Spoilers for The Map That Leads to You and Outer Banks are ahead! You can watch them with an Amazon Prime subscription and a Netflix subscription, respectively.
I’ve been an Outer Banks fan since day one, which means I’ve also been a Madelyn Cline stan for a very long time. So, I was thrilled to check out her new streaming project, The Map That Leads to You, when it premiered on the 2025 movie schedule. While I expected to enjoy the film – and I did – I was shocked by the odd and prominent parallel it shared with the aforementioned Netflix megahit.
In The Map That Leads To You, Madelyn Cline’s Character Follows A Guy On A Quest That’s Inspired By His Grandfather’s Journal
In the book-to-screen adaptation of JP Monninger’s The Map that Leads to You, Madelyn Cline plays Heather, a girl who is taking a European vacation right before she starts her job in the big city. While on a train from one destination to another, she meets Jack (KJ Apa), a man who is traveling to the destinations his grandfather wrote about in his journal.
As they bond, they decide to travel together, and they wind up in some wild a wistful situations. However, Jack is sick, and he hasn’t told Heather that. So, their perfect trip ends in a very sad way. Love prevails, though, and the two wind up adventuring together again by the end of the film.
While Heather is 100% different from Cline’s OBX character, Sarah, the men they choose to follow and the circumstances that they find themselves in because of said boys are…weirdly…similar, as we’re about to discuss.
In Outer Banks, Madelyn Cline’s Character Follows A Guy Who Is On A Quest That’s Inspired By His Father’s Work
So, remember that quest Jack was on? Well, in Outer Banks, John B. (Chase Stokes), Sarah’s love, has also been on a quest. And when she met him, he was specifically using his (presumed) dead dad’s work to find treasure.
Generally speaking, I find it weird that John B. and Jack are both on these intense journeys that are inspired by dead or thought-to-be dead relatives. They’re both motivated to a fault to succeed in these expeditions, and it winds up leaving them each with tunnel vision that Cline’s characters have to deal with.
Obviously, Jack does not drag Heather into the near-death situations John B. and Sarah find themselves in constantly on Outer Banks. Meanwhile, John B. is not harboring a secret illness like Jack is.
However, it’s really hard to deny the wild similarities between the men Cline’s characters decide to follow. Like, what are the odds that she does two projects where her love interests are on a mission to follow in the footsteps of their late relative? Feels slim to me, however, it happened, and honestly, I’m glad it did.
I really enjoy both these projects and the adventures within them. Those adventures wouldn’t have happened if Heather and Sarah hadn’t gone on these quests with Jack and John B. Therefore, we probably wouldn’t have gotten the fun, epic and adventure-driven Map That Leads to You and Outer Banks.
