Stars: Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, Joseph Mazzello, John C. Reilly

Director: Curtis Hanson

Summary: A former white water rafting guide takes her troubled son on a rafting trip with her workaholic husband. Their journey turns treacherous when they are joined by mysterious strangers.

Gail (Meryl Streep), a former river guide, plans a white-water rafting trip to celebrate her son Roarke's (Joseph Mazzello) birthday and patch up her troubled marriage to her workaholic husband Tom (David Strathairn). As the family begins their river adventure, they meet Wade (Kevin Bacon), a novice rafter with a magnetic personality. When the family finds Wade and his friend Terry (John C. Reilly) stranded and abandoned by their guide, Gail and Tom decide to help them navigate the rapids. However, family fun turns to terror when Wade and Terry show their true colors--they're really criminals trying to evade the police following a major heist. To make matters worse, their escape route requires that they run the Gauntlet, deadly rapids where three rivers converge in violently tumultuous waters. This taut thriller from director Curtis Hanson (BAD INFLUENCE, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL) features Streep in her first role as an action-adventure heroine, while Bacon is truly menacing as the psychotic Wade, a desperate criminal in over his head.

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Meryl Streep tried her hand at action films with this Curtis Hanson film and proved herself quite credible, bringing emotion as well as the willingness to kick butt. She plays a suburban mum and former white-water rafting guide who is taking her family on a raft trip for summer vacation. But overworked Dad (David Strathairn) can't make the trip so she and her son leave without him--and walk right into trouble. Killers on the run (Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly) abduct them and force Streep to take them down the most dangerous stretch of river to elude the cops. Hanson understands how to pace and construct this kind of action fodder but it's strictly formula stuff, enlivened only by the depth of Streep's portrayal and the viciousness of Bacon's character. --Marshall Fine

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Production Notes, Filmographies
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish
Year:	1994
Release Date:	May 31, 2002
Runtime:	106 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	903 041 9
Keywords:	Action, River, Wild, Back, General, Wide, Screen, Held, Adventure
Genre:	Action/Adventure