Cast Away facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Cast Away
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Produced by	Steve Starkey Tom Hanks Robert Zemeckis Jack Rapke
Written by	William Broyles Jr.
Starring	Tom Hanks Helen Hunt Nick Searcy
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Editing by	Arthur Schmidt
Studio	20th Century Fox DreamWorks Pictures ImageMovers Playtone
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (North America) DreamWorks Pictures (International, through United International Pictures)
Release date(s)	December 22, 2000 (2000-12-22)
Running time	144 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$90 million
Money made	$429.6 million

Cast Away is a 2000 American survival drama film directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, and Nick Searcy. Hanks plays a FedEx troubleshooter who is stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific, and the plot focuses on his desperate attempts to survive and return home. Initial filming took place from January to March 1999 before resuming in April 2000 and concluding in May.

Cast Away was released on December 22, 2000, by 20th Century Fox in North America and DreamWorks Pictures in its international markets. It grossed $429.6 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 2000. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its screenplay and Hanks' performance, for which he won Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama at the 58th Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 73rd Academy Awards.

Plot

In December 1995, Chuck Noland is a FedEx systems analyst who travels the world resolving productivity problems. He lives with his girlfriend, Kelly Frears in Memphis, Tennessee. The two talk of getting married but keep experiencing setbacks due to Chuck being constantly called away to work, which also starts to put a strain on their relationship. During a Christmas dinner, Chuck is summoned to resolve a problem in Malaysia. Before leaving, Kelly gives Chuck her grandfather's pocket watch with a photo of her in it. He gives her a small box, saying she can wait to open it on New Year's Eve when he returns, implying it is an engagement ring.

The FedEx cargo plane Chuck boards crashes into the Pacific Ocean during a violent storm. He is the only survivor, washing ashore on an uninhabited island. Chuck gathers and sorts the FedEx packages that wash ashore. Chuck buries the body of one of the pilots that washes up on the coast. In the following days, Chuck struggles to locate food and water. He unsuccessfully tries to escape the island on a life raft, but is prevented by the tide and injures his leg. Realizing it is unlikely he will be rescued, Chuck opens most of the packages, finding useful items he uses to improve his living conditions. However, he does not open a package with pink angel wings painted on it. While attempting to start a fire, Chuck cuts his hand and furiously throws several objects including a Wilson volleyball, leaving a bloodstained handprint. He draws a face into the blood, names the ball "Wilson" and begins talking to it. Chuck realizes the chances of his rescue are low due to the wide search area, and decides to perform his own tooth extraction using a rock and an ice skate.

Four years later, Chuck, now bearded and disheveled, has adapted to life alone on the island. After a section from a portable toilet enclosure washes up, he begins constructing a raft, which he successfully launches past the surf with Wilson, the unopened FedEx package and his belongings in tow. Chuck survives a storm, but afterward, Wilson falls off the raft and floats away. He unsuccessfully attempts to rescue Wilson and is left to grieve his loss. Soon after, he is rescued by a passing cargo ship.

Four weeks later, Chuck is cleaned up and returned to the mainland, where he learns he was presumed dead by his family and friends. He is given a hero's welcome home party at the FedEx Headquarters in Memphis, where he learns that Kelly has since married and has a daughter. Kelly is emotionally unable to greet Chuck at his homecoming party. One night, Chuck visits Kelly, where they bond for the last time; the two share a passionate kiss and confess their love for each other, but they both realize she cannot leave her family, and they part ways, with Chuck returning the watch Kelly gave him.

Chuck drives to Texas to return the angel-winged package to its sender. Finding no one home, he leaves it at the door with a note saying the package saved his life. He departs in his vehicle and stops at a remote crossroads. A woman in a pickup truck, headed in the direction of the house, stops and gives information about where each road leads. As she drives away, Chuck notices the two angel wings painted on the tailgate of her truck. He looks down each road, trying to decide which way to go, before he notices the wind is blowing back down the road where the woman drove, and turns back to her direction with a smile.

