185 Fun Facts About Forrest Gump

What does Forrest say he earned after only five years of playing football?

A college degree is the punchline of his football years; he has barely been handed it when an Army recruiter asks whether he has given any thought to his future.

Home from China, Forrest says he was 'famouser even than' which children's TV star?

Captain Kangaroo is his yardstick for being a national celebrity; the fame lands him a talk-show chair, where the star in the next seat welcomes him home.

In Vietnam, Forrest says his platoon was 'always looking for this guy named' what?

Charlie was soldiers' slang for the Viet Cong, short for the radio code Victor Charlie; Forrest takes it for one man's name and recalls the patrols as 'real long walks'.

What was the full given name of Forrest's Army friend, known to everyone as 'Bubba'?

Bubba's full name was Benjamin Buford Blue, a shrimp-obsessed Army recruit; Forrest later names the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company after him.

What does Forrest offer the nurse beside him on the bench as he begins his story?

A chocolate from the box he holds out to her; he says he could eat about a million and a half of them, then gives Mama's line in the past tense: life 'was' like a box of chocolates.

In Vietnam, what does Forrest say started one day and didn't quit for four months?

The rain came in every kind, from 'little bitty stinging rain' to rain that 'flew in sideways'; the day somebody finally turned it off, the platoon walked into an ambush.

What company did Lieutenant Dan invest Forrest's Bubba Gump Shrimp Company earnings in?

Apple is what Forrest calls 'some kind of fruit company'; when Lieutenant Dan phones to say they need never worry about money again, he replies, 'That's good. One less thing.'

In which role does Forrest star for the University of Alabama football team?

Forrest plays kick returner for Alabama; the coach signs him after seeing him outrun bullies across a football field, and his touchdown returns make him an All-American.

Which famous musician did a young Forrest Gump teach some dance moves to?

Elvis Presley boards at Mrs. Gump's house, and young Forrest's stiff-legged dancing in his braces gives him his hip-swinging moves.

Lieutenant Dan scoffs that the day Forrest captains a shrimp boat, he himself will be what?

An astronaut is the punchline, but in the same breath he vows to come and be Forrest's first mate if it ever happens, and he later turns up on the dock to keep his word.

Forrest Gump won six Oscars, but which of these nominations did it lose?

Best Supporting Actor went to Martin Landau for Ed Wood, so Gary Sinise's Lieutenant Dan went home empty-handed on a night when six of the film's other nominations became wins.

Forrest Gump tells his life story from a bus-stop bench in Chippewa Square in which historic Southern city?

Savannah, Georgia's Chippewa Square never had that bench: it was a fiberglass prop set down for filming, which is why fans now find one in the Savannah History Museum instead.

What does Bubba call shrimp before reeling off all the ways to cook it?

The fruit of the sea, he says, and the recipes then run through days of boot-shining and floor-scrubbing before he reaches shrimp sandwich and 'that's about it'.

Forrest Gump stumbles into which governor's 'Stand in the Schoolhouse Door' while at college?

George Wallace blocked a University of Alabama doorway in 1963 to stop two Black students enrolling; in the film Forrest picks up a book one of them has dropped and hands it back.

In which Alabama coastal town does Forrest buy his boat and set up as a shrimper?

Forrest buys his shrimp boat in Bayou La Batre, Bubba's Alabama hometown, keeping the promise the two made in Vietnam to go into the shrimping business together.

Who wrote the screenplay for "Forrest Gump"?

Eric Roth's adaptation dropped the novel's wilder chapters, which send Forrest into space, into a wrestling ring and off to chess tournaments.

Kept awake by flashlights across the way, Forrest Gump tells hotel security the men must be looking for what?

A fuse box is his guess, since the lights are off over there, so he asks for a maintenance man; his room is in the Watergate Hotel, and the complaint is the film's joke about the 1972 break-in.

What phrase did Forrest Gump's mother often tell him, which later became a famous line?

"Stupid is as stupid does" becomes Forrest's stock answer whenever anyone asks if he is stupid, from a girl on the school bus to Bubba's mother years later.

On first meeting Forrest and Bubba in Vietnam, Lieutenant Dan asks whether the two are what?

Twins is his deadpan joke after both answer 'Alabama, sir!' in one voice; Forrest, missing it, earnestly replies that they are not relations.

On his cross-country run, Forrest Gump first reaches the Atlantic at the Marshall Point Lighthouse in which northeastern state?

Maine is where Forrest runs out of road a second time: on reaching 'another ocean' he figures that, having come this far, he might as well turn back and keep going.

Tom Hanks based adult Forrest's slow Southern drawl on whose real voice?

His young co-star Michael Conner Humphreys, a Mississippi boy with no film experience, had so thick a natural accent that Hanks copied the child instead of the child copying him.

Which actress, only ten years older than Tom Hanks, played Forrest Gump's mother?

