Zacharius Knight "Zach" Galifianakis Ιs a Greek
, and Hal HolbrookHarold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
. It premiered during the second edition of the Rome Film FeastThe Rome Film Feast is a film festival that takes place in Rome, Italy, during the month of October. The last edition, the second so far, was held from October 18 to 27, 2007. The actual complete name in Italian is CINEMA...
. The film premiered outside of Fairbanks, AlaskaFairbanks is a Home Rule City in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage...
on September 3, 2007, and the film was issued in limited release on September 21, before a wide release on October 19.
Into the Wild recounts the life of Christopher McCandlessChristopher Johnson McCandless was an American wanderer who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Almost four months later, he died of starvation near Denali National Park and Preserve...
, a real-life student-athleteThe National Consortium for Academics and Sports is an ever-growing organization of colleges and universities. The NCAS evolved in response to the need to “keep the student in the student-athlete.” The NCAS was established in 1985 by Richard Lapchick at the Center for the Study of Sports in...
at Emory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in the metropolitan area of Atlanta in unincorporated Dekalb County, Georgia. In addition to its three undergraduate divisions, Emory has nine graduate and professional schools, including schools of business, law, medicine, theology, nursing, and...
, as told by his sympathetic sister (Jena MaloneJena Malone is an American actress and musician. Her film work has been mainly in independent films, and she has acted in theater....
as Carine McCandless).
Into the Wild is a
2007The year 2007 in film saw many new films released worldwide, including several major mainstream sequels, prequels, and remakes as well as original films.-Top grossing films:...
AmericanThe cinema of the United States has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves,...
based on the
1996The year 1996 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is removed from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas because it "conflicted with the values of the community."* In the United Kingdom, the first...
non-fiction
book of the same nameInto the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a bestselling non-fiction book about the adventures of Christopher McCandless. It is an expansion of Krakauer's 9,000-word article, "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside....
by
Jon KrakauerJon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, well-known for outdoor and mountain-climbing writing.-Early life:Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts as the third of five children and was raised in Corvallis, Oregon from the age of two. His father introduced him to mountaineering as...
about the adventures of
Christopher McCandlessChristopher Johnson McCandless was an American wanderer who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Almost four months later, he died of starvation near Denali National Park and Preserve...
. It was directed by
Sean PennSean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
, who also wrote the screenplay, and stars
Emile HirschEmile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
,
Jena MaloneJena Malone is an American actress and musician. Her film work has been mainly in independent films, and she has acted in theater....
,
Marcia Gay HardenMarcia Gay Harden is an American actress. She has appeared in films, television, and the theatre. Harden is a winner of the Tony Award and the Academy Award.-Early life:...
,
Vince VaughnVincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before experiencing wider recognition with the 1996 movie, Swingers...
,
Kristen StewartKristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is known for roles in films such as Panic Room, Zathura, In the Land of Women, Adventureland, The Messengers and Twilight.-Early life:...
,
William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
,
Catherine Keener-Early life:Keener, the third of five children, was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Evelyn and Jim Keener, a manager of an automotive store. She is of Irish descent on her father's side and of Lebanese descent on her mother's. Her sister Elizabeth is also an actress. Keener attended...
, Brian Dierker,
Zach GalifianakisZacharius Knight "Zach" Galifianakis Ιs a Greek
, and Hal HolbrookHarold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
. It premiered during the second edition of the Rome Film FeastThe Rome Film Feast is a film festival that takes place in Rome, Italy, during the month of October. The last edition, the second so far, was held from October 18 to 27, 2007. The actual complete name in Italian is CINEMA...
. The film premiered outside of Fairbanks, AlaskaFairbanks is a Home Rule City in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage...
on September 3, 2007, and the film was issued in limited release on September 21, before a wide release on October 19.
Plot
Into the Wild recounts the life of Christopher McCandlessChristopher Johnson McCandless was an American wanderer who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Almost four months later, he died of starvation near Denali National Park and Preserve...
, a real-life student-athleteThe National Consortium for Academics and Sports is an ever-growing organization of colleges and universities. The NCAS evolved in response to the need to “keep the student in the student-athlete.” The NCAS was established in 1985 by Richard Lapchick at the Center for the Study of Sports in...
at Emory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in the metropolitan area of Atlanta in unincorporated Dekalb County, Georgia. In addition to its three undergraduate divisions, Emory has nine graduate and professional schools, including schools of business, law, medicine, theology, nursing, and...
