The first explorers saw this country, saw it just like us.
I can imagine how they felt.
You don't beat it. You never beat the river chubby.
Bobby Trippe
Ned Beatty · 15 quotes
Lewis Medlock
Burt Reynolds · 15 quotes
Ed Gentry
Jon Voight · 13 quotes
Drew Ballinger
Ronny Cox · 4 quotes
Mountain Man
Bill McKinney · 4 quotes
Toothless Man
Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward · 3 quotes
Most scenes together: Ed Gentry & Lewis Medlock (5), Ed Gentry & Bobby Trippe (5), Lewis Medlock & Bobby Trippe (4)
Deliverance quotes
Page 2 of 3What are we gonna do with him?
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.
Tell 'em what exactly?
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.
Is he alive?
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?
Look, I-I was on jury duty once. It wasn't a murder trial.
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.
So what?
We killed a man, Drew. Shot him in the back - a mountain man, a cracker. It gives us somethin' to consider.
All right, consider it, we're listenin'.
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?
I don't know. I really don't know.
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!
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.
How do you know that other guy hasn't already gone for the police?
And what in the hell is he gonna tell 'em, Drew, what he did to Bobby?
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.
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.
Well, I am tellin' you, Lewis, I don't want any part of it.
Well, you are part of it!
IT IS A MATTER OF THE LAW!
The law? Ha! The law?! What law?! Where's the law, Drew? Huh? You believe in democracy, don't ya?
Yes, I do.
Well then, we'll take a vote. I'll stand by it and so will you.
Now, let's you just drop them pants.
Drop?
Just take 'em right off.
I-I mean, what's this all about?
Don't say anything, just do it.
Just drop 'em, boy. [To Ed - at knifepoint] You ever had your balls cut off, you ****in' ape? Looky there, that's sharp. Bet it would shave a hair.
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?
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.
Weee!
Weeeeeeee!
Weee!
What do you want to do now?
Ain't that the truth.
What the hell you think you're doin'?
Headin' down river. A little canoe trip, headin' for Aintry.
Aintry?
Sure, this river only runs one way, captain, haven't you heard?
You ain't never gonna get down to Ain-.
Well, why not?
'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.
Where does it go, then?
Boy, you are a lost one, ain't ya?
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.
If you gentlemen have a still near here, hell, that's fine with us.
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.
A still?
Right, yeah. You're makin' some whiskey up here. We'll buy some from ya, we could use it, couldn't we?
Do you know what you're talkin' about?
We don't know what we're talkin' about, honestly we don't.
No, no. You said somethin' about makin' whiskey, right? Isn't that what you said?
We don't know what you're doin' and we don't care. That's none of our business.
That's right. It's none of your god-damned business, right.
We got quite a long journey ahead of us, gentlemen.
Hold it. You ain't goin' no damn wheres.
This is ridiculous.
Hold it, or I'll blow your guts out all over these woods.
Gentlemen, we can talk this thing over. What is it you require of us?
What we, uh, "re-quire" is that you get your god-damn asses up in them woods.
Sheriff
How come you all end up with four life jackets?
Didn't we have an extra one?
No, Drew wasn't wearin' his.
Sheriff
Well, how come he wasn't wearin' it?
I don't know.
Sheriff
Don't ever do nothin' like this again. Don't come back up here.
You don't have to worry about that, Sheriff.
Sheriff
I'd kinda like to see this town die peaceful.
Griner
Where you goin' city boy?
We'll find it. We'll find it.
Griner
It ain't nothin' but the biggest ****in' river in the state.
[after their first successful trip through rapids]
That's the best - the second best sensation I ever felt.
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' the river...Just about the last wild, untamed, unpolluted, un**** up river in the South. Don't you understand what I'm sayin'?...They're gonna stop the river up. There ain't gonna be no more river. There's just gonna be a big, dead lake...You just push a little more power into Atlanta, a little more air-conditioners for your smug little suburb, and you know what's gonna happen? We're gonna rape this whole god-damned landscape. We're gonna rape it.
Goddamn, you play a mean banjo.
He was the tightest and damndest pig I ever did screw.
I got eaten alive last night. My bites have got bites...I'm a salesman, Ed.
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.
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.
Night has fallen. And there's nothin' we can do about it.