After graduating, with honours, from Emory University in the summer of 1990, Chris McCandless said good-bye to his parents and disappeared. He changed his name, donated the thousands of dollars in his savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions and burnt the money in his wallet. Inspired by the fiction of Jack London he invented a new life for himself, roaming across North America, living on the margins of society. In April 1992 Alex, as he now called himself, hitchhiked to Alaska and went alone into the wilderness. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a hunter.
Writer Jon Krakauer seeks to understand what drove Chris and how he came to die. Chris’s single minded determination to live his dream is inspirational despite of his tragic death.
A movie based on this true story will be in New Zealand cinemas in December.