Trailer
Plot summary
Chuck Noland works for FedEx, traveling from country to country to fix sorting and delivery problems. He shares a home in Memphis, Tennessee, with his girlfriend, Kelly Frears. They talk about marriage, but his constant travel strains things. At a Christmas dinner a toothache bothers him, and then work sends him to Malaysia. Kelly hands him her grandfather's pocket watch, which holds her photograph. He gives her a small box to open on New Year's Eve, suggesting a ring. The cargo plane he boards loses radio contact in a severe storm and crashes into the Pacific. Chuck survives, climbs into an inflatable raft, and comes ashore on a deserted island, where FedEx packages from the wreck begin washing up. He searches for food and fresh water.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cast Away (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Tom Hanks nearly died while making Cast Away after an infected cut on his leg; he was rushed to a local hospital for surgery and spent three days there, and filming shut down for three weeks while he recovered.
- An original Wilson the volleyball prop from the film was sold through Heritage Auctions on December 7, 2024, for $162,500.
- Hanks gained 50 lb during pre-production so his island transformation would be more dramatic, then production paused for a year while he lost the weight and grew out his hair and beard. During that year-long hiatus, Robert Zemeckis used the same film crew to make What Lies Beneath.
- Screenwriter William Broyles Jr. deliberately stranded himself for one week on an isolated beach in the Gulf of California to research survival, and a Wilson-branded soccer ball that washed ashore there gave him the idea for the film's volleyball companion.
- The ABC show Lost grew out of a Cast Away-type television series: media executive Lloyd Braun suggested the idea at a 2003 dinner party, Thom Sherman pitched Cast Away - The Series, and the concept later became Nowhere and then Lost.
- When the idea of the volleyball companion was presented to Tom Hanks, he happily agreed to it as a memento to his wife, Rita Wilson, knowing filming would keep him away from home for a long time.
- The island where Cast Away was filmed, Monuriki in Fiji's Mamanuca group, became a tourist attraction after the film's release.
- Cast Away has no original musical score until Chuck escapes the island; while he is marooned, the film also drops creature sounds such as bird song and insect noises, to reinforce his isolation.
