Into The Wild

Over the weekend, we watched Into The Wild, the film based on the same-titled book about the adventures and death of Christopher McCandless. Matt read the book a while back and I knew that he would like the movie too.

After graduation from Emory, Christopher decided to give almost all of his life savings to charity and take a cross country trip. When his car broke down, he burned the rest of his money and hitchhiked. He canoed down the Colorado River, all the way into Mexico. He moved all over the Midwest, meeting several eccentric characters along the way and took several short odd jobs to earn enough money to move around. He eventually decided that his ultimate goal was to go to Alaska to hike the Stampede Trail and live off of the land.

He was apparently extremely naive about the Alaskan adventure. He hitchhiked into the area and only had a 22-caliber rifle and rain boots because the guy who dropped him off insisted that he take them (who goes into the wilderness for a long-term stay without a rifle?!). He only took with him ten pounds of rice, some camping supplies, a camera, several boxes of ammunition (I assume given to him by the guy with the gun), and a few books.

He hiked into the wilderness in late April and found an abandoned bus used as a shelter by hikers. By July, he decided to hike out but was trapped in by the rising river water. He died some time in August and was discovered by moose hunters a few weeks later. He weighed less than 70 pounds when he was found.

The movie was less about his death (and starvation) and more about his travels all over the country and the poor relationship that he had with his parents. He was really anti-materialism and just wanted to have an adventure. Christopher got to see and do some really incredible things, but in the end, he died alone on an abandoned bus in the middle of no where because he was naive and stubborn.