Sally Field had co-starred with Hanks six years earlier in Punchline, where his stand-up comic falls for her married housewife and is turned down.

Which musician sits beside Forrest Gump on a talk show and seems to get a song idea from him?

John Lennon hears Forrest say that people in China have no possessions and never go to church, and the film jokes that those lines of 'Imagine' started there.

What does young Jenny pray to become while hiding in the cornfield?

Hiding from her abusive father, young Jenny prays, 'Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far, far away from here.'

What major protest did Forrest Gump accidentally speak at in Washington D.C.?

An anti-Vietnam War rally hears almost none of his speech, because a policeman pulls the plugs on the sound system just as he starts to describe the war.

Which president arranges a new Washington hotel room for Forrest Gump during a White House visit?

Richard Nixon asks where Forrest is staying, hears 'the Hotel Ebbott' and says he knows a much nicer, brand-new one that his people will take care of.

Forrest's IQ of 75 falls five points short of his state's minimum for what?

Attending public school took an IQ of 80, the principal explains, so Forrest was bound for a special school until Mrs. Gump insisted her boy would get the same chances as everyone else.

Which band's 'Fortunate Son' plays as Forrest and Bubba's helicopter arrives in Vietnam?

Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogerty wrote it in anger at a draft that took men like him while the well-connected sons of senators were spared.

Which relative of Tom Hanks plays the girl on the school bus who refuses young Forrest a seat?

His daughter Elizabeth, then eleven, is the girl in the red plaid dress who shakes her head at Forrest; she grew up to be a writer, not an actor, publishing as E. A. Hanks.

Forrest Gump met President Lyndon B. Johnson, who personally awarded him with what?

The Medal of Honor scene uses real 1968 footage of Lyndon Johnson decorating Sergeant Sammy L. Davis, with Tom Hanks's head placed over Davis's.

Once his leg braces have broken off, Forrest tells the nurse he can run like what?

Like the wind blows, he says, and from that day on, if he was going somewhere he was running; a man watching him sprint past calls him 'a running fool'.

Which actor provided the uncredited voice for the famous singer boarding at Mrs. Gump's house?

Kurt Russell had already played the same singer in a 1979 John Carpenter TV biopic, so supplying the lodger's voice, without credit, was familiar work.

Which Yippie leader, wearing an American flag as a shirt, calls Forrest Gump up to the microphone in Washington?

Abbie Hoffman, in Forrest's telling, liked to say 'the F word' a lot, and every time he did, the crowd for some reason cheered.

What object floats through the opening and closing scenes of Forrest Gump?

A feather frames Forrest's own question at the end: whether we each have a destiny or are 'all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze'.

What reason does Forrest give reporters for running across America?

He just felt like it: 'I just felt like running' is all the reporters get, after offering him world peace, the homeless and women's rights as causes.

Haley Joel Osment landed the part of Forrest Jr. after a TV commercial for which chain?

Pizza Hut put him on screen at four; the film's casting director noticed the commercial, and Forrest Jr. became his first role in a feature film.

Which family tradition does Lieutenant Dan believe he was destined to carry on in Vietnam?

Dying in battle in every American war was his family's record, which is why Dan rages at Forrest for carrying him out of the jungle alive.

What did Mama call the leg braces young Forrest wore?

My magic shoes is how Forrest repeats it: Mama said they would take him anywhere, and they fly apart the first time he truly runs.

During his cross-country run, Forrest Gump indirectly inspired the creation of what iconic symbol?

The smiley face is left behind when Forrest wipes his muddy face on a T-shirt nobody wanted; he later hears that the man who handed it to him made a lot of money.

Which song heard in Forrest Gump was left off the film's official soundtrack album?

"Free Bird" is the Lynyrd Skynyrd track that plays as Jenny stands on a high balcony ledge, and it was missing again when the album was reissued in 2001.

Jenny's fatal illness goes unnamed in Forrest Gump, but Winston Groom's sequel novel says she died of what?

Hepatitis C is the cause given in Gump & Co., the 1995 sequel; on screen Jenny says only that she has a virus the doctors don't understand, which many viewers took to be AIDS.

Which storm wrecks every rival boat and makes Forrest and Lieutenant Dan's shrimping business?

Hurricane Carmen was a real storm that reached the Louisiana coast in September 1974; in the film Forrest's is the only shrimp boat left afloat, so the catch is suddenly all his.

What was the first thing Jenny said to Forrest on the school bus?

"You can sit here if you want." Forrest remembers it as the sweetest voice in the wide world, coming after every other child on the bus had refused him a seat.

What was the name of the University of Alabama football coach who recruited Forrest Gump?

Bear Bryant is in the stands when Forrest tears across the football field ahead of his tormentors, and promptly asks who in the hell that is.

Who composed the orchestral score of Forrest Gump?

Alan Silvestri's orchestral music came out on its own album, apart from the hit soundtrack of period pop songs, which found room for just one suite of his score.

