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Forrest Gump (character)
Encyclopedia
Forrest Gump is a fictional character who first appears in the 1986 eponymous novel
by Winston Groom
. Forrest Gump also appeared on screen in the 1994 film of the same name
directed by Robert Zemeckis
. Gump was portrayed as a child by Michael Humphreys and portrayed as an adult by Tom Hanks
, who won an Academy Award for the role. The portrayal of Forrest in the novel is notably different from the portrayal in the film. He later reappears in the 1995 novel Gump and Co.
In 2008, Forrest Gump was named the 20th greatest movie character of all time by Empire
magazine.
, on June 6, 1944 (the same day the Allied forces began Operation Overlord
). His father was absent during his life; his mother said he was "on vacation". His mother named Forrest after Nathan Bedford Forrest
, a noted Confederate
general in the American Civil War
and the first Grand Wizard
of the Ku Klux Klan
, who is supposedly related to Gump. She intended his name to be a reminder that "sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense."
Forrest was born with strong legs but a crooked spine
. He was forced to wear leg braces which made walking difficult and running near impossible. He also had a relatively low I.Q.
of 75, which nearly prevented him from being accepted into public school. (His mother managed to get the principal to reconsider by having him sleep with her.) Despite his physical and mental challenges, Forrest's mother told him not to let anyone tell him he was different, telling him "stupid is as stupid does."
Forrest and his mother lived in a large house just outside the town of Greenbow. They made money by renting out rooms to travellers. One of their guests was a young Elvis Presley
. Forrest liked dancing to Elvis' music and his leg braces gave him a peculiar dancing style that would inspire the young Elvis' "hip dancing", for "Hound Dog
".
On the bus ride to school, Forrest met Jenny Curran and was instantly taken with her. "I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life," he would later say of her, "she was like an angel." The two became close friends, often playing around a large nearby tree. Jenny was one of the few people besides his mother to accept Forrest as he was, helping him learn to read and standing up to bullies who harassed him. However, Jenny's home life was not nearly as happy as Forrest's: her mother had died when she was five and her father was an abusive alcoholic who molested his children (until Jenny was taken away to live with her grandmother), and Forrest's friendship offered her an escape.
One day, a group of bullies were throwing fallen fruit at Forrest and chasing him on their bikes. Jenny told Forrest to just run away. As Forrest struggled to run, his leg braces broke apart. Once he was free of them, Forrest was able to run incredibly fast. Forrest would never wear leg braces again, and was able to run everywhere he wanted to after that.
head football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
, who was at the practice scouting football players
. After his incredible running ability impressed the coach, Forrest received a football scholarship to the University of Alabama
, where his speed helped them win several games. He was later named to the All-America
n team and got to meet President John F. Kennedy
at the White House
. When asked by the President how he felt, Forrest (having drunk about fifteen Dr Pepper
s) gave an honest answer: "I gotta pee."
Forrest was also present at the University when it was desegregated
and observed Governor George Wallace
denouncing the desegregation. While several citizens jeered the black students entering the campus, Forrest, not entirely understanding the situation, simply walked up to a black woman and handed her a book she dropped, saying simply "Ma'am? You dropped your book...ma'am?" before following her and the others into school.
, who went by the nickname "Bubba". Bubba told Forrest about his family history of cooking shrimp
and how he had planned to buy his own shrimping boat
after getting out of the army. Bubba explains to Forrest that he loves all kinds of shrimp.
Forrest did well in the army as he followed orders well without distraction; for example, he set a new company
record for assembling his M14 rifle
with his drill sergeant, who regularly singled him out as an example for the recruits, replying he would be a general. Meanwhile, Jenny had been kicked out of school for wearing her school sweater to pose in Playboy
and had gotten work singing in the nude at a strip club in Memphis, Tennessee
. Forrest went up to visit her one night and beat up some patrons who were harassing her. Forrest tells Jenny that he loves her, but Jenny replies that he "[doesn't] know what love is." Jenny is angry, but later becomes concerned when he tells her he was being deployed to Vietnam
. Jenny tells him not to try being brave if he was ever in trouble and to just run away instead.
