Cast Away

Cast Away (2000)

Plot summary

(55 votes)

Chuck Noland, a Federal Express efficiency supervisor, jets around the world trouble-shooting problems for the company. His life is driven by the clock, and he demands the same of FedEx employees. On Christmas Eve, he's unexpectedly dispatched on an assignment. Just before leaving, he proposes to his girlfriend, Kelly, and promises her, "I'll be right back". The FedEx plane he hitches a ride on hits a severe storm and is blown hundreds of miles off course. The plane crashes into the Pacific ocean, and Chuck, the only survivor, drifts to a small deserted island. For the next four years he struggles to survive, using salvaged items from washed up FedEx packages as tools (i.e. an ice skating boot becomes an axe). He purposely leaves one package unopened. Chuck's only companion is Wilson, a volleyball, and as time passes his loneliness leads to suicidal tendencies. Knowing he must get off the island, he builds a crude raft and heads out to sea.

Continuity mistake: Chuck is on the plane going back home with a noticeable sun tan on his face. When he is talking with the dentist he is way paler, only to be slightly darker during the welcome party thrown hours later.

Sacha

More mistakes in Cast Away

Chuck Noland: I couldn't even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over nothing.

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Trivia: Production was shut down for a year, to give Tom Hanks enough time to lose weight and grow out his "castaway" beard. During that time, director Robert Zemeckis used the same crew members to help film "What Lies Beneath."

Cubs Fan

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Question: Does anyone know what's officially in the mystery package and why Chuck never opens it, or is it just a 'McGuffin' like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction?

Answer: No one knows what was in the package. I think Chuck doesn't open it in order to keep his sanity. The package is his only link to his life before being stranded, working for FedEx and making sure packages get delivered. He was determined to make sure it got delivered just as he was determined to survive and get back to civilization. Success in one meant success in the other. While Zemeckis has joked there was a waterproof satellite phone in it, the real answer from the script is, no joke, salsa verde. Its a care package with a note imploring Bettina's (the artist) husband (naked cowboy) to come back and spice up their life like the salsa.

Answer: The package he got had divorce papers in them. He signed them and then placed them back in the package for return to her.

Here's my spin. Bettina's husband travels and is on assignment in Moscow. He's cheating on her, she knows it, files for divorce, and sends the papers through FedEx to him in Moscow. He signs them and returns in the same box. They end up on Chuck's flight, which crashes. He recovers them but decides not to open them. They re-file for divorce. Chuck returns the box, gazes down the road, and decides to go back and tell his story to her. They laugh about the old papers and live happily ever after.

Answer: In the third draft of the movie there's a scene where Chuck opens the package and finds salsa and a note from the woman in the beginning asking her husband to come home. It's also revealed that she doesn't mind that he never got the package. Pretty unsatisfactory, probably why it was cut and left a mystery.

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