[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Forrest_Gump_on_a_bench_4829.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.]]

->''"His buddy Bubba was a shrimp lovin' man\\
His friend with no legs he called Lt. Dan\\
His girlfriend Jenny was kind of a slut\\
He went to the White House; showed {{L|yndonJohnson}}BJ his butt"''
-->-- [[FilkSong "Gump"]] by '''Music/WeirdAlYankovic''' (to the tune of The Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump")

->''"Hello. [[TheNameIsBondJamesBond My name is Forrest. Forrest Gump.]]"''

''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 film starring Creator/TomHanks and directed by Creator/RobertZemeckis, and based on a 1986 novel by Winston Groom.

It's the tale of a good-natured but simple-minded man from [[TheDeepSouth Greenbow, Alabama]], telling his life story to other people while waiting at a bus stop. As the story continues, you find Forrest [[BeenThereShapedHistory touching important events and people]] from TheFifties to TheEighties (ranging from Music/ElvisPresley to several presidents), rising to his own measure of fame and fortune in the process, mostly by just being himself. Because he is so simple-minded, he doesn't fully understand the significance of everything that he has done and just sees himself as an average person just living his life. But he's forever pining for his childhood sweetheart Jenny (played by Hanna Hall [[TimeshiftedActor and]] Robin Wright).

Forrest's journey takes him from his native Alabama to the jungles of Vietnam, from walking in corrective leg-braces to running across North America, from misunderstood country boy to college football star to champion ping-pong player to shrimp tycoon, without ever quite losing the undying optimism of the era. On the other hand Jenny's life takes her from a {{Catholic Schoolgirl|sRule}} to being in one of the early issues of ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'', from a flower child of the 60's to a hippie protestor of the 70's. Between her and Forrest they cover all the significant cultural emblems of that time period, all the while their lives intersect with each other repeatedly.

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!!This film provides examples of:

* AbusiveParents: Jenny's father.
* AccidentalAthlete: Forrest ends up as a running back on Bear Bryant's University of Alabama team when a couple of bullies chase him and he ends up running through the school field when the team was practicing. It helps when you consider exactly who he was seen by. For those of you unaware, Paul "Bear" Bryant is universally considered to be one of the greatest American football coaches of all time.
* AccidentalHero: Of a sort. Forrest ran back into the combat zone to try and find Bubba, only to be called upon by other soldiers to rescue them, which he did by carrying them to the river. What he did was technically heroic but he didn't intend to save 4 others and be awarded the Medal of Honor.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Forrest is so dense that he routinely attempts things other people wouldn't even consider, and so single-minded that he puts his maximum effort into everything he does. As a result, he meets spectacular success while the skeptics are left scratching their heads.
* AlmightyJanitor: After his myriad accomplishments that leave him a war hero, shaper of history, and gazillionaire, Forrest accepts the prestigious job of...groundskeeper at the University of Alabama, which he ends up doing for free because he likes it so much.
* AngryBlackMan: Jenny's Black Panther acquaintances, to the letter.
* AnimalMotifs: Jenny is associated with birds, from the moment she asks Forrest to pray with her:
** The prayer itself:
--->'''Jenny''': Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far. Far, far away from here.
** Which is recalled in a conversation after he sees Jenny performing on stage:
--->'''Jenny''': [[DrivenToSuicide Do you think I could fly off this bridge?]]
** Later, we see her contemplating suicide again, ready to jump off a high-riser, with [[Music/LynyrdSkynyrd Free Bird]]'s solo wailing in the background.
** And then, finally, [[spoiler:after Forrest finishes talking to Jenny's gravestone, a flock of birds flies out of their tree as Forrest walks away.]]
* AsHimself / NotQuiteStarring:
** Both Presidents [[JohnFKennedy Kennedy]] and [[LyndonJohnson Johnson]] play themselves posthumously and interact with Forrest through the use of archival footage.
