In THE RIVER WILD, 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.