Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001) - full transcript

A humorous and relatable story of an intelligent man dealing with the frustration of being a "buckless yooper" at deer camp. He deals with his competitive brother, his challenging father and two other comical guys. Men will easily relate to the angst. Women will have fun as long as they're willing to avoid trying to find a deep plot line the first time they watch.

(peaceful, winding music)

- Hello, my name is Albert Soady,

and have I got a buck story for you.

The tale I'm about to tell

starts in November of '89

in the Soady deer camp, located just north

of Escanaba, Michigan, otherwise known

as the heart and soul

of the Upper Peninsula.

That's north of the Mackinac Bridge

and just south of heaven, for those of you

who don't know nothing.

For those that don't know

much about the Superior State,

there's a couple things

that need to be explained.

First thing is, in the U.P.,

we don't explain things.

Second thing is, we got some of the best

hunting and fishing in the whole world.

Bear as tall as Norway pines.

We got wolf, moose, beaver, wild turkey,

quail, rabbit, fox, and,

of course, the bucks.

Holy Wah, do we got bucks, big as Buicks!

You can slice the venison off

one Superior State buck and feed

the whole state of Wisconsin.

But there's another U.P.,

the one that ain't in the travel books,

the one that's older than

the very rocks it sits on,

the one only the Indians understand.

Don't get me started on them.

My oldest boy married one.

Strange gal, to say the least.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

As Great-Grandpa Alphonse

always used to say,

when you don't know where to start,

go back to the beginning.

From the loins of our union,

Big Betty Belou and me

bore two boys, Reuben and Remnar.

Now, I'll tell ya right up front,

they are not the sharpest

tools in the shed.

Remnar turned out to be pretty much

what you'd expect from somebody

who went by the name of Remnar.

But Reuben, well, Reuben

was a different story.

Reuben spent his whole

life without hanging

a single buck on the buck pole.

That ain't a big to-do

if you're just another

fudge-sucker bobbing over

the bridge, but for a Soady?

Luckily that Injun gal had a way with him.

- Wolf Moon Dance, will you still love me

if I come back without a buck?

- [Albert Voiceover] Now, some things fit

together better than others,

and it's hard to say how somebody

who was so much a part of

the natural order of things

would fall in love with

somebody who wasn't so natural.

But she did.

(gun clicks)

And, lucky for him, 'cause

as Great-Grandpa Alphonse

always said, behind every good

man is a woman who can hunt.

(soft Native American music)

- Forgot your lucky hat.

- Can't go without this.

- Boys, wave bye to Daddy, then I want

you to run inside, okay?

Go ahead.

- Go get a deer, Dad.

- Bye, boys.

What?

- Why does he never

invite me up to deer camp?

- It's deer camp.

- So?

- So, it's deer camp.

- Just thought maybe

if we hunted together.

- If we hunted together, I'd be known

as the buckless Yooper

whose wife shot him a buck.

Look, I know what you're doing,

and I love you for it, I really do,

but I gotta do this on my own.

(Reuben gasps)

(Wolf Moon Dance speaking

foreign language)

- Reuben, first, you must believe.

- [Albert] Despite his little problem,

Reuben hadn't missed an

opening day in over 30 years.

- Best bait pile?

Not corn, not carrots.

Spoiled Brussels sprouts.

See, deer aren't just colorblind.

They're all-blind.

And since they can't see,

they gotta rely on the olfactory.

Give 'em a little whiff

of the spoiled sprouts.

Holy Wah, there he goes.

(soft, twangy music)

♪ Thought I knew a cold ♪

♪ People I really thought I knew ♪

♪ But there is such a freeze on me ♪

♪ I'm fixing to turn blue ♪

♪ Want you hand me down

my old winter coat ♪

♪ No fire will warm me ♪

(singing drowned out by squealing tires)

♪ Freeze ♪

(soft, twangy music)

- Hey, look, it's Buckless Yooper!

(kids shout)

Hey, Buckless Yooper, Buckless Yooper!

Hey, Buckless Yooper,

Buckless Yooper, hey!

(tires screech)

(kids laugh)

(soft, twangy music)

♪ Now it doesn't seem that long ago ♪

♪ I was sitting on Daddy's knee ♪

♪ Listening to the tales

that he would tell ♪

♪ Some taller than the big pine trees ♪

♪ He taught me about tradition ♪

♪ Doing proud of the family name ♪

♪ Hard as I might try mine

always seems the way of shame ♪

♪ And I'm feeling so downhearted ♪

♪ And I think I must just cry ♪

♪ I'm afraid that if I do ♪

♪ These tears are gonna freeze in my eye ♪

♪ That might be okay ♪

♪ 'Cause then I couldn't see ♪

♪ All the things that keep going wrong ♪

♪ The way they all look at me ♪

♪ Back there wishing I would go ♪

♪ Over that big old bridge and leave ♪

♪ Lord have mercy, get me through ♪

♪ This hard luck freeze ♪

(soft, twangy music)

- Hello!

- Hello!

- Is this the Soady deer camp?

- You found her.

- The world famous Soady deer camp?

- One and the same.

- Yeah, is that Albert

Soady's sweet sap whisky

over there I see?

- Might be so lucky.

- Well, better have me a snort, eh?

- You know it's good for ya.

- How ya feeling, Pop?

- If I felt any better, I'd be dangerous.

(Reuben chuckles)

- Oh, wow.

A little heavy on the sap.

- A little what?

- On the sap, it's a

little heavy on the sap.

- The sap's what's makes it.

- Yeah, well, that may be,

but, if I didn't know better,

I'd say I just drunk from

a bottle of maple syrup.

- [Albert] Give me the damn jar back.

- All right-

- A man who can't look another man

right in the hairy eyeball and tell him

he's heavy on the sap ain't much of a man.

Maybe it'd be better if I

took the sap out altogether.

Would that make you happy?

- Well, I wouldn't think of Aunt Jemima

every time I took a snort,

I can tell you that.

- Well, I ain't about to

do it, so put that down.

That year, camp was as

tense as a moose's butt

during fly season.

Remnar didn't help.

- Hello!

Is this the Soady deer camp?

- You found her!

- The world famous Soady deer camp?

- The one and the same.

- The one and the same.

- And is that a pint of Albert Soady's

sweet sap whisky I see?

- You like pancakes?

- A little heavy on the sap, eh?

- Oh yeah, no kidding.

- But that's what makes it-

- You're late.

You're supposed to be here at six, eh?

- Black leather, fudge-sucking-

- I stopped off to the porcelain bus,

picked up the beer,

thank you very much.

- I'm not talking about that

and you know that.

You're supposed to steer

clear of her, Remnar.

