This movie was recommended to me by a nomad I had met while I myself was just giving the nomad lifestyle a trial run. He told me this movie while the main character was a bit of an extremist that he was a shining example of what this lifestyle should be about. This was also his favorite movie of all time so I had to sit down and watch it.

The movie bounces back and forth between the present and future, telling the story of a young man as he travels across the U.S. with nothing but his backpack and all the people he encounters along the way. You are very swept away in his wonderlust and his spirit for the world and ideals. The movie does a good job of showing the highs and lows of the lifestyle and focuses on the people he meets along the way, each with their own faults and charms.

The movie kind of feels a little aimless to me, and not in a bad way. It doesn’t have a bad guy or even a significant conflict to overcome. It’s just a story, one that is told really well and left me with a lust to go out and meet and interact with people. I did not find out until the end of the movie that this was based on a true story, and the ending was quite a curveball, but the message still rang true for me.

I would give Into the Wild a 8.5/10