This movie really hits home with me as my oldest step son, after just turning 18 saw this movie and was really motivated by it, little to our knowledge. He had moved out and was living with some of his buddies in town. One day he just disappeared. Left town... His roomates called and asked if he had come back home and told us he had packed up and left the house. Later they told us about his infatuation about the movie and watching it with him several times. We started to get worried as we couldn't reach him via phone and asking other friends if they seen him. We called the local hospital, jail, etc with no luck, it was a town of about 70,000 people, so not too big. Finally called the state police and asked if they could keep an eye out for his car and asked what else we could do to try and locate him. Not much since he was considered an adult. He was not the kind of guy that would run off to Alaska??? We would go camping as a family and enjoyed the outdoors, but he was not usually the wilderness type, enjoyed creature comforts to much like TV and hot showers.
We checked with other family members that lived out of town and no one had seen or heard from him. We kept calling and leaving messages with no reply. Finally had to turn it over to the higher power and pray.
Finally after 3 or 4 of weeks we heard from him. He had drove to New York City, got his car impounded and was living in a homeless shelter. This was a couple of years after 911. He said he wanted to stay and see if he could make a go of it there but wanted us to know where he was and that he was ok. He stayed in touch through Facebook as he could over the 3 or 4 years he was there. He did get a job working with some of the food truck vendors and shared an apartment with a few friends he made while in the shelter. He got into photography and has some great shots of NYC. He finally did return to the Midwest and is still there today living in the same town as my ex and my step daughters family. My partner and I were in the middle of going out separate ways at the time. I started traveling myself shortly after that and never got to sit down with him to see if that movie really had to do with his leaving or not.
But the moral of the story is... I think one could get into trouble just as easily in New York as they could in Alaska. 😆
Seriously, I was so glad to hear he was safe and sound when he called and it was amazing the level of maturity he came back home with after those years away. Some times ya just gotta pray and know that Spirits taking care of things. You know they say, " God don't have no grandkids, he takes care of his own". Wow, what a flashback. Hadn't thought of that movie in a long time. Happy trails to you all and safe travels.