- Did you want the beer or not?

- I don't care about the beer.

- I don't drink nothing

that's already been drunk before.

- Pop, I got it, okay, I got it.

- They was playing this game, eh?

(people chattering)

They put all the guys on one side,

and all the girls on the other.

And we each got a cue stick

off of the pool table there.

(people chattering)

And the gals all got a

roll of toilet paper.

(bluesy bar music)

(people shouting)

First couple to jam their cue stick

into the toilet roll gets

a free case of Leinenkugel,

thank you very much.

- [Reuben] She's married, Remnar.

- I couldn't help myself, eh?

The girl's got a tongue of a trout.

- Your mother had the tongue of a trout.

- She was licking me like a dog's balls.

- Her husband filed a restraining order.

- Yeah, I know, I know, but she's got

a hot nose, hands like a logger.

This girl can split wood.

- [Albert] Your mother could split wood.

- Did you bring the pasties?

Tell me you brought the pasties.

- We're gonna eat like kings.

- You know me, you know how I am.

I am a creature with habits.

If things aren't just so,

things won't work out.

- Things won't work out.

- That's right.

Tell me again you brought the pasties.

- I took care of it, eh?

- Beautiful!

Is this heaven or is this heaven, eh?

- This is heaven.

- I think I look forward to

opening day of deer season

more than any other day of the year.

It's like Christmas, with guns.

You feeling lucky this year, Pop?

'Cause I'm feeling lucky.

- Give a man a little luck and

anything will do for brains.

- Yeah, toss a little over this way.

- I was driving up to camp tonight,

I swear to God I had one of those things.

What do you call those things

you get when you're driving?

- Blackouts?

- Blackouts?

- One of those things that flash

across your mind like a dream,

only you're not dreaming.

- A vision?

- I was driving up to camp, eh?

Thinking about what scope to use,

which socks to wear, how

much beer to take, you know?

- The essentials.

- Right, when all of a sudden,

right there in front of me

is a 50-point buck.

- A 50-point buck?

- That's what I said.

- There is no such thing

as a 50-point buck.

- I know, I know, I know,

I said the same thing.

I said, this can't be so.

I mean, you know, a 50-point buck,

but I looked again, and

there he was, as real as you.

And the thing was, he didn't go away.

I just kept seeing him and

seeing him and seeing him.

- And you're still

driving this whole time?

- I do not believe I was, no.

Somebody had their hands on the wheel,

but I could not tell you

for sure they was mine.

- Holy Wah.

- Holy Wah is right.

So I jump out of the truck,

and still he don't move a muscle.

It was like he was waiting for me,

just standing there, tall and proud,

like the trophy that he is.

So I bring my gun up, put

my finger on the trigger,

take a deep breath-

- To steady your nerves.

- And that's when he spoke to me.

- He spoke to you?

(Albert laughs)

- "Take me, Remnar, take me now." (laughs)

(Albert laughs)

(Remnar laughs)

- You buggered him.

Ah, you buggered him that time. (laughs)

He swallowed it all, all of it, all of it!

- Pop, I don't know whose

hands are on the wheel, eh?

(Albert and Remnar laugh)

I just made that up as I was telling him.

(Albert and Remnar laugh)

A 50-point buck.

- [Albert] That might be the only buck

you see this year, eh?

- You're just jealous 'cause

I kicked your butt last year.

- You and all your talk put

together couldn't kick my butt.

- My 12-pointer to your

little four-point forkhorn.

I think that's a butt-kicking

in anybody's book.

Wouldn't you say that's

a butt-kicking, Reuben?

- Leave me out of it.

- I took the forkhorn and

passed on that 20-pointer.

I didn't have the clear shot.

- 20-pointer.

- That's right!

You can't make a clean kill,

don't make a kill at all.

- If you ain't gonna

pull the trigger, Pop,

than snap a picture.

At least then you'll have

something for the scrapbook.

- I shot the biggest buck of

anybody sitting in this room.

- When was that, Pop?

- November 15th, 1961.

Back when the bucks was as-

- Thick as mosquitoes.

- Thick as mosquitoes, that's right.

18-point, 15-inch thighs, 24-inch spread

with a weight of 284 pounds fully dressed,

and don't you forget it!

- Are you sure you didn't shoot a cow?

(Albert growls)

(Albert laughs)

- It would've been a state record

if I'd felt like reporting it.

- [Remnar] Well, it

wasn't 'cause you didn't.

- The hell it wasn't!

- You didn't report it, eh?

You don't report it, it

ain't a state record.

- I don't believe in state records.

- Oh, you don't believe in state records?

- I don't believe in anything

managed by the goddamned DNR.

- They aren't either managed by the DNR.

Reuben, what's the name

of that big game agency

down in-

- CBM?

- CBM, that's right, POP, CBM.

Stands for what, what's it stand for?

- Commemorative Bucks of Michigan.

- Commemorative Bucks of Michigan.

You gotta report it to

Commemorative Bucks of Michigan.

- When your great-grandpa Alphonse

tagged a Soady ridge buck back in 1922,

you think he notified the state?

Hell no!

- Probably hold the

state record if he had.

- He come back to the camp, pulled out

the Soady camp log and started writing

it down for all posterior.

Where is it?

- Right here, Pop.

1922.

- 28-points, with a rack spread

of 30 and three-quarter inches,

and an estimated weight of 334 pounds.

Boy, that ain't a state record.

That's a world record.

- How do you know everything

in here is on the up and up?

- If it's in there, it's the truth.

- Well, then make sure

there's a pencil handy

'cause when I come down

from the ridge tomorrow,

there's gonna be a new

Soady record holder, eh?

- You're hunting the ridge tomorrow?

- I hate to tell ya, but they ain't up

on the ridge this year.

- Big ones are on the

ridge, Pop, trust me.

- Big ones, eh?

- Oh, yeah, trophies.

I seen the tracks.

And you know what they say,

big bucks make big tracks.

Store that away for a rainy day.

- You mind if I hunt it with you?

- I like to hunt alone.

- Well, you know, I

don't mean side-by-side.

I'll take the one end, you take the other.

- No, that's no good, neither,

'cause then when we get to the middle,

we'll be shooting each other.

- What are you talking?

The ridge is five miles long.

- And I plan on hunting every inch of it.

I know, why don't you hunt the swamp?

- I'm hunting the swamp.

- The whole swamp?

- You're hunting the whole ridge?

- Well, that's how I hunt, eh?

- Well, that's how I hunt.

- Okay, wait a minute.

- You can't the ridge the

same way you hunt the swamp.

- The hell I can't!

- They're two different terrains!

