Deliverance is a 1972 movie set in the Appalachian trails starring Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. In that movie, Reynolds plays Lewis Medlock, a fan of the outdoors who goes on a canoe trip on the Cahulawassee River with his buddies. As it turns out, their camping trip goes awry. This movie, directed by John Boorman, is a classic because it crudely depicts how nasty the wilderness can become.
With ghastly tones of horror and very good cinematographers and performers, Boorman and his crew put together a story that will put you on the edge of your seat, and if you haven’t seen it, then the phrase “squeal like a pig” might not give your the chills. And if you have, you know exactly where we’re coming from. So, without any further ado, let’s take about the Deliverance ending explained.
Deliverance Plot Explained
Lewis Medlock, Bobby Trippe, Ed Gentry, and Drew Ballinger, four businessmen from Atlanta, decide to canoe down a river in the wilds of northern Georgia before it is dammed. Lewis, a seasoned outdoorsman, leads the group; Ed, a close friend, has been on several outings but lacks Lewis’ machismo; Bobby and Drew are newbies. The men are rude to the locals as they travel to their launch site (Bobby in particular), who are unimpressed by the “city boys.” At a nearby gas station, Drew challenges a young boy playing the banjo to a musical duel with his guitar (“Dueling Banjos”). Both parties enjoy the duel, and some locals start dancing when it starts. When Drew asks the boy for a handshake of congratulations, he ignores him.
Squeal Like A Pig
The two canoes of the four friends are split up as they paddle in pairs. After landing, Ed and Bobby come across two mountain men coming out of the woods, one carrying a shotgun and missing two front teeth. After a verbal argument, the men make Bobby take off his clothes. While Ed is tied up to a tree and being threatened with a gun, the unarmed man sodomizes Bobby and commands him to “squeal like a pig.” Ed is about to be sexually assaulted when Lewis approaches and kills the rapist with his bow and arrow. Ed takes the gun back, and the remaining mountain man runs into the woods. After a quick but heated argument between Lewis and Drew, Ed and Bobby decide to support Lewis’s proposal to bury the body and carry on as normal. The four paddlers reach a treacherous section of rapids as they continue downstream. In the lead canoe, Drew and Ed arrive at the rapids. Suddenly, Drew shakes his head and plunges headfirst into the water.
Canoe Ride
The three remaining men are thrown into the river when the canoes collide with the rocks. One of the canoes has been broken. The others wash up next to Lewis in a gorge as Lewis breaks his femur. Ed is urged by Lewis, who thinks Drew has been shot, to ascend to the top of the gorge and kill the other mountain man who they believe is following them from above. A man with a rifle appears above Ed as he hides out until morning. Ed shoots the man awkwardly and kills him, but as he falls backward, he stabs himself with one of his own arrows. Although the dead man appears to have all of his teeth, closer examination reveals that he is actually wearing dentures. When they come across Drew’s body downriver, they do the same thing that Ed and Bobby did to the body in the river to make sure it will never be discovered.
Deliverance Trailer
Deliverance Ending Explained
Drew, portrayed by Ronny Cox, is the final character to perish during the canoe trip. According to Lewis, drew was allegedly shot out of the canoe, played by Burt Reynolds. But when Ed (Jon Voight) discovers his body further down the river, it is obvious that he committed suicide by drowning because it has no deep wounds.
Lewis exits the canoe awkwardly, breaking his leg severely. While firing another arrow at a hillbilly, Ed was wounded when an arrow went through his rib. Bobby (Ned Beatty) emerges unscathed in the meantime. Lewis remains at the hospital while Bobby and Ed part ways and return to their families. Ed awakens from a nightmare in which he sees a hand emerging from the lake in the final scene. He is quieted by his wife, who tells him to calm down and go back to sleep.
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