** The same technology was also used with RichardNixon [[note]]who died less than three months before the movie was released to theaters[[/note]], Alabama Governor George Wallace, and JohnLennon. A more straight version of this trope occurs in the Lennon scene, where Dick Cavett plays himself, made to look younger through make-up.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: As noted in the {{Foreshadowing}} entry, Jenny tells Forrest that her dream is to "be up on a stage with just my guitar and my voice…" She gets that dream, all right, but she neglected to mention whether she'd be wearing anything, and when the time comes [[ExactWords she isn't]].
* BeardOfSorrow:
** Forrest ends up with one on his cross-country jogging spree.
** Lt. Dan also has one when he first meets Forrest again after the war.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: If you go with the hypothesis that [[spoiler: Jenny has AIDS]], you'll be left wondering why you don't see her with sores and lesions from Kaposi's Sarcoma, hair graying and loss, and other nasty symptoms associated with that disease.
* BerserkButton: Call post-Vietnam Lieutenant Dan a cripple all you want, but he ''will'' hurt you if you dare call Forrest any variety of "stupid."
** Also, I dare you to even lay a hand on Jenny whenever Forrest is around. Go ahead, try.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Forrest is the most even-tempered individual you could ever hope to meet, but he has a BerserkButton when it comes to anyone hurting Jenny. He is also incredibly strong after being a football star and war hero.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Jenny]] dies, but [[spoiler: left her son in Forrest's care]], and Lieutenant Dan [[spoiler: found the strength to live and love again]].
* [[BlackBestFriend Black Best Good Friend]]: [[AlliterativeName Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue.]]
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: A poor nameless RedShirt dies of BoomHeadshot at the start of the ambush that also kills [[spoiler: Bubba]] (who ironically ends up being the last of the squad to die that death)
* BookEnds: The ObjectTrackingShot of the feather and Forrest waiting for a bus.
* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Jenny leaves Forrest several times and each of these is shown to be a mistake. Coming back to him are the few instances where she is truly happy.
* BrickJoke:
** Bubba's momma serving dinner, then being served to.
** At the beginning of the movie, Forrest tries to get to know the bus driver, Dorothy Harris, because his mother has told him not to take rides from strangers and , Forrest being as dense as he is, to him introducing themselves won't make them strangers anymore. At the end, [[spoiler:Forrest Jr. immediately says upon being greeted onto the bus: "You're Dorothy Harris, and I'm Forrest Gump."]]
* BuffySpeak: Forrest's general VerbalTic. This leads to a nice HistoricalInJoke when he ends up being a shareholder in "some sort of fruit company" (Apple Computers).
* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: Forrest announces this while meeting [=JFK=] of all people …
* CassandraTruth: Forrest's revelation that he's the owner of the wildly successful Bubba Gump Shrimp Company sends one listener off in unbelieving hysterics. The old woman was unbelieving at first, until he shows her a picture of him and Lieutenant Dan on the cover of Fortune.
* CatchPhrase: Forrest has a lot of these.
** "Stupid is as stupid does."
** "Momma always said 'Life was like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.'"
** "And that's all I have to say about that…"
** "…But most of all, I thought about Jenny."
* CharacterDevelopment: Seen in both Forrest and Jenny. But even more clearly in Lt. Dan.
* ChewingTheScenery: Forrest to Jenny, as she's about to leave with her radical lefty boyfriend:
---> '''Forrest''': You know what I think? I think you, should go back, to Green-Bow, AL-A-BAM-A!
* ClusterFBomb: According to Forrest, Abby Hoffman enjoyed dropping these at the Vietnam War protest rally, and that everyone at the rally enjoyed hearing him dropping them.
** Being a PG-13 movie, however, we only hear one instant of the word.
* DeadPresidents and NotSoDeadPresidents: "I went [to the White House], ''a-gain'', [and met] the President, ''a-gain''." The RunningGag is that he meets almost all of the ones he reasonably could. He even moons LBJ (sort of on request).
** He asked if he could see the spot…
** Tom Hanks also invoked the "a-gain" when he won the Best Actor Oscar for Forrest Gump, having already received one the year before for his role in ''Film/{{Philadelphia}}''.