- Hey, hey, hey, easy.

You know, if you're up on the ridge

and Pop is down in the swamp,

where the heck am I supposed to hunt?

- How about out by the road?

- How about what road?

- M35.

- It's a state highway.

- Deer love the highway.

- I hit one just last week.

- I'm not gonna hunt the highway.

It's a highway.

- Are you sure?

I think you might be

missing an opportunity here.

- You want me to set up a blind

on a shoulder of M35 and wait

for the next 10-pointer who tries to cross

it in traffic?

- I think you're getting the

plum spot, don't you, Pop?

- [Albert] Position A.

- That's how Bob McGinnis hunts.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, sets up a lawn chair

right on the side of the road and waits.

He'll sit there a whole week if he has to.

People bring him food, change of clothes.

- Hey, he ever marry that gal?

You know the one I'm talking about,

the one with the eyebrow going

straight across her head.

- Yeah, and she combs it

with her toothbrush. (laughs)

(Albert laughs)

(twangy, bluesy music)

(Albert knocks)

- Reuben.

(Albert sighs)

Reuben, open the damn door.

Oh, Jesus crumbs.

Holy Wah.

I admit I'm guilty in thinking

that maybe my luck would be better

if you was somewheres else.

That's no way to treat your own.

You wanna hunt the swamp

tomorrow, we'll hunt the swamp.

- Yeah, well, I'll just jinx you.

- I'll take my chances.

I think your problem's

more along the lines

you're just a shitty shot.

You couldn't hit the house

if you were standing in it.

It's a simple thing.

You just bring the gun up,

you put your finger on the trigger,

you take a deep-

- Take a deep breath

to steady your nerves,

I know it.

- To steady your nerves,

that's right.

Your great-grandpa Alphonse always said,

all good things come to those-

- Who shoot straight.

- To those that shoot

straight.

That's your problem in

a nutshell, right there.

Been a lifelong case of the buck fever.

- You think I'm cursed?

- (sighs) You're a Soady.

Soadys crap so big they

gotta stand up to get off it.

I'm thinking, I'm thinking

this is gonna be your year.

- Yeah, well, now you sound like my wife.

(Albert chuckles)

(Wolf Moon Dance gasps)

- What, what's wrong?

- It's my intuition.

It's telling me something.

- Oh, is it, is it, really?

What is it telling you?

- It's telling me, it's telling me

your luck's about to change.

- Oh, is it?

- Yeah, it is.

- I'm not so sure.

- Come listen.

- Do you really believe

everything in here is true?

- It's the Soady bible.

- You know what happened back in '72?

That was the year Uncle

Alvin got his first buck.

You know how old Uncle Alvin was

the year he got his first buck?

He was 43.

And besides being the

family idiot that he was.

I don't think you'll

disagree me with there.

- Dumb as dirt.

- "On November 15th, 1972, Alvin Soady,

"during the taking of his traditional,

"opening day morning crap,

"shot himself a six-pointer,

which happened to be

"sniffing around the back of the two-holer

"at the time that he was in it,

"making him, at the

embarrassing late age of 43,

"the oldest Soady in the

history of the Soadys

"ever to bag a buck."

(gun bangs)

(deer thuds)

Signed, his brother Albert Soady.

How old am I, Pop?

Pop?

- 43.

So there it was, staring us

right in the hairy eyeball.

We sat there trying to figure out some way

we could avoid Reuben ending up

on the wrong end of the record books.

The crazy thing about hunting is

you can plan all you want,

but, the truth of it is,

it's out of your hands.

And November of '89 was out of

our hands more than we knew.

(mysterious whizzing)

Whoa.

(mysterious whizzing)

(Albert and Reuben groan)

- Was that a sighting?

- I seen a sighting!

- [Albert] You need to

know about the UFOs.

They exist up here.

I seen one first back in

'65 over the Bark River,

this speeding silver streak of

light flying across the sky.

Bob McGinnis claims a bright white dish

come over the trees one night and settled

right above his boathouse,

just hovered there.

He thought for sure they

was about to take him away.

But if you know Bob, you

understand why they passed.

But the Jimmer was a different story.

Jimmer Negamanee from Menominee seen

the safe hovering light a few years ago,

except he was abducted,

disappeared for a whole weekend.

It's the truth.

'Cause when they brought him

back the following Monday,

there was a few changes

that were in the Jimmer

that were hard to ignore.

One was he talked different.

- My Chevy shook a shit!

(men mumble)

- Try Chevy.

- Something wrong with your Chevy, Jimmer?

- My Chevy shook a shit!

- Shook a shit?

Chevy took something.

- Shit, shit.

- Shit.

- Shit.

- Shit, took a shit.

Your Chevy took a shit, Jimmer?

- Boodabeeboop!

- The shotgun, he wants the shotgun!

- The shotgun, the shotgun!

We'll get you the shotgun, Jimmer!

- Okay!

(men chattering)

(Jimmer shouting)

- [Albert] Get your butt up there!

(Jimmer shouting)

Another was, all of a sudden,

he could drink like a fish.

- [Reuben] Hang on,

Jimmer, hang on, hang on.

- Look what I got, eh?

- Oh!

- Don't that look nice?

- [Jimmer] Boodebeeboop!

- It's okay, it's okay.

There ya go.

- [Albert] The Jimmer had

become a living legend,

and not because he'd been abducted.

We get two or three of those a year.

- Two, three!

- [Albert] It was his

capacity for drinking

that spread through all the

watering holes in the U.P.

(Jimmer screams)

- With a whisky chaser!

- With a whisky chaser!

- With a whisky chaser!

- [Albert] The regulars

up to the Porcelain Bus

compare him to the late, great Himel Hyman

in the Cup-o-harder,

known amongst the Injuns

as the Great White Stomach.

Himel made a nice living drinking

any and all things put in front of him,

including that fateful

bucket of week-old wastewater

from the bilge of a

Scandinavian oil barge,

God rest his soul.

Jimmer Negamanee from Menominee

was cut from the same piece of cloth.

- This tastes like sap.

- Jimmer, where's your Chevy?

- Shook a shit.

- I know that, eh?

Where'd you leave it, out on 35?

- I leaves it at the road.

- Which road, the road into camp?

- On the camp road!

- Okay, all right.

What do you say we climb

down, jump in the truck,

see if we can get it started, eh?

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

- Shames?

- Shames, shames, shames!

(Jimmer screams)

- Calm down, just calm down.

Calm down.

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

(car rattles)

- My Chevy shook a shit.

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

So, as I was walking (indistinct)

down the (indistinct) road.

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

Til all of a sudden.

