Deliberate mistake: In the scene where Forrest is describing his heritage, the clip of KKK on horses is taken from The Birth of a Nation. In this clip, you can see tire tracks on the dirt road well before automobiles were supposed to be in existence. Robert Zemeckis decided to leave this mistake in to perfectly match the clip to the original movie.
Forrest Gump (1994)
1 deliberate mistake
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Gary Sinise, Robin Wright, Robin Wright Penn, Sally Field, Tom Hanks
Factual error: Jenny shows Forrest a clipping of him in U.S.A Today (first published in September 1982), but on Jenny's grave it says she died on March 22 1982, before the paper even existed.
Drill Sergeant: Why did you put that gun together so fast, Private?
Forrest Gump: Because you told me to, Drill Sergeant!
Trivia: Disabled U.S. veterans would tell Gary Sinise that they were inspired by his portrayal of Lt. Dan in this film. Feeling humbled because he himself was neither a veteran or disabled, he established the Gary Sinise Foundation in order to help disabled veterans adjust to their new lives. https://www.garysinisefoundation.org.
Phaneron
Question: What does Jenny die of? And is it mentioned anywhere in the film at all?
Answer: In 1981, when Forrest meets Jenny again, she says she has a virus that doctors don't know. This virus was the HIV virus, as 1981 marks the AIDS outbreak in the World.
Answer: It could have been HIV or Hepatitis C or something else. Maybe someone related to the story or even Winston Groom himself told this at some other place. Nonetheless, it's false that it appears in that book.
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Answer: It's not specified in the film, but in the sequel book "Gump & Co" the author mentions that Jenny dies from Hepatitis C as a former drug addict in the early 70s. Hepatitis C was an unknown disease until 1989.