Forrest never blinks while playing ping-pong.
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00:00Forrest Gump is one of those all-time classic movies that most of us have seen literally
00:05dozens of times since its 1994 release. Between Tom Hanks' Oscar-winning performance,
00:10the excellent ensemble cast, amazing direction, and witty, heartfelt script,
00:15it's an enduring classic for so many good reasons. But no matter how well you think you know this
00:20movie, there will always be one or two things you missed, so let's take a look at some of them now.
00:26I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are 20 Things You Somehow Missed in Forrest Gump.
00:3120. Elvis is voiced by Kurt Russell
00:34Of the many, many ways Forrest influences the world throughout his life,
00:38one of the most amusing must surely be teaching Elvis Presley his famous jerky dance moves.
00:44And though Elvis was physically portrayed by Peter Dobson in the film,
00:47his voice was dubbed in afterwards, and you'll never guess who that voice belongs to.
00:52He lent his voice to the film as a favour to Robert Zemeckis after previously playing
00:56Presley in the 1979 TV movie Elvis, for which he received a Best Actor Emmy nomination.
01:02You'd never guess it simply by listening, but that is Kurt alright.
01:0619. Dirty shoes, clean laces
01:09One of the very first shots we see in the film is of Forrest sat on the famous bus stop bench,
01:14in which there is particular attention paid to his very dirty shoes with weirdly clean laces.
01:20This is telling not only because the condition of the shoes makes it clear that Forrest has been
01:24running a lot, but that they're also the same Nike running shoes that Jenny gave him,
01:29and which he called the best gift anyone could ever get in the wide world.
01:33And so, while Forrest surely replaced the shoes after spending so many years
01:37running across the US, he kept buying the exact same make.
01:40Plus, he was clearly heeding Lieutenant Dan's advice on keeping his feet good and healthy
01:45by making sure that he had a quality, clean pair of laces always in his shoes.
01:5018. Forrest closes his eyes in every photo
01:54One of the film's funniest recurring gags appears to be that Forrest is completely
01:58incapable of keeping his eyes open for a single photograph.
02:02In the Bubba Gump photo with Lieutenant Dan, the graduation picture with his mother,
02:06and the ping pong promos, including that cardboard cutout of him,
02:10his eyes are hilariously closed every single time.
02:13Granted, many people are especially sensitive to the sharp flash of a camera bulb,
02:17but even so, you'd have to be pretty unlucky to have every damn photo come out that badly.
02:23Hey, at least in these modern days, we could probably fix that with Photoshop.
02:2617. Tom Hanks' daughter plays a girl on the bus
02:30One of the most heartbreaking scenes comes early on in the film,
02:33when Forrest gets on the bus to go to school, but nobody will let him sit next to them.
02:38That is, of course, until he meets Jenny.
02:40You might recall a distinctive-looking girl who simply looks at Forrest
02:43and shakes her head when he motions to sit next to her.
02:46This girl is, in fact, Tom Hanks' own daughter, Elizabeth Hanks.
02:50It's perhaps a more surprising fact,
02:52because you might not even be aware that Tom Hanks has a daughter.
02:55She keeps a relatively low profile compared to two of her more famous brothers, Colin and Chet.
03:00And here's a not-so-fun fun fact,
03:02Elizabeth is now older than Tom was when he initially played Forrest.
03:06Do you feel old yet?
03:0716. Forrest's uniform is clean because nobody can catch him
03:12Forrest famously attends the University of Alabama on a football scholarship,
03:16where we see that he has an aptitude for running, and running very fast.
03:20So fast, in fact, that none of the opposing teams seem to be able to catch him.
03:25This is slyly exemplified by Forrest's uniform, which hasn't got a spot of dirt on it.
03:30And that's compared to just about every other player on the field
03:33whose duds are thoroughly smeared with mud.
03:36Throughout the scene, he's the only player with pearly white pants,
03:39no matter how rough and competitive the play gets.
