We hear a 1930s prison chain-gang working, their pick-axes and sledgehammers clanking rhythmically against rocks. On a card across the screen reads the first lines from Homer's Odyssey:
"O Muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all the ways of contending, a wanderer, harried for years on end..."
As the line of men work in the distance, three prisoners shackled together at the ankles run through a field, ducking occasionally beneath the tall plants to make their escape less obvious. At a nearby farm, they chase down a chicken and cook it in the woods. As they eat, they hear hounds baying in the distance. They make their way through another field to railroad tracks, where a freight train is passing by. The lead prisoner, Everett (
George Clooney), manages to hoist himself into a boxcar, while Delmar (
Tim Blake Nelson) scrambles in after him. As Everett asks the hobos aboard if any of them were "trained in the metallurgic arts," the third prisoner, Pete (
John Turturro), misses the boxcar and falls to the ground, taking Delmar and Everett out of the train with him. They watch the train continue on without them.
Everett tries to plot out a new escape route, but Pete rejects Everett's leadership of the trio. While they argue, they hear the dogs again. Behind them on the rails, they hear the squeaking of a single handcar. A very elderly blind man (
Lee Weaver) pumps the lever. The three scramble onto his cart. The blind man, who has no name, tells them that they seek a great fortune, which they will find, though it will not be the one they seek. Their journey will be long and difficult, he says, where they will see "things wonderful to tell" -- a cow on the roof of a cotton house and other "startlements." He tells them not to fear the "ob-stackles" in their path as he pumps them down the railroad line.
Still shackled together, the three debate the blind man's prophecies as they walk down a dusty road to Pete's cousin's farm. A gunshot kicks up dust in front of them. Pete's young nephew is shooting at them from the porch, asking them if they are from the bank. They promise they are not from the bank, nor are they serving papers. Satisfied, the boy, about eight years old, takes them to the back to his dad, Wash Hogwallop (
Frank Collison), a filthy man in overalls with no shirt. Wash and Pete unenthusiastically greet each other, and the other two introduce themselves as Delmar O'Donnell and Ulysses Everett McGill. Wash sourly offers to knock off their chains.
At dinner, the boys sit dressed in ill-fitting farmer's clothing borrowed from Wash. He updates Pete on their family's dismal goings-on during the Depression. Pete asks where his wife has gone, and Wash tells him Mrs. Hogwallop "up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T." After dinner they sit in the den, listening to the "Pass the Biscuits Pappy O'Daniel Flour Hour" on the radio, as Everett enthusiastically combs Dapper Dan pomade into his hair. He asks Wash for some hairnets, and Wash directs him to Mrs. Hogwallop's old hairnets in the bureau.
The men sleep that night in the loft of Wash's barn, where Everett is awoken by a police bullhorn and hounds barking. "Damn! Were in a tight spot!" says Everett, sitting up. He looks out the barn door and is bathed in a spotlight. Outside, about a dozen cops with torches stand in front of a black police van. Delmar and Pete wake up and Everett tells them Wash must have turned them in for the bounty. Just as Pete threatens Everett for suggesting such a thing about his kin, Wash yells up that he's sorry to turn them in for the bounty, but with the Depression on, he needed the money badly. Pete yells that he will kill him, "Judas Iscariot Hogwallop!" The police open fire on the men, and they duck behind the barn wall. Pete leans his head out the door and yells, "Come and get us, coppers!" As he looks down, one of them is splashing the barn with fuel. The man on the bullhorn says they will smoke them out of the barn. A policeman with a torch lights the fuel, and again they open fire on the men. The barn's blaze is reflected in the dark glasses of the sheriff (
Daniel von Bargen), who watches silently below as he clutches his hound's leash. Another policeman throws a torch up into the hayloft. Pete grabs it and throws it towards the men outside, where it lands in some straw. A path of straw leading to the police van lights on fire, and the cops shout to take cover. The fire rages beneath the van and heats crates of ammunition and idle tommy guns inside. The guns go off first, firing wildly, and then the ammo explodes. From behind the cops comes a lone car, driven by Pete's young nephew. He drives into the flaming barn, instructing the three climbing down from the hayloft to "get in, boys! I'm gonna R-U-N-N-O-F-T!" The men scramble inside, Delmar clutching a lone, squealing pig. With a brick tied to his foot, the boy hits the gas and drives through a wall.
