Without a Paddle

Plot

Twelve years after graduating from high school, three friends, Jerry, Dan, and Tom, find out that their childhood friend Billy has died in a parasailing accident. After the funeral, they revisit the group's old tree-house and find a map leading to D. B. Cooper's lost treasure, which Billy had apparently been working on for his entire life. Dan takes a break from his job as a doctor and joins Jerry and Tom on a camping trip to find the treasure.

They take a canoe down the river and eventually stop on the riverside for the night. They discover that they forgot to bring food, so Tom goes out to catch some fish. However, the activity attracts a grizzly bear to their position, and the bear chases the group into a tree. In the morning, the group find all of their gear has been ripped up and completely destroyed by the bear.

The trio takes off into the river but are unable to read the map, causing them to go the wrong way. They fall off of a waterfall, and while they survive, their canoe is destroyed. They venture into the woods with a compass and find themselves at a pot farm where two farmers, Dennis and Elwood, mistake them for thieves and start shooting at them. They escape, burning the pot garden down in the process. This enrages the farmers, who decide to hunt them down and kill them.

Later, far into the forest the trio meets two hippie girls, Flower and Butterfly, who treat them in their tree. Using a radio the farmers find them, but the hippie girls drop paper bags full of feces at the farmers to distract them while the trio escapes. They are saved from the thunderstorm by a mountain man who takes them to his hut and provides them with clothes. The mountain man later reveals himself to be Del Knox, Cooper's partner before his death.

The next morning, the farmers find them and assault the house. The trio escapes while Del shoots at the two farmers with his revolver. The trio stumbles upon the site of Cooper's crash-landing where they discover Cooper's corpse and the suitcase that he used to hold the ransom money, and they realize that Cooper burned the money in an attempt to survive. As Dan crawls through a small tunnel to find a way out, the farmers find Jerry and Tom, and a fistfight ensues. Eventually, Sheriff Briggs, who had earlier helped the trio, intervenes. He then reveals himself to be the farmers' employer. Jerry arms a grenade taken from Dennis and throws it towards the pot dealers. It explodes, causing a tree to fall on the farmers and the sheriff, who are soon arrested.

In the closing scenes, Jerry, Dan, and Tom split half of the remaining money with Del who gives D.B.'s remains a proper funeral. Jerry proposes to his girlfriend Denise, Dan starts a relationship with Flower, and Tom becomes a camp counselor for a children's summer camp where he ends up telling his troop all about the trip.

Production

Although the film details an ill-prepared camping and canoe trip into the Oregon wild, Without a Paddle was filmed in New Zealand to take advantage of tax rebates.

Reception

Without a Paddle received negative reviews from critics. Based on 125 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 14% of 125 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's consensus states: "Without a Paddle has a few laughs, but not enough to sustain its running time."

Despite the film's negative reviews, it was a commercial success, grossing $58,169,327 in North America and $11,461,791 internationally, totaling $69,631,118 worldwide.