Forrest

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The movie begins with Forrest at a bus stop. He begins to tell the woman sitting next to him the story of his life.Forrest Gump was born in fictional Greenbow, Alabama with a crooked spine, forcing him to walk with the aid of leg braces from a young age. He was named for General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Despite his low I.Q. that should have necessitated special education, his mother arranges to have him enrolled in public school by having an affair with the school's principal. His stilted, jerky walk caused by the leg braces inspires a young Elvis Presley's (who was lodging at the Gumps' boarding house) distinctive dance style. On his first day on the school bus, he is befriended by Jenny, a girl who (it is later revealed) is being sexually abused by her father.He is frequently taunted for his disability, until one day when he breaks his braces and runs unassisted while escaping bullies. He discovers that he can 'run like the wind blows.'Much of Forrest's philosophy comes from his mother. Forrest is always recalling her favorite sayings, telling people "Mama always says 'Life is like a box of chocolates'" and "Stupid is as stupid does."Years later, while again running away from bullies, Forrest runs through a football field where a practice is taking place. He outpaces the players and signed up for the team. His running ability brings him great success with the football team of the University of Alabama (playing for the legendary Paul Bryant).About this time he is spotted on television behind Governor George Wallace on June 11, 1963, during the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door". Gov. Wallace was standing in front of Foster Auditorium, protesting desegregation of the University. Forrest gets through college on a football scholarship and receives a college degree in five years (the audience is not told which major, but it includes a class on home economics). He remains friends with Jenny, although she attends a separate all-girls' college (presumably nearby Judson College).On his graduation day, he is approached by an Army recruiter and signs up for the Army. He fits into the army "like one of them round pegs" and is top of his class in boot camp. His one friend in boot camp is a man by the name of Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue (Mykelti Williamson), who knows everything there is to know about the shrimp business. Bubba and Forrest agree to go into the "shrimpin' business" together when they get out of the Army. While Forrest is white and Bubba is black, they discover they have very similar backgrounds, philosophies on life, and similar "Mamas." (Bubba: "My mama says that too.")One night, while in their bunks, a fellow soldier tosses Forrest a Playboy and says to Gump, "get a load of the tits on her." Forrest turns a page and recognizes the girl on this page as none other than Jenny. Her picture in the magazine gets her expelled from college (she was wearing her college sweater and nothing else). She gets a job at a strip club where she plays guitar nude. Forrest visits her and witnesses some men "tryin' to grab" her. He beats them and tries to rescue Jenny, causing her to be fired. When they later reminisce about old times, Jenny recalls when they hid from her father in the cornfield and she prayed to God to turn her into a bird. She asks Forrest, "Do you think I could fly if I jumped off this bridge?..." This worries Forrest, and Jenny dismisses the whole thought and hitches a ride in a passing pickup truck. Forrest tells her that he is being sent to Vietnam, and she advises him not to be brave. She tells him just to run if he is ever in trouble.While serving with the US Army in the Vietnam War under "Lieutenant Dan" (Lt. Daniel Taylor, Gary Sinise), he carries wounded members of his platoon (including Bubba) to safety during an ambush, earning him the Medal of Honor. During this rescue, Lieutenant Dan loses his legs, causing Dan to wallow in a depression, and Bubba is fatally wounded and dies in Forrest's arms. While Forrest recovers from a wound in his buttocks sustained during the rescue, he becomes such an expert in playing ping-pong that he goes to play in the People's Republic of China during the Ping Pong Diplomacy period. While staying in Washington to receive his medal for the rescue, he accidentally goes to an Abbie Hoffman rally and meets Jenny again, who by this time looks like a hippie. Forrest goes on to become a national hero playing ping-pong and is offered $25,000 to endorse a certain brand of ping-pong paddles.Forrest appears on The Dick Cavett Show with John Lennon. As Forrest recalls his experiences in Communist China, he gives Lennon the idea for his song Imagine. Lennon remarks "No possessions?" and then "And no religion too?" which he uses in his song. Dick Cavett then remarks "Hard to imagine", to which Lennon replies, "It's easy if you try, Dick."Upon visiting President Nixon after his visit to China, he is invited by the President to stay in Washington at the Watergate complex. His sleep is disturbed when he witnesses flashlights in the offices opposite his room. He calls the security office to notify the maintenance crew, thus inadvertently beginning the Watergate scandal.After his service term ends, he returns home with the $25,000 from the Ping-Pong paddle endorsement. After buying some things for his mother and himself, he uses the balance of $24,562.47 to buy his own shrimping boat—the Jenny, after his "girlfriend"—and starts a shrimp business, keeping a promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan joins him in his business venture, the "Bubba-Gump Shrimp Corporation". The business is initially unsuccessful until they happen to be out of port during Hurricane Carmen. Returning to port, they find that all the other fishing boats in the area have been destroyed by the storm, giving them an instant monopoly in the shrimp market and thus making Forrest a very wealthy man. In addition, his financial advisor (Lieutenant Dan) has him purchase shares of Apple Computer before the company's rise to fame, making Forrest even wealthier.Even though Lieutenant Dan said he was crazy for doing it, Forrest gives Bubba's share of the profit to Bubba's mother (who subsequently moves from her poorly-built shack to a very nice condo). Forrest also donates the funds for a church and a medical centre. Forest returns to his childhood home when he receives word that his mama is ill. His mother dies shortly after his return home. Jenny meets up again with Forrest (having been through the worst of pits and troughs in life, including drug addiction and prostitution) and lives with him for a while, then leaves after Forrest asks her to marry him—after they sleep together. After her departure, Forrest begins to run across the country. He runs from one coast to the other, and then turns around, continuously running for "three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours", thus inspiring the running movement. Sometime after this, Jenny sends him a letter asking him to visit her.He shows the letter to the lady (a different woman from the one originally listening to his story) with whom he has been speaking at the bus stop. She tells him that the address of Jenny's house is only "five or six blocks" down Henry Street. He is reunited with Jenny and her young son. Jenny tells him that the boy is named Forrest, after his father. Jenny also tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus, the symptoms of which sound indicative of AIDS.Jenny and Forrest Jr. move in with Forrest in Greenbow, and Jenny and Forrest are finally married. Lieutenant Dan, who has a fiancée and has artificial legs - "magic legs" - to replace those lost in the war, attends the wedding.Jenny finally dies "on a Saturday morning", March 22, 1982 (in fact that date is Monday), making Forrest the only parent to little Forrest (Haley Joel Osment), a bright child who attends school. Forrest orders the house that Jenny grew up in to be torn down, as it had reminded her of her abusive father. Jenny's death causes Forrest to question the nature of life when he asks the question, "I don't know if Mama was right or whether it was Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around on a breeze accidental-like, but maybe it's a little of both."