The next day, the boy is sent off back home, walking down a road with the pig. The car is idle and smoking. In a nearby shop, Everett is told that the car needs a part that won't arrive for another two weeks. He tries to buy some pomade, but only Fop brand is available. "Well, I dont want Fop, goddamnit! I'm a Dapper Dan man!" snaps Everett. The shopkeeper tells him he can order him Dapper Dan, but it would take two weeks to arrive. "Well, ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!" says Everett.
He returns to Delmar and Pete, who sit in the woods eating meat off of some small bones. Delmar offers him a gopher on a spit. Everett ignores him, despairing that it will be two weeks before they can get a transmission belt for the Ford.
"They dam that river on the 21st. Today is the 17th! We got but four days to reach that treasure. After that, itll be at the bottom of a lake. We ain't gonna make it walkin'," says Pete. From his pocket, Everett pulls a gold watch which he stole from Wash's bureau. He plans to sell it to get money to buy a used car. Pete is angry that Everett stole from his kin, even though Wash turned out to be a traitor. As they argue, they are surrounded by a group of people dressed in white singing a hymn. They pass by the boys and go into the river, where they are being baptized. As Everett scoffs about the chumps "lookin' for answers," Delmar scrambles down into the water and is baptized. He shouts up at Pete and Everett that all of his sins, including "that Piggly Wiggly I knocked over in Yazoo," have been washed away, and he's on the straight and narrow from now on. Pete rushes into the water to be saved too, shoving his hat at a skeptical Everett to hold.
After the men have gone, a hound dog sniffs at their campsite, coming across an abandoned can of Dapper Dan and a used hairnet.
In a new car, Everett drives as Delmar and Pete, still wet from their baptism, tell him that he should have joined them to be redeemed in the river. Everett scoffs at their "ridiculous superstition." They come to some crossroads, where a young black man (
Chris Thomas King) holding a guitar case is hitchhiking. Delmar tells Everett to pull over and give him a ride. The man asks for a lift to Tishamingo. Everett introduces himself as well as Pete and Delmar, whom he calls "two soggy sons-of-bitches." Delmar asks the young man, who introduces himself as Tommy Johnson, why he's hitching a ride in the middle of nowhere. Tommy explains he had to be at that crossroads at midnight to sell his soul to the Devil, who taught him to play the guitar. Everett laughs that as Delmar and Pete have just been saved, he is the only one in the car who remains unaffiliated. Pete asks him what the Devil looks like. Tommy describes him as a white man with hollow eyes who travels around with a mean hound dog. Pete asks if the Devil told him to go to Tishamingo, but Tommy explains that was his idea. He's heard that there's a man there who pays good money for people to sing into his can, and if you play well, you get paid extra. "How much he pay?" asks Everett.
They pull up to a low, white radio station building marked with the letters WEZY. Inside they meet a blind man (
Stephen Root), the "honcho" of the station. Everett introduces the group as Jordan Rivers and The Soggy Bottom Boys, asking about singing into a can for money. The man asks if they do "Negro songs," to which Everett says yes, because they are all Negroes except for the guitar player. The man refuses them, saying "old-timey material" is all the rage now on the Pappy O'Daniel Flour Hour. Everett promises they can do that too. In a small recording room, Everett sings lead vocals on "Man of Constant Sorrow" into a can-shaped microphone as Tommy plays his guitar and Delmar and Pete sing back-up. The song is being recorded on a wax record. The blind man is very pleased and tells them to sign some papers to get paid $10 apiece. Everett, grinning, tells him two of them will have to sign Xs as only four of them can write.
They burst out of the station rejoicing. Another car has pulled up and four well-dressed men are getting out. Delmar tells them they can get $10 to sing into a can. The gruff, older, overweight man (
Charles Durning) scoffs that he's "not here to make a record, you dumb cracker." One of the men, Pappy's equally large son, explains that the man is Menelaus "Pappy" O'Daniel, the governor of Mississippi, flour magnate, and radio show host. He also asks the boys to vote in the upcoming election for Pappy to stay in office.
