**SPOILERS** Set at the turn of century in the uncharted Florida Everglades the movie is about the feather craze that swept the nation and the world that resulted in the killing of millions of Blue Herons and Snow White Egrets by poachers who got as much as $100.00 an ounce, this in the early 1900's being a King's Ransom, for the birds beautiful and valuable feathers.
Upset over whats happening down under in the Sunshine State the Audubon Society had the Federal Government send law enforcement Marshall's down to Florida to prevent and arrest the gangs of poachers, who called themselves Swamp Rats,and prevent them from upsetting the delicate balance of nature that in the end would destroy all the wildlife in the swamps and wetlands.
Nature and bird lover Walt Murdoc, Christopher Plumer, goes down to Miami as a Federal Mrashall to enforce the law against the indiscriminate killing of birds by the scuzzy and insensitive poachers and has it out with the biggest baddest and heaviest poachers of them all Cottonmouth, Burl Ives, and his motley gang of Swamp or Water Rats. Even though the Cottonmouth Gang could easily take out and put away Mudoc they instead have one of their lackey's Seminole Indian guide Billy One Arm get Murdoc lost in the swamps where he's to end up as dinner for the local alligators.
Billy won over by Murdoc's love of nature and concern for the birds as well as his people the native Seminole Indians can't bring himself to do him in which later costs Billy One Arm his life. Cottonmouth enraged at Billy One Arm's humanity, which he totally lacks, gives him the full treatment by having Billy One Arm tied to the poisonous Manchioneel tree, thats a fate far worse then death itself. The the sap of the plant slowly eats away Billy's skin and infects his blood stream killing poor Billy with it's lethal venom that's more deadlier then the bite of a hundred cottonmouths or rattle snakes.
Murdoc still trying to arrest Cottonmouth & Co and bring him back to civilization, Miami, to face justice goes by himself to Cottonmouth's hideout, Cottonmouth Key. But instead of Murdoc bing killed by the murderous poachers he's invited to a drinking contest with the far bigger, who can really pack it away, Cottonmouth which ends up with Murdoc passing out from consumption and ending up in the swamps during a raging hurricane.
The ending is a little too much to take with for some strange reason Cottonmouth agreeing to go back to Miami with Murdoc, after he recovered from his hangover, and give himself up but under only one condition: that Murdoc do all the driving or rowing through the snake and alligator infested swamps! We have then Murdoc and Cottonmoth sloughing their way back to Miami with Murdoc,like Cottonmouth planned, losing his way and getting an ore bashed over his head by Cottonmouth. This happened after a delirious Murdoc shot at an imaginary snake that he thought was trying to kill him. Cottonmouth losing his hat, with a white bird feather stuck on it, later goes back to the swamp to retrieve it and as Murdoc is just about to be submerged by the rising waters. It's then when Cottonmouth gets bitten by a real cottonmouth that leaves him crumpled up, like a bag of potatoes, and slowly dying from the bite of the poisonous reptile.
Murdoc gets instructions in how to get back to Miami from the dying Cottonmouth who, with him at death's door, finally sees what he overlooked all his life in the beauty of nature and the indigenous birds of the Glade's as he loses consciousness and peacefully passes away. As he finally departs from this realm of existence the birds of the Glade's that he and his gang of poachers had been ruthlessly gunning down by the hundreds,for a nice and tidy profit, end up pelting Cottonmouth with their daily deposits.
Upset over whats happening down under in the Sunshine State the Audubon Society had the Federal Government send law enforcement Marshall's down to Florida to prevent and arrest the gangs of poachers, who called themselves Swamp Rats,and prevent them from upsetting the delicate balance of nature that in the end would destroy all the wildlife in the swamps and wetlands.
Nature and bird lover Walt Murdoc, Christopher Plumer, goes down to Miami as a Federal Mrashall to enforce the law against the indiscriminate killing of birds by the scuzzy and insensitive poachers and has it out with the biggest baddest and heaviest poachers of them all Cottonmouth, Burl Ives, and his motley gang of Swamp or Water Rats. Even though the Cottonmouth Gang could easily take out and put away Mudoc they instead have one of their lackey's Seminole Indian guide Billy One Arm get Murdoc lost in the swamps where he's to end up as dinner for the local alligators.
Billy won over by Murdoc's love of nature and concern for the birds as well as his people the native Seminole Indians can't bring himself to do him in which later costs Billy One Arm his life. Cottonmouth enraged at Billy One Arm's humanity, which he totally lacks, gives him the full treatment by having Billy One Arm tied to the poisonous Manchioneel tree, thats a fate far worse then death itself. The the sap of the plant slowly eats away Billy's skin and infects his blood stream killing poor Billy with it's lethal venom that's more deadlier then the bite of a hundred cottonmouths or rattle snakes.
Murdoc still trying to arrest Cottonmouth & Co and bring him back to civilization, Miami, to face justice goes by himself to Cottonmouth's hideout, Cottonmouth Key. But instead of Murdoc bing killed by the murderous poachers he's invited to a drinking contest with the far bigger, who can really pack it away, Cottonmouth which ends up with Murdoc passing out from consumption and ending up in the swamps during a raging hurricane.
The ending is a little too much to take with for some strange reason Cottonmouth agreeing to go back to Miami with Murdoc, after he recovered from his hangover, and give himself up but under only one condition: that Murdoc do all the driving or rowing through the snake and alligator infested swamps! We have then Murdoc and Cottonmoth sloughing their way back to Miami with Murdoc,like Cottonmouth planned, losing his way and getting an ore bashed over his head by Cottonmouth. This happened after a delirious Murdoc shot at an imaginary snake that he thought was trying to kill him. Cottonmouth losing his hat, with a white bird feather stuck on it, later goes back to the swamp to retrieve it and as Murdoc is just about to be submerged by the rising waters. It's then when Cottonmouth gets bitten by a real cottonmouth that leaves him crumpled up, like a bag of potatoes, and slowly dying from the bite of the poisonous reptile.
Murdoc gets instructions in how to get back to Miami from the dying Cottonmouth who, with him at death's door, finally sees what he overlooked all his life in the beauty of nature and the indigenous birds of the Glade's as he loses consciousness and peacefully passes away. As he finally departs from this realm of existence the birds of the Glade's that he and his gang of poachers had been ruthlessly gunning down by the hundreds,for a nice and tidy profit, end up pelting Cottonmouth with their daily deposits.