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After a large plastic section 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, he launches, using the sail to overcome the powerful surf. After some time on the ocean, a storm nearly tears his raft apart. The following day, Wilson falls from the raft and is lost, leaving Chuck overwhelmed by grief and loss. Later, he is found drifting by a passing cargo ship.
After a large plastic section 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, he launches, using the sail to overcome the powerful surf. After some time on the ocean, a storm nearly tears his raft apart. The following day, Wilson falls from the raft and is lost, leaving Chuck overwhelmed by grief and loss. 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; his family and friends held a funeral and Kelly has since married Chuck's dentist and has 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 they had once shared.
Upon returning to civilization, Chuck learns that he has long been given up for dead; his family and friends held a funeral and Kelly has since remarried and has 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 they had once shared.


Chuck then travels out into the country to return the unopened FedEx package to its sender. A new Wilson volley ball sits in the front seat next to him. The house at the address is empty, so he leaves the package at the door with a note saying; "This package saved my life. Thank you, Chuck Noland." He then departs and stops at a remote crossroads. 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, revealing that she is the owner of the package. Chuck is left looking down each road. The camera focuses on his face, as he smiles while looking toward the departing woman in the truck.
Chuck then travels out into the country to return the unopened FedEx package to its sender. A new Wilson volley ball sits in the front seat next to him. The house at the address is empty, so he leaves the package at the door with a note saying; "This package saved my life. Thank you, Chuck Noland." He then departs and stops at a remote crossroads. 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, revealing that she is the owner of the package. Chuck is left looking down each road. The camera focuses on his face, as he smiles while looking toward the departing woman in the truck.

Revision as of 19:46, 21 June 2011

For other uses, see Castaway (disambiguation).
Cast Away
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Zemeckis
Written byWilliam Broyles Jr.
Produced byJack Rapke
Robert Zemeckis
Steve Starkey
Tom Hanks
StarringTom Hanks
Helen Hunt
CinematographyDon Burgess
Edited byArthur Schmidt
Music byAlan Silvestri
Production
companies
Distributed byUSA/Canada
20th Century Fox
International
DreamWorks
Release date
  • December 7, 2000 (2000-12-07)
Running time
143 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$90,000,000
Box office$429,632,142

Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful 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 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. Chuck was actually going to propose to Kelly on New Year's Eve, having given her the ring box as a Christmas present with instructions to not open it until he returned home from his trip.

Flying through a violent storm, his plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Chuck is able to escape the sinking plane and is saved by an inflatable raft, but in the process, the raft's emergency locator transmitter breaks off. He clings to the raft, loses consciousness and floats all night before being washed up on an island.

After he awakens, 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 corpse of one of the pilots, named Albert Miller, which he buries. He initially tries to signal for rescue and makes an escape attempt with the remnants of his raft, but he cannot pass the powerful waves. He searches for food, water, shelter and opens the packages, finding a number of potentially useful items. He leaves one package, with a pair of wings painted on it, 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 volleyball from one of the packages. The stain of blood from Chuck's bloody hand has a subtle appearance of a face and Chuck fondly names it "Wilson" and begins talking to it.

Four years later, Chuck is dramatically thinner, bearded, his hair is longer and he is wearing a loincloth. He has become adept at spearing fish and making fires. He also has regular conversations and arguments with Wilson. It is revealed that he has, several times, contemplated suicide, going so far as to make a test dummy which he had tossed off a cliff in order to plan the act.

After a large plastic section 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, he launches, using the sail to overcome the powerful surf. After some time on the ocean, a storm nearly tears his raft apart. The following day, Wilson falls from the raft and is lost, leaving Chuck overwhelmed by grief and loss. 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; his family and friends held a funeral and Kelly has since remarried and has 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 they had once shared.

Chuck then travels out into the country to return the unopened FedEx package to its sender. A new Wilson volley ball sits in the front seat next to him. The house at the address is empty, so he leaves the package at the door with a note saying; "This package saved my life. Thank you, Chuck Noland." He then departs and stops at a remote crossroads. 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, revealing that she is the owner of the package. Chuck is left looking down each road. The camera focuses on his face, as he smiles while looking toward the departing woman in the truck.

Cast

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 the southern-most Cook Islands of Mangaia and Antarctica.