That night, the four boys are gathered around a campfire as Tommy sings and plays them a song. Delmar suggests they sleep outside that night instead of the barn, which is through the woods a ways behind them. They discuss the great fortune that they are trying to reach -- $1.2 million that Everett had stolen and buried in some woods. Pete and Delmar talk about what they want to do with their share, but Everett doesnt have plans like them. "Well, that hardly sound like you," says Pete.
They are interrupted by a policeman on a bullhorn. As before, there are several cops surrounding the barn. However, they don't see that the boys are camped out in the woods, assuming that they are inside since their car is parked in front. They light the empty barn on fire as Everett despairs that his pomade is in the car and wants to sneak up to retrieve it. "No, Everett, We gotta R-U-N-N-O-F-T," says Delmar. The sheriff with the hound and dark glasses again watches silently as the barn blazes. The men, minus Tommy -- who took off by himself as soon as he heard the police -- run off into the woods.
The next day, the three walk down a dusty road as Pete complains that they are back to square one and that no one would possibly pick up three filthy hitchhikers. Everett encourages him to remain optimistic as there are still three whole days before the river is dammed and the site of the buried treasure is flooded. They hear a vehicle approaching quickly behind them and turn to see a car with money flying out behind it. The car pulls to a stop beside them and the driver (
Michael Badalucco), a fresh-faced, heavyset young man, asks them if he is on the road to Itta Bena. As Pete and Everett mull this over, Delmar catches some of the dollar bills that have flown out of the car. Everett looks up and sees a fleet of cop cars kicking up dust as they speed down the road towards them. The driver tells them to hop in the car while they think about the directions.
Inside the car, Delmar sits in front of a huge satchel of money, some of which is flying out. The driver, who introduces himself as George Nelson, asks Everett to grab the wheel and Delmar to hand him his ine gun. "Say, what line of work you in, George?" asks Delmar as he hands him a tommy gun. George laughs, leaning out of the driver's side door, and fires back at the squad cars. They pass by a herd of cattle, and George shoots some of the cows out of spite. "Oh, George, not the livestock!" protests Delmar. Scared, the cows wander onto the road in front of the oncoming cop cars, which are stopped by the herd.
George and the boys drive on, no longer pursued, into the small town of Itta Bena. They stop at a bank, where George carries in his tommy gun. The boys enter behind him. George gleefully introduces himself to the patrons while firing into the air, and he quickly robs the bank.
"Thank you folks! And remember: Jesus saves but George Nelson withdraws!" he shouts as they go to exit. One of the patrons, a small, old lady, whispers to the man next to her that it's "Babyface" Nelson. George spins around angrily, demanding to know who said it. He screams at the woman that his name is George, not Babyface, and Delmar soothes him, saying she meant nothing by it. Feeling low, George leaves with the boys. That night they camp out in the woods together. Depressed, George leaves the campfire by himself, giving them all of the stolen money. Everett theorizes that those with a thrill-seeking personality like George suffer from severe highs and lows, and he thinks they haven't seen the last of George yet.
A farmer ploughs his field across from the WEZY station building. He looks up at the sound of approaching folk music. It is a flatbed truck with a small band singing and playing old-timey music in the back. A little person is sweeping the flatbed. On a microphone, a man instructs the farmer to vote for Homer Stokes for governor.
Inside the station building, the blind man speaks to another man looking for the Soggy Bottom Boys. The blind man tells him he doesn't know where they've gone. The other man tells him their record is flying off the shelves, as the "whole damn state's goin apey" for the Soggy Bottom Boys, and that they need to find them to sign them to a contract.
Everett, Delmar, and Pete are without a car again and must continue on foot. Everett swipes a cooling pie from someone's window sill, but Delmar places some money beneath a rock before they run away. That night they joyfully eat the pie around a campfire, and Everett throws the newspaper he was eating off of into the fire. As the front page of the unnoticed paper burns, we see one of the headlines reads "TVA FINALIZES PLANS FOR FLOODING OF ARKABUTTA VALLEY." The page behind it has an article entitled "The Soggy Bottom Boys: A Sensation, But Who Are They?"
