Into The Wild has come across as an awe-inspiring movie stirring the viewer’s perception about protecting their dreams and living the life one desires. You get lost in the wild journey of Chris and leaves you with deeper questions about your idea of life. Directed by Sean Penn this movie is based on a nonfiction book written by Jon Krakauer. Released in 2007, it is the biography of an American adventurer, Christopher McCandless who left all his belongings one fine day in the 1990s and hiked Alaskan wilderness.

‘The Girl Next Door’ fame Emile Hirsch has done justice to the central character pouring his heart and soul into the movie. The film has received love worldwide along with a whopping $56 million. It was also nominated for two Golden Globes and two Academy Awards. Film Secured award for Best Original Song “Guaranteed” by Eddie Vedder. Also, IMDB rating stands at 8.1/10.

Here are the 7 reasons why you must not miss this ode to the wanderer within:

1/7 Depicts Courageous Loner: It’s about Abandoning possessions 

The story revolves around a young man who loves adventures as much as he disguises the possessions. He is very bright in studies with a brilliant mind that manages to secure multiple A grades in his academics. He is very much capable of carving himself a bright future and living a regular life as defined by society but he decides to not chase degrees. Instead, he decides to chase his dream to live as a free, young, and wild, a soul surrounded by nature and away from society.

He burns down the bridges to society by abandoning his car and the money, renames himself as Alexander Supertramp from Christopher McCandless. This name resonates with his aspired lifestyle. His dream to hike across North America into the Alaskan wilderness is all that matters to him. And for that, he is ready to leave his family, the society, and his ownership over everything.

2/7 Glorifies Chris’s Enchanting Lifestyle: Minimalism seems tempting

He travels without a penny in his pockets and still lives his life on his terms, rules his way to the wild he aspires to live in. Fulfilling the expectations is a myth he believes no more and doing things that are nothing more than societal norms is simply against his values. Carrying a bag with minimum things to survive seems intimidating and yet he lives to the fullest. He eats the fruits on his way and befriends people meeting him on his way to Alaska. The recklessly minimal life catches the viewer’s attention and somewhere the viewer aspires to live the way he celebrates each day of his voyage.

3/7 Holds A Mirror: A desire to live and follow the dream

At one point or another, we all wish to do something different, break the monotony hovering over life and do something different than following the normalcy. We tell ourselves that it’s okay and wait for the phase to pass instead of being a rebel. But with Chris, the phase takes a troll and he redefines his living by following his heart. He prioritizes his wish to live unbound and seek personal revelation. We all can see our glimpse in him when he fights the monotony depicted in the movie.

4/7 Compassion and befriending strangers

He is curious and free. With a heart full of love for nature and the young soul he preserves talks a lot about compassion he carries. His choice brings a lot of pain to his family, but the choice is already made. On his way, he meets many strangers. They provide him with food and shelter and share their stories of life and love. They worry about his future as they reckon Chris’s journey to be full of uncertainties. He gets to learn a lot about love, empathy, and care from these strangers. He stays for a few days with different people but reserves himself a corner in their heart for eternity.

5/7 Self-reliant: Flaunts faith in Nature

Searching for fruits and food, hunting, and reading about edible plants become the agenda for Chris’s to-do list. He carries a book which he reads and follows to take care of his diet. He spots this surprisingly abandoned bus in the wild of Alaska and thus it becomes his home during his stay. Even after losing a lot of weight he is happiest to live the way he has always dreamed of.

6/7 Rebels against Society: Denies the rules 

A hippie by choice and a learner by heart, Chris paves his way by learning and living the way time demands in his journey rather than following societal rules. Chris decides against settling down the way his parents did. Yet his immature attempts depict that he does not express this vocally but through his acts and abandoning his possessions. Neither does he try to confront society publicly but rather he fights at his level, into the wild. He loves to keep his way of living to himself by scribbling it into his diary. Touches many souls in his journey yet never settle with anything less than Alaskan wilderness.

7/7 Happiness is only real when shared

Here comes the favorite line of every reader and viewer, written by dear Supertramp! At the age of 24, he wrote this which seems to come straight from the heart. After hiking for a couple of years and settling into an abandoned van in the wild, Chris felt this line and wrote in his notebook. As charming as this line may sound, it talks about the fear of not being able to share happiness with someone at the very moment he wrote this line. He was not very well equipped when he got stuck in the bus.

He got sick and food poisoned due to the fruits he ate, tried a lot to escape but just couldn’t! There is a lot more significance to this sentence than it sounds. Maybe Chris wanted to desperately share his happiness to feel it more deeply. Also fighting his unique battle in that wild would have had challenges of its kind.

I bet, there is no way you can regret watching this movie as it’s meant to stir your emotional hurricane and take you to the roller coaster ride of adventurous life full of real bliss along with tragedy at the same time.

And remember Chris’s words always “When you want something in life, reach out and grab it”.

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