Cast Away is a 2000 film by 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks about a FedEx employee who is stranded on a deserted island after his plane crashes "somewhere in the South Pacific."
The movie was released nationwide in the United States on December 22, 2000, with an MPAA rating of PG-13.
Cast & Credits
Actors
Director
Robert Zemeckis
Producers
Score
Film Facts
- Type: Drama.
- Length: 2h 23 min (movie version)
Description of the Movie
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), a top FedEx executive, is the sole survivor of a harrowing plane crash. He is stranded alone on a deserted tropical island for four years.
After he lands on the island, Chuck's most immediate need is drinking water, which he satisfies by drinking coconut water and later by storing rain water in the discarded husks. His second immediate need is food. He attempts to fish, but is wholly unsuccessful at the start. As time progresses, his fishing skills steadily increase. Shortly after his first fishing attempt, he finds a compelling need to produce fire, which after great effort, many attempts, and some injury he succeeds in doing. Chuck takes shelter in a small cave for the majority of his stay on the island.
Luckily for Chuck, a few FedEx packages from the plane, and the body of one of the pilots all wash up on the shore shortly after he lands on the island. After some refitting, Chuck dons the pilot's shoes and improvises some tools from items he salvages from the washed-up packages.
...Four years later, a piece of a port-a-john appears on the shore. Chuck uses this fragment as a sail for the raft he makes to leave the island. After construction of the raft, Chuck sets off into the ocean, desperately hoping for rescue. After sailing for an unknown period of time—when he is on the verge of death—he is rescued by a passing ship.
Wilson
One of Cast Away's more notable characters is called Wilson, who is played by a volleyball from Wilson Sporting Goods (in real life, the dominant manufacturer of volleyballs). This volleyball plays the role of a mute, infinitely patient, non-living listener in the movie, providing Chuck with a companion for the 1,500 days he spends on the island. From a theatrical standpoint, Wilson also serves to realistically stimulate dialog in an only one-person situation.
Product Placement
Cast Away is well-known in marketing as the kind of product placement which marketers dream of. In this case the movie benefited two major brands: Wilson and FedEx.
At the time of the movie'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.
Despite the fact that the plot revolves around the tragic crash of a FedEx plane, the company correctly guessed that Chuck's resourcefulness and the film's happy ending would offset any damage to its reputation. FedEx cooperated closely with the filmmakers to ensure that all FedEx materials seen in the movie were authentic. Chuck's "coming-home" scene was filmed on location at FedEx's home facilities in Memphis, Tennessee.
Trivia
The producers made up a list of seemingly-useless items that would be in the packages that Noland recovered: party dress, ice skates, etc. They turned this over to a group of survival experts, who decided what the protagonist might be able to do with them: fish net, axe, etc.
See also
External links
Last updated: 08-21-2005 04:21:51