Lieutenant Dan says his new legs are made of which metal, 'what they use on the space shuttle'?

Titanium alloy legs carry Dan into Forrest's wedding on his own two feet, a long way from the man who raged at the hurricane from the rigging of the shrimp boat.

Which US president was the first that Forrest Gump met in person?

John F. Kennedy greets Forrest with the college All-America football team, asking each player in turn how it feels to be an All-American.

Which later release finally ended Forrest Gump's reign as Paramount's highest-grossing film?

Titanic was a shared bet, released by Paramount in North America and by 20th Century Fox abroad, so Forrest Gump stayed the studio's biggest solo release for another decade.

What does Jenny make Forrest promise to do if he is ever in trouble in Vietnam?

Just run away, she tells him, and don't be brave; when the ambush comes he runs 'just like Jenny told me to', then keeps going back in for the wounded.

Forrest says that from their first day at school, he and Jenny were 'like' what?

Peas and carrots stays Forrest's phrase for the two of them: he says it again when they meet up in Washington, and once more when she comes home to Alabama.

Why is Forrest Gump waiting at the bus stop where he tells his life story?

To visit Jenny, who wrote after seeing his run on TV; a listener then points out that her street is only five or six blocks away, so Forrest skips the bus and runs.

Why is young Forrest fitted with leg braces?

To correct a curved spine is the doctor's reason, which is why the braces breaking off as Forrest flees his tormentors reads as a small miracle.

What does the drill sergeant call Forrest for saying his purpose is to do whatever he is told?

A genius, the sergeant bellows, with an IQ of 160; Forrest explains that he fit the Army like a round peg, since all it took was a neat bed and 'Yes, Drill Sergeant!'

Which talk-show host, playing himself, asks Forrest Gump what China was like?

Dick Cavett was in his late fifties when he played his thirtysomething self, filming new questions with Hanks to be cut into footage from his real 1971 show.

Where does Forrest spend New Year's Eve 1971 with Lieutenant Dan?

New York City is where Dan has been living since the war; their night ends with him throwing out both of their dates the moment one of them calls Forrest stupid.

What does Forrest endorse to earn the money for his shrimp boat?

A ping-pong paddle maker leaves a $25,000 check if Forrest will say he likes its paddle; he takes it, though he admits it isn't true, because he only likes using his own.

Of what does Forrest's mother die?

Cancer gets one plain line from Forrest, that she 'had got the cancer and died on a Tuesday'; on her deathbed she tells him death is just a part of life, something we're all destined to do.

What does Jenny show Forrest how to do during her stay with him in Greenbow?

How to dance, a lesson for the man whose jerky childhood moves once caught a famous lodger's eye; he calls those days with Jenny the happiest time of his life.

How long does Forrest's cross-country run last?

Three years, two months, 14 days and 16 hours is Forrest's exact count; he says the running was about putting the past behind him before he could move on.

Where does Forrest bury Jenny?

Under the tree where they played as children is where Forrest lays Jenny; at the grave he leaves their son's letter for her unread and promises he won't be far away.

Mama says naming Forrest Gump after an early Klan leader should remind him of what?

We all do senseless things, or things that 'just don't make no sense', was Mama's lesson from General Nathan Bedford Forrest, whose Klan her son describes as a club dressed in bed sheets acting like ghosts.

Where on his body is Forrest shot in Vietnam?

Forrest is shot in the buttocks while carrying wounded platoon mates to safety; he later famously shows the wound to President Johnson at the White House.

Where does Mrs. Gump tell the school principal that Forrest's absent father is?

On vacation, she says, and when Forrest later asks what the word means, she explains it is when you go somewhere and you don't ever come back.

What name does Forrest paint on his shrimp boat?

Forrest names the boat Jenny, after Jenny Curran, saying a boat should have a name; Lieutenant Dan later climbs aboard to keep his promise to be first mate.

After Lieutenant Dan finally thanks him, Forrest decides Dan has made his peace with whom?

God, Forrest reckons, though Dan never actually said so; what he did say, years after cursing the rescue, was that he had never thanked Forrest for saving his life.

What does Forrest give Bubba's mother once the shrimp business makes him rich?

Her son's share of the money goes to Bubba's mother even though Lieutenant Dan says Forrest is nuts, and it means she doesn't have to work in nobody's kitchen no more.

What did Mykelti Williamson wear throughout filming to create Bubba's look?

A lip attachment fooled Hollywood too: Williamson says he couldn't get a job afterwards because the industry took the look for real, until he showed the device on a late-night talk show.

How does Forrest end painful stories like Bubba's death?

"That's all I have to say about that" closes his account of Bubba's death and, later, of Mama's, right after he mentions the new hat with little flowers he bought her.

Whose party does Forrest apologize for spoiling after he attacks Jenny's boyfriend for hitting her?

