12 Movies In The IMDB Top 250 You've Probably Never Seen

4. Into The Wild

Into The Wild Into The Wild 09 01 2008 21 09 2007 3 G 600x401
Paramount Vantage

Not many people know that talented movie star Sean Penn is also a competent director.

The proof? Into The Wild must have been an incredibly difficult story to write (Penn also lent the movie his... pen) and direct. It follows the story of Christopher McCandless, who, after graduating from university, gives his life-savings to charity, leaves behind all his material possessions and hitchhikes to Alaska to start a new life in the wilderness.

The film is presented in a nonlinear fashion, cutting between Christopher's time in the wild and the lead up to his epic journey. Penn had to juggle these two timelines, give the film focus and, you know, make it interesting, and somehow, he succeeds on all fronts.

The movie manages to be incredibly bleak and dark while remaining full of hope and spirit; Christopher's suffering in the wilderness reminds him that happiness is best when shared with friends and family, for example.

Into The Wild only made $56 million worldwide so it wasn't seen by many, and since lead Emile Hirsch isn't exactly the biggest of movie stars, there wasn't a big name to get people hooked.

It's a shame more people didn't see it - had this landed with more of a splash, Penn may have gone on to direct even more movies afterward.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!