---> '''Hanks''': *inflecting Forrest's voice* So I went to the Academy Award, ''a-gain''. And I won an Oscar, ''a-gain''.
* DeathSeeker:
** Lt. Dan, who's lost an ancestor in every major American war. He gets over it after [[spoiler: surviving Hurricane Carmen]].
** In the book's sequel ''Gump and Co.'', [[spoiler: he gets killed by friendly fire during Operation Desert Storm]].
* DeepSouth: Greenbow, Alabama
* [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Did You Just Flip Off God?:]] While not in a supernatural sense, the entire Hurricane Carmen scene, Lieutenant Dan pretty much did that.
* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: It's debatable whether or not it's a fictional disease, but [[spoiler:Jenny mentions that the virus she's suffering from is a terminal disease]], in which it's left up to the audience on whether or not it is AIDS.
* DrillSergeantNasty: A subversion is that he frequently praises Forrest for his dedication and obedience … in the exact same tone of voice he'd use to berate anyone else. Of course, he does offer some backhanded compliments along the way:
-->'''Drill Sergeant:''' WHAT IS YOUR SOLE PURPOSE IN THIS ARMY?\\
'''Gump:''' To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant?\\
'''Drill Sergeant:''' GODDAMNIT, GUMP! YOU'RE A GODDAMN GENIUS! THAT'S THE BEST OUTSTANDING ANSWER I'VE EVER HEARD! YOU MUST HAVE A GODDAMN I.Q. OF 160! YOU ARE GODDAMNED GIFTED, PRIVATE GUMP!
** Here's another one:
--->'''Forrest Gump''' ''[having just completed assembling his weapon]'': DONE, DRILL SERGEANT!\\
'''Drill Sergeant:''' '''GUUUUUUMP!''' WHY DID YOU PUT THAT WEAPON TOGETHER SO QUICKLY, GUMP?\\
'''Forrest Gump:''' … You told me to, Drill Sergeant?\\
'''Drill Sergeant:''' JESUS H. CHRIST! This is a new company record! If it wouldn't be a waste of such a damn fine enlisted man, I'd recommend you for OCS, Private Gump! YOU ARE GONNA BE A GENERAL SOMEDAY, GUMP, NOW DISASSEMBLE YOUR WEAPON AND CONTINUE!
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Lt. Dan wanted to die in combat, so naturally, he doesn't take living with amputated legs too well. And watching Forrest receive a Medal of Honor from the President himself sure didn't help.
-->'''Lt. Dan:''' They gave you the Congressional Medal of Honor.\\
'''Forrest:''' That's Lt. Dan … [turns around and sees Lt. Dan] Lt. Dan!\\
'''Lt. Dan:''' They gave ''you'' the Congressional Medal of Honor!\\
'''Forrest:''' Yes sir, they sure did.\\
'''Lt. Dan:''' They gave you, an imbecile, a moron who goes on television and makes a fool out himself in front of the whole damn country, the Congressional Medal of Honor?!\\
'''Forrest:''' Yes, sir.\\
'''Lt. Dan:''' Well, then, that's just perfect! Yeah, well I just got one thing to say to that. Goddamn bless America.
* DuringTheWar: [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]].
* DumbIsGood: Forrest is this trope.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: Inverted: During Forrest's stump speech during an anti-Vietnam rally that he somehow got convinced to go to, a large percentage of the speech involving things he was going to admit to the people about his experiences in Vietnam during the speech actually ended up ''missed'' because a Pro-Vietnam police officer pulled the plug on the mike, and the mike's sound output was only restored right when Forrest finishes up the statements. Of course, that didn't stop Abby Hoffman (who apparently heard the whole thing) from expressing sympathy about what happened in his experiences.
* ExactWords:
** When he receives the medal of honor from Lyndon B. Johnson, Johnson jokingly expresses interest in seeing the wound on Gump's butt. Gump interprets this as literal, and… [[{{Mooning}} obliges his request]].