(fire crackles)

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

(car revs)

Then, the strangest thing happened.

(Jimmer screams)

(horn honks)

(Jimmer whimpers)

I think I shit myself.

(bluesy music)

- Remnar, get the Jimmer a towel.

- You get the Jimmer a towel.

- [Albert] Goddamn it!

Jesus Christ!

- Pop!

(Albert grumbling)

Pop!

(glass shattering)

Pop, what's wrong?

- It's all sap.

Right out of the tree, sap.

- The whole batch?

- All that's missing is the

pancakes and the butter.

- Mr. Soady, does that means?

- I'm afraid so, Jimmer.

We're in deer camp without whisky.

- If I didn't know better,

I'd say this camp was.

Holy Mary, Mother of God.

- [Albert] If we'd had had

an ounce of sense amongst us,

we'd have drove back to

Escanaba as fast as we could,

but, as Great-Grandpa

Alphonse always used to say,

if you're looking back

at the things you missed,

you won't know what hit ya.

- Let's have a pasty, eh?

- Shasties!

- Mom made the best pasties, remember?

Remember how Ma used to make 'em?

- Nobody built a pasty like your mother.

- They were so good I could

almost eat six of them.

- We ain't having pasties this year.

- We ain't what?

(gun clicks)

- I don't know, thought we

might eat something different.

- Not at deer camp.

- At deer camp, we eat pasties.

- Well, you know, I just

thought it might change

our luck if we ate something else.

- My luck's just fine the way it is,

thank you very much.

- Speak for yourself, eh?

- I do believe I was, eh?

- No shasties?

- Let me remind you, eh, that pasties

have been the traditional meal of choice

since Great-Grandpa Alphonse

first built this camp.

- Change is good.

- Reuben, listen to me.

We've known each other since we was kids.

- We're brothers, Remnar.

- Hear me out.

You know how I can be a

little bit superstitious?

(Jimmer chuckles)

Any change in my deer camp ritual,

big or small, directly deflects the odds

of me bagging a big buck.

Every year, I pack up

my truck the same way.

I arrive at camp at the same time.

I wake up opening

morning at the same time.

4:44 am on the dot.

I go to the same blind

by way of the same route

with the same gun, the same buck calls,

and the same Spam and mayonnaise

on Bunny bread sandwich.

Everything is exactly the same.

Even the shirt on my back.

I've worn this same

shirt every opening day

since the age of nine.

Does it fit?

No.

Does it keep me warm?

No.

Does it smell?

Most definitely.

But does it guarantee the

big buck for yours truly?

You betcha.

Why?

Because it's part of Remnar

Soady's deer camp ritual.

A ritual that includes eating pasties.

- You wanna know what

happens every time I eat

pasties at deer camp?

- No.

- No, three decades of meat,

potatoes, rutabagas, and lard.

Every year, I go out to my blind,

and I'm sitting out there

waiting for first light,

and the only sound I hear is the sound

of myself farting like a

tuba at the back of the band.

- Pasties is a Soady tradition.

- I know that very much.

But I got a vision,

too, Remnar, a real one.

I see myself coming back from camp,

carrying a 10-pointer on my back,

and my wife looks out, and I say to her,

"Put on the lard and onions, honey,

"I'm gonna gut you a buck."

And I am happy at last,

knowing that I, Reuben Soady,

have finally put the meat

on my family's table.

(gentle music)

- (sighs) I'll give it

a go for you, Reuben.

Sure.

Remnar?

You're a deer in my headlights, Remnar.

- (sighs) For this year only.

- Thank you, Remnar, thank you very much!

- [Jimmer] This is real nice.

- [Reuben] You won't be sorry, I promise.

- Ah, you just bag that buck this year.

- Oh, I will, I can feel it.

Maybe I'll even bag me a state record, eh?

- You see anything foraging, fire away.

- (laughs) I'd love to go tonight.

(men chattering)

- [Jimmer] I do some of

my best huntings at night.

(Reuben laughs)

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

- I can eat slapjacks

every day of the weeks, eh?

- I know you could, Jimmer.

- No, not flapjacks.

- Y'all don't like the slapjacks?

- Macaroni and cheese,

thank you very much.

- With Spam.

- With Spam.

- How's about slapjacks with Spams?

- Fellas-

- Just Spam for me.

- Kraft macaroni and cheese.

- No flapjacks, no macaroni

and cheese, and no Spam.

- No Spam?

- Boys, you are not only

going to eat like kings,

but that 20 bucks you was gonna throw

in the kitty for pasties, keep it.

I am about to feed the whole camp all week

for absolutely free.

- [Albert Voiceover] As

Grandpa Alphonse always said,

anything free is worth saving up for.

- Last month, I was

sitting down to supper.

Wolf Moon Dance comes out of the kitchen.

She says, "Here, drink this."

I didn't know what the heck it was.

So I said, "What the heck is it, eh?

She said, "There is more to bagging a buck

"than just shooting a gun."

- No shit, Cheyenne.

- Yeah, she said that before every hunt,

the Ojibwes prepare a special recipe

to give the hunters good luck.

Before they can even enter the woods,

they believe that they have to

have the right air-a around.

- The right what?

- Air-a.

- What's a air-a.

- It's the air around you.

- We all got a air-a?

- Yeah, well, you know, at

least you're supposed to.

- I can feels my airish.

- That's good, Jimmer.

- How do you know when the

air around ya is your air-a?

- Your air is your air-a.

- Is my air-a my air?

- Just do the ritual, Remnar.

- Reuben, I'm just trying

to be clear here.

- Wait a minute,

we ain't gonna strip down to our skivvies

and dance around the table

like we did last Thanksgiving?

- Involved, no-

- No offense to

your Injun wife, but if

that's what I gotta do

to get a piece of turkey

over to your place,

I'll see you at Christmas.

- You do not have to do any of that!

I promise.

- Thank you very much for that.

- All you have to do is drink this potion.

- This what?

- Follow me.

- Did he say potion.

- I heard him say potion.

They're kinda yellow, don't you think?

- [Remnar] I don't know what those are.

They look like cheese.

- [Reuben] It's not cheese.

- [Remnar] Okay, but I do enjoy cheese.

- [Albert] Oh, so do I, but

it's cold on the bottom there.

- [Reuben] Yeah, it's just like-

- [Albert] Why do you got two of them for?

- This one's Jimmer's.

- Is it tasty?

- Oh, it's definitely got a taste to it,

no doubt about that.

- Oh!

- Is this what we're supposed to eat?

- Oh yeah, yeah, that's very filling.

One glass, three times a day,

and not only will your air-a be so strong,

instead of you hunting the bucks,

the bucks will be hunting you.

