Forrest Gump: Book vs. Movie
Robert Zemeckis’s Forrest Gump (1994) adapts Winston Groom’s 1986 novel. Tom Hanks plays a man whose extraordinary travels keep bringing him back to his childhood friend Jenny.
From Books Adapted
How much of the book it covers
There is a second book, but no second movie
Groom continued Forrest's life in Gump & Co., which takes him into the 1980s.
Roth wrote a movie continuation, but it was never filmed. He told /Film that he delivered his script the night before September 11, 2001. After the attacks, he, Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis decided the project no longer felt relevant. Gump & Co. remains unadapted.
What changed from the book
The book sends Forrest into space
The movie adapts Groom's first Forrest Gump novel, but removes whole adventures from his life. In the book, Forrest becomes an astronaut, a professional wrestler and a chess grandmaster. None of those careers makes it into the movie.
Groom described parts of his book as farce and said the filmmakers wanted something more serious. Screenwriter Eric Roth has given a similar account: he wanted the movie's invented world to feel believable on its own terms. The feather gave him a way to connect Forrest's adventures through the question of chance and destiny.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Winston Groom
- Year
- 1986
- Pages
- 240Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 9 hr 9 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Mark Hammer
Forrest Gump tells the story of a life in which his physical gifts repeatedly carry him into situations he barely understands. College football leads to service in Vietnam, followed by ventures into music, wrestling, and business that rarely go according to plan. Amid the people eager to profit from his abilities, Forrest keeps returning to his feelings for Jenny, a friend from childhood.
- Director
- Robert Zemeckis
- Writer
- Eric Roth
- Year
- 1994
- Runtime
- 2 hr 22 minWatch on Amazon
- Cast
- Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson
- Genre
- American football, Comedy, coming-of-age, Drama, flashback, historical drama, romantic comedy, tragicomedy
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Waiting at a bus stop in Savannah, Forrest Gump recounts the people and accidents that have shaped his life, from childhood in Alabama to military service and an unexpected business career. His stories keep returning to Jenny, whose troubled path repeatedly crosses his own. While Forrest becomes caught up in public events he scarcely understands, his loyalties remain with the people he loves.
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