03:41Because, as Coach Bryant says, he sure is fast.
03:4515. The shot of Jenny outside her home is inspired by an iconic painting.
03:51You may recall the scene where Jenny angrily throws rocks at her childhood home,
03:55trying to lash out at every horrible thing it represents to her.
03:58The image of Jenny collapsed in the mud,
04:00the house in the distance is a striking one for sure,
04:03and one that Robert Zemeckis received a little inspiration in composing.
04:07The shot is actually an homage to the beloved 1948 Andrew Wyeth painting, Christina's World,
04:13which similarly depicts a woman laying in a field with a house in the background.
04:16This is one that you wouldn't necessarily get unless you're super into art,
04:20but nonetheless, if you did manage to catch it, I hope you feel very, very smart.
04:2514. Bubba's helmet says, I'd rather be shrimpin'.
04:29Obviously, in the film, Forrest enlists in the army and goes to war in Vietnam,
04:33where he becomes best friends with fellow soldier Bubba.
04:36In this whole period of the film, there's a lot of details to keep track of,
04:39so much so that you might miss what's written on Bubba's helmet.
04:43Newer, higher-definition releases of the film make it easier to catch,
04:46though you can still easily fail to notice it written in its entirety.
04:50As a way to inject a little bit of personality into his uniform Bubba has written,
04:54I'd rather be shrimpin' on his helmet.
04:56And what could possibly be more appropriate for him to put up there? I mean, come on.
05:0113. Forrest's blue shirt signal the passing of time.
05:05Something that fans began to pick up on in recent years is the recurring appearance
05:09of a blue plaid or checkered shirt whenever the time period shifts in the film.
05:13Though everything is always shifting and changing around Forrest, there's always one constant,
05:18and that is that he starts every new time period with his first scene
05:22in a plaid or checkered blue shirt.
05:24Beyond the fact that it helps us easily identify Forrest in his younger days,
05:28it also helps contrast the change around him, whatever it may be.
05:32Sometimes the simplest details are the best,
05:34because even though maybe you didn't consciously pick up on that,
05:37I bet your brain noticed it at some point.
05:4012. The Beach Boys foreshadow Bubba's dying words.
05:44When Forrest and Bubba first meet Lieutenant Dan, Dan tells them,
05:48try not to do anything stupid like getting yourself killed.
05:51Or, whilst the Beach Boys song Sloop John B can be heard playing in the background.
05:56Fittingly, one of the lyrics to the song is I want to go home,
05:59which we all know, tragically, are Bubba's final words.
06:02As he finally succumbs to his wounds later on, he laments that he just wishes he was home.
06:08And I'd say that using the Beach Boys to foreshadow
06:10a beloved character's death is quite the cruel trick indeed.
06:14Mr Zemeckis, we'll never forgive you for it.
06:1611. The meaning of the writing on Forrest's helmet.
06:20Whilst it was hard to decipher what was written on Bubba's helmet
06:23because of the low res at the time,
06:25and the fact that you're kind of distracted by other things like war whenever you see it,
06:29Forrest's was kind of indecipherable because it was a scrawl at best,
06:34but fear not, some people have worked it out.
06:36His helmet has written on it, bear with me,
06:39G-N-M-I-F-2-47,
06:44which translates, believe it or not, to Gump,
06:46no middle initial, Forrest, to identify his name,
06:50with 2 forward slash 47 referring to the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment.
06:55Though this might seem like an easter egg-y code
06:57hidden in the movie by a member of the production team,
06:59it's really nothing more than a pretty basic means of ID for Forrest and his helmet.
07:04In a way, it's sort of anticlimactic,
07:05because you almost wish it was something more personality-driven like Bubba's message,
07:09but at the same time, it makes sense.
07:1110. The ping pong ball was CGI.