** Jenny gets caught by this trope too, after she tells Forrest "I wanna be up on a stage with just my guitar and my voice…" She later gets that dream. But she never specified whether she'd be wearing clothes at the time, and ends up with ''just'' her guitar and her voice.
* FalseSoulmate: Jenny to Forrest.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: "I wanna be up on a stage with just my guitar and my voice…"
** At the very beginning of the movie Forrest opens his suitcase and we see not only the Curious George book (which Mama reads to him and [[spoiler:Forrest Jr. takes to show-and-tell]]) but also his Bubba Gump hat and his ping-pong paddle. We also see he's wearing muddy Nikes, which he wore when he ran for two and a half years. Even the box of chocolates shows up in his story when he gives Jenny a box at college.
* FlyAtTheCameraEnding: The Feather.
* TheFool: Forrest is good natured but naturally dim witted, most importantly though, he appears to be quite lucky throughout the film.
* GeniusDitz: Forrest in the book.
* GoodOlBoy: Forrest and many other folks from Greenbow, Alabama.
* HandicappedBadass: Lt. Dan.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Forrest is a natural runner and a natural table tennis champion.
* HaveANiceDaySmile: According to the film, Forrest is the originator of the design.
* TheHedonist: Jenny becomes this in her adulthood.
* HistoricalInJoke: So many that not all of them made it to the movie. Gump inspired and named for a while the trope that is now BeenThereShapedHistory.
* IWasJustJoking: Not actually said, but it was strongly implied that LBJ's "desire" to see the wound on Gump's behind was actually intended to be a joke. Forrest, being Forrest, [[ExactWords interprets this literally]], and proceeds to [[{{Mooning}} oblige his "request"]] on live TV, causing Johnson to chuckle to himself and say "Goddamn, son!"
* IdenticalGrandson: Lieutenant Dan's ancestors are all played by Gary Sinise; all of Mrs. Blue's ancestors are played by the same woman who plays Mrs. Blue, Forrest's namesake General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, is also played by Tom Hanks.
* IdiotHero: Forrest Gump.
* ImagineSpot: When Forrest talks about Lieutenant Dan and Bubba's ancestors, and then happily inverted when Bubba's mom uses Bubba's share of Forrest's shrimping venture.
* InnocentInaccurate: Among other things, Forrest doesn't quite understand what the big deal is with desegregation, the war protesters, or the Black Panther Party. Also, he calls Jenny's father a "very loving man."
* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Forrest, and later Lt. Dan.
* InsultBackfire: "Stupid is as stupid does."
* IronicEcho:
** Bubba's mother being served lunch by a white lady, using the exact same shot as the ImagineSpot of Bubba's mother's ancestors doing the same thing for their white employers. "…and so they shot him" is sort of one as well, considering the famous people Forrest has met (does the man have a death god following him?).
** A less straightforward example is when Forrest's mother had to sleep with the principal just to allow Forrest to have a regular school environment instead of a special needs environment. During the mom and the principal's … "pleasure time", The Principal is faintly heard panting from outside. When the Principal afterwards asks Forrest whether he says anything at all, Forrest's response is to mime said panting (without realizing what it meant).
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Forrest doesn't seem too impressed by the "Fruit Company" Lt. Dan suggested he invest in, which we see is really Apple Computers, now Apple Inc.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Lieutenant Dan in the movie, and perhaps surprisingly to some, Forrest in the original novel.
* TheKlan: Gump says he was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
* TheLongList: "Shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo …"
* LukeYouAreMyFather: Forrest [[spoiler: finds out he has a son via Jenny]]. EpilepticTrees say [[spoiler: this might not be the case, but Forrest is the only reliable parent Jenny can find]].
* MeaningfulEcho: When Forrest tells Jenny he loves her, she annoyingly tells him he doesn't know what love is. Years later, he proposes to her, but she declines, telling him he doesn't really want to marry her. His response: "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is."
