| Director | Jean-Marc Vallée |
|---|---|
| Genre | adventure film, biographical film, drama film, film based on book, survival film |
| Runtime | 115 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $52.5 million |
In June 1995, despite a lack of hiking experience, Cheryl Strayed leaves Minneapolis to hike, by herself, of the Pacific Crest Trail. During the journey, she reflects on her childhood and memories of her mother, Bobbi, whose death from cancer sent Cheryl into a deep depression that she tried to numb with heroin and anonymous sex. After her behavior destroyed her marriage and then led to an abortion, Cheryl resolves to hike the trail to try to rediscover the woman her mother raised her to be.
Cheryl begins her trek in the Mojave Desert in Southern California with her overstuffed backpack which she nicknames Monster. On the first night, she discovers she brought the wrong type of fuel for her stove and is therefore unable to eat hot food. After a few days of eating only cold food, she meets a farmer named Frank, who takes her back to his farmhouse for a hot shower and a cooked meal, and takes her to get the correct fuel the following morning.
Further along the trail, Cheryl meets a hiker named Greg, whom she agrees to meet up with again at Kennedy Meadows. While there, a camper named Ed tells her she's wearing the wrong sized boots and informs her that she can call the shoe company and they'll send the proper size at her next rest stop. He also helps her lighten the weight of her backpack.
Under Greg's advice, Cheryl decides to take a bus to Reno and rejoin the PCT from there in order to avoid all the snow, deciding to extend the trip to the Bridge of the Gods in Oregon to make up for all the miles she didn't hike by taking the bus, but she still encounters quite a bit of snow. She is able to make it through and arrives at the town where her new boots were sent.
Cheryl crosses into Oregon and goes to Ashland. She meets Jonathan, who invites her to a tribute concert to the recently deceased Jerry Garcia, and they spend the night together.
Sometime later, after visiting Crater Lake, Cheryl gets to Mount Hood National Forest, where she encounters a friendly group of young male hikers who recognize her from the brief quotes and poems that she frequently writes alongside her signature in the hiker's record books along the PCT.
One rainy day, Cheryl finds a llama that escaped from a young boy hiking with his grandmother. She returns it to the little boy, who asks about her parents. When she mentions her mother is dead, the boy sings her "Red River Valley", which his mother used to sing to him. The boy and his grandmother carry on down the trail, and Cheryl breaks down and weeps.
A few weeks later, Cheryl finally makes it to the Bridge of the Gods, ending her journey. It is revealed that four years later she remarried and had a son, Carver and a daughter, Bobbi (named after her mother) almost ten years after getting married.