Christopher McCandless: I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong... but to feel strong.
Christopher McCandless: I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.
Christopher McCandless: Some people feel like they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.
Christopher McCandless: I'm supertramp.
[
looks at apple]
Christopher McCandless: and you're super apple!
Christopher McCandless: If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.
Christopher McCandless: The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences.
Christopher McCandless: What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?
Ranger Steve Koehler: Next available is May 17, 2003.
Christopher McCandless: 12 years? Twelve years - to paddle down a river?
Ron Franz: When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines upon you.
[
at that very moment, the clouds part, and sunlight falls upon them]
Christopher McCandless: Mr. Franz I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one.
Christopher McCandless: When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it.
Christopher McCandless: If I wanted to paddle down the river, where's the best place to launch out of?
Ranger Steve Koehler: To *launch* out of?
Christopher McCandless: [
written into book] Happiness only real when shared.
Christopher McCandless: You are the apple of my eye.
Wayne Westerberg: Outdoorsman. What's your fascination with all that stuff?
Christopher McCandless: I'm going to Alaska.
Wayne Westerberg: Alaska, Alaska? Or city Alaska? Because they do have markets in Alaska. The city of Alaska. Not in Alaska. In the city of Alaska, they have markets.
Christopher McCandless: No, man. Alaska, Alaska. I'm gonna be all the way out there, all the way fucking out there. Just on my own. You know, no fucking watch, no map, no axe, no nothing. No nothing. Just be out there. Just be out there in it. You know, big mountains, rivers, sky, game. Just be out there in it, you know? In the wild.
Wayne Westerberg: In the wild.
Christopher McCandless: Just wild!
Wayne Westerberg: Yeah. What are you doing when we're there? Now you're in the wild, what are we doing?
Christopher McCandless: You're just living, man. You're just there, in that moment, in that special place and time. Maybe when I get back, I can write a book about my travels.
Wayne Westerberg: Yeah. Why not?
Christopher McCandless: You know, about getting out of this sick society. Society!
Wayne Westerberg: [
coughs] Society! Society!
Christopher McCandless: Society, man! You know, society! Cause, you know what I don't understand? I don't understand why people, why every fucking person is so bad to each other so fucking often. It doesn't make sense to me. Judgment. Control. All that, the whole spectrum. Well, it just...
Wayne Westerberg: What "people" we talking about?
Christopher McCandless: You know, parents, hypocrites, politicians, pricks.
Wayne Westerberg: [
taps Chris' head] This is a mistake. It's a mistake to get too deep into all that kind of stuff. Alex, you're a hell of a young guy, a hell of a young guy. But I promise you this. You're a young guy! Can't be juggling blood and fire all the time!
[
laughs]
Christopher McCandless: You don't need human relationships to be happy, God has placed it all around us.
Christopher McCandless: Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. - Alexander Supertramp May 1992
Christopher McCandless: The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.
Christopher McCandless: The freedom and simple beauty is too good to pass up...
[
first title card]
Title Card: There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; / There is a rapture on the lonely shore; / There is society, where none intrudes, / By the deep sea, and music in its roar; / I love not man the less, but Nature more... / - Lord Byron
[
first lines]
Christopher McCandless: Mom! Mom! Help me.
[
last lines]
Christopher McCandless: What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?
[
last title cards]
Title Card: In memory / Christopher Johnson McCandless / February 12, 1968 - August 18, 1992
Title Card: Two weeks after Chris's death, moose hunters discovered his body in the bus.
[
This self-portrait was found undeveloped in his camera]
Title Card: On September 19, 1992, Carine McCandless flew with her brother's ashes from Alaska to the eastern seaboard. She carried them with her on the plane... in her backpack.
Title Card: 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.
Ron Franz: What does the "N" stand for?
Christopher McCandless: North.
Ron Franz: [
sounding surprised and frustrated] Alaska?