- I likes the sounds of that, eh?

- I still don't like the look of it.

Reuben, what are these

chunky little things

floating around in here?

- Protein, just chunks of protein.

- You got them, too, huh?

That thing in there, right?

- Pretty good there.

- You can take the lids

off, if you want, now.

- What are we doing out here?

- [Reuben] I gotta do a little ceremony.

- Jesus!

- Like what?

- Okay, all right.

- Reuben.

- All right.

- What the hell ya doing?

- Just a second here, I

gotta read this little thing.

Okay, the moon is the mirror reflecting

the passion within our soul

up to the Great Spirit, that's the moon,

who, once received and twice removed,

then sends it back down, guiding our lives

with eternal light that lives within us.

So far so good.

- What's that supposed to mean?

- Shh!

- Okay, this next part is a little tricky.

Just bear with me.

I'll nod when it's your turn to join in.

(tuner hums)

(Reuben shouts foreign language)

(Reuben chants foreign language)

You have to say it.

(men speak foreign language)

- Tasty!

- Not bad.

- This has got a kick

to it, I'll say that it.

What proof is this, Reuben?

- Oh, sorry to say, there's

not a drop of alcohol in it.

- Well, it ain't no pasty pie,

but I'll tell you what, I could drink

a few of these without looking up

and saying hello, eh?

Just what the heck's that old

lady of yours got in here?

- Well, like I said,

this magic potion goes back generations.

- Yeah, but I might

wanna steal the recipe.

- Yep, you and me both.

- Well, all right, let's

see, I think she's got,

yeah, here it is.

Fill a large bucket with fresh cow's milk.

- Well, there's your

milkshake taste right there,

see?

- Yep.

- Then blend one ounce each of parsley,

ginger, and caraway

seeds, with eight ounces

of sap from a mature maple.

- I thought I tasted the sweet sap.

- [Reuben] And barley and yeast.

- Yeast!

- You gotta have yeast.

- Next, take 12 large

earthworms baked on a shovel,

the gizzard of a red squirrel,

four ounces of strained mule tail sweat,

100 finely crushed black flies,

a pinch of the dirt

surrounding a buck rub,

and the dried and powdered left testicle

of a fully grown moose.

Chill, and serve.

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

(Jimmer speaks gibberish)

That just breaks the spell.

Now, we gotta protect ourselves

from the evil spirits.

Wolf Moon Dance says for

every tree in the forest

there is a spirit.

Some are good, some are evil.

According to the Ojibwes,

this lets the good spirits in,

keeps the bad spirits out.

- Oh, smells like porcupine piss.

- [Reuben] It is.

- You wants us to drink this, too?

- No, no, no, no, no.

You just splash it on, you know, like so.

See, not only does it protect

you from evil spirits,

but, when it comes to the bucks,

it's an aphro, aphro?

- Deshilact?

- Yeah, yeah.

She said that her father

went out last year,

covered himself from

head to toe with piss.

15 minutes later, he was

surrounded by hundreds of bucks.

- Hundreds of bucks?

- That's right, she said that

if you can stand the stink,

they'll walk right up

and introduce themselves.

- I can't believe I

drank a moose testicle.

- You're lucky.

I think it's one of them chunks I chewed.

- Say, Rubens.

- Hmm?

- How does a man goes

about extractions jars

of piss froms a porcupine?

- Well, you know, first

thing you gotta do, Jimmer,

is catch one, which I

did about a month back.

Nice 30-pounder.

- That's a good size quill cushion.

- [Reuben] Oh, that's

a real good size, yeah.

- Say, you don't grabs him, dids yous?

- Oh, no, no.

- 'Cause if you grabs a porcupine,

you'll get stuck with his schtickers.

- Oh, no, no, you're right there, Jimmer.

No, no, I seen one down the Soady Creek.

He was sitting out on

a rock sunning himself-

- Right down Soady Creek, yeah.

- I snuck up behind him, you know.

I threw a blanket over the top of him

and took him home.

- No schtickers?

- No schtickers.

Stickers, stickers.

Yeah.

- [Albert] Where's Jack?

- Yeah, so anyway, you

know, I took him home,

and I put him out in this cage out back

that I made special.

Had a little wire floor of a

top with this pan underneath.

Then I spent the whole entire next week

making that quill pen drink

all the water he could stand.

Come Saturday, the pan was overflowing.

- Reuben-

- So then it was just

a matter of pouring some of the piss

into the wife's spare

pickle jars, you know,

and letting them sit out

in the sun, you know,

so they could ripen up-

- Reuben!

- A day, what?

- Between your moose-ball milkshakes

and your pickle jars

full of porcupine piss,

I think you got us covered, eh?

- I was explaining to the Jimmer-

- Let me ask you this,

is there a magic potion

for dealing out loaner hands,

'cause that would be helpful.

- I don't think-

(Albert speaks indistinctly)

- I was talking to my partner,

thank you very much.

- Yeah.

- Jimmer, as always,

take no prisoners.

- Take no prisoners.

- Do me a favor, will ya?

Try to remember what trump is.

You cost us the championship last year.

- What cost us the championship

was when somebody I won't mention

called for a loaner and then got

ukered for three tricks.

That's what cost us the-

- I was two-suited with eights

high, thank you very much.

- Two-suited with the eights high

is not a loaner hand, Remnar.

- Reuben, listen to me-

- Look, I got five cards.

Five cards, I am sitting

right across the table.

- But you don't know how

to use the card, all right?

- I am your partner.

- What is trump?

- I am here to-

- What's trump?

What's trump?

- Ladies!

(Albert laughs)

- [Reuben] Think that'll work.

(Remnar laughs)

Take that, little boy.

- Here's to one, here's to one.

- [Albert] I'm damn sick and

tired of cleaning up after you.

(men chatter)

(twangy music)

- Sometimes it's deer season, Remnar,

sometimes it's deer season.

(Reuben laughs)

(twangy music)

(men chattering)

- Are you drunk?

- Oh, yeah.

- You're drunk now?

(men chattering)

- Have another hit of sweet sap.

(twangy music)

(men chattering)

(twangy music)

- Oh, Reuben, I swear to God.

- You can't tell him.

- Camp's rules, the camp's rules!

- If he forgot, he forgot, he's

gotta play without knowing.

- Reuben, you forgot what

trump is again, haven't ya?

Haven't you, Reuben?

- I can't finish this hand.

- Nothing but nines and 10s?

- More like twos, threes, and fours.

- There ain't no twos, threes,

and fours in a uker hand.

- Maybe when he shuffled, he

picked up the wrong cards.

- The only decks in this

camp are uker decks.

