Wild America 1997

In the summer of 1967, Marshall Stouffer, Jonathan Taylor Thomas the youngest of three brothers, finds himself constantly chased by his two older siblings, Devon Sawa as Mark and Jamey Sheridan as Marty Sr. They love turning Marshall’s stunts into garage-viewable spectacles for their friends, and the mischief he dishes out in return — from cleaning their toothbrushes to filling their canteens with river water they’ve urinated in — becomes as much a part of their bond as the camera that binds their dreams together. The trio’s dynamic is rough-and-tumble, sweetly competitive, and oddly affectionate, all at once.

Across town, the brothers nurture a wild dream: to film dangerous wildlife all across the country. Their big break comes when they stumble upon a rare, special camera in a shop where they have their films developed. Despite Marty Sr.’s insistence that they can’t afford such a thing, Agnes Stouffer, Frances Fisher, steps in with savings she’s been setting aside, and Marshall, Mark, and Marty Sr. set their plan in motion. The camera becomes the key to their pursuit, a portable window to the unpredictable world outside their garage.

With the camera in hand, the brothers head into the wild. They set camp with high hopes but learn early that luck is fickle. First, they miss a shot at a majestic eagle, then turn their attention to alligators. A tense swamp excursion begins with a dramatic near-drowning: Mark’s bait lands in the branches, he slips, the boat collides with a snag, and Marshall is sent tumbling into the water. He wrestles with danger, frees Mark with a knife, and narrowly escapes a sudden, terrifying encounter with an alligator that seems to appear out of the murky depths. Back at the hut, a seasoned, weathered storyteller arrives in the form of Stango, the alligator man played by Don Stroud. He shares a cautionary, captivating tale about a Korean War buddy named Phil, and a whispered legend of a cave filled with hundreds of bears, hinting that the brothers are chasing a legend rather than a mere expedition.

The expedition picks up speed as the brothers push northwest toward Devil’s Playground in Colorado, described as “the last home of the wild American wolf” and a place where government boundaries blur with the wild. There, they capture a wolf stealthily approaching a doe, and their moment is shattered by a pair of F-4 Phantoms roaring overhead. Missiles streak, a boulder is toppled, and the boys are knocked to the ground. A stampede of wild horses answers the chaos, thundering past their vehicle as they scramble to keep filming. An owl—an emblem of Marshall’s owl Leona from home—seems to watch over them as they press on, drawn by a carved cave on a wall that bears ancient bear-shaped figures. The brothers press closer, following a peculiar path that leads to a cave near Arapaho Peak in Montana, where an old Native American woman reveals the drawings’ meaning and points them toward their bears-filled destination.

Along the way, a stranger saves Marshall from the rushing current, and a woman who has endured loss — her husband killed by bears — tells them more about the dangers and wonders of the wild. Their caravan is robbed on return, but they still manage to recover the precious film they’ve shot. Mark suffers a broken leg in a scuffle with Marty, yet the brothers refuse to give up, continuing their journey to the bear cave. At last they find it, and the bears lie asleep as the team sets up their shots. A misfortune arrives when bat guano lands on a lighting lamp, waking the massive bears; quick thinking and a shared song, a tune they know well, lulls the bears back into slumber long enough to steal away with the camera.

Home again, the domestic balance shifts as their father’s absence behind the wheel of a plane comes into sharper focus. He’s injured, and the family must shoulder the work they’ve pursued with such zest. The next day brings a renewed sense of purpose: Marshall, aided by a personal resolve and a moment of audacious courage, takes the controls of the plane. A quiet triumph settles over the Stouffer family as their film fades in the gym, where friends and neighbors applaud the boys’ daring achievement. The moment is overshadowed by an obstinate critic, DC, Zack Ward, who demands his money back, only to be met with the rest of the crowd’s cheers and a proud, shared smile between Marshall and his father. The bond between them is deepened, forged in the grit of the hunt, the risk of the chase, and the exhilaration of a dream realized on screen.

The film closes on a note of resilience: the Stouffer brothers have not merely captured wild animals on film; they’ve captured a family’s capacity to endure, adapt, and celebrate each other’s courage. The quiet pride in Scott Bairstow as Marty Stouffer Jr. and the continued presence of the stories from [Frances Fisher] and [Jamey Sheridan] remind viewers that every shot taken is a memory earned, and every fear confronted is a step closer to the kind of close-knit kinship that keeps a family moving forward, even when the world outside seems endless and untamed.