In a store, we see a woman seeking a copy of "Man of Constant Sorrow," but the shopkeeper explains that they keep selling out of the record.
Meanwhile, unaware of their skyrocketing popularity, another day passes as the boys find their way walking. The next day they strike luck hitchhiking. They are dropped off at a small general store, where Everett buys a new can of Dapper Dan. As they leave, a man enters, his car idling in front of the store. The boys hop in and drive off. As they drive along, Pete hears some women singing off in the distance and squeals intensely, screaming at Everett to stop the car. He charges through the woods and comes across three beautiful young women, perched on some rocks in a river as they wash clothes and sing. Everett asks Pete if he's going to introduce them, and Pete barks, "I don't know their names. I seen 'em first!" The men stand staring at the sirens, who approach them. Each woman stands in front of one of the men, caressing their hair and faces. One starts tipping corn liquor into Everett's mouth. The screen fades to black.
Delmar wakes up first, splayed out on the ground but fully clothed. He sees Everett lying in the same position in front of him. He looks and finds Pete's clothing laid neatly out onto the ground, not folded but arranged as though he were wearing them. Pete, however, is not inside the clothes -- he is nowhere to be found. He wakes Everett, who starts calling for Pete. As Delmar stares at the empty clothes, something small begins moving inside of the shirt. "Sweet Jesus, Everett," croaks Delmar. "They left his heart." Horrified, Delmar watches as the small bundle of movement makes its way up to the collar of the shirt. A fat, brown toad jumps out. Delmar starts gasping and shrieking. "Them sirens did this to Pete! They loved him up and turned him into a -- horny toad!" As the toad jumps off to the river, Delmar starts after it, calling it Pete and desperately trying to catch it. He snatches it, holds it up to his face, and tells it, "Pete, it's me. Delmar."
In the car, Everett drives as Pete holds the toad, staring at its face through his fingers. "I'm not sure that's Pete," Everett tells him. "Of course it's Pete. Look at him," snaps Delmar, turning his hands to show him the toad.
They stop for supper in a restaurant, where Delmar has "Pete" in a shoe box on their table. Everett, angry that Delmar has a toad out for people to see, slaps the lid on the box. Delmar doesn't want Pete hidden away as though they were ashamed of him. Everett says that if that is Pete, he got what he deserved: "fornicatin' with some whore of Babylon," maybe his transformation was a judgment on his character. "Well, the two of us was fixin' to fornicate!" Delmar tells him just as their young waitress approaches their table. Everett grins and apologetically hands her some money from a roll of bills from his overalls pocket.
As he orders their meals of steak and wine (and two leaves of raw cabbage for Pete), still holding the wad of cash, he gets the attention of a man across the room (
John Goodman). The large man, wearing a cream-colored suit and matching eye patch, goes and introduces himself enthusiastically and verbosely to the men as Big Dan Teague. He explains that he is a bible salesman, and, as he eyeballs the closed shoebox and Delmar's stupid grin, he suggests that they get their meal wrapped to go so they can have a picnic elsewhere. Only a couple of tables over, Governor Pappy O'Daniel is despairing over his languishing campaign, believing that the reform candidate, Homer Stokes, will beat him easily.
The men sit eating underneath a tree in the country. Big Dan, still eyeing the shoebox, finishes off a chicken leg. They resume talking. As Dan explains that salesmanship is a lesson in psychology, he stands up and breaks off a large section of a limb from the tree. Everett says he fancies himself a keen observer of people himself. Big Dan agrees, saying that's why he's brought them out here for this "advanced tutorial." He smashes Delmar in the side of the head with the limb, knocking him to the ground. Everett chomps on his corn, unmoved, apparently thinking this is really some sort of tutorial. "It's all about the money, boys!" bellows Big Dan, brandishing the branch. Delmar lunges at Dan's legs, trying to knock him down, but he is unsuccessful. Big Dan beats him on the back with the club. "I don't get it, Big Dan," says Everett, still sitting and watching. Dan hits him in the head with the club too, knocking him backwards. Stunned, Everett spits out corn as Big Dan pulls the roll of money out of his overalls. Delmar launches himself onto Dan's back, but he easily swings him off. He grabs the shoe box as both men lie stunned on the ground. Expecting a stash of money, Big Dan instead finds Pete the toad. "You know these things give you warts?" says Dan as he squishes the toad and drops it to the ground. Delmar, his face covered in blood, gasps and whimpers and Big Dan gets into their stolen car and drives off. Delmar sobs, mouthing the word "Pete."