The Black Panthers get a polite 'Sorry I had a fight in the middle of your Black Panther party' after Forrest flattens Wesley, the student radical who slapped Jenny.

How does young Forrest get around Mama's rule against taking rides from strangers on the school bus?

They swap names: he is Forrest Gump, she is Dorothy Harris, and 'now we ain't strangers anymore'; decades on, Forrest Jr. boards her bus with the same line of reasoning.

What does Forrest tell his followers when he abruptly stops running on a desert highway?

"I'm pretty tired" is nearly the whole speech; he adds only that he thinks he'll go home now, leaving one bewildered follower to ask what they are supposed to do.

How does Jenny's story end in the novel Forrest Gump, unlike in the film?

Married to another man and raising Forrest's son, the novel's Jenny is still alive on its last pages; it was the film that had her die.

Forrest Gump producer Steve Tisch later added which sporting prize to his Best Picture Oscar?

A Super Bowl ring, two in fact, came to him as co-owner of the New York Giants, and the team bills him as the only person with both an Oscar and a Super Bowl ring.

Which Paramount chairwoman gave Forrest Gump the green light?

Sherry Lansing gave the go-ahead as soon as its star signed on; Warner Bros. had already dropped the project, fearing Rain Man had covered similar ground.

Paramount got Forrest Gump from Warner Bros. by trading away which script, later a 1996 airliner-hijack thriller?

Executive Decision went to Warner Bros., which released it in 1996; in return Paramount got a stalled project that went on to win Best Picture.

Which director left Forrest Gump to make Addams Family Values?

Barry Sonnenfeld was attached to direct but left for Addams Family Values (1993); the director hired in his place went on to win the Oscar for the film.

Which Pulp Fiction star had turned down the role of Forrest Gump?

John Travolta passed on Forrest and made Pulp Fiction instead; both films reached the 1995 Oscars, where he lost Best Actor to the man who took the part.

Which prison-drama role did Tom Hanks turn down to make Forrest Gump?

Andy Dufresne, the wrongly convicted banker, went to Tim Robbins after Hanks chose Forrest Gump; Tom Cruise and Kevin Costner had passed on the part too.

Which actor did the author of the novel Forrest Gump picture in the title role?

John Goodman was the author's pick, since the Forrest of the book is a far bulkier man; the film, he said, took the character's 'rough edges' off.

Who doubled for Tom Hanks in many of Forrest's wide running shots?

His brother Jim, who looks and sounds much like Tom, ran many of the wide shots; he also steps in as the voice of Woody in Toy Story games and toys.

Which actress turned down the role of Jenny?

Jodie Foster turned down the role of Jenny and starred in Nell that year, which put her among the Best Actress nominees at the Oscars where Forrest Gump won Best Picture.

Which comedian regretted turning down Bubba, having expected Forrest Gump to flop?

Dave Chappelle feared the character was demeaning as well as doomed at the box office, and later owned up to the mistake; Mykelti Williamson took the part.

Which rapper auditioned for the role of Bubba in Forrest Gump?

Tupac Shakur read for Bubba; his ex-wife recalled that he picked the film for their first date because of it.

Most of Forrest Gump was shot in and around which small coastal town, standing in for Alabama?

Beaufort was the production's base; its Woods Memorial Bridge even plays a Mississippi River crossing in the scene where reporters jog alongside Forrest.

A bend nicknamed 'Forrest Gump Curve' is on the summit road of which North Carolina mountain?

Grandfather Mountain lent its switchback to the cross-country run in October 1993; visitors driving up it now shout 'Run, Forrest, run!' from their cars.

Who paid for Forrest Gump's cross-country running sequence when Paramount refused to fund it?

The director and star split the bill themselves; Hanks recalled the studio was a day from pulling the plug because it wouldn't budget for Forrest's run across the country.

On his cross-country run, at which California spot does Forrest first reach the Pacific and turn around?

Santa Monica and its pier are as far west as he can go; having come that far, Forrest figures he might as well turn around and keep on running.

Which Los Angeles campus stood in for the University of Alabama in most of Forrest Gump's college scenes?

USC is a favourite of film crews because it sits in Los Angeles and can pass for almost any campus; it has also hosted Legally Blonde and The Social Network.

Which North Carolina mansion hosted filming for Forrest Gump?

Biltmore Estate in Asheville lent its grounds to Forrest's run across America: in one scene he is jogging along one of the estate's own winding roads.

Which effects house handled Forrest Gump's visual effects?

Industrial Light & Magic handled the effects under Ken Ralston, compositing Hanks into archival footage and erasing Gary Sinise's legs.

How did Forrest Gump's effects team make Lieutenant Dan's legs vanish after his amputation?

Wrapped in blue fabric and painted out frame by frame, the actor's lower legs vanished from every shot, one of the invisible effects that won the film its Oscar.

How did Forrest Gump's effects team create the vast Reflecting Pool crowd?

