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Into the Wild | |
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Directed by | Sean Penn |
Screenplay by | Sean Penn |
Based on | Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Eric Gautier |
Edited by | Jay Cassidy |
Music by | |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Paramount Vantage [1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 148 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $20 million [3] |
Box office | $56.8 million [3] |
Into the Wild is a 2007 American biographical adventure drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Sean Penn. It is an adaptation of the 1996 non-fiction book of the same name written by Jon Krakauer and tells the story of Christopher McCandless ("Alexander Supertramp"), a man who hiked across North America into the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s. The film stars Emile Hirsch as McCandless, Marcia Gay Harden as his mother, William Hurt as his father, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Brian H. Dierker, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, and Hal Holbrook.
The film premiered during the 2007 Rome Film Fest and opened outside Fairbanks, Alaska, on September 21, 2007. It received critical acclaim and grossed $56 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Golden Globes and won the award for Best Original Song: "Guaranteed" by Eddie Vedder. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor for Holbrook. [4]
In April 1992, Chris McCandless arrives in a remote area called Healy, just north of Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Noting McCandless' unpreparedness, the man who drops him off gives him gumboots.
McCandless sets up camp in an abandoned city bus that he calls "The Magic Bus". He is content with the isolation, the beauty of nature, and the thrill of living off the land. He hunts with a .22, reads books, and keeps a journal as he prepares his new life in the wild.
In May 1990, McCandless graduates with high honors from Emory University. He is disenchanted with modern society after discovering he and his sister Carine were born out of wedlock.
McCandless destroys his credit cards and identification, donates his savings to Oxfam and sets out on a cross-country drive in his Datsun 210 to experience life in the wilderness. He does not tell his parents or Carine what he is doing or where he is going and does not contact them after his departure. This causes his parents to become increasingly anxious.
At Lake Mead, McCandless' car is caught in a flash flood; he abandons it and begins hitchhiking. Burning what remains of his cash, he assumes the name "Alexander Supertramp". In Northern California, McCandless encounters hippie couple Jan and Rainey. Rainey tells him his relationship with Jan is failing, which McCandless helps rekindle.
In September, McCandless arrives in Carthage, South Dakota, and works for a contract harvesting company owned by Wayne Westerberg. He leaves after Westerberg is arrested for satellite piracy.
McCandless kayaks down the Colorado River and, though told by park rangers he may not do so without a license, ignores their warnings and goes downriver to Mexico. His kayak is lost in a dust storm, and he crosses back into the United States on foot. Unable to hitch a ride, he jumps on freight trains to Los Angeles. Not long after arriving, however, he starts feeling "corrupted" by modern civilization and leaves. He is forced to resume hitchhiking when railroad police catch and beat him.
In December 1991, McCandless arrives at Slab City, in the Imperial Valley, and encounters Jan and Rainey again. He also meets Tracy Tatro, a teenage girl who shows interest in him, but he turns her down because she is a minor. After the holidays, McCandless continues heading for Alaska.
One month later, camping near Salton City, McCandless meets Ron Franz, a retired widower who lost his family in a car accident while he was serving in the United States Army. He leads a lonely life in a workshop as a leather worker. Franz teaches McCandless leatherwork, resulting in the making of a belt detailing his travels.
After two months with Franz, McCandless decides to leave for Alaska. Franz gives McCandless his old camping and travel gear, along with an offer to adopt him as his grandchild. McCandless tells him they should discuss it after he returns from Alaska.
Four months later, at the abandoned bus, life for McCandless becomes harder, and he makes several poor decisions. Trying to live off the land, he hunts down a large moose with his rifle, but cannot preserve the meat and it spoils within days. As his supplies dwindle, he realizes that nature can be harsh.
McCandless concludes that true happiness can be found only when shared with others, and he seeks to return from the wild to his friends and family. However, he finds that the stream he crossed during the winter has become wide, deep, and violent due to the thaw, and he is unable to cross. Defeated, he returns to the bus.
In a desperate act, McCandless gathers and eats 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 what it might have been like if he had managed to return to his family. He writes a farewell note to the world and crawls into his sleeping bag to die.