* MentorOccupationalHazard: Lt. Dan tries to be this to a T he gives Forrest and Bubba advice on how to survive 'Nam concluding the mentor part and then tries to die fighting in the war believing that it was his [[YouCantFightFate destiny.]] However he didn't count on Forrest to [[ScrewDestiny subvert that.]]
* MisterSandmanSequence
* {{Mooning}}: Forrest Gump does this to President Johnson. See ExactWords for more details.
* NarrationEcho: On multiple occasions, due to Forrest's thoughts being so straightforward.
-->'''Forrest:''' [=*narrating*=] When I got home, I had no idea, but Mama'd had all sorts of visitors.\\
'''Mrs. Gump''': We've had all sorts of visitors.
* NoodleIncident: Forrest's speech during the Vietnam protests, lost to everyone except those standing near him because the microphones have been sabotaged, but it moves those people to tears. According to Tom Hanks, it goes something like this:
-->"Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all. [[AndThatsTerrible That's a bad thing.]] That's all I have to say about that."
* NoInfantileAmnesia: Averted: Forrest Gump explicitly states that he has absolutely no recollection of his birth.
* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Forrest's CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
* NothingButHits: From the 50's on through the 70's.
* ObjectTrackingShot: The feather.
* ObviousBlueScreen: Mostly averted, as Forrest is almost seamlessly integrated into the historical footage, but they did a much better job digitally erasing Gary Sinise's legs. In fact, there's only one scene in the ''entire movie'' where the digital erasure of Sinise's legs fails: when he's picking himself up after the party girls leave on New Year's Eve. Watch carefully and you can see Sinise is clearly propping himself up on supposedly nonexistent legs.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Forrest gets shot in the buttocks in Vietnam and suffers no long-lasting ill effects. In fact, he gets all the ice cream he can eat. Notably, this about the only part of the body where this can realistically happen. (Thus, why it's called a "million-dollar wound".) It also happens to infantrymen A LOT, as one's natural inclination when crawling is to stick your butt in the air. Army training tries to curtail this but not everyone remembers.
* OverlyLongGag: The LongList of shrimp recipes and the {{Imagine Spot}}s for Lieutenant Dan and Bubba's ancestors.
* PhraseCatcher: "Are you crazy, or just plain stupid?"
* PinballProtagonist
* PlayingGertrude: Sally Field, who plays Mrs. Gump, is just ten years older than Tom Hanks. And on top of that, they previously played love interests in the film ''Punch Line''.
* PopularHistory
* PottyEmergency: Happens to Forrest, simply saying "I gotta pee!" as he meets [[JohnFKennedy President Kennedy]]. Drinking a dozen Dr. Peppers will do that to you.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Lieutenant Dan's SmiteMeOMightySmiter antics.
-->'''Lt. Dan:''' "YOU'LL NEVER! SINK! THIS! BOAT! AAAA-HAAHAAAAW!"
** Also:
--->'''Abbie Hoffman:''' "The war … in [[LargeHam Viet-FUCKING-NAAAAM]]!"
* PuppyLove: Jenny and Forrest as children.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Lt. Dan in the storm scene.
* RunningGag: It's subtle, but in every photo of Forrest, his eyes are closed.
** In a darker extent, many celebrities that Forrest met or talked about end up getting killed, most of them getting shot.
* ScarpiaUltimatum[=/=]SexForServices: A rather loose variation.
-->'''Hancock:''' "Your mama sure does care about your schooling, son!"
* SeeminglyProfoundFool
* SeenItAll: After a while, Forrest finds it hard to work up enthusiasm for meeting Presidents after meeting virtually each one during his life.
* ShotInTheAss: "I got shot in the butt-tocks."
* SignificantBirthdate:
** Jenny's date of birth ([[spoiler: which can be seen on her tombstone]]) is July 16, 1945--the date of the Trinity test in New Mexico, the world's first successful test of the atomic bomb. [[spoiler: Her date of death--March 22, 1982--is also the date that the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' launched on its 3rd mission (STS-3) … which landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.]]