While in Vietnam, and assigned to company A, 2/47th Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, Forrest and Bubba meet their platoon leader Lieutenant Dan Taylor, whom Forrest would refer to as "Lieutenant Dan". While on patrol, Bubba proposed that he and Forrest go into the shrimping business together after their time in the army was finished. Forrest agreed.
After several uneventful months, their platoon was ambushed by the Viet Cong and several soldiers were wounded and killed. In the confusion, Forrest initially was ordered to retreat, and was separated from the rest of his platoon, but after becoming concerned for Bubba, he ran back to look for him. Instead, Forrest found Lieutenant Dan and several other wounded soldiers and carried them to safety before looking for Bubba. Forrest finally found Bubba badly wounded and managed to carry him away from the combat area before it was hit with napalm
from an air strike. Sadly, Bubba died of his wounds soon after, his last words were "I wanna go home."
Forrest himself was shot in the buttocks
during the firefight and recovered in an army hospital. Lieutenant Dan was in the bed next to his, having lost his legs because of his injuries. Lieutenant Dan was angry at Forrest for cheating him out of his destiny to die in battle with honor (as several of his ancestors had) and rendering him crippled.
for his bravery in Vietnam. When being awarded, President Lyndon B. Johnson
asked where he was hit and when Forrest told him he whispers in his ear he'd like to see it, so Forrest, despite knowing there were people watching, drops his pants right there to show him. Upon being shown, Johnson simply smiles and walks away.
Shortly thereafter, Forrest went out sightseeing in Washington, D.C. and accidentally found himself among a group of veterans attending an anti-war rally led by Abbie Hoffman
. While at the rally, he was reunited with Jenny, who had since become a hippie
. Forrest was less enamored with her new boyfriend Wesley, the president of the SDS
at Berkeley
, and beat up Wesley after he saw him hit Jenny during an argument at a Black Panther Party
gathering. Forrest and Jenny stayed up all night while Jenny told Forrest of her travels. Before they went their separate ways again in the morning, Forrest gave Jenny the Medal of Honor he earned in Vietnam.
. Rather than returning to Vietnam, Forrest was assigned to the Special Services, entertaining wounded veterans with his ping-pong skills. He would later travel to the People's Republic of China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy
period. When he returned in 1971, he was a national hero, "famouser than even Captain Kangaroo
" and was invited by Dick Cavett
on The Dick Cavett Show
. John Lennon
was also a guest on the show at the time and hearing Forrest talk about the Chinese having "no possessions" and "no religion too", inspired him to write the song "Imagine
".
Soon after, Forrest was briefly reunited with Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter alcoholic who used a wheelchair and had lost his faith in God. Lieutenant Dan was also dismayed that Forrest, whom he declared as "an imbecile who embarrassed himself on television," was given the Medal of Honor. When Forrest told him of his and Bubba's plan to go into the shrimping business, Lieutenant Dan only laughed and joked that if Forrest was ever a shrimping boat captain, he would be Forrest's first mate.
Upon visiting President Richard Nixon
, he was invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex
. Forrest was awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, he calls Frank Wills at the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal
, which leads to President Nixon's resignation
. Shortly after this, Forrest was honorably discharged
from the Army with the rank of Sergeant and returned home to Alabama.
Sometime later, Forrest was visited by Lieutenant Dan, who as a man of his word, had come to be Forrest's first mate, just as he said he would do on New Year's Eve 1971. For several weeks, the two had no luck catching shrimp. However, things changed when the area was hit by Hurricane Carmen
. Forrest's boat was the only one left standing and they found themselves with a monopoly of shrimp. Under the name Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
, they soon became very wealthy. Having faced his demons during the storm, Lieutenant Dan thanked Forrest for saving his life in Vietnam, and Forrest assumes that Dan (without actually saying so) made peace with God.
Jenny returns to Greenbow and moves in with Forrest. The two spend time together and Forrest later describes it as "the happiest time of my life." One night, July 4, 1976, Forrest asks Jenny to marry him, but she turns him down, saying "You don't want to marry me." Forrest replies with, "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is." After this exchange, Jenny comes to Forrest's bedroom, tells him she loves him, and the two make love. Jenny hails a cab very early the next morning and leaves, unbeknownst to him before he wakes up.