Two weeks later, moose hunters find his body. Shortly afterwards, Carine returns to Virginia with her brother's ashes in her backpack.
The scenes of graduation from Emory University in the film were shot in late 2006 on the front lawn of Reed College. Some of the graduation scenes were also filmed during the actual Emory University graduation on May 15, 2006. [6] The Alaska scenes depicting the area around the abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail were filmed 50 miles (80 km) south of where McCandless actually died, in the tiny town of Cantwell. Filming at the actual bus would have been too remote for the technical demands of a movie shoot. [7] A replica bus used in the movie is now a tourist attraction at a restaurant in Healy, Alaska. [8]
Brian Dierker, who plays a major supporting role in the film as Rainey, had no previous acting experience and became involved in the production to be a guide for the rafting scenes. [9]
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of 200 reviews of the film were positive, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "With his sturdy cast and confident direction, Sean Penn has turned a complex work of nonfiction like Into the Wild into an accessible and poignant character study." [10] Metacritic assigned the film an average score of 73 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [11]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four and described it as "spellbinding". Ebert wrote that Emile Hirsch gives a "hypnotic performance", commenting: "It is great acting, and more than acting." Ebert added, "The movie is so good partly because it means so much, I think, to its writer-director, Sean Penn." [12]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result |
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Academy Awards [13] | February 24, 2008 | Best Supporting Actor | Hal Holbrook | Nominated |
Best Film Editing | Jay Cassidy | Nominated | ||
Golden Globe Awards [14] | January 13, 2008 | Best Original Song – Motion Picture | "Guaranteed" | Won |
Best Original Score – Motion Picture | Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder | Nominated | ||
Critics' Choice Movie Awards | January 7, 2008 | Best Film | Into the Wild | Nominated |
Best Actor | Emile Hirsch | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actor | Hal Holbrook | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actress | Catherine Keener | Nominated | ||
Best Director | Sean Penn | Nominated | ||
Best Writer | Nominated | |||
Best Song | "Guaranteed" | Nominated | ||
American Cinema Editors | February 17, 2008 | Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic | Jay Cassidy | Nominated |
César Awards | February 27, 2009 | Best Foreign Film | Into the Wild | Nominated |
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | December 13, 2007 | Best Picture | Nominated | |
Best Screenplay – Adapted | Sean Penn | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actor | Hal Holbrook | Nominated | ||
Cinema Audio Society | February 16, 2008 | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures | Nominated | |
Directors Guild of America Awards | January 26, 2008 | Best Director – Film | Sean Penn | Nominated |
Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards | February 1, 2008 | Best Foreign Film – English Language | Nominated | |
Gotham Awards | November 27, 2007 | Best Feature Film | Into the Wild | Won |
Breakthrough Actor | Emile Hirsch | Nominated | ||
Grammy Awards | February 10, 2008 | Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media | "Guaranteed" | Nominated |
Mill Valley Film Festival | October 14, 2007 | Best Actor | Emile Hirsch | Won |
National Board of Review | December 5, 2007 | Breakthrough Performance – Male | Won | |
Palm Springs International Film Festival | January 5, 2008 | Director of the Year Award | Sean Penn | Won |
Rising Star Award Actor | Emile Hirsch | Won | ||
Rome Film Festival | October 27, 2007 | Jury Award | William Pohlad, Art Linson and Sean Penn | Won |
São Paulo International Film Festival | November 1, 2007 | Best Foreign Language Film | Sean Penn | Won |
Satellite Awards | December 16, 2007 | Best Original Song | "Rise" | Nominated |
Screen Actors Guild Awards | January 27, 2008 | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | The cast of Into the Wild | Nominated |
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role | Emile Hirsch | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role | Hal Holbrook | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role | Catherine Keener | Nominated | ||
USC Scripter Award | February 2, 2008 | USC Scripter Award | Sean Penn (screenwriter), Jon Krakauer (author) | Nominated |
Writers Guild of America Awards | February 9, 2008 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Sean Penn | Nominated |
The American Film Institute listed the film as one of ten AFI Movies of the Year for 2007. [15] [16]
National Board of Review named it one of the Top Ten Films of the Year. [17]
Into the Wild also ranks 473rd in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. [18]