07:14The film's Oscar-winning VFX work is primarily attributed
07:18to the removal of an actor's legs to play an amputee later on,
07:21this obviously being Lt. Dan's character,
07:24and the effect being so ingeniously executed
07:26that it might prevent you from realising
07:28the other extremely impressive visual effects shots present in the film.
07:32It might be mean of me to say that you'd be an idiot
07:34to assume that for the film, Tom Hanks would somehow become a ping pong pro,
07:39because there's certainly actors out there that go and learn new skills
07:42and get really good at things for movies,
07:44but I'm afraid to say, this was not one of them.
07:46Tom Hanks did not become a ping pong pro just for Forrest Gump.
07:50No, no, quite the opposite.
07:52Actually, basically every single ping pong ball seen in the movie is CGI.
07:56Instead of having Hanks rally the ball for real,
07:59he simply faked the motion with a paddle
08:01whilst set to a click track in order to maintain his timing,
08:04and the ball was then added in post-production.
08:06It is a totally seamless effect,
08:08and thus a perfect example of invisible VFX at play.
08:119. Jenny's meaningful choice of suicide song.
08:15In one of the much darker periods in her life,
08:17Jenny becomes addicted to drugs
08:19and contemplates suicide whilst standing on a balcony,
08:22the scene being set to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird.
08:25This isn't simply Robert Zemeckis picking a cool song
08:28for Jenny's near-death experience though,
08:30because it's actually incredibly thematically appropriate.
08:32Birds are associated with Jenny throughout the film,
08:35ever since that unforgettable moment early on when we see young Jenny praying.
08:40Hiding from her father, she prays,
08:42Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far, far away from here.
08:46It may be a subtle callback, but it is very effective indeed.
08:508. Forrest never blinks whilst playing ping pong.
08:54Now, Forrest may blink constantly when it comes to having his picture taken,
08:58but it turns out that when he's playing ping pong,
09:00he goes way down the other end of the scale.
09:02Watch Tom Hanks throughout any of the ping pong scenes,
09:05and you won't see him blink once.
09:07The reason for this?
09:08When a fellow soldier introduces him to ping pong at the army hospital,
09:12he tells Forrest,
09:13The secret to the game is, no matter what happens,
09:16never, ever take your eye off the ball.
09:18Safe to say Forrest took that advice to heart.
09:21If maybe a little literally, it clearly served him well.
09:257. The Lincoln Memorial crowd was CGI.
09:28Another jaw-dropping visual effect that you may have never noticed
09:32was a visual effect at all,
09:33takes place when Forrest gives his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
09:38Given that Forrest Gump was shot in 1993,
09:41you certainly cannot be blamed for assuming
09:43that the production simply corralled like a few thousand extras to shoot the scene.
09:47But that wasn't the case at all.
09:49Instead, the crowd was replicated digitally.
09:51Only the audience members at the very front, below Forrest,
09:54were there for the entire shoot,
09:56whilst the crowd at the sides were created through visual effects.
09:59The crew had a pool of 1,500 extras
10:01to move around the sides of the reflecting pool in stages,
10:04allowing them then to stitch these shots together
10:07and give the impression of a massive crowd.
10:09It was incredible stuff for its time,
10:11and yet something that we totally take for granted today.
10:146. Forrest has grazed hands the day after punching Wesley.
10:19Sometimes the smallest, tiniest,
10:21seemingly most insignificant details can make the biggest difference.
10:25And that's because it shows us that the filmmakers were actually paying attention.
10:29Case in point,
10:30you remember when Jenny's abusive boyfriend Wesley
10:33slapped her at the Black Panther meet-up,
10:34prompting Forrest to fly into blind rage and punch his lights out.
10:38In a small but notable feat of continuity,
10:41when Jenny leaves the next morning and Forrest hugs her goodbye,
10:44we can see minor cuts and grazes on his hands
10:47from where he put them to good use.
10:4990% of filmmakers probably wouldn't even think to include such a minute detail.
10:54I mean, most people would never even notice it.
10:56And yet, there it is.
10:585. Bubba's family attended Forrest's wedding.