Ain't no twos, threes,

and fours within 20 miles.

(Albert whimpers)

The Jimmer's Impala

catching fire was one thing,

and the best backwoods whisky in the U.P.

curdling like milk right

under our nose was another,

but when the cards changed face

right in our very own hands,

we thought we'd seen it all.

(tense music)

(men panting)

(tense music)

(mysterious knocking)

(mysterious howling)

(mysterious knocking)

(mysterious chittering)

(mysterious banging)

(mysterious growling)

And then, just when we thought

it couldn't get any worse.

(Reuben shouts)

- Ranger Tom T. Treado,

Department of Natural Resources!

- Pop, no!

- Welcome to Soady deer

camp, Officer Treado.

- Please, call me Ranger Tom.

- [Men] Ranger Tom.

- I'm Reuben Soady, this

is my pop Albert Soady,

that's my big baby brother Remnar Soady,

and the living legend you

got right next to you there

is the one only Jimmer

Negamanee from Menominee.

- My Chevy shook a shit.

- I got a ticket from every DNR officer

who ever set foot in these woods.

I sure don't remember seeing you.

- I just got transferred up

to this part of the state.

- Oh, where from?

- Detroit.

- Oh, yeah.

- Detroit.

- What a shity, that's a nice place.

I been there once.

(men chatter)

- I rode on this thing.

It took all the people around.

- You are not gonna believe

the night we had, Ranger Tom.

- It all started with Jimmer's Impala.

- My Chevy shook a shit.

- Brand new used Impala.

- Burst into flames.

- Yeah, yeah.

- No reason, eh?

- Then the sweet sap, right, Pop?

- Sap!

- The slapjacks!

- The flapjacks.

(men chatter)

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ I looked over Jordan

and what did I see ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ A band of angels coming after me ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

- [Albert] He sung the whole damn song.

Him being from the DNR,

we didn't wanna interrupt

for fear he might take

away our hunting licenses.

You gotta remember, this time of year,

the DNR is more powerful than God.

In fact, some of them think they are God.

Or, in Ranger Tom's case.

- I just saw God up on your ridge.

- Huh, well, it's a beautiful ridge.

- No, I saw God up on your ridge.

- God?

- God?

- The one with the angels?

- With heaven and the angels

and the manager, that's right.

- You saw the manager?

- Are you sure it wasn't a spaceship?

- No, he's right, you know.

It might have been just a UFO.

- Jimmer was abducted by aliens.

- [Jimmer] I spent the whole

weekend in a spaceship.

- There was a light.

- [Albert] You saw a light?

- We seen the light, too, right, Pop?

- Yeah.

- We seen a light.

- Was it hovering?

'Cause mine was hovering right above me,

right before they sucked me up in a chute.

- No.

This was the light, the light you see

right before you see God.

I was out combing the area

for irregularities, you know?

We got a lot of orange coming up

over that ridge tonight.

Gotta go out there, establish a presence.

(mysterious music)

At first, I thought it was the moon

coming out from behind a cloud.

But then, words started

falling out of my mouth,

words I'd never said before,

words I didn't know the meaning of.

I lost all sense of time and place

and my place in time.

I began questioning the

futility of my existence,

my mind racing with a never-ending stream

of ceaseless, incessant contemplation,

examining, reexamining the relevance

of my sad excuse for a life,

clinging to a deeply-seated faith

versus modern society's insistence

that if mankind cannot explain

it it can't possibly exist.

Or

is that simply a reflection

of the world we live in,

or I live in, or the way I

choose to live in the world,

if I even live in a world.

Is this a world?

And, if it is, am I in it?

And if I am, why?

For what purpose, for what reason,

for what possible reason

is my being, being.

There's no method behind whatever madness

was orchestrated on my behalf.

They'd spent the time, energy,

and spiritual wherewithal

to make sure that, damn it,

at least this mass of flesh,

blood, and bones is,

this carcass with a pulse

gets to breath the air, drink the water,

and eat the food like I'd never eat again.

- I've been thinking.

- Damn it!

- What?

- What is this mass of flesh?

- You know, with everything

that's happened, maybe it'd be better

if we just jumped in our trucks,

drove back to Escanaba.

- No deer season?

- If you think after I

just got done drinking

the left testicle of a

full grown moose that I'm-

- I'm just saying maybe

we should come back

when things aren't so weird.

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

- Nobody leaves this camp til I say so.

Last time I checked,

tomorrow's still opening day,

and we are gonna hunt it.

♪ Swing low ♪

Now hit the sack, all of ya.

You, too.

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

Now, the night in the U.P.

is a whole different animal.

There's a stillness to it, like black ice.

You can't see it.

You can't touch it.

And, if you're not careful, it'll wrap

its arms around you and squeeze

til the only sound you hear

is your own heart beating

and your own breath breathing.

Reuben said later he wasn't sure

what it was that woke him.

Might've been a dream.

Might've been the moonlight coming out

from behind a cloud, or it might have been

the sound of all those deer.

(mysterious snorting)

Put your finger on the trigger.

- Just bring your gun up.

- Steady your nerves.

- Just bring your gun up.

- Put your finger

on the trigger.

- Just bring your gun up.

- Steady your nerves!

- Just bring your gun up.

- [Albert] Put your finger on the trigger.

(Reuben gasps)

Do it.

(mysterious snorting)

(mysterious, whispering voices)

(Reuben panting)

(mysterious voice rumbles)

(Reuben gasps)

(mysterious voice rumbles)

(voices shout)

(people shout)

(low rock music)

(low rock music)

(Reuben panting)

- [Wolf Moon Dance] Be-ah-ee.

Be-ah-ee, be-ah-ee, be-ah-ee.

(Remnar snores)

(Remnar gags)

(Jimmer farts)

- Well, now we know why the

aliens brought him back.

(Remnar sighs)

Keeping a lookout, eh?

Good idea.

I gotta go to the two-holer.

If I'm not back in five minutes,

you might wanna come and get me.

I mean, who knows what's out there?

Could be anything, aliens, bears.

Alien bears.

Might even be God himself,

just like Ranger Tom said.

Chances are, though,

that if God is out there,

I gotta believe the last place he'd be

would be the Soady two-holer, eh?

I tell ya what.

If I happen to run into God

out there, hold your fire.

In fact, if you see me doing this,

that means hold your fire,

I'm with God, okay, Reuben?

Reuben?

- Be-ah-ee.

(Remnar gasps)

- Pop, wake up!

(Albert shout)

There's something wrong with Reuben.

I was on my way out to the two-holer, eh?

- You smell like you didn't make it.

- I'm on my way out there.

