty my ass.

Ed

Lewis, don't play games with these people.

What did you say?

Lewis

I said fifty my ass!

Ed

Lewis!

I'll do it fer forty.

Lewis

O.K. [to Ed] You good for ten?

Ed

Yep.

Lewis

Can that chubby boy handle himself?

Ed

Bobby? He's rather well thought of in his field, Lewis.

Lewis

Insurance? I never been insured in my life. There's no risk.

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.

Bobby

I had my first wet dream in a sleepin' bag.

Ed

How was it?

Bobby

Great. [pause] There's no repeatin' it.

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.

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 ****in' 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.

Ed

What are we gonna do, Lewis? You're the guy with the answers. What the hell do we do now?

Lewis

Now you get to play the game.

Ed

Lewis, you're wrong.

Bobby

What are you going to do with Drew?

Ed

If a bullet made this, there are people who can tell.

Bobby

Oh God, there's no end to it. I didn't really know him.

Ed

Drew was a good husband to his wife Linda and you were a wonderful father to your boys, Drew - Jimmie and Billie Ray. And if we come through this, I promise to do all I can for 'em. He was the best of us.

Bobby

Amen.

Ed

Everything happened right here. Lewis broke his leg in those rapids there, and Drew drowned here.

Bobby

No, nothin' happened here.

Ed

Bobby, listen to me. We got to stop them from lookin' up river. It's important that we get together on this thing. Do you understand?...We're not out of this yet.

How come you all end up with four life jackets?

Bobby

Didn't we have an extra one?

Ed

No, Drew wasn't wearin' his.

Well, how come he wasn't wearin' it?

Ed

I don't know.

Don't ever do nothin' like this again. Don't come back up here.

Bobby

You don't have to worry about that, Sheriff.

I'd kinda like to see this town die peaceful.

Ed

NO!!!

Martha

Ed, go back to sleep.