FAQ

Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 - April 12, 1989). He was a American social and political activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). Hoffman remains an icon of the anti-war movement and the counterculture era.

Whilst sitting and waiting for a bus, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), a slow but well meaning Southern idiot decides to tell his life story to random strangers also waiting at the bus stop. Forrest recalls events from the last 30 years of life: Forrest recalls his childhood as he lived in Greenbow, Alabama with his mother (Sally Field). Meeting his long time best friend Jenny Curran (Robin Wright) when she was an abused little girl. Meeting the legendary rock singer Elvis Prestley which he shown him his unique dance move which Elvis made his own signature dance move and being badly bullied. Growing into a young man, Forrest has his first sexual experience with Jenny. Becoming a talented college American football player and meeting the ill-fated American President John F. Kennedy. After college, Forrest joins the United States military and serves during the Vietnam war which he befriends a soldier named Bubba (Mykelti Williamson) whom is killed in action and his commanding officer Lt. Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise) whom is left crippled. After Vietnam, Forrest becomes a ping pong ball player and becomes a shrimp boat captain. After Forrest's mother succumbs to cancer, Forrest reunites with Jenny and after Jenny has sex with him and leaves quietly in the middle of night, a lonely and depressed Forrest spends 3 years running across America and again achieves fame. As Forrest finishes telling his life story, Forrest reveals to one of the strangers that he is waiting to catch a bus to go and visit Jenny and learns Jenny lives nearby. At Jenny's apartment, Jenny reveals to Forrest that he has a son named Forrest Jr. (Haley Joel Osment) and Jenny also has bad news for Forrest which soon leaves him broken hearted.

She recognised the innocence and purity of Forrest and all his actions and due to her childhood trauma that had caused her to have a tough life she did not want to burden Forrest with the same suffering.

When the country doctor put braces on Forrest Gump's legs, he explains to Mama Gump, "His legs are strong, Mrs. Gump. As strong as I've ever seen. But his back is as crooked as a politician."

The doctor prescribed leg braces because Forrest's spine was as "crooked as a question mark". That seems to indicate that he had scoliosis but he evidently did not. The doctor may have mistakenly thought that if Forrest walked straighter, his spine would grow straighter, as well.

It means that you don't really know what a chocolate tastes like until you bite it. And in the end, you've tasted whether you liked it or not.

This applies the same for life. You don't really know what every day of your life is going to be until you live it. It may be great experience or can be worse, but you would not know it until you live it.

When you open a box of chocolates, there is a variety of flavors available. Problem is, since they are covered in chocolate, you can't really tell what any given piece of chocolate is going to taste like. You're going to eat a chocolate (you know you are! admit it! you want chocolate!), but you won't know what you are getting until you bite into it - and then it's done. Like it or not, you've tasted it.

You never know what life is going to give you. But you live nevertheless. So every day - every new experience - is something you really don't know about until you actually live it. It may not be an experience you like. It may be the greatest experience ever. But you don't know until you've lived it, and by then it's too late to not live it.

Forrest uses this quote to exemplify the randomness of life.

Forrest has had such a random, eclectic life - much like the variety of chocolates which is in the box. And Forrest, like someone without the box lid, hasn't been going through life with any sort of plan, he's just been picking up the next chocolate and just finding out if it's a toffee or something else once he has eaten it.

The real truth is that the character is based on several different people! So it seems that while Forrest Gump is based on several different characters, the entire character in the film is fictional after all. Still, it is very interesting to learn about the people who inspired this incredible character!

No. The story is properly categorized as "historical fiction", a fiction based on real or likely people set in historical times, doing things that happened then.

It helps a sniper to identify who's in charge. He wanted to die in combat, not by a sniper.

"Glitter and Be Gay" from "Candide" by Leonard Bernstein

Yes, and in the book he becomes a Pro Wrestler and doesn't know how to loose. He is portrayed as a big strong man,

Forrest Gump himself mentions as he's telling his life story (i.e. through voiceover) that Jenny has sisters, but you never actually see them. Also, when Jenny is hiding from her drunk and abusive father, she's the only one who flees the house. A scene later, she is the only one who goes to live with her grandmother. It's likely, although never officially confirmed, that Jenny was never intended to have sisters, and that Forrest Gump's retrospective dialogue was a mistake on the screenwriter's part that director Robert Zemeckis forgot to edit out of the final cut of the film.

Forrest Gump (1986) is also a novel written by American novelist Winston Groom. The book was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter Eric Roth. Forrest Gump won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture.

A million-dollar wound referenced in the movie is a military slang referring to a type of wound received in combat which is serious enough to get the person sent away from the fighting, but is not fatal, nor will it leave the person permanently crippled. I.e. getting shot in the buttocks.

The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest award that can be conferred on any soldier who shows exceptional valor during combat, what the US armed forces often call "action above and beyond the call of duty." Forrest was awarded the medal because he carried most of the wounded men of his squad, including his commanding officer, Lt. Dan Taylor, to safety from a hostile combat zone.