The film opens with a brief sequence depicting “Christopher Johnson McCandless’” mother “Billie” having a nightmare in which her son whispers to her for help. Billie awakens and protests to her husband “Walt” that it was not just a dream. Then, yellow handwriting appears on the screen—a device used throughout the picture—excerpting a letter written by Chris to “Wayne Westerberg” in 1992 telling him that he has just arrived in Fairbanks, AK. As Chris writes, “I now walk into the wild,” the lettering dissolves to the card bearing the title Into the Wild. The yellow handwriting usually consists of letters or journal entries written by or quotes favored by Chris. Titles introducing the location and dates appear frequently, and as Chris begins his travels after graduating from Emory, the picture is divided up into five “chapters” entitled “My Own Birth,” “Adolescence,” “Manhood,” “Family” and “Getting of Wisdom.”
       The film is structured so that it alternates between the sequences set in 1992, when Chris struggles in the Alaskan wilderness, and the previous two years, during which he travels throughout the West, meeting new people. Slow motion, split screens and freeze frames are used occasionally throughout the picture to emphasize the action, and recurrent voice-over narration by Chris and his sister “Carine” is heard as they explain their feelings, Chris's past and his actions. Carine expresses great sympathy for her brother and his quest, and although she admits to having occasional hurt feelings that he never contacted her, she states that it was his story, and it was up to him to tell it his way. Occasionally, footage made to resemble old home movies is seen, such as when Carine describes Chris buying his treasured Datsun after high school graduation, and another time when the two of them, as young children, witness a violent argument between their parents.
       Sean Penn’s onscreen credit reads “Screenplay and directed by.” At the end of the film, a still photograph of the real McCandless sitting in front of the “magic bus” is seen with a written dedication to his memory superimposed over the image. Written titles then report that two weeks after McCandless' death, his body was found by moose hunters along with the undeveloped self-portrait and his other possessions. On 19 Sep 1992, Carine flew with her brother's ashes back to the eastern seaboard, carrying his cremated remains home in her backpack. The end credits then begin with the following written acknowledgment: “The filmmakers thank Jon Krakauer for his guidance and gratefully acknowledge Walt, Billie, Carine and the entire McCandless family for their brave support in the making of this film.” Other people and companies thanked in the end credits include Wayne Westerberg, Jack Nicholson, several Alaskan Indian and Native American Indian tribes, the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in Hot Springs, SD and the National Park Service, Dept. of Interior.
       The credits list several of the quotes spoken by Chris throughout the film, giving their author and source, such as Tolstoy’s declaration “I have lived through much,” from Family Happiness, and the importance of calling a thing “by its right name,” from Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, which prompts Chris to sign his final farewell message with his correct name rather than as "Alexander Supertramp." The end credits also note that the picture was “produced in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security.”
       As depicted in the film, Christopher Johnson McCandless (12 Feb 1968—18 Aug 1992) disappeared without a word to his family after graduating from Emory University in May 1990 and donating his college trust fund to Oxfam. McCandless spent two years traveling the western United States, mostly by hitchhiking. He stayed briefly at many locations, including Carthage, SD, where he worked for Westerberg. Although McCandless did not contact his family at all during his journey, he kept in touch with the friends he met, such as Westerberg, Jan Burres and Ron Franz. On 25 Apr 1992, McCandless arrived in Fairbanks, AK, and after studying native flora and fauna at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, library for several days, he continued hitchhiking to the beginning of the Stampede Trail, near Mount Denali National Park. He was given a ride by Jim Gallien, who portrayed himself in the film.
       McCandless hiked into the wilderness and soon found the bus in which he lived for four months. Although the origin of the “magic bus” is not explained in the film, it was brought there by Yukon Construction in 1961 as a shelter for workers in a failed attempt to build a road along the Stampede Trail. McCandless thrived for many weeks prior to his death, which Krakaeur speculated was due to poisoning from a plant in combination with ingesting a highly alkaloid fungus growing on the plant. The most likely date of McCandless' death was 18 Aug 1992, and his body was found by hunters on 6 Sep 1992. At the time of his death, although McCandless was in an area that was difficult to access, he was only sixteen miles from a well-populated tourist area of the national park.