I was just talking to him,

and, all of a sudden.

- Be-ah-ee.

- Give me some of the porcupine piss.

- It's the curse, ain't it?

- Don't give me that curse crap.

This'll do it even if he's dead.

- Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Father and Son, Holy Ghost.

Mother of Mary, Mother of God.

- Be-ah-ee!

- All right, that's it.

Stand back.

I don't wanna hit ya.

- Pop, what are you doing?

- I'm gonna fire a round off

next to his head, wake him up.

- You can't do that, he'll go deaf.

- He's already deaf, look at him.

- Wait.

I got a better idea.

I got some 100 foot jumper

cables out in my truck.

I'll pull it up close, hook the one

up to my Diehard, the other to Reuben.

Count of three, I'll start it up.

- Are you out of your mind?

- I seen Bob McGinnis do it once.

- Oh, well, that would

explain a lot, wouldn't it?

Think of something else!

- I can't think of nothing else.

I'm thought out.

- [Albert] And then it happened.

Like a vice from heaven, it called to us.

(Jimmer farts)

- Get closer.

Look out!

Here, hold on to Reuben.

- Wait a minute.

I got him.

- Get him in there.

- Got him in there good?

- If he was any closer, he'd be attached.

- If the Jimmer cuts loose on a big one,

he's liable to come shooting

back this way, so get ready.

- If he cuts loose with a big one,

he'll blow his head right off.

- What's he looking for?

- Reuben's froze up.

- We think maybe he's cursed.

- He's not wither cursed, he's just-

- Cursed, look at him!

- [Albert] We must've stood

there for a good 30 minutes.

Nobody moved a muscle.

Unfortunately, that included the Jimmer.

Finally, Ranger Tom suggested

some basic DNR training

he thought might be

useful in this situation.

- Pump his legs.

One potato, two potato,

three potato, four.

- [Men] Five potato, six

potato, seven potato, more.

One potato, two potato,

three potato, four.

- Must be clogged, keep pumping.

- [Albert And Remnar]

One potato, two potato,

three potato, four.

- [Men] Five potato, six

potato, seven potato, more.

One potato, two potato, three

potato, four, five potato.

(twangy music)

- Well, that explains my dream.

- Reuben's froze up.

- This ain't what

it looks like.

- I was on my way out

to the two-holer, and I said,

"Reuben, cover me, I'm

going to the two-holer,"

'cause all the goings-on around here,

and we didn't have no smelling salts.

- Up on the lake.

- Yeah, down at the lake.

So we tried the porcupine piss.

(Jimmer farts)

We even almost hooked

him up to my Sears Diehard, eh?

But then you let go of a good one

right as we were about

to fire up the truck,

so we said, hey, what better way to snap

someone out of Looneyville

than with one of your good old, you know.

Right, right, so that's why Reuben

is, you know, where he is.

(Jimmer screams)

Look out!

(Jimmer farts)

(Jimmer howls)

- Reuben. (coughs)

Reuben, where are ya?

(Albert gags)

Reuben, Reuben, Reuben!

I got ya, Reuben!

(Reuben screams)

- I can do it again if he needs it!

- [Men] No!

- Take care of Ranger Tom!

I think he's a little discombobulated.

- [Jimmer] I got you!

- Pop, help me get him to the couch.

- Get him to the couch.

- He's crazy!

- [Albert] Get him on the

couch, get him on the couch.

(men shout)

- Where is it, where is it, where is it?

- Where's what?

- I seen a light.

- Light, did you say a light?

- I seen a light.

- Where?

- I seen it in the

window, right over there.

- I saw a light up on the ridge.

- I seen mine at the window.

- You sure it wasn't a spaceship?

- Did it call to you?

- What?

- Mine hovered.

- I'm not talking to you,

sir, I'm talking to him!

Please, wait over there by your vehicle.

Did you walk towards it like I did?

- No, I tried to shoot it.

- You don't shoot God.

- That was God?

- Of course it was God!

- I almost shot God.

- Going to the light was people.

- Listen to me!

As an officer of the Department

of Natural Resources,

I hereby command you to release and reveal

any and all information

pertaining to said disturbance.

Leave nothing out.

Can you do that?

- Well, it's a little fuzzy.

(hand smacks)

- Sit down.

The man's about to speak.

- There were these people.

- The people, how do you mean people?

- Well, these people

that I knew weren't there

'cause they couldn't have been there

'cause they weren't

real, except they were.

- Ghosts?

- You was one of them.

You, too, Pop.

And the Jimmer.

- Yeah, well, how about me?

- No.

But I was.

I was there, I seen me.

I was looking right at me.

And then I looked up, and

a long, long way of pines,

you know, there she was.

I wanted to run to her so bad.

She was so beautiful.

That's when Wolf Moon

Dance, she looked up.

- [Albert Voiceover] For

those of you planning

on traveling to the U.P. any time soon,

you need to know about the bear walks.

- Head of a buck and a body of a man.

- [Albert Voiceover] You

won't find them listed

in the travel books they

pass out at the bridge,

but they're as much a

part of the Superior State

as the pictured rocks.

The Indians are scared to death of them.

They say it starts out as a light.

Then it changes,

usually into a bear, a

raccoon, wolf, even a buck.

The human part, that's the

spirit that it come from

come back looking for

something, or somebody.

- That's why the sweet

sap turned to syrup.

- And the uker cards

changed their numbers.

- And Jimmer's Chevy took a shit.

- Be-ah-ee, that's his name.

Be-ah-ee, the bear walk.

- What's happening to me, Pop?

What's happening to me?

(jars rattle)

(mysterious growling)

(lights buzz)

(wind whistles)

(lights buzz)

(Jimmer shouts gibberish)

(lights buzz)

Jimmer, Jimmer, easy, easy.

Easy, easy.

(Jimmer shouts gibberish)

Come on, come on, come on.

- [Jimmer] Sacrafish,

sacrafish, sacrafish!

- Sacrafish?

- Sacrifice!

- What?

- Sacrifice, the bear

walk wants a sacrifice.

- What the hell are we gonna give it?

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ Swing low ♪

♪ Sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

- Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

♪ I looked over Jordan ♪

♪ And what did I see ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me home ♪

♪ A band of angels coming after me ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me ♪

(glass shatters)

(Ranger Tom growls)

(exciting rock music)

- Be-ah-ee.

Be-ah-ee.

Be-ah.

Ka-sah-ki.

(birds tweet)

Ka-sah-ki.

♪ Swing low ♪

♪ Sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me ♪

♪ Home ♪

♪ Swing low, sweet chariot ♪

♪ Coming for to carry me ♪

- Pop!

- No, no, let me kill it!

