Forrest Gump Ending Explained

The end of Forest Gump is almost a perfect mirror of the beginning as a feather flies away from Forrest Gump sitting at a bus stop, representing the cyclical nature of life. The 1994 Robert Zemeckis-directed movie is famous for its serious lead character and endlessly quotable dialogue. Forrest Gump was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, winning six categories, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects.

Forest GumpAdapted from a 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom, it tells the unbelievable larger-than-life story of the fictional character, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks). Gump is “slow-witted,” but his “Mama” (Sally Field) refuses to let him feel like he’s different from anyone else. At a young age, Forrest discovers that he is an incredibly fast runner with seemingly endless endurance, which leads him to become a college football star, a war hero, and a national media sensation, but all he wants is to be with his childhood sweetheart. , Jenny (Robin Wright).

Explains the meaning behind the final scene of Forrest Gump

The last scene of Forest Gump Follows Forrest and his and Jenny’s son, Forrest Jr., as they wait for the bus to take the young boy to school. As the bus approaches, Forrest notices Interesting GeorgeA book that his mother used to read to him, in Forrest Jr.’s backpack. His son explains that he brings it for show and tell in his class. While you read these pages, The pen that Forrest had previously stuffed inside falls out And in his lap. Later, it floats away after Forrest Jr. Leaves on his bus, and the movie comes to an end.

The pen is the most important part of Forest GumpThe last scene as it symbolizes the fate of Tom Hanks’ characterWhich is a persistent theme throughout the 1994 film. most of Forest GumpHis iconic quotes relate to destiny, including “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” But the most important line about destiny came when Forrest visited Jenny’s grave. He said, “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all floating around by chance, like on a breeze. But I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both happen at the same time.”

The pen at the end of Forest Gump is a metaphor for Forrest’s destiny as it floats away from him. Perhaps his abandonment symbolizes that Forrest has finally found his destiny, What is being a father, but it floating away also signals that someone’s destiny is uncertainty. So, as Forrest tells Jenny, it’s a bit of both. Whatever the case, meeting his son and getting to raise him was obviously always where Forrest was meant to end up at Forest Gump.

Forrest Gump is an unreliable narrator…sort of

When Forrest first begins to tell his story at the bus stop, it is immediately clear that his version of ​​events is not always a literal depiction of what actually happened, although it is true to his simpler perspective. Although Forrest’s story deviates from the way someone like Jenny or Lieutenant Dan would have told the story, the events on screen are always a literal representation of what was truly happening, creating an intentional discordance with Forrest’s perspective.

From Forrest described his leg braces as “Magic Shoes” to say “I got to see a lot of the countryside” When describing Vietnam, there is a complete lack of cynicism to Forrest’s worldview. When faced with his biggest tragedies and equally traumatic events, such as the death of Bubba in Vietnam, Forrest, which all the audience can clearly see on screen, Forrest simply says “That’s all I have to say about it. ” When Jenny asks him if he was scared in Vietnam, he says yes, then recalls how beautiful the stars were and tells other similar moments of beauty he has experienced other times in his life.

Why did Jenny leave Forrest?

Forrest’s journey is marked by Jenny coming in and out of his life again and again. As a child she was abused by her father and prayed she would become a bird so she could fly far, far away. After leaving Greenbow, she keeps trying to fly no matter where she is. When Forrest says she should go back to Greenbow, Jenny says “We have very different lives, you know.” For Forrest, the most idyllic thing in the world would be to grow up in Greenbow with Jenny, but for Jenny, Greenbow is only a source of trauma and grief. By extension, this time in her life will always be associated with Forrest.

at the end of Forest GumpJenny tells Forrest “I want to apologize to anything I ever did to you, because I was messed up for a long time.” It wasn’t until Jenny finally put the past behind her that she was able to reconcile with Forrest. After Jenny died of AIDS, Forrest may have finally understood this to some extent because he had her father’s old house torn down.

Why did Forrest run?

“Run, Forest, Run” May be the most famous line of the highly quotable Forrest Gump, And the reason why Forrest starts running as a child is pretty obvious, but why does he go on his multiple cross-country runs later in his life? Running is how Forrest moves from one time in his life to the next, and it’s usually because of Jenny. She tells him to run from the bullies as a kid, which eventually leads to him getting a football scholarship. She also told him to escape danger in Vietnam, which ended up saving almost his entire unit and earning him the Medal of Honor.

After his mother dies and Jenny walks out of his life again, Forrest starts running again and does not stop for “Three years, two months, 14 days and 16 hours.” He says he started (and continues to) run “For no particular reason,” Although this is a phrase he uses many times in the movie for things that obviously have reasons, they are just not reasons that he understands, such as the assassinations of JFK and John Lennon.

While running, Forrest thinks about Mama, Bubba, Lieutenant Dan and mostly Jenny. He doesn’t realize it, but he’s probably doing a lot of emotional processing. He survived traumatic events in Vietnam, Mama died, and he didn’t understand why Jenny kept going. At the end of his run he says “My mama always said ‘You have to put the past behind you before you can move on.’ And I think that’s what my running was all about. Eventually he says he’s tired and stops, but after running for so long it’s more likely that he’s run out of things to think about as it is that he ran out of energy.

What happened to Lieutenant Dan?

Lieutenant Dan thought that he was destined to die in battle, like all his ancestors, until Forst saved him. Despite Forrest saving his life, Lieutenant Dan blames him for ruining his destiny, which he thought meant dying on the battlefield. He thought he understood the purpose of his life, but now he was still alive and also missing his legs. Lieutenant Dan not only wrestles with Forrest, but with God, mockingly asking Forrest if he is “Found Jesus.” Eventually, Lieutenant Dan seems to find God in the storm, after which he seems to be at peace and actually thanks Forrest for saving his life.

Forrest leaves the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in Lieutenant Dan’s hands at home when he hears that his mother is dying, which turns out to be a good decision because Lieutenant Dan makes sound financial decisions with the company, mainly investing early in apple stock. They “gazillionaires.” At the end of Forrest Gump, Lieutenant Dan gets prosthetic legs and marries a Vietnamese woman named Susan, showing that he is happy with his life and excited for the future, even if it is not the future he once thought he was meant to have.

The true meaning of the pen and Forrest Gump explained

The meaning of the pen is best explained with Forrest’s favorite quote from his mom: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” The pen marks a loop from the opening of the film where it floats to land on Forrest’s sneaker at the bus stop, to the end where he sits at another bus stop and drops it again on his leg and it takes off. During this time, Forrest found and lost Jenny again and learned he was a father. He also narrated his entire journey to the other people waiting for the bus.

In many ways, Forrest is a feather blown by the wind. He has so little autonomy over where he goes or what as life sweeps him up in one adventure after another seemingly, as Forrest would say. “No particular reason at all,” But he also always makes important decisions that shape his destiny and the destiny of those around him, which is often simple advice given to him by his mother, Bobby, Lieutenant Dan or Jenny. Forrest’s life is not easy, but his lack of cynicism prevents him from being knocked down like other characters are. His success is not due to ambition, but it is not a pure event either.

Jenny or Lieutenant Dan’s perspectives of the story would be very different. Lieutenant Dan thought he had a fixed future and Jenny prayed to turn into a bird so she could fly, although both characters are like a feather blowing in the wind until they choose to accept the friendship and love of Forrest. Finally, Lieutenant Dan has new legs, and as Forrest walks away from Jenny’s grave a flock of birds flies away. Forrest says he doesn’t know if we all have a destiny or not “We’re all just floating around casually like on a breeze.” he says “Maybe it’s both.” Real life may not be that simple, but it makes sense from Forrest’s perspective.