" to a bumper-sticker salesman after stepping in a pile of dog droppings. He also uses a yellow t-shirt provided to him by a designer to wipe off his face after being splattered by mud. In the process, he forms the iconic "Smiley face
" logo and tells the man to "Have a nice day." One day, while running in the Western United States, Forrest decides he's tired and stops. He immediately turns around and walks back to Alabama. His followers are dumbfounded at his sudden decision. Meanwhile, Jenny has taken a job as a waitress in Savannah, Georgia
and sees news coverage of Forrest's run on television.
's assassination attempt), Forrest tells his latest companion on the bench, an elderly woman, he'd recently received a letter from Jenny asking him to come see her. When told Forrest's destination, the old lady informs him that it is only a few blocks away. Thanking her, Forrest sets off on foot towards Jenny's home.
Forrest and Jenny are happy to see each other. However, before they can do much catching up, Forrest is introduced to Jenny's young son, a bright young boy whom she named Forrest after his father. Forrest at first thinks she met another man named Forrest, until she explains "You're his daddy, Forrest." Forrest's fearful inquiry as to Little Forrest's intelligence leads Jenny to quickly assert that he is completely normal. Forrest learns that Jenny is sick from an unknown virus (implied to be HIV) which has no known cure. He invites her and Little Forrest to come home and stay with him. She asks him to marry her and he accepts.
Forrest and Jenny's wedding is a quiet, intimate ceremony attended only by a handful of family and friends. Among the attendees is Lieutenant Dan, who has titanium prosthetic legs, with his Vietnamese fiancée Susan. It is the only time Jenny and Dan meet. Forrest, Jenny and Little Forrest have a year together as a family before Jenny dies on Saturday March 22, 1982 (which was actually a Monday). Forrest has her buried under the tree where they played as children, then buys her childhood home (where her father had mistreated her) and has it bulldozed. Though he misses Jenny terribly, Forrest becomes a good father to Little Forrest.
Visiting Jenny's grave one day, he reflects on the idea of fate and destiny, wondering if Lieutenant Dan was right about people having their own destiny, or if his mother was right about description of life as floating around accidentally like on a breeze. Forrest eventually decides "maybe it's both, maybe both are happening at the same time." He leaves Jenny a letter from Little Forrest and tells her "If there's anything you need, I won't be far away."
Forrest is last seen outside his home, seeing Little Forrest off on his bus ride to school, telling his son he loves him.
and has extraordinary talent in numerical calculation (As shown when he states the exact amount of time in years, months, days and hours that he ran across the country). Changes from the novel to the film include: the deaths of Forrest's mother,Jenny, neither of whom died in the original book,running around the country,and going to space; later crashing in New Guinea and being captured by a native tribe.
The novel also provides additional backstory on his father. It is revealed that his father was a longshoreman
, who worked for United Fruit Company
. He was killed when a crate of bananas being loaded off of a boat fell on top of him, crushing him to death. Forrest goes on a number of different adventures including being an astronaut
, playing the harmonica in a band called the Cracked Eggs, becoming a professional wrestler ("The Dunce") and running for the United States Senate
(with the campaign slogan "I Got to Pee").
Forrest Gump (novel)
Forrest Gump is a 1986 novel by Winston Groom. The title character experiences adventures ranging from shrimp boating and ping pong championships to thinking about his childhood love. The Vietnam War and college football are all part of the story. Throughout his life, Gump views the world simply...
by Winston Groom
Winston Groom
Winston F. Groom, Jr. is an American novelist and non-fiction writer, best known for his book Forrest Gump, which was adapted into a film in 1994.- Life :...
. Forrest Gump also appeared on screen in the 1994 film of the same name
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...
directed by Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
. Gump was portrayed as a child by Michael Humphreys and portrayed as an adult by Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
, who won an Academy Award for the role. The portrayal of Forrest in the novel is notably different from the portrayal in the film. He later reappears in the 1995 novel Gump and Co.
Gump and Co.
Gump and Co. is a 1995 novel by Winston Groom. It is the sequel to his novel Forrest Gump.-Story:...
In 2008, Forrest Gump was named the 20th greatest movie character of all time by Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine.