, as told by his sympathetic sister (Jena MaloneJena Malone is an American actress and musician. Her film work has been mainly in independent films, and she has acted in theater....
as Carine McCandless). In rejection of a materialist, conventional life, and of his parents (William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
as Walt McCandless and Marcia Gay HardenMarcia Gay Harden is an American actress. She has appeared in films, television, and the theatre. Harden is a winner of the Tony Award and the Academy Award.-Early life:...
as Billie McCandless), whom McCandless perceives as having betrayed him, McCandless destroys all of his credit cards and identification documents, donates $24,000 (nearly his entire savings) to OxfamOxfam International is a confederation of 14 organisations working with over 3,000 partners in more than 70 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice....
, and sets out on a cross-country drive in his well-used but reliable Datsun towards his ultimate goal: Alaska and, alone, to test himself and experience the wilds of nature. He does not tell his family what he is doing or where he is going and does not communicate with them thereafter, leaving them to become increasingly anxious and eventually desperate.
Along the way his automobile is caught in a flash flood and he abandons it to hitchhike after burning what remains of his dwindling cash supply. For a while he works on farms with a crew led by Wayne Westerberg (Vince VaughnVincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before experiencing wider recognition with the 1996 movie, Swingers...
) but leaves after the farmer is arrested. He ends up at the Colorado River and when he is told that he may not go down by canoe without a license, he acquires a Perception Sundance 12 open-water kayak and, followed by the river police, paddles downriver eventually all the way into Mexico. There his kayak is lost in the river and he crosses back into America, thereafter traveling via freight train to Los Angeles.
Along his travels, he encounters and makes friends with many unconventional but good people, such as a hippy couple (Catherine Keener-Early life:Keener, the third of five children, was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Evelyn and Jim Keener, a manager of an automotive store. She is of Irish descent on her father's side and of Lebanese descent on her mother's. Her sister Elizabeth is also an actress. Keener attended...
as Jan Burres), a farm owner (Vince VaughnVincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before experiencing wider recognition with the 1996 movie, Swingers...
), a Danish couple, a girl at a hippy commune (Kristen StewartKristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is known for roles in films such as Panic Room, Zathura, In the Land of Women, Adventureland, The Messengers and Twilight.-Early life:...
as Tracy Tatro), and a retired but lonely leather worker (Hal HolbrookHarold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
) who offers to adopt and be a grandfather to McCandless. With each meeting, McCandless has an opportunity to settle down but each time he chooses to move on in his quest for a meaning to life, believing that only in the wilds of Alaska, will true knowledge be found. He is repeatedly encouraged to contact his family but refuses to do so.
Nearly two years after leaving his family, McCandless crosses a stream in a remote area of Alaska and sets up camp in abandoned Fairbanks Transit bus, the "Magic Bus", used as a shelter for mooseThe moose or common elk , , is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a "twig-like" configuration....
hunters. Initially McCandless is exhilarated by the isolation, the beauty of nature around and the thrill of living off the land as the spring thaw arrives. He hunts and gathers, and reads books, and keeps a diary of his thoughts. However life becomes harder; his supplies start to run out and although he kills a moose the meat is spoiled by flies and maggots. He realizes that nature is also harsh and uncaring. Ultimately on his journey of self-discovery he concludes that true happiness is to be found in sharing, and in the joy of realisation seeks to return from the wild to his friends and family.
However, to his despair McCandless finds that the stream that he crossed has become a violent torrent and he cannot return; he is trapped by nature. He is forced to return to the Magic Bus but now as a prisoner; having previously insisted on being self-sufficient he is no longer in control of his fate and can only hope for help from the outside. As his supplies run out, he is forced to gather and eat roots and plants. He has a book to help him to distinguish edible from inedible, but he confuses similar plants and is poisoned. He slowly and painfully starves to death. In his final hours, he continues to document his process of self-realisation and his demise. Some two weeks after his death his body is found by moose hunters.
