The Making of 'The River Wild'

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Roarke!

Roarke!

I'm tellin' you for the 157th time,

turn that damned music off!

It's singeing my hair!

You got to find your sneakers, buddy.

Your old ones!

Hey! See if you can

find Dad's sneakers!

Dad? Come on, Mom.

Why bother?

He's just gonna cancel.

- Dad always cancels.

- Somethin' came up those other times.

I have a stomachache

in my mouth.

- Oh, God.

- You do?

Here we go. She pretends she's sick

so we don't leave her.

Oh, stop.

It's just for a few days.

With those notorious psychos,

your grandparents!

Oh. Whoop, whoop, whoop.

I almost got you packed.

Hi. I just can't find...

your old sneakers.

Um, can I talk to you

for a second?

Oh, you're not gonna do this,

not three years in a row.

Roarke, you take your sister

in the other room.

- Come on, Willa.

- And shut the door.

- Don't make this harder than it is.

- What are we to you, Tom?

Are we just some gaggle of obligations

pulling on you, making you tired?

Gail, Selvaggio didn't like my drawings.

They just weren't good enough.

- They're giving the project to Parker.

- So let Parker do it.

Fine, so let Parker do it.

Maggie, get off the quilt.

Maggie!

Get off the quilt!

Maggie, get down.

Good girl.

Gail, how did this

become such a big deal?

Oh, it's not as big as

the Selvaggio deal, clearly.

But it is your son's

birthday again...

and he thinks you don't

want to spend time with him.

You understand that part?

I do not treat you

like a baby.

I treat you like a slob.

There's a difference. Oh!

- Hi, Mom.

- Ohh.

Oh, look at you.

It's so good to see you.

- Hey!

- It's good to see you too, Grandpa.

You have to sign, buddy.

Hey! Oh, boy.

Oh, yeah.

- You look good.

- Where's Tom?

- Well...

- He didn't want to come.

No, no. He's working.

He's really busy right now.

Mags!

Maggie!

I think my marriage is over, Mama.

Oh, Bean.

Damn.

Well, he, uh...

just can't seem to make

time for us anymore.

He's let himself get

so beaten up by his job.

He hates it, but he spends

every waking minute over there.

He hasn't been home

one weekend since Christmas.

I don't know what it is

that he's trying to prove...

but I'm really sick

of the whole thing.

I'm sick of the whole fight.

Everything has become

unbelievably hard.

Huh. Honey, forgive me,

but you don't know what hard is.

That's because

you give yourself an out.

In our generation,

we had no out.

That was the pact

of marriage.

Do you think

if I gave myself an out...

with your father, given his

orneriness and his deafness...

that I wouldn't

have taken it years ago?

Mom.

Here, let me take that one.

- Roarke.

- Yeah.

- Go buy me a map and get the tags.

- Okay.

The ranger said I had to get tags.

I thought this was all I needed.

This just confirms

your reservation.

There you go.

Here's your three tags.

If a ranger asks,

show them to him.

- Can I buy those two first-aid kits?

- Sure. Make it 50 bucks even.

Some of the Band-Aids are missing.

- Guy tore his ear up on a fishhook.

- Ouch.

Thank you very much.

Here.

And could I have a map?

I wish you were too, Pop.

Remember the trip down

the Snake River when I was twelve?

That was the greatest.

Thanks.

Whoa, there, partner.

Are you okay?

Yeah, I just got

to get new feet.

Until you do,

you better slow on down.

- You went to that concert?

- What?

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

- Great show.

- So you saw Jane's Addiction.

Wish I could've seen them

before they broke up.

- Uh-huh.

- So, you goin' down the river alone?

No. Me and a couple

of my buddies.

- Who are you goin' with?

- My mom.

Oh, yeah?

This is a pretty tough river.

She used to be a guide here.

She wants me to go down the river

before it gets polluted.

What about your daddy?

He had to stay home and

do one of his stupid drawings.

Too bad.

Is that your mom?

Yeah.

I'm Wade.

What's your name?

- Roarke.

- Good to meet you, Roarke.

Mom! Mom!

This is Wade.

- He's goin' down the river too.

- Hi, Wade. I'm Gail.

Great idea, showing Roarke the river

before they ruin it.

Wade!

- Come on! We gotta go!

- Be right there.

He tells me you used

to be a guide here.

Oh! About 150 years ago.

You must know the river

pretty well, then.

- Well, I used to.

- How far you going?

End of the line, Bridal Creek.

Oh, yeah? Us too.

- Oh, great.

- Come on, Wade! We're dyin' here!

I wish I were going with you guys.

Well.

Here you go, Roarke.

Keep the sun

out of your eyes.

Wow! No way!

- What do you say, Roarke?

- Oh, yeah. Thanks.

Well, uh, see you

on the river, I guess.

I don't know.

We're gonna be goin' fast.

- Let's go, Wade!

- I'm comin'. I'm comin'.

I said the right oar!

- Okay, the right one!

- Yeah! Take it!

Get off my damn foot!

It'll be a long haul

with him at the oars.

Guy in back

knows what he's doing.

Frank used to be

a guide on the Colorado.

- Push with both oars!

- It's Dad!

Daddy!

Is this where you sign up

for river rafting lessons?

I got a dry jacket

and a pair of reef walkers.

The guy at the camping store

said that's all I'll need.

What happened to Mr. Selvaggio?

I brought him with me.

Let's go boys.

One... two... three.

Let's do it!

Jump on!

- Bye-bye, Mommy!

- See you at Bridal Creek!

Whoa!

Whoa! That's it!

I love you too!

Roarke.

Roarke.

Roarke!

It's beautiful.

- Yeah.

- Really.

Okay, sweetie,

put your helmet on, please.

Mom.

You don't have to wear it all the time,

but we got some rapids comin' up here.

- Just give me a hand, damn it!

- It's coming up!

You all right?

If you're gonna sit there in the back...

you should sit on

the floor in the center.

- I can't see from there.

- Well, then, sit in front.

I like it here.

Okay.

Here we go!

Woo-hoo! Heh!

Wow, this is great!

Yes! Hold on, Maggie!

Look out for that rock!

Ohh!

Whoa!

That was great!

But where's Dad?

He's swimming.

- Point your feet down!

- Point your toes, Dad!

Could you just stop laughing

for a second and help me into the boat?

- Ohh!

- Oh!

Is this the biggest one, Mom?

The biggest one's

the Gauntlet.

That's a five-plus.

That's off the scale.

- When do we do that one?

- Well, we don't do that one.

That's after the take-out

at Bridal Creek.

- You can't go down there.

- Have you ever done it?

- Mom is saying it's too dangerous.

- For you, maybe.

Roarke. Honey,

I went down the Gauntlet...

when I was 18 years old

with two other guides...

experienced guides.

And we were just lucky.

But there were two other people

that summer who did not get so lucky.

One guy got killed,

and the other one is paralyzed for life.

Don't worry. We're gonna hit

some threes and some four-pluses...

and we will risk death

a number of times on this trip.

So you're gonna scream,

you're gonna be so happy.

- Hey, look, Mom, there's Wade!

- Hello, the shore!

- Hello, the boat!

- Is everybody okay?

- Yeah, I just got a cramp!

- We're trying to work it out.

Hey, who's your friend, Gail?

Oh, this is Tom,

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