Trivia: Hal Holbrook was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role as Ron Franz. At the age of 82, Holbrook became the oldest nominee in Oscar history.
Trivia: The bus shown in the film where Chris makes his camp in Alaska, and eventually dies, remained there until it was airlifted from the site in June 2020 by a USAF Chinook helicopter. Travelers from all over the world had trekked there and in notebooks left inside the bus, recorded where they were from, their trips there and their feelings on Chris and his life, but in the process dozens of people got into difficulties in the rugged terrain around the bus, and at least two died. In November 2022, it was revealed that the USAF had donated the bus to the Museum of the North, part of the campus of the University of Alaska. It is currently on display there.
Trivia: While certain details of the story were altered for the confines of film, the characters Jan Burres played by Catherine Keener and Ronald Franz played by Hal Holbrook were both, according to research, entirely accurate. In fact when Jon Krakauer, the author of the book with the same name, contacted both people, they remembered Chris well and expressed great loss when learning of his death.
Trivia: When Chirs gets to Slab City, which actually exists by the way (I was there a year ago, and it's populated by some wonderfully kind people, I might add), he climbs Salvation Mountain. He is shown around by a sweet old man who explains the mountain to him. That is the actual builder of Salvation Mountain, Leonard Knight.
Answer: Having read Krakauers book: The rifle was a .22 Remington scoped semiautomatic. Accounts at the time mention that this may not have been the best choice, and it is clear that McCandless did not have enough experience to live in the wild, although it is impressing enough that he managed to survive for 16 weeks.