Cast
- Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
as Christopher McCandlessChristopher Johnson McCandless was an American wanderer who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Almost four months later, he died of starvation near Denali National Park and Preserve...
/ "Alexander Supertramp"
- Marcia Gay Harden
Marcia Gay Harden is an American actress. She has appeared in films, television, and the theatre. Harden is a winner of the Tony Award and the Academy Award.-Early life:...
as Billie McCandless
- William Hurt
William M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
as Walt McCandless
- Jena Malone
Jena Malone is an American actress and musician. Her film work has been mainly in independent films, and she has acted in theater....
as Carine McCandless
- Catherine Keener
-Early life:Keener, the third of five children, was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Evelyn and Jim Keener, a manager of an automotive store. She is of Irish descent on her father's side and of Lebanese descent on her mother's. Her sister Elizabeth is also an actress. Keener attended...
as Jan Burres
- Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before experiencing wider recognition with the 1996 movie, Swingers...
as Wayne Westerberg
- Kristen Stewart
Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is known for roles in films such as Panic Room, Zathura, In the Land of Women, Adventureland, The Messengers and Twilight.-Early life:...
as Tracy Tatro
- Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
as Ron Franz
- Zach Galifianakis
Zacharius Knight "Zach" Galifianakis Ιs a Greek
as Kevin
Filming
The scenes of graduation from Emory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in the metropolitan area of Atlanta in unincorporated Dekalb County, Georgia. In addition to its three undergraduate divisions, Emory has nine graduate and professional schools, including schools of business, law, medicine, theology, nursing, and...
in the film were shot in the fall of 2006 on the front lawn of Reed CollegeReed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a four-year residential college with a campus located in Portland's residential Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a...
. Some of the graduation scenes were also filmed during the actual Emory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in the metropolitan area of Atlanta in unincorporated Dekalb County, Georgia. In addition to its three undergraduate divisions, Emory has nine graduate and professional schools, including schools of business, law, medicine, theology, nursing, and...
graduation on May 15, 2006. The Alaska scenes depicting the area around the abandoned bus on the Stampede TrailThe Stampede Trail in Alaska was a mining trail blazed in the 1930s by Alaska miner Earl Pilgrim to access his antimony claims on Stampede Creek, above the Clearwater Fork of the Toklat River...
were filmed 50 miles south of where McCandless actually died, in the tiny town of CantwellCantwell was a railway flag stop at the junction with the Denali Highway. The original town is off the Parks Highway. It is a census-designated place in Denali Borough, Alaska, United States...
. Filming at the actual bus would have been too remote for the technical demands of a movie shoot. The production made four separate trips to Alaska to film during different seasons.
Critical reception
Into the Wild received strong positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
reported that 83% of 155 reviews of the film were positive, resulting in a "Fresh" rating. MetacriticMetacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the film had an average score of 73 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
of the Chicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by the Sun-Times Media Group, which filed for bankruptcy protection on March 31, 2009.-History:...
gave the film four stars out of four and described the film as "spellbinding". Ebert wrote that Emile HirschEmile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
gives a "hypnotic performance", saying: "It is great acting, and more than acting". Ebert said, "The movie is so good partly because it means so much, I think, to its writer-director", Sean Penn.
The American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
listed the film as one of ten AFI Movies of the Year for 2007The year 2007 in film saw many new films released worldwide, including several major mainstream sequels, prequels, and remakes as well as original films.-Top grossing films:...
.
National Board of Review named it one of the Top Ten Films of the Year.
Into the Wild also ranks 473rd in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.
- 1st: Ben Lyons
Ben Lyons is an American film critic and entertainment journalist, best known for his stint co-hosting the popular television program At the Movies with Ben Mankiewicz from September 2008 to August 2009...
, The Daily 10
- 2nd: Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C. and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877. Being located in the nation's capital, it has a particular emphasis on national politics and international affairs...
- 2nd: Tasha Robinson, The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. It comes included with the print editions of The Onion, and maintains its own separate website. Unlike its parent publication, The A.V. Club is non-satirical, though it strives for a humorous, snarky tone...
- 3rd: James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Biography:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and spent his early childhood in Morristown. At the age of nine, he moved to Cherry Hill. He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 through 1990, obtaining both a BS and...
, ReelViews
- 3rd: Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
- 3rd: Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
, Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
- 4th: Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith is an American critic, novelist and essayist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly....
