10 People Who Copied Movies In Disturbing Ways

8. A Teenager Died After Copying Into The Wild's Lead Character

The Town
Paramount Vantage

Cult hit Into The Wild follows a disillusioned man, Christopher McCandless, who escapes modern society by venturing into the wilderness, where he lives for several months.

At first, it seems to be a story about hope, about "finding yourself" by removing all the hustle and bustle of 20th century life. Unfortunately though, things don't end well when Christopher realizes how unforgiving nature can be, and he ultimately dies after eating a poisonous plant.

In 2013, the real-life story of an Arizona teenager called Johnathan Croom also had a similarly bleak ending, after he took inspiration from the film and headed out into the forest. A month later, he was found dead, just 1,000 feet from his abandoned car.

Croom's father said that he watched Into The Wild a lot, and attributed his desire to live in the wilderness to his "broken heart", which was caused by the end of a relationship.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.