7.1
Viewer Rating
Combines user and critic ratings from four sources
Drama • 2025 • 106 min
The Wilderness (2025)
The Wilderness (2025)
Overview
The Wilderness is a 2025 American drama written, directed, and produced by Spencer King, drawing from his personal experiences with wilderness therapy programs. It centers on a group of troubled teenage boys kidnapped from their homes and transported to a harsh wilderness therapy camp in the Utah desert, where they confront personal struggles amid the unforgiving environment. Starring Hunter Doohan as a lead teen, alongside Lamar Johnson and Sam Jaeger.
Starring Cast
Hunter Doohan • Lamar Johnson • Sam Jaeger
Where to watch
Rating & Dimensions
Bias Rating
Analyzing...
Leans Progressive
Political: Leans Left
Diversity: Moderate
Family Values: Leans Progressive
Viewer Rating
7.1
Overview
The Wilderness is a 2025 American drama written, directed, and produced by Spencer King, drawing from his personal experiences with wilderness therapy programs. It centers on a group of troubled teenage boys kidnapped from their homes and transported to a harsh wilderness therapy camp in the Utah desert, where they confront personal struggles amid the unforgiving environment. Starring Hunter Doohan as a lead teen, alongside Lamar Johnson and Sam Jaeger.
Starring Cast
Hunter Doohan • Lamar Johnson • Sam Jaeger
Where to watch
Detailed Bias Analysis
Analyzing...
Leans Progressive
Primary
Political: Leans Left
Confidence: High
The film's portrayal of unregulated wilderness therapy programs as profit-driven and harmful critiques systemic failures in addressing youth trauma, championing compassion and direct understanding as alternatives to abusive interventions.
Diversity: Moderate
Confidence: Low
The film presents a racially diverse group of troubled teens navigating a harsh wilderness therapy program. Its portrayal exposes the manipulative practices of such programs through ensemble performances that reflect varied backgrounds, though social critiques remain focused on systemic abuse rather than identity-based inequities.
Secondary
Family Values: Leans Progressive
Confidence: High
The film depicts overwhelmed parents resorting to controversial wilderness therapy for troubled sons, framing such interventions as manipulative failures that exacerbate family rifts rather than mend them. This portrayal undermines traditional parental authority and highlights the inadequacies of conventional family support.
LGBTQ: N/A
Confidence: High
The film features no LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
Trans: N/A
Confidence: High
No transgender characters or themes feature in the film. The story examines the ordeals of cisgender male teens kidnapped for a brutal reform camp, highlighting institutional abuse without addressing gender identity.
Female Combat: N/R
The movie does not contain any action or adventure elements.
Gender Swap: No
Confidence: High
The Wilderness presents an original narrative of troubled teenage boys in a wilderness therapy program, drawn from the director's personal experiences, without adapting source material or recasting established characters from prior canons.
Race Swap: No
Confidence: Medium
The Wilderness presents original characters in a drama drawn from the director's personal encounters with wilderness therapy, lacking any source material or historical basis that establishes prior racial identities for its roles.
Viewer Rating Breakdown
User Ratings
5.5
6.8
Critic Ratings
9.1
N/A
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