Cast

Production

Development

In a 2017 Actor Roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Hanks stated

I made Cast Away because I wanted to examine the concept of four years of hopelessness, in which you have none of the requirements for living—food, water, shelter, fire and company. But it took us six years to put together the alliance that would actually examine that. I only had a third of it, and Bill Broyles only had a third of it, until Bob Zemeckis comes along and provided that other third. I had that original idea. I was reading an article about FedEx, and I realized that 747s filled with packages fly across the Pacific three times a day. And I just thought, "What happens if that goes down?"

Filming

The island of Monuriki

The film was not shot chronologically. It began on January 18, 1999, before halting two months later. Filming resumed on April 3, 2000, and finished the following month. Hanks gained 50 pounds (23 kg) during pre-production, for the purpose of making his transformation more dramatic. After most of the film was shot, production was paused so he could lose the weight and grow his hair and beard to look like he had been living on the island for years. Another four-month production halt preceded the filming of the return scenes. During the year-long hiatus, Zemeckis used the same film crew to make another film, What Lies Beneath. While the film was in production, Hanks nearly died when he suffered an infected cut on his leg. He was rushed to a local hospital to undergo surgery and stayed there for three days. Filming of Cast Away was suspended for three weeks to allow Hanks to recover from the injury.

Cast Away was filmed on Monuriki, one of the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji. 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 after the film's release. After Chuck's return, it is identified by Kelly as being "about 600 miles [970 km] south of the Cook Islands," but there is no land between the southernmost Cook Islands of Mangaia and Antarctica.

The film begins and ends in the same location, on the Arrington Ranch in the Texas Panhandle south of the city of Canadian, Texas.

Music

The film's minimal score was composed and conducted 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. 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 official soundtrack CD is an anthology of musical pieces from all the films up to that point that were both directed by Zemeckis and scored by Silvestri. The only track from Cast Away itself is the theme from the end credits.

The Cast Away soundtrack consists of 10 tracks, with performers including Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Charles Brown.

FedEx

FedEx provided access to their facilities (Memphis, Los Angeles, and Moscow) as well as airplanes, trucks, uniforms, and logistical support. A team of FedEx marketers oversaw production through more than two years of filming. FedEx CEO Fred Smith made 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. The idea of a story based on a FedEx plane crashing gave the company "a heart attack at first," but the overall story was seen as positive. FedEx, which paid no money for product placement in the film, saw an increase in brand awareness in Asia and Europe following the film's release.

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. Named after the volleyball's manufacturer, Wilson Sporting Goods, the character was created by screenwriter William Broyles Jr. While researching for the film, he consulted with professional survival experts, and then chose to deliberately strand himself for one week on an isolated beach in the Gulf of California, to force himself to search for water and food, and obtain his own shelter. During this time, a volleyball washed up on shore, providing the inspiration for the film's inanimate companion. From a screenwriting point of view, Wilson also serves to realistically allow dialogue to take place in a solitary scenario.

It is rumored, but not confirmed, that one of the original volleyball props was sold at auction for $18,500 to the ex-CEO of FedEx Office, Ken May. At the time of the film's release, Wilson launched its own joint promotion centered on its products "co-starring" with Tom Hanks. Wilson manufactured a volleyball with a reproduction of the bloodied handprint 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.

Home media

Cast Away was released on VHS and DVD on June 12, 2001 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The DVD version of the film is a THX certified two-disc Special Edition release that features a DTS 6.1 ES audio track and several bonus features, including galleries, special effects vignettes, audio commentary, trailers, TV spots, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, featurettes and more. It became the fastest-selling DVD release in 20th Century Fox history, selling 1.8 million copies and surpassing X-Men. Additionally, the film generated $5.5 million in rentals, which broke Traffic's record for having the highest DVD rentals. Cast Away would go on to hold this record until 2002 when it was taken by The Fast and the Furious. In total, the film made $57 million in home video sales and $20.6 million in home video rentals during its first week of release, with the latter becoming the third-highest home video rentals of any film, behind Meet the Parents and The Sixth Sense.

A single-disc DVD version of the film was released alongside Independence Day on May 21, 2002.

See also

In Spanish: Náufrago para niños