50 Fun Facts About Cast Away

Who directed Cast Away?

It was his second film with Tom Hanks after Forrest Gump; he shot What Lies Beneath during the production break.

What is the name of Tom Hanks's character?

He is a FedEx systems analyst who travels the world fixing productivity problems.

For which company does Chuck work?

The company lent planes, trucks and its Memphis hub, and paid nothing for the placement; its CEO plays himself.

Where does Chuck live with his girlfriend Kelly?

Memphis is FedEx's home base, and the hero's welcome on his return was filmed at the company's real facilities there.

Who plays Kelly Frears?

She was cast in January 1999; the film opened the same weekend as her other hit, What Women Want.

What does Kelly give Chuck before he leaves on the fateful flight?

It holds a photo of her; he gives her a small box, implied to be an engagement ring, to open on New Year's Eve.

Where was Chuck being sent to resolve a FedEx problem when the plane went down?

The plane was far off course and out of radio contact in a storm when it crashed into the Pacific.

In what month and year does the story begin?

The opening scene follows a package from a Texas sculptor's gate marked 'Dick & Bettina' to Moscow.

Whose body washes ashore and is buried by Chuck?

Chuck also uses the man's boots, which are too small for him.

Which package does Chuck deliberately leave unopened?

He thinks the wings have symbolic meaning; at the end he returns it to its sender in Texas with a note saying it saved his life.

How does Wilson the volleyball get his face?

He throws the ball in fury while trying to start a fire, then draws a face in the blood.

What tool does Chuck use to knock out his rotten tooth?

The toothache had been nagging him since the Christmas dinner; his endodontist later turns out to be Kelly's new husband.

How long is Chuck stranded on the island?

The film jumps ahead to find him bearded, lean and expert at spearfishing.

What washes ashore and gives Chuck the sail he needs to escape the island?

He waits for the annual shift in the prevailing wind before using the plastic panels to punch through the surf.

How does Chuck lose Wilson?

Devastated, Chuck discards his oars and gives up, before a container ship finds him.

Who is Dr. Jerry Lovett?

He meets Chuck at the FedEx welcome to explain that Kelly is not emotionally able to come.

What does Kelly give back to Chuck when he visits her that night?

He in turn returns the pocket watch so it can stay in her family; they kiss, but she cannot leave her daughter.

The final scene finds Chuck at a crossroads in which state?

The sculptor Bettina, whose pickup bears the same angel wings, tells him where each road leads.

The opening and closing scenes were shot at which Texas property?

The Panhandle location bookends a film otherwise set in Memphis, Moscow and the South Pacific.

The island scenes were filmed on Monuriki, part of which country?

The island in the Mamanuca group became a tourist attraction; in the film Kelly places it 600 miles south of the Cook Islands.

Roughly how much weight did Tom Hanks gain before filming so his island transformation would be dramatic?

Production then paused for about a year so he could lose it and grow the hair and beard.

Which film did Zemeckis make with the same crew during the year-long break in shooting?

The Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer thriller came out five months before Cast Away.

Hanks nearly died during production from what?

He spent three days in hospital after surgery and filming stopped for three weeks.

How long did filming last in total, including the breaks?

Shooting ran from January to March 1999 and again from April to May 2000.

Whose original idea was Cast Away, sparked by an article about cargo 747s crossing the Pacific?

Hanks said it took six years to assemble the alliance to make it, with Broyles and Zemeckis each supplying a third.

What washed up during William Broyles Jr.'s week on a beach, inspiring Chuck's companion?

He had marooned himself in the Gulf of California to research the film; the ball became a volleyball on screen.

Why was Hanks happy to have his companion be a Wilson ball?

Rita Wilson's name on the ball was a memento during a long shoot far from home.

An original Wilson prop sold at Heritage Auctions in December 2024 for how much?

A long-repeated story that a prop sold for $18,500 to a FedEx Office executive is not true.

Who composed the film's minimal score, and won a Grammy for it?

There is no score at all while Chuck is on the island, and no bird or insect sounds either, to deepen the isolation.

The Russian choral piece heard near the start of the film, 'Polyushko Polye', is by which composer?

The Red Army song is not on the soundtrack album, which is otherwise a Zemeckis-Silvestri anthology.

Which real executive appears as himself in the scene welcoming Chuck home?

FedEx said the plane-crash premise gave the company 'a heart attack at first' but the story read as positive.

How much did FedEx pay for its extensive product placement in the film?

The company still saw brand awareness rise in Asia and Europe after the release.

Cast Away was released in the United States on which date?

It opened against Miss Congeniality, The Family Man and O Brother, Where Art Thou? and set a Christmas-weekend record.

Which studio distributed the film outside the United States and Canada?

The split rights explain why Paramount, not Disney, streams it in Europe today.

Cast Away was the third-highest-grossing film of 2000, behind which two?

It earned $429.6 million worldwide against a $90 million budget.

Which award did Tom Hanks win for Cast Away?

He was Oscar-nominated but lost to Russell Crowe for Gladiator.

The DVD became the fastest-selling in 20th Century Fox history, surpassing which film?

It sold 1.8 million copies and briefly held the record for DVD rentals until The Fast and the Furious.

A 2002 FedEx Super Bowl ad parodied the ending: what was in the box the survivor finally returns?

The woman calls it 'just silly stuff', every item of which would have ended his ordeal.

An ABC executive's idea for a Cast Away-style TV series eventually became which show?

Lloyd Braun floated it at a 2003 dinner party; the pitch called Nowhere turned into the 2004 hit.

Which NASCAR driver raced with a Wilson replica in his car and won twice with it in 2001?

It began as a radio joke that he felt lonely in the car; the wins came at Dover and Talladega.

In Madagascar (2005), Alex the Lion echoes Chuck by talking to which inanimate companion?

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked took the joke further with a whole set of sporting-goods friends.

Which band introduced its song 'Wilson' with a clip from the film at Madison Square Garden in 2002?

A 'Tom Hanks' brought on stage turned out to be keyboardist Page McConnell's brother Steve.

Cast Away was the second collaboration between Zemeckis and Hanks. What was the first?

Their next joint project was The Polar Express in 2004.

How long did Hanks say it took to assemble the team that finally made Cast Away?

He said each man held only a third of the idea until Zemeckis supplied the rest.

Where did screenwriter William Broyles Jr. strand himself for a week of research?

He forced himself to find water, food and shelter, and a Wilson soccer ball washed ashore.

How far south of the Cook Islands does Kelly say Chuck's island was, a spot where no land exists?

There is no land between Mangaia, the southernmost Cook Island, and Antarctica.

What was Cast Away's production budget?

It earned $233.6 million domestically and $196 million internationally.

Which film knocked Cast Away off the top of the US box office after three weeks?

It had opened at number one ahead of What Women Want, another Helen Hunt film.

Which record label released the Cast Away soundtrack album in 2001?

The album anthologises Zemeckis-Silvestri films; only the end-credits theme comes from Cast Away itself.

In which 2011 film does castaway Zoe Cooper befriend balls named Rawling and Spalding?

Jenny Slate voiced the island's sole inhabitant in the Cast Away homage.