Digital cloning: a much smaller group of extras was filmed again and again in different parts of the frame, and computers multiplied them to fill the banks of the pool.

Which soda does Forrest drink about fifteen bottles of at the White House?

Dr Pepper was free at the reception and Forrest was thirsty, so he downed about fifteen; when the president asks how he feels, he says he has to pee.

Which film did Forrest Gump narrowly beat to top the box office on its opening weekend?

The Lion King, in its fourth weekend, fell about $25,000 short of Forrest Gump's $24.45 million, though it went on to out-gross Gump worldwide.

Which film did Forrest Gump pass to become Paramount's top domestic grosser?

Raiders of the Lost Ark was overtaken in Forrest Gump's tenth weekend, when the film was back at number one and its US and Canadian total passed $247 million.

What kind of wound is Forrest told he has after being shot in Vietnam?

A million-dollar wound, they tell him; Forrest takes it literally and complains that the Army must have kept the money, since he never saw a nickel of it.

Which film first overtook Forrest Gump as Tom Hanks's highest-grossing worldwide?

The Da Vinci Code took over in 2006; four years later Toy Story 3, with Hanks as the voice of Woody, out-grossed them both.

What did a leaked 1995 studio statement claim about the hit Forrest Gump?

Paramount reported a $62 million loss on its books, so the novel's author, owed 3% of net profits, hired the lawyer who had beaten the studio in the Art Buchwald case.

Which grade did opening-night audiences polled by CinemaScore give Forrest Gump?

A-plus is CinemaScore's top grade and tends to signal a long run: Forrest Gump stayed in the US top three for its first twelve weekends.

What has Jenny just turned down when Forrest says he knows what love is?

His marriage proposal: "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is," he tells her, and by morning she has left in a taxi.

What did Tom Hanks take in place of most of his Forrest Gump salary?

Gross percentage: the deal earned Hanks and his director tens of millions each, while the novelist's share of net profits at first paid nothing.

For which film had Tom Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar the year before Forrest Gump?

Philadelphia brought Hanks his first Best Actor Oscar, and his speech thanking a gay drama teacher inspired the 1997 comedy In & Out.

Forrest Gump lost which Golden Globe to Tarantino?

Best Screenplay went to Tarantino for Pulp Fiction at the Globes; at the Oscars both films won writing awards, in the separate adapted and original categories.

The Saturn Awards named Forrest Gump 1994's best film in which genre category?

Fantasy was the category; that night's best-actor Saturn went not to the film's Oscar-winning star but to Ed Wood's Martin Landau.

What is Forrest Jr. watching on TV when Forrest first sits down beside him?

Sesame Street is on: asked what he is watching, the boy answers 'Bert and Ernie', moments after Forrest has anxiously asked whether his son is smart.

After Jenny dies, what does Forrest do to the house where she grew up?

Had it bulldozed to the ground, he tells Jenny at her grave, his last answer to the father who abused her there.

Which magazine ranked Forrest Gump fourth among the best conservative movies of the previous 25 years?

National Review put it fourth on its 2009 list, arguing that Forrest is too sensible to fall for the 1960s counterculture that wrecks Jenny's life.

Which children's book, read to him by Mama, does Forrest still carry in his suitcase as a grown man?

Curious George is his favourite; years later his own son packs the same book for show-and-tell, because Grandma used to read it to his father.

Why did the director insist Forrest Gump's soundtrack feature only American artists?

Forrest wouldn't buy anything else, the director reasoned, so music producer Joel Sill kept every song American and picked hits that would pin down each era.

Which folk singer does Jenny tell Forrest she dreams of being like?

Joan Baez is her model, alone on an empty stage with a guitar; the wish comes true in a bitter way, when Jenny sings folk songs to a jeering crowd in a Memphis club.

Which two songs were added to the Forrest Gump soundtrack's 2001 reissue?

Running on Empty and Go Your Own Way had both been left off the 1994 album, though the first, a Jackson Browne hit, plays as Forrest runs across America.

Forrest Gump's sequel script was handed in the day before which event, which led its makers to shelve it?

The September 11 attacks came a day after the screenwriter delivered the script; he met the director and the star that day and they agreed the story had lost its meaning.

What does Forrest tell readers on the first page of Gump and Co.?

Never let anyone film your life story, he warns, right or wrong; the 1995 sequel treats the movie as part of Forrest's world, and he later runs into Tom Hanks.

Which Bollywood star played the lead in Laal Singh Chaddha, the 2022 Indian remake of Forrest Gump?

Aamir Khan also co-produced the authorised remake with Paramount, buying the rights in 2018 after its writer had spent years chasing them.

Under what ring name does Forrest wrestle in the novel?

The Dunce is Forrest's ring name in the novel, where his wrestling career ends in a rigged match that costs him thousands of dollars.

In the novel, which animal crewmate wrecks Forrest's NASA spaceship and strands him among cannibals?

