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This movie changed Gary Sinise' life. He formed the Gary Sinise Foundation to aid disabled veterans. He sends the families of veterans and gold star families on all expense paid vacations to Disneyland via his Snowball Express. He tours military bases all over the world with his band, The Lt. Dan Band. He is an American patriot.

I'm a double amputee above the knee. An IED under our lvat 10 years ago. Gary Sinice visited me personally afterwards.

This movie is full of references and metaphors. To me, one of my favourites is that, at the end, Lieutenant Dan marry a Vietnamese woman, meaning he is now in peace with what happened in Vietnam.

The “Is he smart, or is he…” line ALWAYS breaks my heart. You spend the whole movie watching people be cruel to Forrest and him not really acknowledging it, and you imagine that the reason he lets it go is partly because “stupid is as stupid does,” partly because he doesn’t really understand it because of his disability, and partly because he’s just a genuinely kind man.

And then he meets his son. And the VERY FIRST thing Forrest is worried about is if his son will have to go through all of the cruelty Forrest himself went through, and you realize that he has ALWAYS understood what those cruel people were doing to him. He’s always known; he’s just too good of a person to let it affect him. But that line shows that he doesn’t want his son to have to go through what he did. He met his son twenty seconds ago, and he already wants his son to have a better life than he had.

Forrest’s speech at the  Vietnam protest, by the way, is:

“Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mamas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That’s all I have to say about that.”

British Army veteran here. A good friend of mine came back from Iraq paralysed from the chest down as a result of spinal injuries. Told he would never walk again he vowed to prove them wrong. A year later, with the aid of braces and a large wooden staff, he walked 2 miles a day, till after 13 days he completed the London Marathon. This and other events, he achieved his goal of raising £1m for charity to help other wounded veterans and service personnel.
Three years later he completed the same London Marathon again, but this time in 26hrs.

One of the best parts is when Lt. Dan says “DON’T CALL HIM THAT!!”

Cassie and Carly - I don't know if you ever read these comments but I want to share an anecdote with you regarding the movie.  My sister worked on post-production on "Forrest Gump" for nearly a year as an ADR editor (ADR = Automatic Dialog Replacement). Part of her job involved synchronizing the footage where the movie superimposed Forrest into scenes using archive footage of the governor of Alabama, George  Wallace blocking the integration of black students into segregated white only schools in the 1960s. She and her team also had to sync the dialog when Forrest met Presidents Kennedy and Johnson so that Forrest appeared to converse with both Kennedy and Johnson at their respective meetings.  My sister  won the Golden Reel award for Best Sound Editing - ADR editing awarded at the Motion Picture Sound Editors Awards in 1995.

When he asks if little Forrest is smart………..kills me every time

Carly nailed it. Forrest absolutely knew what love was, he always had it from his mother. Jenny had no idea what it was until she had her son.

Forrest lived his life like a child, Jenny couldn't escape her childhood, and it took a child to bring them together at the end. Complete circle.

Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan) kept his promise to Forrest about ALSO being an astronaut if Forrest ever became a fishing boat captain.  Tom and Gary star together in the movie Apollo 13 where they're BOTH astronauts.

"Thought I'd try out my sea legs."

"..But you ain't got no legs, lieutenant dan."

The actor who played Bubba, Mykelti Williamson, played an admiral on Designated Survivor when I was an extra playing the US Navy Joint Chief. When I was introduced to him and was told what I had to do in the scene, I said, "Holy cow, it's Bubba Blue." He smiled and shook my hand and throughout the day we got the chance to chat quietly about 6 or 7 times, and at the end of the day when they told us we were wrapped, instead of just shaking hands and saying "It was great working with you" like I'd said to many other actors before, I stood at attention, saluted him and said, "It was an honour serving with you, sir." He laughed and shook my hand and said, "Same here, Steve." It was such a privilege working with someone so down to earth and professional.

57:31 this is one of my favourite parts of the movie, he misses the ping pong ball coming his way for the first time because his eyes aren’t on the ball anymore, he’s to busy looking at his son

Having been alive at the time and remembering how things were, I've always assumed Jenny died of AIDS. A sickness that the doctors couldn't figure out, her lifestyle/drug use, it makes sense for it to be that in the early 80s. It's also a major event in history and the movie makes sure to show Forrest's life touching so many of those during the movie.

Fun Fact: For years, people speculated about what Forrest said after that General disconnected his microphone at the Washington Monument. Tom Hanks finally revealed that the lost lines he spoke were “Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all."

She didnt tell him about the kid because he was out running across the country by then. He starts right after she leaves. Shes sees him on the news and then sends the letter.

I love how Forrest never changes; he has no character arc. But everyone around him does, mostly due to Forrest.