Early Years
Gump was born near the small town, Greenbow, AlabamaAlabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, on June 6, 1944 (the same day the Allied forces began Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
). His father was absent during his life; his mother said he was "on vacation". His mother named Forrest after Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years...
, a noted Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
general in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and the first Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard
Grand Wizard was the title given to the leader of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan which existed from 1866 to 1871.In 1915, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was created, initially as a fraternal organization. The highest-ranking leader of the latter organization was the Imperial Wizard. National...
of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, who is supposedly related to Gump. She intended his name to be a reminder that "sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense."
Forrest was born with strong legs but a crooked spine
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
. He was forced to wear leg braces which made walking difficult and running near impossible. He also had a relatively low I.Q.
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
of 75, which nearly prevented him from being accepted into public school. (His mother managed to get the principal to reconsider by having him sleep with her.) Despite his physical and mental challenges, Forrest's mother told him not to let anyone tell him he was different, telling him "stupid is as stupid does."
Forrest and his mother lived in a large house just outside the town of Greenbow. They made money by renting out rooms to travellers. One of their guests was a young Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. Forrest liked dancing to Elvis' music and his leg braces gave him a peculiar dancing style that would inspire the young Elvis' "hip dancing", for "Hound Dog
Hound Dog (song)
"Hound Dog" is a twelve-bar blues written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton in 1952. Other early versions illustrate the differences among blues, country, and rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The 1956 remake by Elvis Presley is the best-known...
".
On the bus ride to school, Forrest met Jenny Curran and was instantly taken with her. "I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life," he would later say of her, "she was like an angel." The two became close friends, often playing around a large nearby tree. Jenny was one of the few people besides his mother to accept Forrest as he was, helping him learn to read and standing up to bullies who harassed him. However, Jenny's home life was not nearly as happy as Forrest's: her mother had died when she was five and her father was an abusive alcoholic who molested his children (until Jenny was taken away to live with her grandmother), and Forrest's friendship offered her an escape.
One day, a group of bullies were throwing fallen fruit at Forrest and chasing him on their bikes. Jenny told Forrest to just run away. As Forrest struggled to run, his leg braces broke apart. Once he was free of them, Forrest was able to run incredibly fast. Forrest would never wear leg braces again, and was able to run everywhere he wanted to after that.
College
Forrest and Jenny remained close friends all the way through high school, though he remained a target for bullies. One day, while running from some bullies, he interrupted the local high school's football practice by running across the field faster than all the players. This feat caught the attention of Alabama Crimson TideAlabama Crimson Tide football
|TeamName = Alabama football |Image = Alabama Crimson Tide Logo.svg |ImageSize = 110 |Helmet = Alabama Football.png |ImageSize2 = 150 |CurrentSeason = 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide football team...
head football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships...
, who was at the practice scouting football players
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
. After his incredible running ability impressed the coach, Forrest received a football scholarship to the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
, where his speed helped them win several games. He was later named to the All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
n team and got to meet President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. When asked by the President how he felt, Forrest (having drunk about fifteen Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper is a soft drink, marketed as having a unique flavor. The drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton of Waco, Texas and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904 and is now also sold in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia ...
s) gave an honest answer: "I gotta pee."
Forrest was also present at the University when it was desegregated
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
and observed Governor George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
denouncing the desegregation. While several citizens jeered the black students entering the campus, Forrest, not entirely understanding the situation, simply walked up to a black woman and handed her a book she dropped, saying simply "Ma'am? You dropped your book...ma'am?" before following her and the others into school.
In the Army
At his college graduation in 1967, Forrest was approached by an army recruiter who asked if he'd given any thought to his future. Soon after, Forrest would join the United States Army. On the bus, Forrest met Benjamin Buford Blue, a young black man from Bayou La Batre, AlabamaBayou La Batre, Alabama
Bayou La Batre is a town in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. It is included in the Mobile metropolitan statistical area. At the 2000 census, the population was 2,313. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 2,725....
, who went by the nickname "Bubba". Bubba told Forrest about his family history of cooking shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
and how he had planned to buy his own shrimping boat
Shrimp fishery
A shrimp fishery is a fishery directed toward harvesting either shrimp or prawns. .-Commercial shrimping:...
after getting out of the army. Bubba explains to Forrest that he loves all kinds of shrimp.
