It was a big deal when it first came out, but I’m not too fond of it. It certainly is a remarkable feat as an actor, since it’s all closely focused on the main character, but that Tom Hanks can act is no surprise to anyone. It’s just not really my thing, because the movie is objectively good and well done, and the ending is deeper than it might seem, but after seeing it once, I’m good.
Also, it looks like one big FedEx advertisement.
Plot:
The first minutes are to introduce Chuck who works a lot, so much that he can’t even be home for Christmas. He works for or owns FedEx.
Then he gets on a plane that crashes. It gets destroyed he almost drowns but doesn’t, of course. He wakes up on a deserted beach. He writes Help on the sand but of course the water cancels it. he writes it again with wood.
He collects all the FedEx boxes that make it on the beach to see if there’s something useful.
He drinks from coconuts once he learns out to open them, and uses the coconut as a sort of bottle, I’m not sure what he uses to cap it.
He checks around but can’t find anyone. He finds the dead pilot and buries him. He also drinks water that he finds on tree leaves. He tries to fish; he’s pants at it at first but he gets better.
He sees a ship in the distance but of course they don’t see him.
He uses his inflatable life raft to try and reach it - I honestly didn’t even see that ship, maybe it was too far - but the waves are stronger and he gets hurt and ends up back at the beach, injured.
He enters a cave with his torchlight and at least finds water. The torch’s battery dies quickly of course, keeping it on all the time like that.
In the boxes he finds a dress, a ball, a pair of ice-skates with very useful blades. He gets blood on the ball when he injures his hand, and draws a face on it, and starts talking to it. He calls it Wilson.
He learns to make fire and can now cook the crabs he catches.
He didn’t go to the dentist back when he could, postponing it as long as possible, and now it hurts. He faints after he tries to get it off with the ice-skate.
We don’t see how it goes because there’s a jump to four years later, but we can assume he got rid of the hurting tooth, although such a blade, shoving it into his mouth to take out one tooth… that’s the most incredible thing of the whole movie.
Anyway, he’s still alive, still there alone, still has his woman’s picture, Kelly, but his place is more ‘decorated’ and he has long hair and beard.
He is using everything the island has on offer, not only to make fire but to make ropes too.
We see that a year ago he thought of ending it all by hanging himself before realising it would not have worked.
On a rage fit he throws Wilson away, only to go mad later and running to find it.
It’s been 1500 days, he’s built a sturdy-enough raft and he tries again to beat the waves, using something the waves brought to him as a sail.
He makes it past this time. He loses the ball at sea and almost drowns trying to get it back but fails.
He yells Sorry Wilson and cries a lot.
He has no more strength when a ship finds him. He was alone with only Kelly’s picture and thought of her the whole time, but back home everyone thought he died, and Kelly had to move on, and she’s now married with a child, a baby.
She faints when she’s told of his survival.
Chuck only speaks to her husband, but he can see her outside crying desperately.
It’s certainly hard to be back, with lots of people, lots of noise, easy food and easy fire (and who was it that thought it was a good idea to have seafood???)
He goes to see Kelly at her home. She hugs him and they talk. She stopped her studies and her dream to be a professor when the plane crashed. She collected a lot of stuff to understand what happened. She still has his car and gives it back.
He really regrets leaving her that day to go on that plane. They’re both sad. They kiss in the rain and confess their love, and she almost goes away with him, but she has a new life now, a baby-girl, and can’t leave like that, it wouldn’t be right.
So he can only do what he did all these years, live and go on, stay alive.
He delivers a box with a note saying that it saved his life, and I didn’t get this one bit.
It seems to be the only box he never opened because it had the symbol of wings on it… why he never opened it or how it saved his life, I don’t really know.
At the end he meets the woman of the box and it ends with him smiling, sort of, but it’s not clear it it’s because he likes her or because he has four different directions he can choose from, or whatever. Or maybe simply because he has choices and different paths ahead of him.
Or simply because he met the woman of that box…
I looked on the internet and it said that the wings on the box gave him the idea of using some found door as a sail to beat the waves… I didn’t notice this watching the film, but I still don’t understand why he never opened that box in all those years… also, she’s the woman from the first scene, she sent that box, right? It was not sent TO her…
Boh, I don’t get it. Well, if the box saved him, it’s thanks to her that sent it, I guess…
Chuck Noland - Tom Hanks
Kelly - Helen Hunt
Jerry Lovett - Chris Noth (Kelly’s husband)
Bettina Peterson - Lari White (the woman who sent the box with wings)
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