Without a Paddle

2004 film by Steven Brill

Without a Paddle

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Steven Brill
Screenplay by|

* Jay Leggett
* Mitch Rouse

Story by|

* Harris Goldberg
* Tom Nursall
* Fred Wolf

Produced by| Donald De Line
Starring|

* Seth Green
* Matthew Lillard
* Dax Shepard
* Abraham Benrubi
* Ethan Suplee
* Burt Reynolds

Cinematography| Jonathan Brown
Edited by|

* Debra Neil-Fisher
* Peck Prior

Music by| Christophe Beck

Production
company

De Line Pictures

Distributed by| Paramount Pictures

Release date

* August 20, 2004 (2004-08-20)

Running time

| 99 minutes[1]
Country| United States
Language| English
Budget| $19 million[2]
Box office| $73 million[2]

Without a Paddle is a 2004 American adventure comedy film directed by Steven Brill, written by Jay Leggett and Mitch Rouse, and based on a story by Harris Goldberg, Tom Nursall, and Fred Wolf. The film stars Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, Dax Shepard, Ethan Suplee, Abraham Benrubi, Rachel Blanchard, Christina Moore, Bonnie Somerville, Ray Baker, and Burt Reynolds. It tells the story of three reunited childhood friends going on a trip up a remote river in order to search for the loot of long-lost airplane hijacker D. B. Cooper.

A direct-to-video sequel, entitled Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling, was released in January 2009.

## Plot

[edit]

12 years after graduating from high school, three friends, Jerry, Dan, and Tom, learn 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 worked on for his entire life. Dan takes annual leave from his job as a doctor and joins Jerry and Tom on a camping trip to find the treasure.

Canoeing down the river, they eventually stop on the riverbank for the night. They realize they forgot to bring food, so Tom catches fish with a flashlight. However, the activity attracts a grizzly bear, which chases them. When Dan falls, the bear treats him like a cub until he breaks free, following the others up a tree. In the morning, they find all their gear has been ripped up and destroyed by the bear.

The trio takes off into the river but cannot read the damaged map and avoid a pair of fishermen, causing them to miss a split in the river and travel the wrong way. They go over a waterfall and survive, although their canoe is destroyed. Venturing into the woods with a compass, they find themselves at a pot farm, where rednecks Dennis and Elwood mistake them for thieves and start shooting at them. They escape, accidentally triggering flares which burn down the pot garden. This enrages Dennis and Elwood, who decide to hunt them down and kill them.

Later, far into the forest, after being shot at by the farmers, the trio meet hippie girls Flower and Butterfly, who treat them in their tree. The farmers find them by answering their distress radio call, but the women drop paper bags full of feces on 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. He later reveals himself as Del Knox, Cooper's partner before his death.

The next morning, the farmers find them and shoot up the hut. The trio escapes while Del distracts the farmers by shooting at the two with his dual-wield revolvers. The trio stumbles upon the site of Cooper's crash landing, discovering his skeleton and the suitcase he used to hold the ransom money down an old mine shaft. They realize he burned his share of the money to keep warm and survive.

As Dan crawls through a small tunnel to find a way out, the farmers find Tom and Jerry, and a fistfight ensues. Eventually, Sheriff Briggs, who had earlier helped the trio, intervenes. He then reveals himself as the farmers' employer. Jerry arms a grenade taken from Dennis and throws it at the pot dealers. It explodes, causing a tree to fall on the farmers and the sheriff, who are soon arrested.

In the closing scenes, Del gives Tom, Jerry, and Dan what's left of D.B.'s non-burnt money ($100,000), but Jerry and Dan decide Tom needs it more than they do. Del begins his travels to give D.B. a proper funeral. Jerry proposes to his girlfriend Denise, Dan starts a relationship with Flower, and Tom becomes a camp counsellor for a children's summer camp, where he tells his troop an exaggerated version of the trip.

## Cast

[edit]

* Seth Green as Dan Mott
* Jarred Rumbold as young Dan
* Matthew Lillard as Jerry Conlaine
* Andrew Hampton as young Jerry
* Dax Shepard as Tom Marshall
* Matthew Price as young Tom
* Burt Reynolds as Del Knox
* Ethan Suplee as Elwood
* Abraham Benrubi as Dennis
* Rachel Blanchard as Flower
* Ray Baker as Hank Briggs
* Bonnie Somerville as Denise
* Christina Moore as Butterfly
* Antony Starr as Billy Newwood
* Carl Snell as young Billy
* Liddy Holloway as Bonnie Newwood
* Scott Adsit as Greasy man
* Danielle Cormack as Toni
* Bart the Bear 2 as Grizzly bear
* Frank Welker as Grizzly bear (vocal effects)

## Reception

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### Box office

[edit]

Without a Paddle ranked second in its opening weekend behind fellow newcomer Exorcist: The Beginning, earning $13,528,946. It ultimately grossed $58,169,327 in North America and $14,859,863 internationally, for a worldwide total of $73,029,190.[2]

### Critical response

[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 15% based on 124 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Without a Paddle has a few laughs, but not enough to sustain its running time."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 29 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[4] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[5]

Dennis Harvey of Variety called it "an unstable—if mostly painless—mix of low comedy, stabs at higher silliness, and schmaltz."[6]

Entertainment Weekly's Scott Brown was more positive and wrote: "There are some genuinely clever moments of physical comedy, and the inevitable crudeness is offset by winning whimsy. Without has all the freshness of moldering Playboys stashed under a mattress, but it evokes what few boys-will-be-boys larks can: chumminess."[7]

## Sequel

[edit]

A sequel to the film, titled Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling, was released direct-to-video on January 14, 2009. None of the cast and crew from the first film returned.

## See also

[edit]

* D. B. Cooper in popular culture

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Without A Paddle (12)". British Board of Film Classification. July 27, 2004. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
2. ^ a b c "Without A Paddle (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
3. ^ "Without A Paddle (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 11, 2025.
4. ^ "Without a Paddle". Metacritic. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
5. ^ "Without a Paddle (2004) B+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
6. ^ Harvey, Dennis (August 15, 2004). "Without a Paddle". Variety.
7. ^ Brown, Scott (August 25, 2004). "Without a Paddle". Entertainment Weekly.

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Without a Paddle.

* Without a Paddle at IMDb
* Without a Paddle at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Films by Steven Brill

Films directed|

* Heavyweights (1995, also wrote)
* Late Last Night (1999, also wrote)
* Little Nicky (2000, also wrote)
* Mr. Deeds (2002)
* Without a Paddle (2004)
* Drillbit Taylor (2008)
* Movie 43 (2013)
* Walk of Shame (2014, also wrote)
* The Do-Over (2016)
* Sandy Wexler (2017)
* Hubie Halloween (2020)

Films written only|

* The Mighty Ducks (1992)
* D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
* D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996)
* Ready to Rumble (2000)

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