11:01Forrest eventually moves back to Greenbow
11:03and marries Jenny in a small,
11:05intimate service with only their closest friends and family.
11:08Though it's never explicitly stated,
11:10pay close attention and you might notice that Bubba's family
11:13are clearly part of the wedding party on the left-hand side.
11:16We never see their faces,
11:17but given that Bubba's mother is a distinctive-looking lady on the larger side,
11:21and is shown to have three daughters and two other sons earlier in the film,
11:25the fact that we see a larger woman,
11:26surrounded by five younger people,
11:28two boys and three girls,
11:30at the wedding seems to make it pretty clear who they are.
11:33Given that Forrest sent half of his Bubba Gump shrimp company earnings to Bubba's family,
11:37it's not terribly surprising that they might have kept close with him.
11:41Still, it's a nice detail.
11:434. The smiley face card on Jenny's nightstand.
11:46Shortly before Jenny passes away from her illness,
11:49there's a shot where Forrest goes into her room to take care of her.
11:52If you really focus your eyes on the left-hand side of the screen,
11:56you'll see a smiley face card on her nightstand.
11:58The fact that the card has a smiley face on it is of course relevant,
12:02given that Forrest ended up unwittingly inspiring the iconic smiley face logo
12:06during an especially muddy run.
12:08Considering that the scene is mostly naturally lit,
12:11this one's actually pretty tough to spot,
12:13but trust us, it's there.
12:153. Tom Hanks is being doubled by his brother during the running scenes.
12:19It wouldn't seem beyond the realms of possibility
12:21that Tom Hanks would do all of his own running and jogging scenes.
12:25He was a fit guy, he wasn't too old,
12:28there's no reason that he couldn't.
12:30However, you'd be wrong in that assumption.
12:32Given some of the geographically disparate locations
12:34we see Forrest running through during the montage,
12:37the decision was made to hire a double and not just any double.
12:40In fact, they hired Hanks's own brother, Jim.
12:43Because Jim Hanks knew his older brother's jogging gait better than anyone,
12:47he was drafted in to jog at various spots around the US with a second unit film crew.
12:52All the while, Tom could keep on shooting the main unit with Robert Zemeckis.
12:56Since then, Jim Hanks has also doubled for his brother's voice as Woody
13:00on various Toy Story short films, video games and toys.
13:042. Jenny was born the day of the first atomic bomb test.
13:08When Jenny sadly passes away, Forrest goes to visit her gravestone
13:11and we catch a brief glimpse of it,
13:13revealing that her birthday is June 16th, 1945.
13:17This might seem totally normal,
13:19but that date is actually very intentional on Zemeckis's part.
13:22It's the same day that the United States conducted
13:25the first ever test detonation of a nuclear weapon.
13:28Given that Jenny is shown throughout to be a staunch peace activist,
13:31it's pretty damn ironic that she was born
13:33the same day that the world's first nuke was launched.
13:361. Dorothy the bus driver quits smoking and chews gum instead.
13:41As we know, the film is bookended by scenes in which
13:43first Forrest gets on the bus to go to school,
13:46and at the end his son gets on the bus to go to school, just as he did.
13:49Both buses are driven by a no-nonsense driver by the name of Dorothy,
13:53and whilst the joke seems to be that this woman
13:55is still driving the same bus route for decades,
13:58it actually goes one layer deeper.
14:00Note that in the early scene with young Forrest, she's smoking a cigarette.
14:03Though amusingly, when we catch up with her again about 30 years later,
14:07she's no longer smoking, but instead maniacally chewing a big wad of gum.
14:12Hey, if that isn't character development, I don't know what is.
14:15And actually, on that note,
14:16we've reached the end of this list of 20 things that you somehow missed in Forrest Gump.
14:21If you are super eagle-eyed and have noticed any other cool,
14:24interesting details, then let us know about them in the comments down below.
14:27And remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day.
14:32As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.