Forrest did well in the army as he followed orders well without distraction; for example, he set a new company
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
record for assembling his M14 rifle
M14 rifle
The M14 rifle, formally the United States Rifle, 7.62 mm, M14, is an American selective fire automatic rifle firing 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition. It was the standard issue U.S. rifle from 1959 to 1970. The M14 was used for U.S...
with his drill sergeant, who regularly singled him out as an example for the recruits, replying he would be a general. Meanwhile, Jenny had been kicked out of school for wearing her school sweater to pose in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
and had gotten work singing in the nude at a strip club in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. Forrest went up to visit her one night and beat up some patrons who were harassing her. Forrest tells Jenny that he loves her, but Jenny replies that he "[doesn't] know what love is." Jenny is angry, but later becomes concerned when he tells her he was being deployed to Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. Jenny tells him not to try being brave if he was ever in trouble and to just run away instead.
While in Vietnam, and assigned to company A, 2/47th Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, Forrest and Bubba meet their platoon leader Lieutenant Dan Taylor, whom Forrest would refer to as "Lieutenant Dan". While on patrol, Bubba proposed that he and Forrest go into the shrimping business together after their time in the army was finished. Forrest agreed.
After several uneventful months, their platoon was ambushed by the Viet Cong and several soldiers were wounded and killed. In the confusion, Forrest initially was ordered to retreat, and was separated from the rest of his platoon, but after becoming concerned for Bubba, he ran back to look for him. Instead, Forrest found Lieutenant Dan and several other wounded soldiers and carried them to safety before looking for Bubba. Forrest finally found Bubba badly wounded and managed to carry him away from the combat area before it was hit with napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
from an air strike. Sadly, Bubba died of his wounds soon after, his last words were "I wanna go home."
Forrest himself was shot in the buttocks
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
during the firefight and recovered in an army hospital. Lieutenant Dan was in the bed next to his, having lost his legs because of his injuries. Lieutenant Dan was angry at Forrest for cheating him out of his destiny to die in battle with honor (as several of his ancestors had) and rendering him crippled.
Washington, D.C.
Forrest later receives the Medal of HonorMedal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
for his bravery in Vietnam. When being awarded, President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
asked where he was hit and when Forrest told him he whispers in his ear he'd like to see it, so Forrest, despite knowing there were people watching, drops his pants right there to show him. Upon being shown, Johnson simply smiles and walks away.
Shortly thereafter, Forrest went out sightseeing in Washington, D.C. and accidentally found himself among a group of veterans attending an anti-war rally led by Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
. While at the rally, he was reunited with Jenny, who had since become a hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
. Forrest was less enamored with her new boyfriend Wesley, the president of the SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
at Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, and beat up Wesley after he saw him hit Jenny during an argument at a Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
gathering. Forrest and Jenny stayed up all night while Jenny told Forrest of her travels. Before they went their separate ways again in the morning, Forrest gave Jenny the Medal of Honor he earned in Vietnam.
Ping-Pong
While recovering from his wounds in the hospital, Forrest had taken up ping-pongTable tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
. Rather than returning to Vietnam, Forrest was assigned to the Special Services, entertaining wounded veterans with his ping-pong skills. He would later travel to the People's Republic of China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of ping pong players between the United States and People's Republic of China in the 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.–China relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon....
period. When he returned in 1971, he was a national hero, "famouser than even Captain Kangaroo
Captain Kangaroo
Captain Kangaroo is a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running children's television program of its day...
" and was invited by Dick Cavett
Dick Cavett
Richard Alva "Dick" Cavett is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues...
on The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:* ABC daytime ...
. John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
was also a guest on the show at the time and hearing Forrest talk about the Chinese having "no possessions" and "no religion too", inspired him to write the song "Imagine
Imagine (song)
"Imagine" is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971...
".
