The travel drama released on September 21, 2007, is an American movie based on the life of Christopher McCandless( better known as Alexander Supertramp). The movie was extracted from the same book named ‘Into the Wild’ which is the life story of Christopher McCandless who decided to live a very different life apart from normal people. The movie with two nominations at the Oscars was directed by Sean Penn and the screenplay was also shaped by him only.
IMDb: 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
The cast includes the following characters:
Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless
Kristen Stewart as Tracy Tatro
Wince Vaughn as Wayne Westerberg
Brian H. Dierker as Rainey
Catherine Keener as Jan Burress
William Hurt as Walt McCandless
Marcia Gay Harden as Billie McCandless
Jena Malone as Carine McCandless
Plot summary:
The opening sequence of the movie shows the timeframe of 1999 AD where Christopher is seen graduating from his college with a grade A. Being happy with their son, his parents want to gift him a car. But Christopher tells them that his old car is still fine and hence he doesn’t want a new one. But his parents still want him to take the car but he doesn’t accept that.
Sometimes after that, he destroys all his identity cards, his documents, credit cards, and certificates. He had 24000 dollars in his account which his parents had given to spend him during his studies. He gives all that money to a charity, takes his bag, and goes far in his car. He is not happy with his parent’s relationship and everything so he wants to leave back all his identity and go to a place where no one knows him. On his way, he stays at a place at night in his car. This area is a flooded area and hence at night his car gets stuck in the flood and hence he has to leave his car there itself and continue his journey on foot. Before leaving the place he takes the number plate of his car off so that no one can identify that it is his car. He even burns all the dollars he had.
Now Christopher has nothing but his dreams and his vision and his bag. During his journey, he gets to his destination by asking for lifts. He sleeps anywhere in the forest and stays anywhere he likes just like the whole world is his home. Now he changes his name to Alexander Supertramp. On his journey, he meets a hippie couple. Their names are Rainey and Jan. They give a lift to Christopher and tell him that they are similar to him but the only difference is that they travel in their vehicle whereas Alexander (Christopher) walks on foot.
Christopher stays with them for a few days and Rainey tells him that Rainey and Jan have problems in their relationship. Jan was with someone else in the past and he left her so she can’t forget about her past and hence likes to be alone. Rainey even adds that he loves Jan very much. Christopher tells him that some people think that they deserve love and hence want to be alone to fill the past voids up. His thoughts make Rainey impressed. As Christopher lives with them, their relationship gets better.
Christopher wanted to complete his journey to Alaska all alone so he leaves them and moves forward. He was in Northern California and then he reaches Eastern South Dakota. It has become two months since he left his house. There he meets Wayne Westerberg who has contracts of hectares of fields. Christopher works for him in the field. He operates big machines to harvest the grains. He asks for a gun with Wayne because Alaska is a jungle and hence he wants to be safe and hunt animals too. He gets the gun and Christopher moves forward.
Now he has to cross the Colorado River but for that, he has to get permission and hence he goes to the office. The officer tells him to fill his name in the waiting list but it states that his turn will come 12 years hence. He gets shocked and leaves the office. Then he decides to illegally cross the river and gets into it. On the way he finds another couple who tell him that he can go to Mexico from the same route too. He gets followed by the police so he runs away to Mexico. On the way, he stays in a cave for 36 days. He reaches the city and feels very uncomfortable. He moves forward in his journey through cargo trains since he has no money to pay for the passenger trains. But one time, he gets caught by the authority and gets beaten very hard.
Then he again decides to ask for a lift. Then once again he gets to meet the same hippie couple Rainey and Jan. There he meets another girl named Tracy. Tracy starts falling in love with him but Christopher doesn’t show much interest in her because first she was too young and second he had to complete his journey. After staying for someday, he continues his journey to Alaska. On his way, he stays at Sheldon City for two weeks in a camp where he meets a man who does leather work. Christopher finds that old man very interesting and starts spending time with him. He tells him that he lost all his family in a car accident. He Christopher leather works too. After learning that Christopher makes a belt for himself where he carves his whole journey in the picture. After spending two months there Christopher decides to head towards Alaska. Both of them had a very good mutual bond. The old man didn’t want him to go but rather wanted him to stay so that he can make him his grandchild. He respects that but he tells that he has to get to Alaska and once he gets back from there they will talk about this.
One traveler gives him a lift to the Alaska border. He gives him long boots too. Christopher has now reached his destination Alaska and it has become 21 months since he left his home. He lives in a camp and it is so cold there. He fires the woods and hunts small animals. Now he crosses a river to go to the order side and leaves his hat there as a mark because that would help him know the way when he wants to get back. He finds an old bus and makes it beautiful to live there. He starts getting short of food. He keeps on making new holes in his belt because he gets thinner day by day. Now he realizes that he has to get back and that life is beautiful when lived together and when joys are shared. He realizes that no one can win over nature’s rules and he wants to get back home. He tries to cross that river back but now the river has got very big that it is not possible.
Christopher has a habit of writing everything in his journey. Now Christopher has started getting weak because of a lack of nutrition. He eats the roots and fruits of different plants by checking the book. One day he mistakenly consumes a poisonous wild potato and hence starts getting sick. It has been 100 days since he got to Alaska. He starts feeling that he is going to die soon. In his book, he writes “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”. He gets into his sleeping bag and remembers his family and leaves a note for the world stating “I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and may god bless all!”. He leaves the world on September 6, 1992. This scene leaves viewers in tears and makes them realize that we should definitely live the life we want to but life is colorless and incomplete without family, the loved ones.
0 comments: