In the 2000 movie, Cast Away, Tom Hanks plays a FedEx worker named Chuck Noland who is stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. He is stuck there without any human contact for four years. He knew that somehow, he had to stay alive and keep breathing, even though logic told him there was no hope. But one day, that logic was proven wrong.
After a large section from a portable toilet enclosure washes up on the island, Chuck is able to build a raft and use some plastic as a sail. He’s able to launch the raft but gets stuck in a bad storm. Miraculously he survives. Shortly after, a passing cargo ship sees him on his raft and rescues him.
I’ve probably seen this movie over 50 times. I love Tom Hanks in everything he is in. But this movie is special to me because it is such a testament to the human spirit and our will to survive – even against the worst odds.
Interestingly, Tom Hanks was the one who had the story idea for this movie. He had seen an article about how 747s filled with packages fly across the Pacific three times a day. And he wondered what would happen if one of the planes went down. And from there, over the span of six years, the story was flushed out. And after 125 rewrites of the script, Cast Away as we know it was created.
The other fascinating thing about this movie is that there is hardly a musical score in it. Movies typically rely on music throughout the film to lead the audience to what filmmakers want them to feel. This movie was practically devoid of it. We had some at the end of the movie. But during most of it, the lack of a score helped create the stark vibe and loneliness of being on that island. We saw the same kind of treatment of not having a score that created the same kind of bleak vibe seven years later is the movie, No Country for Old Men.
Another fun fact about this movie – An ABC executive was inspired by this movie and wanted to adapt it to a TV series. The idea never came to fruition; however, the idea was given to other writers. It eventually made its way to J.J. Abrams and the series Lost was created.
The idea behind what Tom says in this quote is that we never know when the tide will turn for us. We have to keep trying because what seems impossible, might not be…And the only way we know it’s not possible for sure is when we don’t try.