, New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
- 5th: Claudia Puig, USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth...
- 5th: David Germain
David Germain is a drummer who has played in several bands including Shadows Fall and Jaya the Cat. He was born in the United States, but is currently living in the Netherlands.- Biography :...
, Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
- 5th: Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern is a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for The Wall Street Journal.-Career:Morgenstern graduated from Lehigh University in 1953. His first journalism experience was as news clerk at the New York Times...
, The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, it has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000...
- 6th: Carrie Rickey, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
- 6th: Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
- 7th: A.O. Scott, The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
(tied with The Diving Bell and the ButterflyThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a French/American biopic/drama film based on the memoir of the same name by Jean-Dominique Bauby. The film depicts Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke at the age of 42, which left him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome...
)
- 7th: Noel Murray, The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. It comes included with the print editions of The Onion, and maintains its own separate website. Unlike its parent publication, The A.V. Club is non-satirical, though it strives for a humorous, snarky tone...
- 9th: Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire is the film critic for the Associated Press.Lemire grew up in Los Angeles, California, and graduated from Southern Methodist University...
, Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
- 10th: Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
, Chicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by the Sun-Times Media Group, which filed for bankruptcy protection on March 31, 2009.-History:...
Wins
- 65th Golden Globe Awards
The 65th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2007, were scheduled to be presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 13, 2008...
- Best Original Song - Motion Picture ("Guaranteed")
- Gotham Awards
The Gotham Awards is an annual ceremony of awards presented to the makers of independent films which takes place in New York City...
- Mill Valley Film Festival
The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
- Best Actor (Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
)
- National Board of Review
- Breakthrough Performance - Male (Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
)
- Palm Springs International Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January...
- Director of the Year Award (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- Rising Star Award Actor (Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
)
- Rome Film Feast
The Rome Film Feast is a film festival that takes place in Rome, Italy, during the month of October. The last edition, the second so far, was held from October 18 to 27, 2007. The actual complete name in Italian is CINEMA...
- Jury Award (William Pohlad), (Art Linson
Art Linson is an American film producer, director and screenwriter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois.His directorial debut was the 1980 comedy, Where the Buffalo Roam, which was loosely based on stories by Hunter S. Thompson and starred Bill Murray as the writer...
), (Sean PennSean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- São Paulo International Film Festival
The São Paulo International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in São Paulo, Brazil since 1976. In 2004 Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami was a member of the jury.-International Jury Award:*2001: The New Country ...
- Best Foreign Language Film (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- Italian Online Movie Awards
Italian Online Movie Awards is the name of the movie award assigned every year by a group of Italian movielovers to the best films of the season ....
- Best Motion Picture Of The Year
- Best Motion Picture soundtrack
Nominations
- 80th Academy Awards
The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films in 2007 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 . During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24...
- Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Hal HolbrookHarold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
)
- Best Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; it was first given for films released in 1934. The name of this award is occasionally changed; in 2008, it was listed as the Academy Award for Achievement in Film Editing. The New York...
- 65th Golden Globe Awards
The 65th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2007, were scheduled to be presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 13, 2008...
- Best Original Score - Motion Picture (Michael Brook
Michael Brook is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer, and film music composer familiar with many disciplines including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores....
, Kaki KingKaki King is an American guitar player and singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia.-Early life:...
, Eddie VedderEddie Vedder is an American musician who serves as the lead singer and one of three guitarists for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Vedder left the Southern California music scene and moved to Seattle, Washington in 1990 to join Pearl Jam where he rose to fame amid the grunge movement of the...
)
- American Cinema Editors
Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...
- Best Edited Feature Film - Dramatic
- Broadcast Film Critics Association
The 13th Critics' Choice Awards were given on 7 January, 2008 to honor the finest achievements in 2007 filmmaking.-Winners and nominees:The nominees in each of the 18 categories are listed below :-Best Actor:...
- Best Film
- Best Actor (Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
)
- Best Supporting Actor (Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
)
- Best Supporting Actress (Catherine Keener
-Early life:Keener, the third of five children, was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Evelyn and Jim Keener, a manager of an automotive store. She is of Irish descent on her father's side and of Lebanese descent on her mother's. Her sister Elizabeth is also an actress. Keener attended...