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007. [19]
In North America, Into the Wild initially opened in limited release in four theaters and grossed $212,440, posting a per-theater average of $53,110. For the next several weeks, the film remained in limited release until it expanded to over 600 theaters on October 19, 2007; in its first weekend of wide release, the film grossed just $2.1 million for a per-theater average of $3,249. As of December 25, 2008, the film grossed $18,354,356 domestically and $37,281,398 internationally. In total, the film has grossed $55,635,754 worldwide. [24]
Into the Wild was released on March 4, 2008, on standard DVD, [25] Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition DVD, [26] and standard HD DVD. [27] The special edition DVD and HD DVD contain two special features entitled The Story, The Characters and The Experience. The Blu-ray Disc edition was released in France on July 16, 2008. [28] The Blu-ray edition for the US was released on December 16, 2008. [29]
The songs on the soundtrack were performed by Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, and Jerry Hannan. Vedder won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song for the song "Guaranteed". The score was written and performed by Michael Brook and Kaki King. The music at the end of the theatrical trailer is "Acts of Courage" by X-Ray Dog, a company that supplies music for many movie trailers. Eddie Vedder said whilst writing the songs on the album "I spent three days giving him (Sean Penn) colors that I could paint with. Different sounds. It would be pump organ and vocal, or it would be an uptempo song. I just gave him 25 minutes of music, stuff I felt that were colors on the palette. And I really didn't think anything was gonna come out of it. Maybe a little piece or something". [30]
The abandoned and decaying bus on the Stampede Trail where McCandless died became a pilgrimage destination for fans. In the 1940s, a road crew had taken the bus to a remote trail in Denali Borough, Alaska, 30 miles (50 km) from the nearest town, according to Denali Borough Mayor Clay Walker. Visitors had to cross the dangerous Teklanika River. In 2010, a Swiss woman drowned. [31] In 2019, a newlywed Belarusian woman drowned in the swollen river on her way to the site. Five Italians were rescued in February 2020, with one suffering from severe frostbite, and a stranded Brazilian was rescued in April 2020. In total, 15 search and rescue operations for visitors were carried out between 2009 and 2017.
On June 18, 2020, the bus was removed due to public safety concerns. It was air-lifted by a US Army Chinook helicopter to an undisclosed location pending a decision about its final destination. [32] [33] On September 24, 2020, the Museum of The North [34] at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) announced that it had become the permanent home of Magic Bus 142, to be restored for an outdoor exhibit. [35]
The Denali Borough is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census the population of the borough was 1,619, down from 1,826 in 2010. The borough seat and most populated community is Healy, and its only incorporated place is Anderson. The borough was incorporated in December 1990.
Eddie Jerome Vedder is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a guest vocalist for supergroup Temple of the Dog, a tribute band dedicated to the late singer Andrew Wood.
Runaway Train is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by Andrei Konchalovsky and starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay and John P. Ryan. The screenplay by Đorđe Miličević, Paul Zindel and Edward Bunker was based on an original 1960s screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, with uncredited contributions by frequent Kurosawa collaborators Hideo Oguni and Ryūzō Kikushima. The film was also the feature debut of both Danny Trejo and Tommy "Tiny" Lister, who both proceeded to successful careers as "tough guy" character actors.
Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is a United States national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. The park and contiguous preserve encompass 6,045,153 acres which is larger than the state of New Hampshire. On December 2, 1980, 2,146,580-acre Denali Wilderness was established within the park. Denali's landscape is a mix of forest at the lowest elevations, including deciduous taiga, with tundra at middle elevations, and glaciers, snow, and bare rock at the highest elevations. The longest glacier is the Kahiltna Glacier. Wintertime activities include dog sledding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling. The park received 594,660 recreational visitors in 2018.
Wild Things is a 1998 American erotic thriller film directed by John McNaughton and starring Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Theresa Russell, Robert Wagner, and Bill Murray. It follows a high school guidance counselor in South Florida who is accused of rape by two female students and a series of subsequent revelations after a police officer begins investigating the alleged crimes.