An orangutan named Sue, a male despite the name, becomes one of Forrest's closest companions and is still at his side when the book ends.

In the novel, which Chinese leader does Forrest save from drowning?

Mao Zedong owes Forrest his life in the book, one of many episodes the film dropped along with Forrest's spells as an astronaut and a professional wrestler.

How long did its author take to write the novel Forrest Gump?

Six weeks, he said: after his father reminisced about a slow-witted neighbour, he had the first chapter by midnight and wrote the rest with no notes or outline.

In the sequel novel Gump and Co., which NFL team does Forrest briefly play for?

New Orleans Saints give him a tryout while he is working as a strip-club janitor; he lifts their season, then is cut for missing a game to attend Jenny's funeral.

In Gump and Co., which Reagan-era scandal does Forrest end up taking the blame for?

The Iran–Contra affair lands on Forrest after Oliver North recruits him for a secret mission to Tehran; everyone else denies responsibility and he goes to jail.

Which soft drink fiasco does Forrest help create in Gump and Co.?

New Coke is Forrest's doing in the 1995 sequel: he stumbles on the formula, cannot remember it afterwards, and the gala launch ends with the crowd in revolt.

Which historic event does Forrest trigger with a punted football in Gump and Co.?

The fall of the Berlin Wall follows when his punt for an Army team sails over into East Berlin and crowds on both sides set about the concrete with sledgehammers.

In which city did the first Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant open in 1996?

Monterey, California got the first restaurant in 1996, after the Bubba Gump name had already been licensed for packaged shrimp sold in supermarkets.

After becoming rich, what job does Forrest happily do for free in Greenbow?

Cutting the grass on a ride-on mower is the job the town offers its local hero; being a 'gazillionaire' who likes the work, he does it for nothing.

Which 1984 comedy gave Tom Hanks his first big film lead?

Splash, Ron Howard's mermaid comedy, was the first release from Touchstone, the label Disney set up for films aimed above its family audience; it made Hanks a film star.

Forrest Gump's director made his name with which blockbuster trilogy?

Back to the Future was rejected by studios more than forty times before it became a 1985 smash and made its director one of Hollywood's most bankable.

Which theater company did Gary Sinise co-found?

Steppenwolf took its name from the Hermann Hesse novel one member was reading at the time, and staged its first full season in a church basement in Highland Park, Illinois.

Which CSI: NY detective did Gary Sinise play?

Sinise played Detective Mac Taylor, head of the crime lab, across CSI: NY's 2004 to 2013 run.

Which soap opera first brought Robin Wright attention?

Robin Wright played Kelly Capwell on NBC's Santa Barbara from 1984 to 1988 before her film breakthrough in The Princess Bride.

Which Netflix character did Robin Wright play from 2013 to 2018?

Claire Underwood was Wright's role for all six seasons of House of Cards, and she ended up fronting the show's final season without Kevin Spacey.

For which two films did Sally Field win Best Actress Oscars?

Norma Rae and Places in the Heart brought Sally Field her two Oscars; accepting the second, she gave the 'you like me' speech that is so often misquoted.

Which 1960s ABC sitcoms made Sally Field a star?

Gidget and The Flying Nun made her a television star: the first was cancelled after one season of poor ratings, and a year later she was back as the airborne Sister Bertrille.

Which August Wilson play did Mykelti Williamson act in on Broadway and then on film?

Fences cast him as Gabriel in the 2010 Broadway revival starring Denzel Washington, and he returned to the role when Washington directed the 2016 film.

Forrest Gump's composer and director first teamed on which 1984 hit?

Romancing the Stone paired the director with a composer then best known for the TV cop show CHiPs, and the two have worked together ever since.

Which 1999 film brought Haley Joel Osment an Oscar nomination?

The Sixth Sense earned Osment a Best Supporting Actor nomination; he lost to Michael Caine, then acted opposite him a few years later in Secondhand Lions.

Who hosted the 67th Academy Awards, where Forrest Gump won Best Picture?

David Letterman hosted the 67th Academy Awards in March 1995, a night remembered for his 'Oprah... Uma' bit.

Which Best Picture loser to Forrest Gump did Academy voters prefer when re-polled in 2015?

The Shawshank Redemption, which went home from the 1995 Oscars with seven nominations and no wins, came top when The Hollywood Reporter had Academy members vote again.

Which brand of running shoes does Jenny give Forrest shortly before his cross-country run?

Nike Cortez shoes are Jenny's gift, made 'just for running' as she tells him; soon afterwards he is wearing them when he jogs off the porch and keeps going.

Forrest stops running on a Monument Valley highway in which US state?

The shot of Forrest stopping on US Route 163, nicknamed Forrest Gump Point, is in Utah near Mexican Hat; Monument Valley straddles the Utah–Arizona line.

In Army basic training, Forrest sets a new company record for doing what?

