Into the Wild (2007)

There's a moment watching Into the Wild where you catch yourself thinking: I understand exactly why he did it. Not in a reckless, romanticised way. Just honestly. The urge to chuck it all in, to stop performing the life everyone expects of you and actually live on your own terms. Most of us never act on it. Christopher McCandless did.

Sean Penn's film follows McCandless, a gifted young man from a comfortable but deeply troubled family who, shortly after graduating, donates his savings, abandons his car and essentially walks away from society. He renames himself Alexander Supertramp and spends the next two years drifting across North America, working odd jobs, meeting extraordinary people, and pushing himself towards a final, solitary adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. It's based on a true story, and that weight hangs over every frame.

Emile Hirsch is simply outstanding in the lead role. I'd go as far as saying it's the best work he's ever put on screen. He plays McCandless without ever tipping into either sainthood or stupidity. There's a brightness to him, a genuine joy in freedom and nature and human connection, but Hirsch never lets you forget the stubbornness underneath. The idealism. The blind spots. You root for him completely while occasionally wanting to grab him by the shoulders. That's a hard balance to strike, and Hirsch nails it.

The supporting cast is something special too. The people McCandless encounters on his journey aren't just colourful waypoints. They feel like real, complete human beings who are changed by knowing him, just as he's changed by knowing them. Penn's script gives each of them room to breathe, and the film is all the richer for it.

What really stays with me, though, is the tone Penn strikes throughout. This is a tragic story and everybody watching knows it going in. But Into the Wild never feels mournful or grim. It feels alive. There's a genuine sense of wonder in the landscapes, in the freedom, in the connections McCandless makes along the way. Penn films the American and Alaskan wilderness with an almost religious reverence, and it earns every second of it. When the tragedy arrives, it hits harder precisely because the film has made you fall in love with the journey.

And then there's Eddie Vedder's soundtrack. I can't overstate how much it adds. Stripped-back, raw acoustic folk that feels less like a score imposed on the film and more like the internal monologue of the man himself. It's one of those rare cases where the music and the film are so perfectly matched that you can't imagine either without the other. Vedder clearly understood what this story was about on a gut level, and it shows in every track.

If you want a companion piece from around the same era, I think Alpha Dog (2006) is worth your time for Hirsch fans wanting to see what he was doing just before this, though the films couldn't be more different in spirit. Into the Wild is the one that lingers, the one that makes you think about your own choices.

McCandless was brave enough, or perhaps stubborn enough, to actually pursue the life most of us only daydream about over a coffee on a miserable Monday morning. Whether his story is ultimately one of triumph or tragedy depends entirely on what you think life is actually for. Penn, to his enormous credit, doesn't tell you what to think. He just puts it in front of you and lets you sit with it.

Four and a half stars. One of the finest American films of its decade.

Rating: ★★★★½  | Year: 2007  | Watched: 2025-06-15

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Related on Movies With Macca

More with Emile Hirsch: Alpha Dog (2006) · Killer Joe (2011) · Lone Survivor (2013) · Lords of Dogtown (2005)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)