'Cast Away'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons crash-lands in a podcast studio and has no choice but to record an episode with no one but himself. The only movie available in the studio is Robert Zemeckis's 'Cast Away,' starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt.
Cast
Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland
Helen Hunt as Kelly Frears
Chris Noth as Jerry Lovett
Nick Searcy as Stan
Lari White as Bettina
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Written by: William Broyles Jr.
Music by: Alan Silvestri
Notes
- Hanks gained 50 pounds pre-production, then production halted for a full year so he could lose the weight and grow his hair and beard (which were real, not prosthetics). During the halt, Zemeckis used the same film crew to make 'What Lies Beneath'.
- Hanks came up with the original idea after reading an article about FedEx: '747s filled with packages fly across the Pacific three times a day and I just thought what happens if that goes down.'
- Filmed on Monuriki, one of the Mamanuca Islands of Fiji. The island became a tourist attraction after the film.
- FedEx provided facilities, planes, trucks, uniforms, and logistical support. Their marketers were initially horrified but embraced it.
- Wilson the volleyball was inspired by screenwriter William Broyles Jr. deliberately stranding himself on an isolated beach near Mexico's Sea of Cortez for a week – a volleyball literally washed up on shore.
- Hanks got a staph infection during filming from a cut, almost got blood poisoning, was hospitalized for three days.
- Lost (ABC) was directly inspired by 'Cast Away' – Lloyd Braun loved the movie and commissioned what became Lost.
- No score until Chuck escapes the island – just Elvis songs beforehand. Alan Silvestri's minimal score won a Grammy in 2002.
- Simmons considers Hanks's 1992-2000 run ('A League of Their Own' through 'Cast Away') the best nine-year stretch by any actor ever.
- Lari White (Bettina) passed away in January 2018 at age 52.
Categories
- The Helen Hunt scene – Chuck goes to see her at her house, they catch up, he starts to leave, she runs out in the rain, they make out, then realize it can't work and he drives her back.
- The plane crash – 'an incredible six minutes,' one of the best action scenes of the past 25 years.
- Chuck making fire – described as 'Apex Hanks.'
- Chuck escaping the island on the raft.
- The ending/crossroads scene.
- The movie as a widescreen HD home theater experience – the visuals of the ocean, the blue, the clarity all benefit enormously from improved TV technology.
- The dental surgery irony – his fiancee is falling for his dentist while he's having dental emergencies on the island.
- Chuck examining food and the lighter at the welcome home party.
- The volleyball sitting in the front seat at the end.
- The Tennessee Titans coming off a Super Bowl season (hasn't happened since).
- Gilligan's Island references – audiences under 25 won't get them anymore.
- Chuck's suicide plan was weird – why climb a mountain to hang yourself when you have ice skate blades?
Nick Searcy as Chuck's buddy – Simmons admits he didn't know the actor's name until researching for the podcast.
Tom Hanks yelling at the volleyball – 'I would rather take my chances out there on the ocean than to stay here and die on this shithole island spending the rest of my life talking to a goddamn...' Simmons says he dials it up about 3% too much, maybe even 13%.
Bettina (Lari White) – barely in the movie (maybe 90 seconds total) but by the end of her interaction with Hanks, you're completely sold that he should be with her. 'You look lost... Good luck, cowboy.' Tremendous flirting, great truck, great dog.
Billy Bob Thornton to replace Nick Searcy as Chuck's buddy, specifically for the powerful 3.5-minute monologue scene near the end. Simmons wanted more 'firepower' opposite Hanks in that scene.
- Volleyballs – the 2000 Summer Olympics plus Wilson becoming an iconic character; volleyball purchases went way up after the movie.
- Chris Noth – simultaneously in Sex and the City and this $450M movie.
- Fiji – probably the best movie ever filmed there.
- Does Chuck survive the plane crash? Why does he lurch backwards, not forward? The propeller should have killed him.
- Why doesn't Chuck open the last FedEx package? He's on the island for 1,500 days – anyone would open it.
- Chuck's sunburn after days on the raft would have required months of hospitalization, not weeks.
- The timeline of Kelly dating/marrying the dentist and having a baby in ~4 years is suspiciously tight.
Yes, obviously. 2-hour pilot blows out everything before the plane; episode 2 is the crash; episodes 3-10 cover island life interspersed with how everyone's lives change back home. Lost on ABC was directly ripped from this concept.
- Does Chuck have any family at all? The movie presents him as an only child with dead parents, no aunts/uncles/siblings.
- Was losing Wilson the best thing that could have happened? If he came back with the volleyball, he'd be in a mental institution within three months.
- Did Chuck actually go insane on the island? Can you just snap out of talking to a volleyball for two years?
- Did 'The Martian' rip off 'Cast Away'? Simmons says yes – it's basically 'Cast Away' in outer space.
Tom Hanks – described as the most convincing 'who won the movie' answer they've ever had. He wins the movie and the incredible nine-year stretch.
- Wilson the manufacturer connection: Hanks is married to Rita Wilson, his first TV role was Kip Wilson in Bosom Buddies, and he was in Charlie Wilson's War.
- On Inside the Actors Studio, Hanks said Chuck 'turned around, went back and made babies with that lady' (Bettina).
- The suicide test scene (hanging a log dummy from a tree) was in the theatrical release but removed from later TV/Blu-ray versions.
- $90 million budget, grossed $429-450 million worldwide.