Assembling his rifle faster than anyone before him, Forrest explains that he did it because the drill sergeant told him to; the sergeant says he'll be a general someday.

What is the first of Lieutenant Dan's two standing orders for his platoon?

Take good care of your feet comes first; the second order is to try not to do anything stupid, like getting yourself killed.

What are Bubba's last words to Forrest as he dies in Vietnam?

I want to go home, Bubba says, lying wounded by a river; Forrest calls it something he won't ever forget, and later keeps their shrimping promise for him.

In its second weekend, Forrest Gump slipped to number two behind which action film?

True Lies, James Cameron's Schwarzenegger spy caper, opened at number one in mid-July, but Forrest Gump took the top spot back a week later.

What treat does Forrest get all he can eat of while recovering in the Army hospital?

Ice cream, as much as he can eat, is the one good thing Forrest finds about being wounded; he brings some to Lieutenant Dan in the next bed.

What does Jenny throw at her childhood home when she and Forrest walk past it?

Jenny hurls rocks at the run-down house where her father abused her, then slumps in the road; Forrest reflects, 'Sometimes I guess there just aren't enough rocks.'

Where does Forrest Gump first meet Bubba, the only recruit willing to share a seat with him?

On an Army bus is where Bubba slides his case aside for Forrest, echoing the school bus years earlier on which only one child offered him a seat.

What work do Bubba's mother and grandmother both do in the family flashbacks that Forrest Gump narrates?

Cook shrimp is what each generation does, always carrying the bowl to a wealthy white man's table, which is why Bubba claims his family knows the whole business.

What do Bubba and Forrest Gump scrub the barracks floor with as Bubba ends his list of shrimp dishes?

Toothbrushes are the tools for this punishment detail, the last of several chores, boot polishing among them, that Bubba's recital of recipes carries straight through.

Which item of kit does Lieutenant Dan tell Forrest Gump and Bubba to change whenever the platoon stops?

Socks, in Lieutenant Dan's view, are the one piece of gear that separates a live soldier from a dead one, so looking after their feet is his first standing order.

In Forrest Gump, how does Bubba's mother react when a check for her son's share of the profits arrives?

She faints in front of her children, and the film then shows a white servant waiting on her at home, reversing the work her family had done for generations.

What does Forrest Gump assemble in record time while Bubba talks him through the shrimping trade?

His rifle goes together so fast that the drill sergeant checks his stopwatch, declares a new company record and predicts that Forrest will be a general one day.

How do Bubba and Forrest Gump sit at night in Vietnam so neither has to sleep with his head in the mud?

Back to back is Bubba's idea of looking out for one another like brothers, and it is in this pose that he invites Forrest into the shrimping business.

On learning that Forrest Gump and Bubba both come from Alabama, what does Lieutenant Dan jokingly ask them?

If they are twins is the new platoon leader's deadpan question, and Forrest, missing the sarcasm completely, gives him a sincere answer.

Which business magazine puts Forrest Gump and Lieutenant Dan on its cover once their shrimp company takes off?

Fortune is the magazine Forrest produces at the bus stop to show a listener what his partner looks like, just after a man has laughed off his claim to be a millionaire.

Where is Bubba fatally shot in the Vietnam ambush before Forrest Gump carries him to the riverbank?

In the chest is where the bullet strikes, and Forrest gets him to the river only moments ahead of the napalm strike that burns the jungle behind them.

Besides a church and Bubba's family, what does Forrest Gump pay for in Bubba's hometown with his shrimp money?

A hospital, shown at its ribbon-cutting as the Gump Medical Center, is one of his gifts, made because his mother taught him that a man needs only so much money.

In the 2001 biopic Ali, which boxing promoter was played by Mykelti Williamson, Bubba in Forrest Gump?

Don King, the promoter who arranged the fight against George Foreman, gave Williamson a flamboyant part far removed from the gentle shrimper he had played seven years earlier.

Forrest Gump's Bubba, Mykelti Williamson, played Nicolas Cage's cellmate Baby-O in which 1997 film?

Con Air cast him as Mike O'Dell, the hero's friend aboard a prison transport plane seized by its convicts, a part that came soon after his turn as Bubba.

How was Mykelti Williamson held up while his Forrest Gump co-star ran with him from the napalm blast?

By a cable wire, which took his weight during the run; the scene was first staged with stunt performers, and the jets and napalm canisters were added digitally.

In the 1986 novel, which relative of Bubba advises Forrest Gump on starting a shrimp business?

His father is the adviser in the book, whereas the film leaves the character out and sends Forrest to see Bubba's mother instead.

In the sequel novel Gump and Co., what finally becomes of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company?

It goes under after Lieutenant Dan sells his share, leaving Forrest to take a job as a janitor before a tryout with the New Orleans Saints.

Which shellfish does Forrest Gump harvest for his second seafood business in the sequel novel Gump and Co.?

