Herr Herring. It is about young Chris McCandless, originally of Silver Spring Maryland (? Annandale, Virginia), who hitched and worked his way out West, following a dream of leaving the world of materialism and superficiality, in search of an inner perfection. The ultimate goal being the ability to survive alone,and without resource in the Alaskan wilds. He failed, as young spirit without proper preparedness is/was no match for Alaska, even in springtime, yet he just nearly made it back out to the highway from whence he came, had it not been for a rivulet thus turned raging river after spring run-off. A tragic story, but I loved the guy's spirit, at least the way he was described in John Krakauer's book, upon which the movie is based.
Chris chose an abandoned school bus to hole up in, and his emaciated corpse was discovered by some backpackers/hikers about 2 weeks after his death. I read just the other day, that his original boots were left by the bus, and Sean Penn had seen them initially, only to discover later that they had been stolen and replaced with a newer pair. Whomever lifted 'em, did so, shortly after it was announced that a movie about the story was going to be made, and filming to begin. So... do keep a lookout on Ebay for very expensive used hiking boots.
Addendum: Here's another perspective, probably a more realistic one, lifted from Wikipedia on Chris.
Some Alaskans have negative views of both McCandless and those who romanticize his fate. McCandless was unaware that a hand-operated tram crossed the river a quarter mile from the Stampede Trail, while a nearby shelter was stocked with emergency supplies, as described in Krakauer's book. Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: "I am exposed continually to what I will call the 'McCandless Phenomenon.' People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent ... When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament ... Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide."[10]
Judith Kleinfeld wrote in the Anchorage Daily News that "many Alaskans react with rage to his stupidity. You'd have to be a complete idiot, they say, to die of starvation in summer 20 miles off the Parks Highway."[11]
