Without a Paddle

<h2 id="plot">Plot</h2>
<p>Twelve years after graduating from high school, three friends, Jerry, Dan, and Tom, learn that their childhood friend Billy has died in a <a href="/facts/Parasailing/JAorY4dP">parasailing</a> accident. After the funeral, they revisit the group's old tree house and find a map leading to <a href="/facts/D._B._Cooper/PJLwmkbL">D. B. Cooper</a>'s lost treasure, which Billy had apparently been working on for his entire life. Dan takes annual leave from his job as a <a href="/facts/General_practitioner/nTnFHcBA">doctor</a> and joins Jerry and Tom on a camping trip to find the treasure.
</p><p>Canoeing down the river, they eventually stop on the riverbank for the night. They realize that they forgot to bring food, so Tom goes out to catch fish with a flashlight. However, the activity attracts a <a href="/facts/Grizzly_bear/DWMlTWI0">grizzly bear</a>, which chases them. When Dan falls, the bear seemingly treats him like a cub until he breaks free, following the others up a tree. In the morning, they find all of their gear has been ripped up and completely destroyed by the bear.
</p><p>The trio take off into the river but are unable to read the damaged map as well as avoiding a pair of fisherman, 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 <a href="/facts/Cannabis_cultivation/ljFJopoa">pot farm</a>, where <a href="/facts/Redneck/F1R3sWhh">rednecks</a> 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.
</p><p>Later, far into the forest, after being shot at by the farmers, the trio meet <a href="/facts/Hippie/3ScjoQ4G">hippie</a> 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 escape. 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 to be Del Knox, Cooper's partner before his death.
</p><p>The next morning the farmers find them, and shoot-up the hut. The trio escape 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 in an attempt to keep warm and survive.
</p><p>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 to be 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.
</p><p>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.
</p>
<h2 id="cast">Cast</h2>

<ul><li><a href="/facts/Seth_Green/bI2E37e2">Seth Green</a> as Dan Mott
<ul><li>Jarred Rumbold as young Dan</li></ul></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Matthew_Lillard/cr9UPUuE">Matthew Lillard</a> as Jerry Conlaine
<ul><li>Andrew Hampton as young Jerry</li></ul></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Dax_Shepard/3CN2UhCW">Dax Shepard</a> as Tom Marshall
<ul><li>Matthew Price as young Tom</li></ul></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Burt_Reynolds/8exc2rdL">Burt Reynolds</a> as Del Knox</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Ethan_Suplee/1U50EcCr">Ethan Suplee</a> as Elwood</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Abraham_Benrubi/41IvQd19">Abraham Benrubi</a> as Dennis</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Rachel_Blanchard/Eu9HTdLJ">Rachel Blanchard</a> as Flower</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Ray_Baker_(actor)/wTokIwmW">Ray Baker</a> as Hank Briggs</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Bonnie_Somerville/NBeVHR08">Bonnie Somerville</a> as Denise</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Christina_Moore/8vPRUV4n">Christina Moore</a> as Butterfly</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Antony_Starr/x043u01a">Antony Starr</a> as Billy Newwood
<ul><li>Carl Snell as young Billy</li></ul></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Liddy_Holloway/qYpeoBtp">Liddy Holloway</a> as Bonnie Newwood</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Scott_Adsit/oPMyCyIm">Scott Adsit</a> as Greasy man</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Danielle_Cormack/pvfPxVBo">Danielle Cormack</a> as Toni</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Bart_the_Bear_2/0GLR5Xlk">Bart the Bear 2</a> as Grizzly bear</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Frank_Welker/Ia8tRRo2">Frank Welker</a> as Grizzly bear (vocal effects)</li></ul>

<h2 id="reception">Reception</h2>
<h3>Box office</h3>
<p><i>Without a Paddle</i> ranked second in its opening weekend behind fellow newcomer <i><a href="/facts/Exorcist:_The_Beginning/PozFJW1h">Exorcist: The Beginning</a></i>, 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.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a>
</p>
<h3>Critical response</h3>
<p>On <a href="/facts/Rotten_Tomatoes/rLs7ktSY">Rotten Tomatoes</a>, 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: "<i>Without a Paddle</i> has a few laughs, but not enough to sustain its running time."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> On <a href="/facts/Metacritic/Wve8EJFd">Metacritic</a>, the film has a weighted average score of 29 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> Audiences surveyed by <a href="/facts/CinemaScore/s1IQX2qM">CinemaScore</a> gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a>
</p><p>Dennis Harvey of <i><a href="/facts/Variety_(magazine)/38rXIaaG">Variety</a></i> called it "an unstable—if mostly painless—mix of low comedy, stabs at higher silliness, and schmaltz."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a>
</p><p><i><a href="/facts/Entertainment_Weekly/BhADudJx">Entertainment Weekly</a></i>'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."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a>
</p>
<h2 id="sequel">Sequel</h2>
<p>A sequel to the film, titled <i><a href="/facts/Without_a_Paddle:_Nature%27s_Calling/2x0znLvy">Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling</a></i>, was released direct-to-video on January 14, 2009. None of the cast and crew from the first film returned.
</p>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/D._B._Cooper_in_popular_culture/PSp3nUr3">D. B. Cooper in popular culture</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>

Wikiquote has quotations related to <i>Without a Paddle</i>.

<ul><li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364751/"><i>Without a Paddle</i></a> at <a href="/facts/IMDb_(identifier)/uWrqVYVy">IMDb</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/without_a_paddle"><i>Without a Paddle</i></a> at <a href="/facts/Rotten_Tomatoes/rLs7ktSY">Rotten Tomatoes</a> </li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"Without A Paddle (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 1, 2009. <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=withoutapaddle.htm" target="_blank">http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=withoutapaddle.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"Without A Paddle (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 11, 2025. <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/without_a_paddle/" target="_blank">http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/without_a_paddle/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>"Without a Paddle". Metacritic. Retrieved February 1, 2020. <a href="https://www.metacritic.com/movie/without-a-paddle" target="_blank">https://www.metacritic.com/movie/without-a-paddle</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"Without a Paddle (2004) B+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20181220122629/https://www.cinemascore.com/publicsearch/index/title/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:5"><p>Harvey, Dennis (August 15, 2004). "Without a Paddle". Variety. <a href="https://variety.com/review/VE1117924609" target="_blank">https://variety.com/review/VE1117924609</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:6"><p>Brown, Scott (August 25, 2004). "Without a Paddle". Entertainment Weekly. <a href="https://ew.com/article/2004/08/25/without-paddle/" target="_blank">https://ew.com/article/2004/08/25/without-paddle/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Without a Paddle open-in-new

Without a Paddle