At night, a policeman holds a torch and interrogates Pete, who is human and being whipped as he is tied to a tree. Wearing only his longjohn underwear, Pete screams as he is lashed. The policeman demands to know where the other two men are headed. The sheriff, with his baying hound and dark glasses as always, approaches. Pete looks terrified at his arrival. The sky thunders, and lightning flashes behind him. He tells Pete that his friends have abandoned him, but Pete has no response. "Okay," says the sheriff. A noose is flung over a tree limb, and one of the policemen ropes it around his neck. "God forgive me!" Pete sobs. The sheriff tells the other men to hold.
The next day, Everett and Delmar hitch a ride on the back of a flatbed truck. Both look despondent. Everett assures Delmar that Pete would have wanted them to press on towards the treasure, but Delmar doesn't think it's right to dig up the money without him. The truck drives past a prison chain gang breaking rocks on the sides of the road. Everett spots Pete among the prisoners. Pete pauses for a moment, staring sourly back at him. Squinting through the dust as the truck moves away, Everett asks if Pete has a brother. Delmar says he doesn't. Everett shakes his head, unbelieving, and says the heat must be getting to him.
In a small town, a crowd of people is gathered watching musical acts on a stage wrapped in "Homer Stokes for Governor" banners and signs. Homer (
Wayne Duvall) takes the microphone, railing against Pappy O'Daniel. He calls himself "the servant of the little man," and a little person (
Ed Gale) on stage with him, holding a broom, agrees. In unison, the two brandish their brooms as Homer promises to sweep the state clean. Just as Homer introduces the next musical act, the Wharvey gals, the flatbed truck drops off Delmar and Everett in the back of the crowd.
"Wharvey gals?" repeats Everett incredulously. Three little girls begin singing a folk song as Everett makes his way to the front of the audience, Delmar following. They finish as he reaches the stage, and he calls them over. They greet him with "Daddy!" and rush to hug him. One says that he isn't their daddy. "Hell I ain't! What's this 'Wharvey gals'? Your name's McGill!"
"No sir, not since you got hit by that train," says the middle one. They say their mom told them that he was hit and killed by a train, which is why they were switched to her maiden name. They also explain that their mother has a new beau named Vernon T. Waldrip -- "He's a suitor!" They will be married tomorrow. Everett says he's heard about that. They tell him that their mother is at the five-and-dime.
Everett goes to the store, where more little girls greet him as Daddy. His wife Penny (
Holly Hunter), holding an infant girl, looks shocked and displeased to see him. He demands to know why she never told him about the baby, and one of his girls answers, "'Cause you was hit by a train." Everett wants to know why she told their daughters he was killed, and she snaps that it's more respectable to be hit by a train than divorced by your wife after going to jail. Vernon (
Ray McKinnon), a tall, lanky man, ambles over and asks her if Everett is bothering her. Everett takes Penny aside and tells her he's traveled a long way just to see her and their daughters and that she can't marry Vernon. She tells him Vernon has a job and prospects and can support the little girls, whereas the best thing Everett ever did for them was "get hit by that train."
"You lying, unconstant succubus," Everett accuses. Vernon steps in to defend Penny, and he and Everett start fighting. Everett is easily defeated, and the store manager throws him out, warning him to stay out of Woolworth's.
Everett and Delmar sit in a mostly empty movie theater, and Everett warns Delmar never to get involved with women. The movie suddenly stops. A group of shackled prisoners are led into the theater and sit behind Delmar and Everett, who duck low into their seats. The movie resumes. Behind them, a low voice warns in a loud whisper: "Do... not... seek... the treasure."