It's the bear walk!

- No, it's not him.

- I'm trying to kill the bear walk.

- It's me, it's me.

- What are you talking about?

- I've seen the light,

I've seen the light.

- No, no, that's the

northern lights, just northern lights

coming over the ridge.

They bounce off the

water, that's all it is.

- I'm cursed, don't you see?

I'm cursed.

There's only one way to break

a curse like the one I got.

Every year, you tell me,

"This is gonna be your year, Reuben.

"This is gonna be your year."

Well, you know what, you're right.

Either way, it's gonna stop.

Either I'm gonna get eat bear walk

or that bear walk's gonna eat me.

But somebody is gonna be putting

meat on somebody's table.

- Reuben, listen to me.

- Put a pasty in the oven for me, eh?

(soft music)

- [Albert Voiceover] Now, I

know what you're thinking.

"Albert Soady, this tale you're telling

"is nothing but a crock."

But if you thought up til now

I've been stretching things,

well, what I'm gonna tell you next

you're not only not gonna believe,

you're gonna think I fell

off my rocker for good.

So, I'll let Reuben tell

ya, in his own words.

Soady camp log, November 15th.

- 1989.

I don't know what it was I was running to,

but, whatever it was,

it was the very thing

I was running from.

(Reuben panting)

(angelic music)

(Reuben panting)

(suspenseful, shimmering music)

(exciting music)

Now, I'm not saying what I seen was real,

'cause that would make me as crazy as Bob.

Ka-sah-ki!

Ka-sah-ki!

But I'll swear on my mother's

grave that what I seen next.

- Son.

You couldn't hit a house

if you were standing in it.

(man laughs)

If you don't know where to

start, go back to the beginning.

(man laughs)

Anything free is worth saving up for.

All good things-

- Come to those who shoot straight.

- Hello, Reuben.

- Holy Wah.

You're dead, ain't ya?

- Oh, yeah, I'm dead, I'm very dead.

- I'm as loony as Uncle Alvin.

- I need you to do something for me.

Can you do something for

your great-grandfather?

- Sure.

- I want you to bring your gun up,

put your finger on the trigger,

take a deep breath to steady your nerves,

and shoot that buck.

- What buck?

- That buck you've been chasing

all the way up Soady Ridge.

- That's a buck?

- That's your buck.

- I ain't never shot a buck before.

- Tell me something,

do you believe in fate?

- I don't know.

- How about luck?

You believe in luck?

- Only luck I've ever had's been bad.

- That's good, so you believe.

- In what?

- In something, anything.

For instance, you believe

I'm here with you, right now?

- No, no.

- Then you'll never

shoot that buck, Reuben.

But if you believe, truly believe

that I'm here with you, right now,

then your Uncle Alvin will go down

as the oldest Soady in

the history of he Soadys

never to bag a buck.

Just bring your gun up.

That's it.

(gun clicks)

Put your finger on the trigger.

Take a deep breath to steady your nerves.

- You brought me this buck,

didn't you, Great-Grandpa?

- Let's just say it was somebody

a little higher up on the

spiritual food chain than me.

- Was it God?

- Higher.

- There's somebody higher than God?

- Just shoot the buck, Reuben.

- Who was it?

- Just shoot the buck.

- If it wasn't you and it

wasn't God, then who was it?

- [Wolf Moon Dance Voiceover] Ka-sah-ki.

(shimmering light)

Ka-sah-ki.

Ka-sah-ki.

- I love you, too, Wolf Moon Dance.

(gun bangs)

(emotional music)

♪ Feel that winter wind is blowing ♪

Put on the lard and onions, honey.

♪ Down on me so cold tonight ♪

I'm gonna gut you a buck.

♪ Stuck out on this lonesome highway ♪

♪ Seems to be no end in sight ♪

♪ And I've got one more river to cross ♪

♪ One more mountain to climb ♪

♪ One more day to survive ♪

- We took the road.

(Albert laughs)

♪ One more river to cross ♪

- [Remnar] You bagged a buck!

(men shout)

(emotional music)

♪ Make your dream come true ♪

♪ Never comes easy ♪

♪ Always takes time ♪

♪ You just keep on going ♪

♪ What else can you do ♪

- Hello!

- Hello!

- [Child] Grandpa!

- [Albert Voiceover] Reuben's buck kept

the whole family in venison

til the following spring.

It was some of the best ven I ever ate.

See, it's like this.

When I'm sitting down to

the Sunday supper table,

surrounded by Soadys, facing all that food

we hunted and gathered

ourselves, I'm in heaven.

And, if you wanna go to heaven,

it's north of the bridge.

♪ Just as the darkness is falling ♪

♪ I can hear your sweet voice call ♪

♪ Welcoming me home ♪

(percussive music)

♪ Feel the winter wind is blowing ♪

♪ Down on me so cold tonight ♪

♪ Stuck out on this lonesome highway ♪

♪ Seems to be no end in sight ♪

♪ Just as the darkness is falling ♪

♪ I can hear your sweet

voice calling to me ♪

♪ Saying don't worry, baby ♪

♪ We're gonna be all right ♪

♪ And I've got one more river to cross ♪

♪ One more mountain to climb ♪

♪ One more day to survive ♪

♪ One more river to cross ♪

♪ One more dream to hold on to ♪

♪ To keep me alive ♪

♪ I've got one more river to cross ♪

♪ I can see you standing there ♪

♪ On the night we said goodbye ♪

♪ Knowing that we sacrificed all ♪

♪ Knowing there'd be tears to cry ♪

♪ You pointed to a bright star shining ♪

♪ And promised it would

always watch over me ♪

♪ But I look in the sky tonight, baby ♪

♪ Your smiling face is all I see ♪

♪ And I've got ♪

♪ One more river to cross ♪

♪ One more mountain to climb ♪

♪ One more day to survive ♪

♪ One more river to cross ♪

♪ One more dream to hold on to ♪

♪ To keep me alive ♪

♪ I've got ♪

♪ One more river to cross ♪

♪ When you put your heart on the line ♪

♪ Trying to make your dreams come true ♪

♪ It never comes easy, always takes time ♪

♪ You just keep on going ♪

♪ What else can you do ♪

♪ Even as the darkness is falling ♪

♪ I can hear your sweet voice calling ♪

♪ One more river to cross ♪

♪ One more mountain to climb ♪

♪ One more day to survive ♪

♪ One more river to cross ♪

♪ Til I rest in your arms ♪

♪ Til I make you feel alive ♪

♪ I've got just one more river to cross ♪

♪ There is always one

more river to cross ♪

♪ One more river ♪

♪ I'm coming home ♪