Forrest Gump

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

Trivia: Dave Chappelle was originally offered the role of Bubba in Forrest Gump in a pre-production stage. He was concerned that the character was racially demeaning, so he turned down the part. He has since admitted to regretting the decision.

Tricia Webster

Trivia: In the original script, every member of Forrest's platoon in Vietnam was supposed to have a low IQ. This was an experimental practice of the Army in the Vietnam War; the Army tried allowing soldiers with lower IQs to enlist, but put them all in platoons together. Because this led to so many discipline problems, the Army is not particularly proud of it and threatened not to work with the filmmakers at all if they left the platoon like that. As a result, only Forrest and Bubba are noticeably below average intelligence.

Trivia: When Bubba tells Forrest that his name is Benjamin Buford Blue but people call him Bubba, Forrest was not supposed to respond. However Tom Hanks replied "My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump", and Zemeckis decided to keep it in the film.

Trivia: The park bench that Tom Hanks sits on for much of the movie was located in Savannah, GA, at Chippewa Square. The fiberglass bench he sat on has since been removed and placed into a museum to avoid being destroyed by the weather. The church where the feather first falls is about 100 yards just down the street from his bench.

Trivia: When Forrest tells Lt. Dan he is going to be a shrimp boat captain, Lt. Dan says "yeah, and I'm an astronaut." The next movie Tom Hanks and Gary Sinese made together was Apollo 13, where they were both astronauts. (01:19:15)

Trivia: While Forrest is running across America the camera shows some wide shots of him running, That man in those shots is really Jim Hanks (Tom Hanks' brother in real life). (01:55:05)

Trivia: While Forrest is pushing Lt. Dan through the traffic in his wheelchair, the music is from "The Midnight Cowboy". A taxi stops short and Lt. Dan says "I'm walkin' heah, I'm walkin' heah." It was a famous line said by Dustin Hoffman from that movie. (01:16:35)

Trivia: In the beginning of the film when young Forrest is on the School Bus one of the boys that tells him he can't sit down is Director Robert Zemeckis son Alex. (00:12:45)

Trivia: Forrest has his eyes closed on every picture you see of him in the film.

Trivia: The way Forrest Gump was suppose to sound was never actually planned. When Michael Humphreys was cast as the young Forrest, he came from a part of Tennessee which had that unique accent. Tom Hanks then had to copy Michael Humphreys' accent by using tape recorders while in conversation.

Trivia: The lake behind the Gump house in Alabama is the same lake the Forrest rests his buddies at when he rescues them in Vietnam. Arguably a mistake, but it's not noticeably the same lake - just interesting to know. (00:55:10)

Trivia: 12 minutes into the film, when young Forrest is on the School Bus, the little girl that shakes her head 'no' is Elizabeth Hanks, daughter of Tom Hanks. (00:13:00)

Trivia: When Forrest is meeting President Kennedy, the music playing in the background is from the musical "Camelot." The history of this connection is as follows: In a 'Life' magazine interview (a week after the President's assassination) Jacqueline Kennedy (his widow) compared the Kennedy years (with children Caroline and John Jr.) in the White House to King Arthur's kingdom "Camelot", explaining how fond the President was of listening to the musical Camelot's title song.

Trivia: Tom Hanks' scene where he calls the hotel management from his room to report about the "power outage" across the street in the Watergate was actually filmed on scene within the Howard Johnson's hotel which contained the look out room for the burglars and was the place from which the police were called. The hotel is now a dorm for George Washington University. (01:24:05)

Trivia: The helicopters in the first Vietnam camp scene consist of one helicopter being superimposed many times over. All the helicopters are fake.

Factual error: When Forrest and Lt. Dan first try catching shrimp on the new boat in the mid 70s, they catch a bunch of junk, including a Mello Yello can, which wasn't launched until 1979. (01:30:05)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The time frame is right on track. It took Dan a lot of years to get to the point where he joined Forrest on the boat. 1979 tracks with what comes before and after.

MovieFan612

You should watch the film again. Hurricane Carmen, which happened after Lt. Dan joined, and they were struggling to catch anything, was in 1974. And Forrest leaves the shrimp business in 1975 when he finds out his mother is dying of cancer. 1979 comes well after all those events. Not to mention that it's only 1981 when Forrest is sitting on the bench telling his story.

Bishop73

More mistakes in Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump: Bit me directly in the but-tocks. They said it was a million dollar wound, but the Army must keep that money, 'cause I still ain't seen a nickel of that million dollars.

More quotes from Forrest Gump

Question: How did Lieutenant Dan find out about Forrest and Jenny's wedding? Forrest appears to be surprised to see him there, and Jenny had never met him before.

Answer: Presumably, Forrest called Dan and invited him. He seemed surprised to see Dan standing. The last time Forrest saw Dan he was in a wheelchair. His reaction was all about Dan's "magic legs".

af4dable

More questions & answers from Forrest Gump

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