Haven't seen the movie or read the book, but this discussion of it reminds me of the Peter Weir/Harrison Ford movie "The Mosquito Coast"

One way or another, every one of us is descended from people who came to America for a new life. This particular kid aside, it is something deep in our Society to want to strike off for the unknown - to try and make a better world than the one we are born to....

Two Years Before the Mast/Richard Henry Dana
Roughing It/Mark Twain
Anything by Jack London
Gatsby/Last Tycoon/Scott Fitzgerald
On the Road/Kerouac

And about a million others - from El Dorado to Jeremiah Johnson to Star Wars, Americans are seekers. Perhaps that's why we still ride the cutting edge of trends, materials, ideas....flipside is that that constant change is what also brings the shallowness. Everyone's too tired to go home from a day of innovating at work and take in a truly serious book, movie, etc. (me included).

I liked when the security guy from the rail gave him a good ass kickin'. Didn't see that coming.