** The latter would at first glance seem not so significant within the film's context as [[spoiler:the Columbia disaster happened long after the film's release.]] However, the backup commander for mission STS-3 was Ken Mattingly, who was portrayed by Gary Sinise (Lt.Dan) in ''{{Film/Apollo 13}}'', which also starred Tom Hanks.
* SignificantMonogram: Jenny Curran.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Forrest has eyes for Jenny. No one else.
* SleeperHit: Paramount didn't see the film being a big hit and only opened in 1,500 theatres mid-week after Independence Day. Strong word-of-mouth from sneak previews made it a long runner in theatres.
* SmiteMeOMightySmiter: Lieutenant Dan rides out Hurricane Carmen clinging to the mast of a small boat, challenging the lightning and waves to kill him while giving God the middle finger. Which, according to Forrest after, results in Dan's religious epiphany.
* StillWearingTheOldColors: Forrest meets some anti-Vietnam activists who mostly wear their old uniforms, but made into {{Non Uniform Uniform}}s.
* SweetHomeAlabama: A particularly {{Anvilicious}} illustration of the trope.
* TearJerker (in-universe):
** The old lady that Forrest is narrating his story to has this reaction, to the point where she sticks around after missing her bus.
** Forrest's speech when getting his medal also causes this reaction in those that can actually hear him.
* TemptingFate:
--> '''Lt. Dan:''' Where's this god of yours now?
--> '''Forrest:''' (narrating) It's funny Lt. Dan said that, 'cause right then, [[HostileWeather God showed up.]]
* ThisIsMyStory: "Hello, my name is Forrest, Forrest Gump. Would you like a chocolate?"
* TooQuirkyToLose: Forrest, in general.
* TryNotToDie: One of Lieutenant Dan's two standing orders for his platoon. (The other one is to always, ''always'' change your socks for clean ones regularly.)
* UnflinchingWalk: While carrying the somewhat heavyset Bubba to the shore in Vietnam, an airstrike is raining bombs down just behind Forrest's heels. The only acknowledgement he gives of the explosions is a slight increase in walking speed near the end of the shot. It's made especially impressive considering he has a fresh bullet wound in his buttocks. Which may sound vaguely humorous, especially remembering Hanks' pronunciation of the word, but just take a moment to think about what it actually means. He either has a bullet or a jagged piece of debris lodged in a part of his body that is moving and flexing around with every step he takes, even moreso for the fact that he's running over difficult terrain. And he still ''never even considers stopping''. Unflinching indeed.
* UnfortunateNames: Forrest is named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK. Awkward, seeing how he would describe Bubba as "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment My best good friend.]]" Forrest specifically says his mother named him after Nathan Bedford Forrest so he would remember what the KKK did. Forrest being Forrest, he didn't really understand what the KKK was.
* UnreliableNarrator: Played straight for laughs, and for drama. The naive Forrest incorrectly describes events he witnesses through his life. Notable examples: He believes that Charlie was someone the Army was looking for, opposed to the code name for the Vietcong; and that Apple(Computers) was a fruit company.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: During the live broadcast of the first moon landing, everyone at the Army hospital is watching Forrest play Ping-Pong with himself and ''no one'' is watching the TV.
* UnwantedRescue: Lt. Dan was furious that Forrest saved his life, rather than leave him to die. He eventually gets over his rage. Later in the film, when Lt. Dan fiercely defends Forrest after their female companions call him 'stupid', the implication becomes that while Lt. Dan loses his legs, gets lost in his own misery, and spends decades watching the world fly apart, Forrest is his polar opposite -- innocent, kind, confused and, above all, ''happy''. Lt. Dan doesn't want ''anything'' to spoil that.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Forrest doesn't see it but Lt. Dan has a lot of anger towards him and generally treats him with contempt. But underneath it is an appreciation that Forrest holds no grudges and will do anything to help a person in need. By the end there is no doubt they are best friends.
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Abby Hoffman wears an American flag-patterned shirt at the Vietnam protest rally.
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''And that's all I have to say about that.''
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