Sean Penn's Into the Wild, based on John Krakauer's book of the same name, tells the true story of Chris McCandless, a twenty-three year old man on a quest.

Repulsed by greed and the never-ending quest for money, material things, and 'career,' Chris sets outmostly on footacross the U.S. to Alaska. Before leaving he abandons his car, cuts up his identification (except his Social Security card, which he burns), and gives most of his college fund to charity. The rest of the money he also burns. He does not alert his parents or his sister to his decision. He literally vanishes from their lives.

The film juxtaposes scenes from Chris's journey next to scenes of Chris in Alaska, along with scenes of his parents and sister. At first there's nothing to worry about. Chris meets several wonderful, quirky people (the most heartbreaking of them an older, lonely man who long ago lost his wife and son in a drunken driving accident). He's obviously a generousif idealistic and perhaps naivehuman being, yet he cannot forgive his parents for their mistakes. We see the effect this has: his family's lives become shadows of what they once were. Suspecting he doesn't want to be found, the question of whether he is alive or dead grows until they simply float through their days.

The people Chris meets all try to tell him, in their own ways, that he too is making a mistake. They convey a knowledge Chris has yet to learn: if you want to be truly happy, you must be willing to share your happiness. Wandering off into the middle of nowhere will do nothing to allay his demons. And this is the ambiguity in the story. Being in Alaska does help Chris, although he does eventually realize that what people were trying to tell him was right. Alone in the wilderness, he is no good to anyone.

Chris is young and therefore believes himself to be invincible. He is naive to the indifference of nature and ignorant of Alaska's terrain. He romanticizes nature, and as viewers, we do, too, for the scenes in Alaska are nothing short of breathtaking. Not only are the scenes beautiful, you see how cut off from the world Chris actually is. Not a building in sight for miles.

In the fall, he easily crosses a stream that is about thigh-deep. Near its opposite shore, Chris finds an abandoned bus that he dubs the Magic Bus. (It is indeed a lucky find.) Fall gives way to winter, and Chris fills his days by hunting small game and amusing himself on the bus, as well as writing and reading the few books he has brought. He survives the winter in fine form, but as spring rolls around he is once again ready for civilization.

But now he is trapped. The stream he so easily crossed a few months ago is now a raging river from the melted snow. He cannot cross without being swept downstream. His days become an increasingly futile attempt to survive, and nature does not easily forgive the mistakes he makes. Will he get out alive?

You won't get the typical Hollywood ending here. What you will get is an honest, human story of a complex young man and the lives he deeply touched and those he blighted by leaving them behind.

Learn more about this author, Stacy Chambers.
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