After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
Based on a true story. After graduating from Emory University, Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire savings account to charity, and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters who shape his life.—Lisa Kelley
A young man bravely sets out alone on what turns into a majestic journey to explore the beauty and wonder of the world. Throughout his travels, which ultimatelty lead him into the wild and wilderness, he seeks and ultimately finds pleasure and joy along with a sense of truth and purpose he has been yearning for all his life. Along the way he meets and deeply touches a cast of others who are all in their own ways also looking to escape or move on from the past and enjoy life again.—James Quirke
Based on the true story of 22 year-old Christopher McCandless who walked out of his privileged life and promising future to become a back-to-nature wanderer in the 1990s. On the way, he encounters a series of adventures and people that will all shape him in a unique, meaningful way.—Kyle Perez
In the spring of 1990, Christopher McCandless obtains his undergraduate degree from Emory. Watching him get his degree are his wealthy parents, Walt McCandless and Billie McCandless, and his teenaged sister, Carine McCandless. Before his parents and sister head home to Virginia following the convocation, Chris, refusing his parents' gift of a new car to replace his old Datsun which he states works perfectly fine, tells them that he has thoughts of going into Harvard Law, he having received excellent grades in what were largely classes focusing on global social consciousness. Walt, Billie and Carine will learn by the end of the summer that Chris had no intention of going to Harvard as he has since moved from his apartment in Atlanta without a word to them, he arranging with the post office to hold his mail for a couple of months before being "returned to sender" to give him a head start in his escape from his family. Chris' Datsun is eventually discovered abandoned in the Arizona desert, the authorities believing it being done on purpose as opposed to Chris being abducted. Walt and Billie intend to continue to search for Chris until they know conclusively what has happened to him. Carine, having had much the same upbringing as Chris, believes she understands what he is doing in making this escape. What he has done is either donated most of his money to Oxfam or burned it, and has destroyed all of his ID in an effort to start life anew as a child of the Earth, he rechristening himself Alexander Supertramp. This move is in rebellion to much of western society, and most specifically against the type of life his parents epitomize, they who he believes should never have gotten married and are hypocrites in portraying what they believe society expects of them, being generally unhappy with each other and life in the process. He ultimately wants to live off the land, carrying with him only what material possessions he will need, but wants to experience freedom by traveling the country by thumbing rides or riding the rails, working the odd job until he earns enough to purchase what he needs at any give time, and obtaining some skills he knows he will need to survive in the destination he has in mind when he is ready: the wilds of Alaska. Despite stating that he does not want or need attachments, he does make some human connections along the way, and not necessarily to/with like-minded people.—Huggo
The film is presented in a nonlinear narrative, cutting back and forth between McCandless' time spent in the Alaskan wilderness and his two-year travels leading up to his journey to Alaska. The plot summary here is told in a more chronological order.In April 1992, Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) arrives in a remote area just north of the Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Noting Chris' unpreparedness, the stranger who drops him off lends him a pair of boots. Chris travels into the wildness and sets up a campsite in an abandoned city bus, which he calls "The Magic Bus". At first, McCandless is content with the isolation, the beauty of nature around him, and the thrill of living off the land. He hunts with a .22 caliber rifle, reads books, and keeps a diary of his thoughts as he prepares himself for a new life in the wild.
Two years earlier, in May 1990, McCandless graduates with high honors from Emory University. Shortly afterwards, McCandless rejects his conventional life by destroying all of his credit cards and identification documents. He donates nearly all of his savings to Oxfam and sets out on a cross-country drive in his Datsun B210 to experience life in the wilderness. McCandless does not tell his parents, Walt (William Hurt) and Billie McCandless (Marcia Gay Harden), or his sister Carine (Jena Malone) what he is doing or where he is going. He refuses to keep in touch with them after his departure, causing his parents to become increasingly anxious and eventually desperate.
At Lake Mead, McCandless' car is caught in a flash flood, causing him to abandon it and begin hitchhiking. He burns what remains of his cash and assumes a new name: "Alexander Supertramp." In Northern California, McCandless encounters a hippie couple named Jan Burres (Catherine Keener) and Rainey (Brian H. Dierker). Rainey tells McCandless about his failing relationship with Jan, which McCandless helps rekindle. In September, McCandless arrives in Carthage, South Dakota and works for a contract harvesting company owned by Wayne Westerberg (Vince Vaughn). He is forced to leave after Westerberg is arrested for satellite piracy.McCandless then travels on the Colorado River and, though told by park rangers that he may not kayak down the river without a license, ignores their warnings and paddles downriver until he eventually arrives in Mexico. There, his kayak is lost in a dust storm, and he crosses back into the United States on foot. Unable to hitch a ride, he starts traveling on freight trains to Los Angeles. Not long after arriving, however, he starts feeling "corrupted" by modern civilization and decides to leave. Later, McCandless is forced to resume hitchhiking, after he is beaten by the railroad police.
In December 1991, McCandless arrives at Slab City, California, in the Imperial Valley, and encounters Jan and Rainey again. There, he also meets Tracy Tatro (Kristen Stewart), a teenage girl who shows interest in McCandless, but he rejects her because she is underage. After the holidays, McCandless decides to continue heading for Alaska. One month later, while camping near Salton City, California, McCandless encounters Ron Franz (Hal Holbrook), a retired man who recounts the story of the loss of his family in a car accident while he was serving in the United States Army. He now occupies his time in a workshop as an amateur leather worker. Franz teaches McCandless the craft of leather-work, resulting in the making of a belt that details McCandless' travels. After spending two months with Franz, McCandless decides to leave for Alaska, despite this upsetting Franz, who has become quite close to McCandless. On a parting note, Franz gives McCandless his old camping and travel gear, along with the offer to adopt him as his grandchild, but McCandless simply tells him that they should discuss this after he returns from Alaska; then, he departs.
Four months later, at the abandoned bus, life for McCandless becomes harder, and he begins to make poor decisions. As his supplies begin to run out, he realizes that nature is also harsh and uncaring. McCandless concludes that true happiness can only be found when shared with others, and he seeks to return from the wild to his friends and family. However, he finds that the stream he had crossed during the winter has become wide, deep, and violent due to the snow thaw, and he is unable to cross. Saddened, he returns to the bus. In a desperate act, McCandless is forced to gather and eat roots and plants. He confuses similar plants and eats a poisonous one, falling sick as a result. Slowly dying, he continues to document his process of self-realization and imagines his family for one last time. He writes a farewell to the world and crawls into his sleeping bag to die. Two weeks later, his body was found by moose hunters. Shortly afterwards, Carine returned to Virginia with her brother's ashes in her backpack.