Soon after, Forrest was briefly reunited with Lieutenant Dan, now a bitter alcoholic who used a wheelchair and had lost his faith in God. Lieutenant Dan was also dismayed that Forrest, whom he declared as "an imbecile who embarrassed himself on television," was given the Medal of Honor. When Forrest told him of his and Bubba's plan to go into the shrimping business, Lieutenant Dan only laughed and joked that if Forrest was ever a shrimping boat captain, he would be Forrest's first mate.
Upon visiting President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, he was invited by the President to stay at the Watergate Hotel complex
Watergate complex
The Watergate complex is a group of five buildings next to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the United States. The site contains an office building, three apartment buildings, and a hotel-office building...
. Forrest was awakened by flashlights in the offices opposite his room. Believing the tenants to be having difficulty with a fusebox, he calls Frank Wills at the security office to notify the maintenance crew, inadvertently initiating the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
, which leads to President Nixon's resignation
Resignation
A resignation is the formal act of giving up or quitting one's office or position. It can also refer to the act of admitting defeat in a game like chess, indicated by the resigning player declaring "I resign", turning his king on its side, extending his hand, or stopping the chess clock...
. Shortly after this, Forrest was honorably discharged
Military discharge
A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve.-United States:Discharge or separation should not be confused with retirement; career U.S...
from the Army with the rank of Sergeant and returned home to Alabama.
Shrimping Boat Captain
Upon his return, Forrest finds his Greenbow house filled with memorabilia capitalizing on his fame as a ping-pong player in China. At his mother's insistence, Forrest made $25,000 endorsing a brand of ping-pong paddles, and used most of the money to travel to Bubba's hometown of Bayou La Batre and purchase a boat. When someone pointed out it was bad luck to have a boat without a name, Forrest names his boat after Jenny, which he calls, "The most beautiful name in the wide world." Unbeknownst to Forrest, Jenny had descended into a life of drugs and sexual promiscuity at this point and even contemplated suicide over her choices.Sometime later, Forrest was visited by Lieutenant Dan, who as a man of his word, had come to be Forrest's first mate, just as he said he would do on New Year's Eve 1971. For several weeks, the two had no luck catching shrimp. However, things changed when the area was hit by Hurricane Carmen
Hurricane Carmen
Hurricane Carmen was the most intense tropical cyclone of the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season. A destructive and widespread storm, Carmen originated as a tropical disturbance that emerged from Africa toward the end of August. The wave traveled westward, spawning a tropical depression east of the...
. Forrest's boat was the only one left standing and they found themselves with a monopoly of shrimp. Under the name Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant and Market is a seafood restaurant chain inspired by the 1994 film Forrest Gump. As of September 2010, thirty-two Bubba Gump restaurants operate worldwide. Twenty-two of these locations are in the United States, three are in Japan, two are located in Mexico,...
, they soon became very wealthy. Having faced his demons during the storm, Lieutenant Dan thanked Forrest for saving his life in Vietnam, and Forrest assumes that Dan (without actually saying so) made peace with God.
Home in Alabama
Forrest returned home to Greenbow in September 1975 when he learned his mother was dying of cancer. After her death, Forrest stays and leaves his shrimping industry in the hands of Lieutenant Dan and retired to mowing and cutting grass and lawns, as he apparently enjoys doing it. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dan participated in a substantial investment into what Forrest says to be "some kind of fruit company." In reality, the company was the fledgling Apple Computers, and it is implied that their investment largely kick-started Apple's rise and success. With the money he got from the Apple Computer investment, Forrest spent them on renovating the church he frequents, establishing a medical center at Bubba's hometown and gave Bubba's family his share of the investment money that is enough for them to never work again.Jenny returns to Greenbow and moves in with Forrest. The two spend time together and Forrest later describes it as "the happiest time of my life." One night, July 4, 1976, Forrest asks Jenny to marry him, but she turns him down, saying "You don't want to marry me." Forrest replies with, "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is." After this exchange, Jenny comes to Forrest's bedroom, tells him she loves him, and the two make love. Jenny hails a cab very early the next morning and leaves, unbeknownst to him before he wakes up.
