Good movie, better than the book

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2016)

In May 1992, Christopher McCandless arrives in a remote area just north of the Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska and sets up a campsite in an abandoned city bus, which he calls "The Magic Bus." At first, McCandless is content with the isolation, the beauty of nature around him, and the thrill of living off the land. He hunts with a .22 caliber rifle, reads books, and keeps a diary of his thoughts as he prepares himself for a new life in the wild.
Two years earlier, in May 1990, McCandless graduates with high honors from Emory University. Shortly afterwards, McCandless rejects his conventional life by destroying all of his credit cards and identification documents. He donates nearly all of his savings to Oxfam and sets out on a cross- country drive in his Datsun B210 to experience life in the wilderness. However, McCandless does not tell his parents, Walt and Billie McCandless, or his sister Carine what he is doing or where he is going, and refuses to keep in touch with them after his departure, causing his parents to become increasingly anxious and eventually desperate.
At Lake Mead, McCandless' car is caught in a flash flood, causing him to abandon it and begin hitchhiking. He burns what remains of his cash and assumes a new name: "Alexander Supertramp." In northern California, McCandless encounters a hippie couple named Jan Burres and Rainey. Rainey tells McCandless about his failing relationship with Jan, which McCandless helps rekindle. In September, McCandless arrives in Carthage, South Dakota and works for a contract harvesting company owned by Wayne Westerberg, but he is forced to leave after Westerberg is arrested for satellite piracy.