       As noted in the onscreen credits, his sister Carine claimed his remains. Ten months later, his parents, accompanied by Krakauer, visited the bus and left a suitcase containing medical supplies and other items, as well as a note reminding travelers to call their parents. According to the Rolling Stone review of the film, the bus in which McCandless died has been visited often by his “admirers.” Twenty percent of the royalties from Krakauer’s book, which was written with the cooperation of the McCandless family, went to establish a scholarship fund in McCandless' name. Krakauer first wrote about McCandless in an 8,000-word article for Outside magazine that was published in Jan 1993. Prompted by the outpouring of mail in response to the article and a feeling of kinship with McCandless, Krakauer then wrote the full-length, best-selling book about him.
       According to various contemporary articles and interviews with director-writer Sean Penn, he became fascinated by the story after reading Krakauer’s book and immediately attempted to acquire the film rights, although there were several other individuals and studios interested. According to an article in the Vol. 10/No. 2 issue of Fade In magazine, Penn was just about to sign an agreement with the McCandless family when they withdrew their cooperation, without which Penn refused to make the picture. Many articles reported that Billie asserted she had had a dream in which her son stated he did not want the movie to be made. Ten years later, Billie and the other members of the family changed their minds, and Penn was granted the rights. Press notes reveal that the McCandless family cooperated with the filmmakers, meeting with them and the cast and offering personal diaries, letters, photographs and other mementos.
       In the Fade In interview, Penn noted that, before writing the final draft of the screenplay, he traveled the country to retrace McCandless' journey and meet the people whom he had befriended. Press notes state that the additional narration written by Carine, Jena Malone and poet Sharon Olds came about as a collaborative effort in which the three women worked together to flesh out the voice-over narrations spoken by Malone, as Carine. The poem quoted by Chris to Carine in the film after he graduates from Emory University, which describes a child’s conflicted desire to prevent the unhappy marriage of her parents, is excerpted from “I Go Back to May 1937” by Olds, published in her The Gold Cell (New York, 1987).
       A 9 Sep 2007 LAT article reported that when Penn first envisioned filming Into the Wild, he hoped to star Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, with Marlon Brando [who died in 2004] co-starring as “Ron Franz.” Penn cast Emile Hirsch in the role of Chris after seeing him in the 2005 film Lords of Dogtown. Press notes for the film reported that the slightly built Hirsch lost forty-one pounds to portray Chris as he suffered from starvation. An online source adds that Daveigh Chase auditioned for the role of “Tracy Tatro,” and includes the following actors in the cast: Dan Burch, Joe Dustin, Kathleen Mattice, Parris Mosteller, J. Nathan Simmons, Susan Spencer and Haley Sweet.
       Into the Wild marked the screen acting debut of river rafting expert Brian Dierker, who plays “Rainey.” At first Dierker, who had worked previously on a number of films as a location scout and camera boat operator, was hired to train Hirsch in kayaking and to supervise the sequences in which Chris runs the rapids, but Penn persuaded him to appear in the film as an actor, according to press notes. Several contemporary sources add that Hirsch performed all of the kayaking stunts himself.