The two turn around to see Pete, only a couple of rows back from them. "It's a bushwhack. They're fixin' an ambush," he rasps. Delmar leans over his seat and whispers, "We thought... you was... a toad." Pete looks confused. Delmar repeats himself. There is a pause. "Do... not... seek... the treasure!" Pete answers. A guard yells for quiet. Delmar and Everett turn back around, slouching low in their seats.
On the porch of a huge plantation mansion, Pappy O'Daniel is still hopelessly miserable about the upcoming election. One of his associates says that Stokes's campaign is very well-run, "midget and broom and what-not." Pappy's son suggests they get a little person of their own, one even smaller than Stokes's. Pappy slaps at him with his hat: "Why, we'd look like a bunch of Johnny-come-latelys, breakin' out our own midget. Don't matter how stumpy!" The other two associates debate whether Stokes going to either paddle or kick Pappy's behind in the election.
That night in the penal farm, Pete lies on the top mattress of a bunk bed, pleading for God to forgive him. He is startled by Everett, who is held up on Delmar's shoulders. Everett, his face and hands smeared black with coal, snaps off the shackle holding Pete's hand to the bed with a pair of wire cutters as Pete pleads for forgiveness.
Outside, Pete smears his own face with the charcoal to match Everett and Delmar. He explains that the sirens took him out to bathe in the water, trussed him up, and turned him in for the bounty. "Typical womanly behavior," remarks Everett, who says they were lucky to have woken up and left before the sirens came back for them. Delmar explains they never meant to abandon him -- they just thought he was a toad. Pete then woefully admits that he told the authorities where the treasure is buried. Everett assures him that it's all right. Pete begins blubbering, amazed that they are taking the news so well. He hugs them both, wailing, "You my boon companions!" Everett tells him not to feel so badly about it, but Pete begins sobbing harder and holds them more tightly. Everett wrestles himself out of Pete's grip. Guiltily, he explains to the still-embracing Pete and Delmar that there is no $1.2 million, and there never was.
"So where's all the money from the armored car job?" asks Delmar. Everett says that wasn't the real reason he was in jail -- he was arrested for practicing law without a license. He had to break out because Penny had written him that she was getting married, and he had to stop her. Everett made up the lie so Pete and Delmar would go along with him, since they were all shackled together. The date of the river being dammed, which they were trying so hard to beat, was really the date for Penny's wedding to Vernon. Slowly, Pete says that had had only two weeks left on his sentence. Now, with the added time for the two escapes, he won't get out of jail until he's 84 years old. Delmar cheerfully realizes that with the tacked-on 50 years, he'll only be 82.
"You ruined my life!" screams Pete as he tackles Everett. "I do apologize about that, Pete," croaks Everett as Pete chokes him in a hold. Tangled together, they lose their footing and roll down a small slope. Delmar chases after them. They scuffle at the foot of the hill but are interrupted by men's chanting very nearby.
The three of them peer over the bushes and see a huge Ku Klux Klan rally going on only a few yards away. The Klan members, bathed in fiery light from a huge burning cross, are performing a sort of ritual, chanting and marching in time, that manages to be both ludicrous and alarming. The ritual comes to a stop and the Grand Wizard, so signified by his red costume, addresses the gathering. He intones a short song about death as the congregation marches in step. Surveying the scene, Everett spots Tommy being held by two Klan members, and Pete points out a noose they have set up for him. Realizing they have to save Tommy, they devise a quick plan to snatch the three-man color guard, who are standing far back from the crowd, and disguise themselves in their robes. They successfully drag the color guard into the bushes unnoticed and clamber back into place, wearing the white costumes and holding up the Confederate flag. The Wizard gives a speech about their cultured heritage, concluding his hate-filled remarks with, "And so... we gonna hang us a Negro."