Christopher Johnson McCandless, also known by his pseudonym "Alexander Supertramp", was an American adventurer who sought an increasingly nomadic lifestyle as he grew up. McCandless is the subject of Into the Wild, a nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer that was later made into a full-length feature film.
Into the Wild is a 1996 non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. It is an expansion of a 9,000-word article by Krakauer on Chris McCandless titled "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside. The book was adapted to a film of the same name in 2007, directed by Sean Penn with Emile Hirsch starring as McCandless. Into the Wild is an international bestseller which has been printed in 30 languages and 173 editions and formats. The book is widely used as high school and college reading curriculum. Into the Wild has been lauded by many reviewers, and in 2019 was listed by Slate as one of the 50 best nonfiction works of the past quarter-century.
Timothy Treadwell was an American bear enthusiast, environmentalist, documentary filmmaker, and founder of the bear-protection organization Grizzly People. He lived among coastal brown bears in Katmai National Park, Alaska, for 13 summers.
"Even Flow" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard, it was released in 1992 as the second single from the band's debut album, Ten (1991). The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was included in Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror . A remixed version of the song was included on the 2009 Ten reissue.
Babel is a 2006 psychological drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga. The multi-narrative drama features an ensemble cast and portrays interwoven stories taking place in Morocco, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. An international co-production among companies based in the United States, Mexico and France, the film completes Arriaga and Iñárritu's Death Trilogy, following Amores perros (2000) and 21 Grams (2003).
Atonement is a 2007 romantic war drama film directed by Joe Wright and starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave. It is based on the 2001 novel by Ian McEwan. The film chronicles a crime and its consequences over six decades, beginning in the 1930s. It was produced for StudioCanal and filmed in England. Distributed in most of the world by Universal Studios, it was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 7 September 2007 and in North America exactly three months later on 7 December 2007.
The Stampede Trail is a remote road and trail located in the Denali Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Apart from a paved or maintained gravel road for 8 miles (13 km) between Eight Mile Lake and the trail's eastern end, the route consists of a primitive and at times dangerous hiking or ATV trail following the path of the original road, which has deteriorated over the years. The route ends at an abandoned antimony mine at 63.740739°N 150.379229°W along Stampede Creek, a couple miles past Stampede Airport's grass airstrip.
Open Season is a 2006 American animated adventure comedy film directed by Roger Allers and Jill Culton and co-directed by Anthony Stacchi, from a screenplay by Nat Mauldin and the writing team of Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman, and a screen story by Culton and Stacchi, based on an original idea by Steve Moore and John B. Carls. Produced by Sony Pictures Animation and Columbia Pictures, the film features an ensemble voice cast starring Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Sinise, and Debra Messing. Its plot follows Boog, a domesticated grizzly bear, who is let go into the woods, and teams up with a one-antlered mule deer named Elliot to return to his old home before open season starts.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan, and written by Kasdan and co-producer Judd Apatow. It stars John C. Reilly, Kristen Wiig, Tim Meadows and Jenna Fischer. A parody of the biopic genre, Walk Hard is the story of a fictional early rock and roll star played by Reilly.
Encounters at the End of the World is a 2007 American documentary film by Werner Herzog about Antarctica and the people who choose to spend time there. It was released in North America on June 11, 2008, and distributed by ThinkFilm. At the 81st Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
Into the Wild is the debut solo studio album by Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder, and is based on his contributions to the soundtrack for the film of the same name. It was released on September 18, 2007, through J Records.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) is a cultural and historical museum on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.
"Guaranteed" is a song written and performed by Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder from the Into the Wild soundtrack (2007). It is the final track on the album, and also features a hidden track of "Guaranteed" after about two minutes of silence following the regular version of "Guaranteed".
The Call of the Wild is a 2007 documentary film by the independent filmmaker Ron Lamothe. The premise details the odyssey of Christopher McCandless as Lamothe takes a road trip across North America to the places McCandless visited. Within the film, Lamothe reaches conclusions about McCandless' death which contradict both Sean Penn's film Into the Wild (2007) and Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild (1996), on which Penn's film was based.
Into the Wild may refer to:
The debut of "Into the Wild", a movie directed by Sean Penn about a 24-year-old man who starved to death in the Alaska wilderness, drew a packed house Monday night.