In 1939, Donn Fendler, a 12-year-old boy from Rye, went on a hike up Maine’s highest peak, Mount Katahdin, with his father, two brothers, and a guide.
During a sudden storm, Donn was separated from the group and was lost in the wilderness alone for nine days.
His story of survival riveted a nation desperate for good news. Americans had been struggling with the Depression and war was looming in Europe. One young boy’s fight against the odds became national news.
And now Fendler’s story is a motion picture, “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” that tells how the young boy wandered for nine days in the wilderness, covering 80 miles without food and only a few items of clothing. He encountered wildlife, bugs, and leeches and slept without shelter during long, cold nights. In the end his shoes and feet were shredded.
Fendler credited his survival to using what he had learned from the Boy Scouts and his father. (“If you ever get lost, find a stream and follow it because it will lead to a river which will lead to civilization,” his father had told him.) In a documentary section of the film, his twin brother Ryan recalled that after the first few days of the search, he was sure they were looking for a body.
A small local search party quickly grew into hundreds of people, and there was massive newspaper coverage. After nine days of struggle, Fender stumbled onto a fishing camp, 16 pounds lighter but otherwise in good shape.
This story of determination and perseverance become canon in the state of Maine. Fendler wrote a book, also called “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” and spent 25 years telling his story in Maine classrooms (the book is now required reading).
Movie producer Ryan Cook, 38, grew up in Waterville, Maine, and was in fourth grade when Fendler spoke to his class. Cook, then 10, was so intrigued that he read the book and hiked the mountain.
“Even as a kid, I thought ‘why has nobody made a movie about this?’” he recalled in a recent interview. “I knew I wanted to see this movie. I knew that other people would as well. It’s such an iconic piece of our state’s history.”
“Best of luck to you…”
Cook went on to film school at Emerson College and, after graduating in 2009, started to work in the film industry.
“I finally decided I wanted to do one of my own projects and I knew this story was the place to start,” he said.
But getting there wasn’t easy.
Cook and his producing partner, Derek Desmond, approached Fendler in 2010, but Fendler wasn’t too keen. He noted that people had been trying to make this movie for a long time, and nobody was ever able to get it done. He told them, “Best of luck to you, but I just don’t see it happening.”
“I told Donn, ‘I’m sure they have, but I’m not the guy that goes away, I’m going to see this through’,” Cook said. “Did I think it would take 14 years? No, but we did it.”
Cook obtained the rights to the book from Harper Collins. He said that he and Fendler became good friends over the years. Unfortunately, Fendler died in 2016 before he could see the final product.
Another Rye connection helped push the film over the finish line.
In 2018, Cook was contacted by Dick Boyce, whose father had been a young boy in Rye at the same time as Fendler. Boyce himself did not grow up in Rye, but had been told the story of Fendler when he was young, and had lived in Rye with his family for a while when he worked for PepsiCo. When he heard Cook was working on the movie, he reached out and offered his help.
“Dick really helped us take it to the next level as far as financing, producing, and contacts,” Cook said.
Rocky saves the day
Rye pops up several more times in this story. Boyce and Cook went to Hollywood to meet with different production companies, including Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa productions.
“They loved the story,” Cook said. “We were told Stallone likes to make movies about underdogs, characters who are overcoming or triumphing over something. They said they’ve never done of these underdog stories about a kid before.”
The Rye connections continued: In 1986, Stallone was made an honorary member of the Rye police force by then-Commissioner Anthony J. Schembri. And Heather Grehan, a producer at Balboa, had grown up in Rye and her mother, Pamela Grehan, still lives here.
Stallone and Balboa agreed to produce the movie.
Filming took place in the Catskills and on the Maine Mountain. Okay, the storm scenes were filmed in a warehouse in Poughkeepsie, but they are uncomfortably realistic.
“Obviously, it’s too dangerous to shoot on a real mountaintop in a real storm with kids,” Cook said.
Coincidentally, leading lady Caitlin FitzGerald also grew up in Maine and as a schoolgirl, had heard Fendler speak.
Getting to the finish line
“Lost on a Mountain in Maine” was released in November 2024, and the reception so far has been good. Movie Nation said it “never serves up a moment that doesn’t move or ring true.”
The biggest test, however, was when Cook brought the film to the last remaining Fendler sibling, Tom, 96, who still lives in Rye. “He loved it and found it very moving,” Cook said. “He felt it was crazy to relive something from so many years ago.”
He added that the nicest thing Tom said was how happy he was for Cook that he had achieved this. “That’s so typical of the Fendlers,” Cook said. “They are, as a group, the nicest, funniest, and humblest people.”
“I think what makes the movie work is ultimately what Donn’s story is really about,” Cook said. “It’s not just a story about survival, but of perseverance. There are many different obstacles and hardships that people face in their lives. And the thing that I know people universally take away from the book, and hopefully they take away from the movie, is that if we can all just think like our 12-year-old selves again, tell themselves to just keep going and don’t give up. Like Donn in the wilderness, just put one foot in front of the other. I think that’s Donn’s universal message: No matter what you’re going through, keep pushing forward.”
“Lost on a Mountain in Maine” is available for rent on Apple, Amazon, and other streaming platforms.