"Hooray," drone the men in unison. They begin to chant loudly and part to make way for the two men courting Tommy towards the noose. Everett, Delmar, and Pete scramble after them, trying to march solemnly in step. One of the Klan members in the crowd, whose sheet has only one eye hole, turns to watch the color guard. He lifts up the sheet, revealing that he is Big Dan Teague. He sniffs the air suspiciously. Everett calls after Tommy, saying they have come to rescue him. Tommy says that's nice of them, but the Devil has come to collect his due. Big Dan breaks ranks and goes marching up the aisle after them, and he snatches off Everett's sheet. The Klansman stop chanting to gasp, and the men holding Tommy turn around to see Everett, his face still smeared in charcoal. Big Dan snatches off Pete's hat to more gasps. The Grand Wizard lifts up his red sheet to put on his glasses, and we see it is Homer Stokes. His "little man," on stage with him, lifts up his sheet as well.
"The colored guard is colored!" gasps Stokes. The crowd advances on them, but Delmar fends them off by swinging around the Confederate flag. Everett yells at them to run. They take off towards the burning cross and stop in front of it, where Delmar turns to hurl the flag into the crowd. Horrified, they all stand still, watching the projectile flag come hurtling towards Big Dan. Stokes yells at them not to let the flag hit the ground. Big Dan holds his ground, watching the pointy end of the flagpole aiming straight for his head, and he snaps up and catches it just inches from his face. For a moment, the Klan members breathe a sigh of relief. Everett takes this pause to use the wire cutters he'd brought to break out Pete to snap the suspension wires on the burning cross. Big Dan is not so lucky this time, as the untethered cross falls down upon him. The boys run off.
At the town hall, there is another campaign rally for Homer Stokes going on. Pappy O'Daniel and his small entourage arrive outside as Pappy declares that he wants to hire away Stokes's campaign manager, who happens to be Vernon T. Waldrip. Tommy and the boys poke their heads around the corner. Everett explains that to get into the rally, they'd have to sneak in through the service entrance. Pete angrily challenges Everett's leadership of their outfit again. He explains they have only seen trouble since Everett has led them. Dejected, Everett acknowledges that he deserves it if they turn against him, but he begs them to stick with him because he has a plan.
Homer Stokes's car pulls up in front of the hall. He and his little companion angrily fling their KKK robes into the car, still agitated from the ruined Klan meeting. Stokes proclaims that he's never heard of such behavior, "even amongst the colored," and suspects that the boys are "miscegenated."
Around the back of the hall, the four boys, now wearing long, fake beards and holding a couple of guitars, enter. Pete complains that no one will believe they're a real band. As the first musical act finishes, the boys wander onto the stage. Everett sees Penny seated at a large table in the front row, facing away from them. As he ducks down to talk to her from the stage, Delmar instructs the band on the stage to play "In the Jailhouse Now." As he sings, Everett gets Penny's attention and pleads with her to come back to him, saying that he will get a friend of his to print up a license for him to work as a dentist. Penny scoffs and turns back around. Meanwhile, Pappy is whispering to Vernon, asking him to leave Stokes's campaign to work for his. Vernon balks at the suggestion.
Their first song finished, Pete and Delmar begin "Man of Constant Sorrow" as Everett is still whispering to Penny. The crowd erupts in enthusiastic applause as everyone jumps to their feet. The boys are shocked, as they still haven't heard that the Soggy Bottom Boys are a big hit. Penny and Everett share surprise as he begins to sing. Everett dances and the audience begins cheering wildly as Penny tries to cover her smile. In the audience, Pappy and his associates look around the room, amazed at the people's response. His son points out that the band is integrated, but Pappy says that no one seems to mind.
Homer, meanwhile, realizes who the boys are and demands a microphone. He stops the song, shouting that the boys aren't white or even old-timey. He explains that they "interfered with a lynch mob in the performance of its duties" that same evening, which he knows because he is a "member of a certain secret society." As he goes on, railing against the Soggy Bottom Boys, the crowd grows restless and demands that he let them play. Pappy looks around the room, noticing everyone's discontent. When Stokes proclaims that the music is over, he is roundly booed. Vernon whispers something into his ear. Stokes shouts to the crowd that the boys are escaped convicts and that the "Negro" sold his soul to the Devil. This meets even harsher boos. We see that the rally is being broadcast over the radio into people's homes all over the state. Someone unplugs his microphone, and he is pelted with debris. Some men carrying a large piece of lumber enter from outside. Homer is carried onto it and then is literally ridden out of the town on a rail as the crowd cheers.