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, 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]

FedEx

FedEx paid nothing for product placement in the film.[3] 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.[4]

Wilson the volleyball

Wilson the volleyball

In the film, Wilson the volleyball serves as Chuck Noland's personified friend and only companion during the four years that Noland spends alone on a deserted island.[5][6][7] The character was created by screenwriter William Broyles Jr. While researching for the film Cast Away, he consulted with professional survival experts, and then chose to deliberately strand himself for one week on an isolated beach in the Sea of Cortes, to force himself to search for water and food, and obtain his own shelter. During this time, a volleyball washed up on shore. This was the inspiration for the film's inanimate companion. From a theatrical view, Wilson also serves to realistically imply dialogue in a one-person-only situation.[8]

One of the original volleyball props was sold at auction after release of the film for $18,500 to the ex-CEO of FedEx Office's Ken May. In addition, many near identical replicas of Wilson are available for sale,[9][10][11] and the Wilson company manufactures a volleyball with the handprint face on one side.[12]

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.[13]

Reception

Cast Away was acclaimed by critics. The film holds a score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.[14] The film was a success at the box office, earning over $429,632,142 worldwide in ticket receipts.[15]

Awards

58th Golden Globe Awards

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama (Tom Hanks)

Nominations

73rd Academy Awards

BAFTA Awards

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks)

Screen Actors Guild Awards

  • Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks)

2001 MTV Movie Awards

  • Best On-Screen Team (Tom Hanks and Wilson)

Soundtrack

The film's minimal score was composed by Alan Silvestri for which he won a Grammy Award in 2002. The film's soundtrack is most notable for its lack of score and creature sound effects (such as bird song or insect sounds) while Chuck is on the island, which is intended to reinforce the feeling of isolation.[16] Cast Away contains no original musical score until Chuck escapes the island. However, there is a Russian choral piece heard near the start of the film that was not composed or even recorded by Silvestri, so it does not appear on the film's soundtrack list. It is a traditional Russian song written by Lev Knipper called "Oh, My Field" ("Polyushko, Polye") and it is available on various collections of Red Army hymns. The tracks in Silvestri's score are as follows:

  1. "Cast Away" – 3:44
  2. "Wilson, I'm Sorry" – 1:39
  3. "Drive to Kelly's" – 3:54
  4. "Love of My Life" – 1:47
  5. "What the Tide Could Bring" – 3:39
  6. "Crossroads" – 2:08
  7. "End Credits" – 7:29

The official soundtrack CD contains an anthology of musical pieces from all films directed by Zemeckis and scored by Silvestri. The only track from Cast Away itself is the theme from the end credits.[17]

In the film Bridesmaids, Annie is seen watching a portion of the movie by the end.

Lost

Media executive Lloyd Braun of ABC Studios first suggested the idea of a Cast Away-type television series at a dinner party in 2003.[18] Thom Sherman later pitched the idea for Cast Away-The Series but never developed the idea.[18] The basic concept was later developed and pitched with the title Nowhere; which later turned into the ABC show Lost.[18]

References

  1. ^ Fiji. Korina Miller, Robyn Jones, Leonardo Pinheiro. Lonely Planet. 2003. p. 54. ISBN 1740591348.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NahyfTAVNqk
  3. ^ "Stranded: Behind-the-Scenes of Cast Away, A comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at Cast Away". Stumped Magazine. 2004. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
  4. ^ "A look at some of the biggest hits in film and TV product placement". The Hollywood Reporter. April 28, 2005. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2007.
  5. ^ "Cast Away lets Hanks fend for himself". Detroit News. December 22, 2000. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  6. ^ Smith, Nate (January 7, 2001). "Cast Away proves great films still exist". Daily Gazette. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  7. ^ "The Volleyball in the Void". Alan Vanneman. Bright Lights Film Journal. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  8. ^ Beverly Gray (March 7, 2001). "William Boyles, Jr". All Business. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
  9. ^ "Cast Away's "Wilson" Scores for Parent; Retail: Volleyball in Tom Hanks' film has bounced the spotlight onto recovering sporting goods firm". Los Angeles Times. January 8, 2001. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  10. ^ "Cast Away Wilson Volleyball". Indyprops. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  11. ^ "The Wilson Cast Away "Mr. Wilson" Outdoor Volleyball". Sports Unlimited Inc. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  12. ^ "Wilson Cast Away Volleyball". Wilson Sporting Goods Company's. Wilson Sporting Goods Company website. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
  13. ^ "Wilson Volleyball".
  14. ^ Cast Away Movie Reviews, Pictures. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
  15. ^ (2001-01-03). Cast Away Leads an All-Star Holiday. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
  16. ^ Cast Away DVD director's commentary
  17. ^ "Cast Away: The Films of Robert Zemeckis and the Music of Alan Silvestri". allmusic. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
  18. ^ a b c "Cast Away". Chicago. August 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2008.
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