Lewis
Lewis is the one guy out of four that wants to be on this trip because he sees it as a game that they are playing. He's the macho guy of the group and likes being the one who the other fellas look to for strength. He's no stranger to taking risks; in fact, he prefers it and when Bobby and Ed find themselves taken hostage by backwoods hillbillies Lewis kills one of the men with a bow and arrow. He ends up breaking his leg, but most importantly keeps his silence about what happened on the river so that the men can stay out of jail.
Ed
Ed is a family man who is the closest to Lewis between he and the other guys. He has a good job back in Atlanta, but continues to come on these backwoods trips with Lewis either out of a sense of needing to break away from the monotonous life in the city or his need to prove to Lewis that he is still a man. Ed is the one who has to hunt down the shooter who they believe took out Drew and when he kills the man with an arrow he crosses a line he prayed who wouldn't have to by taking another person's life. He musters up the courage to lie to the Sheriff of the small town in order to protect himself and his friends from going to prison and returns home to his wife and kid different. Now full of nightmares from the river.
Bobby
Bobby is an insurance salesman who is not the outdoors type. If he had a choice he would've turned back and played golf over the weekend. Instead he goes along with the guys down the river and on the second day finds himself taken hostage by two hillbillies in the woods. One of the men rapes Bobby and he's forever changed. He doesn't want any of what's happened to get out so after getting off the river he lies to the Sheriff of the small town so that he doesn't have to go to prison and his secret isn't revealed to anyone. Once the trip is over he tells Ed he won't be seeing him for a while. A sign of his shame and need to separate himself from what has happened over the course of their time on the river.
Drew
Drew is the mind of the group. He is also a family man who is up for an adventure with the guys on the river. After Lewis kills the man Drew is the only one of the group that wants to go to the police in order to confess what has happened and let the law take care of justice. But when he is outvoted by the other three men we indignantly digs a grave for the body. Once the men return to the river they hit a patch of rapids and Drew falls over board without his life jacket. He goes missing in the water and it's not until the next day that the other men find his body washed onto a branch downstream.
