Forrest Gump

Forrest decides to leave Indiana and go back to Mobile, Alabama. Dan decides not to go with him. He gives Forrest the two thousand dollars and says he’s just no good; he’ll only drag Forrest down with him. Forrest gets on a bus and stop in Nashville for a three hour layover. While he’s there, he sees a sign outside of a hotel advertising a chess tournament. He doesn’t want to pay the entry fee, but winds up playing an elderly man named Mr. Tribble in the lobby. He beats him. Mr. Tribble is a former International Grandmaster at chess, and says that Forrest is a great undiscovered talent. He registers Forrest for a tournament in Los Angeles and they agree to split the prize money if Forrest wins.

Before the tournament, a man named Mr. Felder approaches and asks if Forrest is an actor. He thinks Forrest would be perfect for a part in a movie that he’s making, and Forrest agrees to come by the next day for a screen test. 

Forrest wins the first round of the chess tournament easily and then he goes to the screen test. They cast him as the monster in a remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Raquel Welch is his costar. While doing multiple takes of him carrying her into the forest, her dress catches on a branch and is torn off. She tells Forrest to carry her deeper into the trees so no one can see her. An ape swings out of the branches and waves at Forrest. It’s Sue, who explains that after he decided to stay with the pygmies, he was captured by white hunters who delivered him to this Hollywood lot to perform as an animal actor. As they keep moving, Forrest trips and he and Raquel Welch roll down a hill, stopping by the side of the freeway. She’s naked and walks down Sunset Boulevard with Forrest and Sue in tow, looking for a dress shop. The owner refuses to sell her a dress without ID. She pulls the top down on the dress she is wearing, showing him her breasts to prove that she is Raquel Welch. But the man calls security and soon they are both placed under arrest. 

Forrest plays a chess champion who is nicknamed Honest Ivan. He manages to beat Ivan, but then Sue, who has escaped from the hotel room, swings onto the hotel chandelier and lands on top of the chess board. After Mr. Tribble collects their winnings, he gives Forrest five thousand dollars and says that it is time for them to part ways. Being Forrest’s friend is just too complicated, he says. Forrest decides to take the money and go back to Alabama. 

Forrest learns that his mother is working at a pants pressing factory. When he visits her, she is glad to see him, but suspicious of Sue, the ape. While they’re talking, she accidentally burns the pants she was working on. Her boss yells at her, which leads Forrest to pick him up and stuff him into a washing machine. His mother is upset because now she’ll lose her job, but Forrest convinces her that he’s going to make the shrimp business a success and come back to help her. He goes to Bayou La Batre to meet Bubba’s father and receive some lessonson shrimping. 

Bubba’s father helps him get started, and soon Forrest is catching shrimp like a professional, even though the big harvest season hasn’t even started yet. He hopes that he will be able to get successful enough to impress Jenny. She is still the only thing he thinks about constantly. 

Forrest is soon making more money shrimping than he knows what to do with. One night while he’s out walking, he sees Curtis, his old roommate from his football days. He invites Curtis to come work with him, and Curtis agrees. In the spring, he is also able to hire Bubba’s father. Soon, he feels he is successful enough to look for Jenny again. When he visits her mother’s house, she tells Forrest that Jenny is married and is living in North Carolina. Forrest takes the news hard and cries all night. He decides to work harder than ever to distract himself from losing her.

Within four years the shrimp business is bringing in over five million dollars a year. Forrest hires nearly all of the other characters from the story, including former members of his football team, the professor who put him in King Lear, two of the former wrestlers, and Mr. Tribble, who comes on to do their accounting. Soon, a group of men coming to Forrest’s office and ask him if he would consider running for Senate. His mother is so proud at the thought of it that he can’t say no. His history and war record are colorful enough that the campaign has great momentum until their opponents begin digging through other parts of his past. His marijuana use during his time in the band comes to light, as well as the police report about the incident with he and Jenny in the movie theater. His Senate run ends almost as soon as it begins.

Forrest realizes that without Jenny, none of it feels like it has any meaning. He decides to take a break and goes to Savannah with Sue without knowing exactly why. 

One day in Savannah,Forrest begins playing his harmonica as he sits on a bench with Sue. Soon people are filling his coffee cup with money, so he keeps playing shows. Shortly after arriving, he sees Dan working as a shoe shiner. Dan says he should keep playing the shows and see what he can turn it into. During one performance, Jenny appears on the edge of the crowd. There’s a little boy with her. She says that his name is Forrest, and Forrest is his father. She’s married, but hasn’t told her husband the baby wasn’t his. She says that Forrest’s son is incredibly smart and doing well in school. They say goodbye and Forrest misses her immediately.

He thinks for a while about whether he can win Jenny back somehow, but realizes that the boy is probably better off with her and her husband. Forrest tells Dan that he wants to travel. Together with Sue, they begin moving through the South, playing music everywhere they go, and finally settling in New Orleans, which Forrest feels suits him perfectly.