Oysters rebuild his wealth with help from his son, after a spell on a pig farm and other ventures end in disaster.

In the 1986 novel, Forrest Gump's shrimp riches lead him to run for which office before his past is exposed?

US Senate is the seat he is talked into contesting, until reporters dig up his chequered history and he has to pull out of the race.

Before playing Jenny in Forrest Gump, Robin Wright broke through as Buttercup in which 1987 film?

The Princess Bride was her breakthrough after years on a daytime soap, and the film's cult following has made Buttercup as well known as Jenny.

Robin Wright of Forrest Gump plays the Amazon general Antiope in which superhero film and its sequel?

Wonder Woman cast her beside Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, an action part that came more than twenty years after her Golden Globe-nominated turn as Jenny.

Which drama made Robin Wright the first actress to win a Golden Globe for a streaming series?

House of Cards brought her the award in January 2014 and, by its later seasons, credits as executive producer and director as well as star.

Robin Wright's Jenny performs in a strip club in Forrest Gump under a name borrowed from which singer?

Bob Dylan inspires her billing as Bobbie Dylan, and the set ends abruptly when Forrest, on leave from the Army, wades in to stop men in the front row grabbing at her.

What career did Robin Wright begin at 14, years before acting roles led her to Forrest Gump?

Modelling came first, and a part on a daytime soap followed at 18, so she had more than a decade of work behind her when she was cast as Jenny.

Which 2024 film reunited Robin Wright with her Forrest Gump leading man, director, screenwriter and composer?

Here brought the team back together thirty years on, and digital de-ageing let its stars play a married couple across most of their adult lives.

Robin Wright of Forrest Gump made her feature directing debut with which 2021 drama set in Wyoming?

Land has her on both sides of the camera, playing a grieving woman who buys an isolated cabin and tries to live without phones or cars.

Why did Robin Wright, later Jenny in Forrest Gump, turn down Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves?

She was pregnant when the offer came, so the heroine of that outlaw blockbuster was played by someone else.

Robin Wright starred opposite which actor in Message in a Bottle, the 1999 film of a Nicholas Sparks novel?

Kevin Costner shared the lead with her under director Luis Mandoki, five years after she had played Jenny.

Robin Wright voiced Queen Wealtheow in which 2007 animated epic from the director of Forrest Gump?

Beowulf, scripted by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, was her second film for the same director, with Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie also in the voice cast.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. calls itself the first and only casual restaurant chain to be based on what?

A motion picture is the claim, and the name was licensed from Paramount, turning a company that had existed only on screen into a real one.

What is the name of the crustacean mascot of the Bubba Gump restaurant chain inspired by Forrest Gump?

Shrimp Louie represents a chain whose dishes are otherwise named after people in the film, such as Jenny's Catch and Forrest's Seafood Feast.

Which themed restaurant chain, bought in 2000, became a sister brand of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. a decade later?

Rainforest Cafe joined the same group in 2000, so the 2010 takeover put the shrimp chain alongside its jungle-inspired dining rooms and retail villages.

What do Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. employees call the volunteer and fundraising teams found at its restaurants?

The Shrimpossibles are staff who give their time to local causes such as fighting hunger and illiteracy, including Read Across America events.

Alongside Southern cooking, which regional American cuisine shapes the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. menu?

Cajun dishes sit beside Southern ones on a menu made up mostly of shrimp, a nod to the film's two would-be shrimpers from Alabama.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. staff hold film-themed 5K charity runs in support of which sporting organisation?

Special Olympics is the beneficiary, a fitting cause for a chain built on a hero whose low IQ score nearly kept him out of school.

What makes up almost all of Forrest Gump's first haul when he empties his shrimp nets onto the deck?

Garbage and shells tumble out with a single shrimp among them, and at the dock Forrest admits that his whole day's catch comes to five.

What does Forrest Gump do the moment he spots Lieutenant Dan waiting in a wheelchair on the dock?

Jumps overboard is right: he flails his way to the dock to greet his old platoon leader while the unmanned boat sails on and crushes a pier.

Which job on the shrimp boat does Lieutenant Dan take, keeping a promise he made to Forrest Gump as a joke?

First mate is the post he had mockingly offered to fill one New Year's Eve, and he turns up to honour the pledge, though he refuses to call his captain sir.

Where does Lieutenant Dan sit to direct Forrest Gump towards shrimp, and later to shout at the storm?

In the rigging, high above the deck, he shakes his fist at the wind and rain and dares the storm to sink the boat.

What does Lieutenant Dan sarcastically suggest Forrest Gump try when their nets keep coming up empty?

Praying for shrimp is advice Forrest takes literally, joining a gospel congregation every Sunday while Dan sits at the back with a bottle.

The real storm that wrecks Forrest Gump's rival shrimp boats actually made its US landfall in which state?

Louisiana took the landfall, in marshland west of New Orleans, and the damage was severe enough for the storm's name to be retired.