On stage, the boys resume singing, and the audience erupts with enthusiasm again. Seeing his opportunity, Pappy O'Daniel dances his way onto the stage with them. When the song is finished, Pappy addresses the crowd and radio listeners. He announces that his opponent is obviously not a music lover, and at the mention of his name, Stokes's ex-constituency boos. As a "forgive and forget Christian" governor, Pappy gives the boys a pardon and pledges that if re-elected, they will be in his brain trust. He has the boys lead them in a round of "You Are My Sunshine" as a way of endorsing his candidacy.
Apparently appeased with Everett's new promising prospects, Penny leaves the hall with him, arm-in-arm. Penny smiles that the marriage will go on tomorrow as promised, as she and Everett will be getting remarried. Everett invites the three boys to be his best men. He asks Penny where her wedding ring is. She says since the divorce, its been in a roll-top desk in the old cabin. Everett plans to buy her current engagement ring off of Vernon, but Penny is not amused. "Ain't gonna be no weddin'," she says. Delmar offers their help to go fetch the old ring from their cabin. "You have any idea how far that cabin is?!" complains Everett.
As they stand outside, a mob holding torches comes marching up the street. In front is a very disheveled George Nelson in chains. He says hello to the boys and laughs, "Looks like the chair for George Nelson! ...I'm gonna go off like a Roman candle!" The mob leads him off as he cackles and whoops. "Looks like George is right back on top again," remarks Delmar.
The next day, we see a hound dog snuffling around in a cupboard full of tins of Dapper Dan. Outside, the four boys are walking to Everett's cabin. As they come upon it, they see three nooses strung across a huge oak tree's limb as some men dig three graves. Two armed policemen come up behind them as the sheriff exits the cabin, his hound on its leash.
"End of the road, boys," he calls to them. He has the policemen tie the boys' hands behind their backs. "Didn't know youd be bringin' a friend," the sheriff says of Tommy. "He'll just have to wait his turn, share one of your graves." Everett and Delmar explain that the governor pardoned all of them and that it was even on the radio.
"Well, we ain't got a radio," says the sheriff. Everett despairs that this isn't the law, to which the sheriff scoffs that law is a human institution. The gravediggers climb out of the fresh graves and sing a solemn hymn. Delmar apologizes to Tommy. Everett drops to his knees and prays earnestly to the Lord, apologizing for turning his back on him and begging Him to let him see his daughters again. As he finishes his plea, water begins trickling around his knees. They hear a low rumbling in the distance. A huge wave of muddy water comes crashing towards them, busting apart the cabin and enveloping the men.
We see the hound, a pair of dark glasses, cans of pomade, and other objects from the cabin floating underwater as Everett struggles his hands free. As the Dapper Dan tins pop to the top of the water, so does Everett, gasping for air. The flood is so high that only a few treetops break the surface. Pete and Delmar come to the surface too, and the three swim to grab hold of one of their coffins as it floats nearby. Delmar proclaims the flood to be a miracle. Everett tells him not to be ignorant, reminding him that they knew that valley was being flooded. The entire state, he explains, will be put on hydroelectricity, which will put an end to "backward" ways as a new age of scientific enlightment is ushered in. As he goes on about the impending "age of reason," he spots a cow on top of a cotton house. He also sees Tommy, who is holding onto a roll-top desk as it bobs in the water.
Later, Everett accompanies Penny and their daughters down a sunny street, as he explains that his adventuring days are over. He tells Penny she was right about the ring, as they couldn't possibly be married with any other. He presents her with the ring he recovered from the floating roll-top desk. She tells him that he is holding her aunt's ring, not hers. "You said it was in the roll-top desk!" he protests.
"I said I thought it was in the roll-top desk. Or under the mattress. Or maybe in my chiffarobe, I dont know..." He tells her he's sorry, but her ring is now at the bottom of a big lake. She demands her ring and stalks off in front of him. Their little girls trail behind them singing, and as they walk across a railroad track, they see the blind seer on his handcart. He joins in their song, pumping his way down the line.
