Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. Hanks portrays a fictional FedEx employee who is stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes on a flight over the South Pacific. The film depicts his attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his eventual escape and return to society. Hanks was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 73rd Academy Awards for his critically acclaimed performance.Plot
In 1995, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a time-obsessed FedEx systems analyst, who travels worldwide resolving productivity problems at FedEx depots. He is in a long-term relationship with Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt), with whom he lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Although the couple wants to get married, Chuck's busy schedule interferes with their relationship. A Christmas with relatives is interrupted by Chuck being summoned to resolve a problem in Malaysia.Flying through a violent storm over the southern Pacific Ocean—and having flown off course trying to avoid the storm—Chuck's airplane crashes into the ocean, making him the only survivor among five. Chuck is able to escape the sinking plane and is saved by an inflatable life-raft but in the process, loses the raft's emergency locator transmitter. He clings onto the life-raft as it floats all night in the storm before being washed up on an island.
After Chuck wakes up, stranded, he explores the island and soon discovers that it is uninhabited. Several FedEx packages from the crashed plane wash up on the shore, as well as the dead body of one of the pilots (to which he gives a funeral). Chuck initially tries to signal for rescue and makes an escape attempt with the remnants of his life-raft, but he cannot pass the powerful surf. He searches for food, water, shelter, and opens the packages. He finds a number of potentially useful items but leaves one package, painted with a pair of wings, unopened.
During a first attempt to make fire, Chuck receives a deep wound to his hand. In anger he throws several objects, including a Wilson Sporting Goods volleyball from one of the packages. A short time later he draws a face in the bloody hand print on the ball, names it "Wilson" and begins talking to it as if it were a person.
Four years later Chuck is dramatically thinner and bearded with longer hair and wearing a loincloth. He has become an expert at spearing fish and making fires. Chuck has regular conversations and arguments with "Wilson".
After a large sheet of plastic from a portable toilet washes up on the island, Chuck uses it as a sail in the construction of a raft. After spending some time building and stocking the raft and deciding when the weather conditions will be optimal, Chuck launches it and is able to use the sail over the powerful surf, finally escaping the island. After some time on the ocean, he encounters a storm that all but destroys the raft. The following day, "Wilson" falls from the raft and is lost. Overwhelmed by grief and loss, Chuck abandons his attempt to find rescue. Later, he is found drifting by a passing cargo ship.
Upon returning to civilization, Chuck learns that he has long been given up for dead by everyone he knew; his family and friends held a funeral, and Kelly has since married Chuck's dentist and has had a daughter. After reuniting with Kelly, the pair profess their love for each other but, realizing a future together would be impossible due to her commitment to her family, they part. Kelly gives Chuck the keys to the car that they had once shared.
Chuck then travels out into the country to return the unopened FedEx package to its sender. The house at the package address is empty, so he leaves the package at the door with a note telling the occupant that the package saved his life. He then departs and stops at a remote crossroads, apparently trying to decide which way to go. A woman passing by in a pickup truck stops to explain where each road leads. As she drives away, Chuck notices an illustration on the back of her pickup truck that is similar to the one on the parcel. Chuck is left looking down each road. The camera focuses on his face, as he looks toward the departing woman in the truck with a faint smile.
Cast
- Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland
- Helen Hunt as Kelly Frears
- Nick Searcy as Stan
- Jenifer Lewis as Becca Twig
- Chris Noth as Jerry Lovett
- Lari White as Bettina Peterson
- Vince Martin as Albert "Al" Miller
- Geoffrey Blake as Maynard Graham
Production
The film was not shot consecutively. Hanks gained fifty pounds during pre-production to make him look like a pudgy, middle-aged man. After a majority of the film was shot, production was halted for a year so that he could lose the weight and grow his hair and beard to look like he had been living on the island for years. During the year-long hiatus, Zemeckis used the same film crew to make another film, What Lies Beneath.[citation needed]Cast Away was filmed on Monuriki, a member of the Mamanuca Islands.[1] It is in a subgroup of the Mamanuca archipelago, which is sited off the coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. The island became a tourist attraction following the film's release. Although it is identified by Kelly after Chuck's return as being "about 600 miles south of the Cook Islands," there is actually no land between Antarctica and the southern-most Cook Islands of Mangaia.
The producers made up a list of seemingly useless items that would be in the packages that Noland recovered: party dress, ice skates, divorce papers, video tapes, and other sundries. They turned this over to a group of survival experts who decided how the protagonist might be able to use them. In a panel discussing the film, director Robert Zemeckis joked that the unopened package contained a waterproof, solar-powered satellite phone.[citation needed] This led to a Super Bowl commercial that parodied the film[citation needed], which shows Chuck (though not played by Hanks) delivering the unopened package; as he does so, he asks the recipient "by the way, what's in the package?" and she replies "nothing really, just a satellite phone, GPS locator, fishing rod, water purifier, and some seeds."[2]
Product placement
Cast Away includes prominent product placement that is worked into the story, although the brands in question did not pay for their appearances and are used solely as filmic devices. Wilson and FedEx were the two major brands featured.At the time of the film's release, Wilson Sporting Goods launched its own joint promotion centered around the fact that one of its products was "co-starring" with Tom Hanks. Wilson manufactured a volleyball with a parody of the hand print face on one side. It was sold for a limited time during the film's initial release and continues to be offered on the company's website.[3]
FedEx reportedly paid nothing for product placement in the film.[4] FedEx CEO Fred Smith did make an appearance as himself for the scene where Chuck is welcomed back, which was filmed on location at FedEx's home facilities in Memphis, Tennessee. Although the idea of a story based on a FedEx plane crashing gave the company "a heart attack at first," the overall story was seen as positive and the company saw an increase in brand awareness in Asia and Europe following the film's release.[5]
Wilson the volleyball
One of the original volleyball props was sold at auction after release of the film for $18,400 to the ex-CEO of FedEx Office's Ken May. In addition, many near identical replicas of Wilson are available for sale,[10][11][12] and the Wilson company manufactures a volleyball with the handprint face on one side.[13]
Wilson has been a subject of humor in literature, film and television. Shortly after Tom Hanks was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, some in the news joked that Wilson should also be nominated for Best Supporting Piece of Athletic Equipment.[citation needed] Also, the character has been parodied in Mad magazine and in such films and television shows as Scary Movie 2, Family Guy, So Little Time, Saturday Night Live, Wishology, Behind Enemy Lines,[disambiguation needed] Madagascar and it also appears on an island on Poptropica.[citation needed]
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