)
- Best Director (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- Best Writer (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- Best Song ("Guaranteed")
- Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
- Best Picture
- Best Screenplay - Adapted (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- Best Supporting Actor (Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
)
- Directors Guild of America Awards
The Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D.W. Griffith....
- Best Director - Film (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- Cinema Audio Society
- Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures
- Costume Designers Guild Awards
- Excellence in Costume Design for Film - Contemporary
- Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards
- Best Foreign Film - English Language (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
- Grammy Awards
- Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media ("Guaranteed")
- Gotham Awards
The Gotham Awards is an annual ceremony of awards presented to the makers of independent films which takes place in New York City...
- Breakthrough Award (Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
)
- Satellite Awards
The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...
- Best Original Song ("Rise")
- Screen Actors Guild Awards
The 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony, honoring the best in film and television acting achievement for the year 2007, took place on January 27, 2008 and, for the 12th consecutive time was held at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles, California...
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild...
)
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
)
- Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role (Catherine Keener
-Early life:Keener, the third of five children, was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Evelyn and Jim Keener, a manager of an automotive store. She is of Irish descent on her father's side and of Lebanese descent on her mother's. Her sister Elizabeth is also an actress. Keener attended...
)
- USC Scripter Award
- USC Scripter Award (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
) (screenwriter), (Jon KrakauerJon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, well-known for outdoor and mountain-climbing writing.-Early life:Krakauer was born in Brookline, Massachusetts as the third of five children and was raised in Corvallis, Oregon from the age of two. His father introduced him to mountaineering as...
) (author)
- Writers Guild of America Awards
- Best Adapted Screenplay (Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American film actor and director, also known for being a political activist. He is a two-time Academy Award winner for his roles in Mystic River and Milk, as well as the recipient of a Golden Globe Award for the former and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the latter.-Early...
)
Box office performance
In North America, Into the Wild initially opened in limited release, in four theaters and grossed $212,440, posting a per-theater average of $53,110. For the next several weeks, the film remained in limited release until it expanded to over 600 theaters on October 19, 2007; in its first weekend of wide release, the film grossed just $2.1 million for a per-theater average of $3,249. As of December 25, 2008, the film has grossed $18,354,356 domestically and $37,281,398 internationally. In total, the film has grossed $55,635,754 worldwide.
DVD release
Into the Wild was released on March 4, 2008 on standard DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
, Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition DVD, and standard HD DVDHD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisaged to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
. The standard DVD contains the feature film, audio commentaryOn disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
, and trailerTrailers or previews are film advertisements for feature films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film program. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to...
. The special edition DVD and HD DVD additionally contain two special features entitled The Story, The Characters and The Experience. The Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the standard DVD format. Its main uses are for storing high-definition video, PlayStation 3 games, and other data, with up to 25 GB per single layered, and 50 GB per dual layered disc...
edition was released in France on July 16, 2008. The Blu-ray edition for the US was released on December 16, 2008. The UK Blu-ray was released on July 20, 2009.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack is performed by Eddie VedderEddie Vedder is an American musician who serves as the lead singer and one of three guitarists for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Vedder left the Southern California music scene and moved to Seattle, Washington in 1990 to join Pearl Jam where he rose to fame amid the grunge movement of the...
, guitarist and lead singer of Pearl JamPearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
, Jerry HannanGerald Joseph "Jerry" Hannan is an Irish-American singer-songwriter and actor.-Early career:Raised on jigs and ballads in San Francisco's Irish community, Jerry Hannan grew up listening to the music of his Irish-born parents , as well as Cat Stevens...
with his song "Society", and Kaki KingKaki King is an American guitar player and singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia.-Early life:...
. Vedder won a Golden GlobeThe Golden Globe Awards are presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize outstanding achievements in the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television...
for Best Original SongGolden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
for the song "Guaranteed". The music at the end of the theatrical trailer is "Acts of Courage" by X-Ray DogX-Ray Dog is an American musical study which is located in Burbank, California. They compose music for Hollywood movie trailers and soundtracks. X-Ray Dog composes and plays bombastic, epic, orchestral music similar to that of Immediate Music and Two Steps From Hell...
, a company that supplies music for many movie trailers.