Running
Forrest's newfound loneliness leads him to take a run "for no particular reason." At first, he decides to run to the end of the road, then across town, then across the county, then all the way to the Mississippi border. Eventually, he criss-crosses the country several times over a span of three years. Forrest attracts media coverage, and eventually, dozens of followers initiating and inspiring what would become the jogging craze of 1978–79. During the run, he inspires the phrase "Shit happensShit happens
"Shit happens" is a common slang phrase, used as a simple existential observation that life is full of imperfections, either "Así es la vida" or "C'est la vie". The phrase is an acknowledgment that bad things happen to people for no particular reason. Phrases with similar meaning are such as "stuff...
" to a bumper-sticker salesman after stepping in a pile of dog droppings. He also uses a yellow t-shirt provided to him by a designer to wipe off his face after being splattered by mud. In the process, he forms the iconic "Smiley face
Smiley
A smiley, smiley face, or happy face, is a stylized representation of a smiling human face, commonly occurring in popular culture. It is commonly represented as a yellow circle with two black dots representing eyes and a black arc representing the mouth...
" logo and tells the man to "Have a nice day." One day, while running in the Western United States, Forrest decides he's tired and stops. He immediately turns around and walks back to Alabama. His followers are dumbfounded at his sudden decision. Meanwhile, Jenny has taken a job as a waitress in Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
and sees news coverage of Forrest's run on television.
Back to the present
Back to the present (the "present" in the film being around 1981, as seen from a car and on a bus, and televised footage of Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's assassination attempt), Forrest tells his latest companion on the bench, an elderly woman, he'd recently received a letter from Jenny asking him to come see her. When told Forrest's destination, the old lady informs him that it is only a few blocks away. Thanking her, Forrest sets off on foot towards Jenny's home.
Forrest and Jenny are happy to see each other. However, before they can do much catching up, Forrest is introduced to Jenny's young son, a bright young boy whom she named Forrest after his father. Forrest at first thinks she met another man named Forrest, until she explains "You're his daddy, Forrest." Forrest's fearful inquiry as to Little Forrest's intelligence leads Jenny to quickly assert that he is completely normal. Forrest learns that Jenny is sick from an unknown virus (implied to be HIV) which has no known cure. He invites her and Little Forrest to come home and stay with him. She asks him to marry her and he accepts.
Forrest and Jenny's wedding is a quiet, intimate ceremony attended only by a handful of family and friends. Among the attendees is Lieutenant Dan, who has titanium prosthetic legs, with his Vietnamese fiancée Susan. It is the only time Jenny and Dan meet. Forrest, Jenny and Little Forrest have a year together as a family before Jenny dies on Saturday March 22, 1982 (which was actually a Monday). Forrest has her buried under the tree where they played as children, then buys her childhood home (where her father had mistreated her) and has it bulldozed. Though he misses Jenny terribly, Forrest becomes a good father to Little Forrest.
Visiting Jenny's grave one day, he reflects on the idea of fate and destiny, wondering if Lieutenant Dan was right about people having their own destiny, or if his mother was right about description of life as floating around accidentally like on a breeze. Forrest eventually decides "maybe it's both, maybe both are happening at the same time." He leaves Jenny a letter from Little Forrest and tells her "If there's anything you need, I won't be far away."
Forrest is last seen outside his home, seeing Little Forrest off on his bus ride to school, telling his son he loves him.
Differences from the novel
The portrayal of Forrest in the original novel is notably different to how he was portrayed in the film. Largely, in the novel, Forrest is shown to be somewhat cynical and abrasive, while in the film, he is a more placid and naïve person. He is also described as being an autistic savantSavant syndrome
Savant syndrome , sometimes referred to as savantism, is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations...
and has extraordinary talent in numerical calculation (As shown when he states the exact amount of time in years, months, days and hours that he ran across the country). Changes from the novel to the film include: the deaths of Forrest's mother,Jenny, neither of whom died in the original book,running around the country,and going to space; later crashing in New Guinea and being captured by a native tribe.
The novel also provides additional backstory on his father. It is revealed that his father was a longshoreman
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
, who worked for United Fruit Company
United Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
. He was killed when a crate of bananas being loaded off of a boat fell on top of him, crushing him to death. Forrest goes on a number of different adventures including being an astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
, playing the harmonica in a band called the Cracked Eggs, becoming a professional wrestler ("The Dunce") and running for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
(with the campaign slogan "I Got to Pee").