       As reported by contemporary sources, although the producers initially considered shooting only in Utah or Vancouver, Penn eventually insisted that it be filmed on many of the story's actual locations. The end credits include the list of following locations: Cantwell, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Healy, AK; Page, Lake Mead, Bullhead City, Peach Springs, Lee’s Ferry, Grand Canyon, Parker, Topock and Yuma, AZ; Catalina Island, El Centro, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Needles, Salton City and Slab City, CA; Atlanta, GA; Algodones and El Golfo De Santa Clara, Mexico; Reno, Las Vegas, Laughlin and Boulder City, NV; Astoria, Portland, Mt. Hood and Sisters, OR; Hot Springs, Winner and Carthage, SD; and Cape Disappointment and Seattle, WA. The film company traveled to Alaska four separate times to capture seasonal differences, according to an interview with director of photography Eric Gautier in the Oct 2007 issue of AmCin. In a Sep 2007 interview with NYT, production designer Derek Hill related that waiting for the required weather conditions caused frequent breaks during the eight months of principal production.
       Although Penn and other crew members visited the bus in which McCandless died, contemporary sources reported that they decided not to film there out of respect to him and his family, and instead built an exact replica of the derelict vehicle from parts of two buses of the same make. The crew took extensive photographs of the interior of the real bus to duplicate it completely for the replica, which was located in the Alaskan town of Cantwell, about fifty miles from where McCandless died. A 6 Sep 2007 HR article on producer Bill Pohlad, the president of River Road Entertainment, which partially financed Into the Wild, reported that the decision to film the picture at so many locations “raised the budget by several million." According to the 16 Sep 2007 NYT article, when the picture “ran short of funds,” Penn “had to kick in some of his own [money].”
       A Sep 2007 NYT feature article on the film noted that in addition to Gautier’s work, some of the film was photographed by Penn. In the Fade In article, Penn related that filming in Alaska was particularly difficult due to the rugged and dangerous terrain and the cold, which threatened to freeze their equipment. Press notes reported that Penn used many nonprofessionals in the film, in addition to Dierker, including Leonard Knight, the creator of “Salvation Mountain” near Slab City, occupants of Slab City and homeless people living near the Los Angeles Mission. Penn also hired Westerberg, McCandless' friend and employer in Carthage, SD, as a consultant and to serve as a driver while the production was filming in the area.
       After completing principal photography, Penn showed a rough cut of Into the Wild to well-known singer-songwriter Eddie Vedder, with whom he had worked previously on the films Dead Man Walking (1995) and I Am Sam (2001). Although Penn at first requested only that Vedder supply one or two songs or pieces of music for the film’s score, according to a 21 Sep 2007 Entertainment Weekly interview, Vedder’s music prompted Penn to ask for more, stating that it “could be the interior voice of the character [Chris].” In an interview with Time magazine, Penn stated that he had “written the script originally structured for songs” in order to have the “songwriter be a co-author.” Eventually, Vedder not only wrote and performed a number of songs for the film, he contributed to the score written by composers-guitarists Michael Brook and Kaki King. The onscreen credits noted that the film’s soundtrack was available on Monkeywrench/J Records.
       According to a 17 Sep 2007 DV article, Samsung partnered with Landmark Theaters in a multimillion-dollar effort to market the film, because the Korean electronics manufacturer was looking to expand its consumer base among moviegoers who favor independent films. The deal was the initial collaboration between Samsung and Landmark, which was to include extensive advertising and the launching of Samsung’s new movie-oriented website, Blueseat.com. The film played at various film festivals including the Mill Valley Film Festival on 13 Sep 2007, the Cinema Rome Film Fest on 20 Oct 2007 and the London Film Festival on 25 Oct 2007.
       In addition to being named one of AFI’s Movies of the Year for 2007, the picture was placed on the top ten lists of numerous critics’ groups, including the National Board of Review. Hirsch received Best Actor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and was awarded the Breakthrough Performance—Male by the National Board of Review. The film received three other SAG Award nominations: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role (Catherine Keener) and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Hal Holbrook). The picture received a Golden Globe for Best Original Song--Motion Picture (“Guaranteed”) and was nominated for Best Original Score. “Guaranteed” was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Penn received a nomination from the Directors Guild of America for directorial achievement in a feature film and a nomination from the Writers Guild of America for his adapted screenplay. Into the Wild was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Hal Holbrook) and Best Film Editing.