Cast Away

For other uses, see Castaway (disambiguation).

Cast Away
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Zemeckis
Written by	William Broyles Jr.
Produced by	Jack Rapke Robert Zemeckis Steve Starkey Tom Hanks
Starring	Tom Hanks Helen Hunt
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Edited by	Arthur Schmidt
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Production companies	ImageMovers Playtone
Distributed by	USA/Canada 20th Century Fox International DreamWorks
Release date	December 7, 2000 (2000-12-07)
Running time	143 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
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 unsuccessful attempts to survive on the island. 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.

Flying through a violent storm, his airplane crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Chuck is able to escape the sinking plane and is saved by an inflatable life-raft but in the process, loses the raft's emergency locator transmitter. He clings to the life-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 (whom he buries). He initially tries to signal for rescue and makes an escape attempt with the remnants of his life-raft, but he cannot pass the powerful surf. 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 Sporting Goods volleyball from one of the packages. A short time later he draws a face in the bloody hand print on the ball, 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.

After a large 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 (using an analemma he has created in his cave to monitor the time of year), 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 once shared.

Chuck then travels out into the country to return the unopened FedEx package to its sender. The house at the address is empty, so he leaves the package at the door with a note saying that the package saved his life. 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 the illustration on her truck is similar to the one on the parcel. Chuck is left looking down each road. The camera focuses on his face, as he looks toward the departing woman in the truck.

Cast

• Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland
• Helen Hunt as Kelly Frears
• Nick Searcy as Stan
• Jenifer Lewis as Becca Twig
• Chris Noth as Jerry Lovett
• Lari White as Bettina Peterson
• Vince Martin as Albert "Al" Miller
• Geoffrey Blake as Maynard Graham

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.

Cast Away was filmed on Monuriki, a member of the Mamanuca Islands. 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.

FedEx

FedEx paid nothing for product placement in the film. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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. Additionally, many near identical replicas of Wilson are available for sale.

Reception

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

Awards

58th Golden Globe Awards

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

Nominations

73rd Academy Awards

• Best Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks)
• Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis S. Sands and William B. Kaplan)

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. 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.