History Film / CastAway

* DidNotGetTheGirl: And it makes sense, too.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The movie starts off with the song "Return to Sender". At the end of the film, a package is returned there.

* TheUnreveal: We never find out what's in the last [=FedEx=] box. Hell, we never even find out why he didn't open it.
** One popular theory is that the wings on the package were a symbol of hope for Chuck. Seemingly corroborated when he [[spoiler:paints the symbol on the makeshift sail.]]
** Another is that he left one package unopened to keep himself grounded and not lose hope of ever making it back to civilization. "Isolated, in survival mode or not, I'm still a civilized human being. Someday I will deliver this package, dammit!"

* SayMyName: "WIIILLLLLLSOOOOOONNNNNNN! I'm sorry, Wilson!" If you ever want to figure out how good an actor Tom Hanks is, forget those two Oscars he won. Only Tom Hanks can yell that line, believably, at a ''volleyball'', and not make it sound stupid.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: In an effort to put things into perspective, Chuck calculates the total area that the rescue ships would have to cover to '''maybe'' find him... and he's disheartened when the result is an area twice the size of Texas.

* DestroyTheProductPlacement: This film features a [=FedEx=] cargo plane crashing in the Pacific ocean. Notably, the [=FedEx=] execs were freaked out at possible damage to the brand name, but the film's success ensured increased brand awareness in Europe and Asia.

** Disputable. It’s stated he was found 500 miles from the island meaning he drifted for weeks. That’s a very busy shipping lane so odds are he’d have run into a ship at some point.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: Subverted, as Chuck doesn't find the photo of the dead pilot's family until after he washes up.

* RiddleForTheAges: What was in the package Chuck never opened? [[spoiler:According to the script, two bottles of salsa verde. They cut it from the final draft because they decided [[MacGuffin it didn't matter what it was, only what it represented]].]]

* HollywoodDarkness: Played straight with some obvious day-for-night scenes on the island, but averted hard during the plane crash sequence where the screen goes completely black save for the odd lightning flash. Many theaters posted signs informing patrons that this was a deliberate stylistic choice and nothing was wrong with the film projectors.

This was Zemeckis's second live-action film after ''Film/WhatLiesBeneath'' and his last overall to be made during the 2000s, the rest of which he spent making MotionCapture films before returning to live-action twelve years later with ''Film/{{Flight}}''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/castaway.gif]]

* {{Irony}}: Plenty of this when Chucj returns to the abundant world of civilization. His 'welcome back' dinner consists mostly of seafood. His Swiss Army knife is attached to the keys he left with Helen. And light and fire is now available at the click of a switch.

Chuck Noland has everything: success in a high-pressure, high-paying job with [=Fed-Ex=], close friends, and a woman who loves him. The only thing he doesn't have enough of... is time. This changes when he is in a plane crash and, finding himself the sole survivor, washes up on an uninhabited tropical island where he has to figure out how to survive. Now Chuck has all the time he could ever want... and nothing else but his own wits and his two hands.

* ArcSymbol: The winged symbol on the last [=Fed-Ex=] box, for Chuck, symbolizing his unstoppable desire to survive and return home. It's cemented when he paints it on [[spoiler:the sail of his makeshift raft.]]
* {{Bathos}}: If there's any question about why Tom Hanks deserved that Oscar nom, name any other actor who could make the audience cry about the death of a fucking '''[[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext volleyball.]]]]'''

** At the start of the movie the female welder sends a [=Fed-Ex=] package to her husband in Moscow, who we see is cheating with a young Russian girl. At the end of the movie his name has been cut away from the sign above the entrance to her house.

* ChekhovsArmoury: After a while, Chuck opens the Fed-Ex boxes that washed ashore with him, and the contents appear to be comically useless for his situation: video tapes, a volleyball, ice-skates and such. He finds a use for all of them, ''especially'' the volleyball.

* ClockKing: Chuck Noland starts out as this, a Fed-Ex "efficiency expert". Then he's marooned on an island where he literally has nothing ''but'' time to spare.
-->'''Noland:''' Nicholai! Ticktockticktockticktock!

* DestroyTheProductPlacement: This film features a Fed-Ex cargo plane crashing in the Pacific ocean. Notably, the Fed-Ex execs were freaked out at possible damage to the brand name, but the film's success ensured increased brand awareness in Europe and Asia.
* DeusExMachina: While Noland survives on the island - and ultimately gets off of it - by his own wits and creative scavenging skills, he's just short of dying at sea [[spoiler:when a container ship passes close to his position.]]

-->'''Noland:''' Gotta love crab. In the nick of time too. I couldn't take much more of those coconuts. Coconut milk is a natural laxative. That's something [[Series/GilligansIsland Gilligan]] never told us.

* IronicHell: A subtle example. As explained in the introduction, the first act of the film establishes that, as a dedicated Fed-Ex employee, Chuck is completely obsessed with punctuality and time, though it's suggested that he actually enjoys this. After he's marooned on the island, he has nothing ''but'' time.
* {{Irony}}: Plenty of this when Noland returns to the abundant world of civilization. His 'welcome back' dinner consists mostly of seafood. His Swiss Army knife is attached to the keys he left with Helen. And light and fire is now available at the click of a switch.

* LargeHam: Chuck - after living several years in the savage jungle everyone would become this.

* MacGuffin: The one Fed-Ex box that Chuck never opens, and ultimately delivers at the end. Zemeckis jokingly stated that inside was [[{{Irony}} a waterproof solar-powered satellite phone]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3esvJv33M Lampshaded in a Super Bowl commercial]] for [=Fed-Ex=] that year which had his character delivering the package to find that indeed, it had the waterproof satellite phone, GPS unit, seeds, a complete tool set...

* MacGyvering: How Chuck survives using various Fed-Ex boxes full of apparently useless crap. Some notable examples include using the taffeta from a party dress to make a fishing net, weaving videotape together to make rope, and making an axe out of an ice skate attached to a stick.

* ProductPlacement: The best kind of product placement - neither firm paid a dime, but the movie is one great big commercial for Fed-Ex, and Wilson the volleyball is one for the company of the same name. The latter came about as the result of a Wilson ball washing up on shore in RealLife when the screenwriter was doing survival training as researching for the film.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: The coconuts. Don't worry - everyone seems to get that wrong. Interestingly, the film crew found them as nigh-impossible to open as Chuck did.

* RobbingTheDead: About a week after the crash, the pilot of the FedEx plane's corpse washes up on the island. Chuck takes his shoes and flashlight, but buries him and the rest of his belongings.

* TheUnreveal: We never find out what's in the last [=Fed-Ex=] box. Hell, we never even find out why he didn't open it.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Chuck escapes the island and became a celebrity with an upcoming autobiography, but his lover Kelly is already married, and agreed to be BetterAsFriends. However, time will tell if either of them are happier about it and Chuck still feels alone.]]

* ArcSymbol: The winged symbol on the last [=Fed-Ex=] box, for Chuck, symbolizing his unstoppable desire to survive and return home. it's cemented when he paints it on [[spoiler:the sail of his makeshift raft.]]

This was Zemeckis's second live-action film after ''Film/WhatLiesBeneath'' and his last overall to be made during the 2000s, the rest of which he spent making MotionCapture films before returning to live-action thirteen years later with ''Film/{{Flight}}''.

* {{Bathos}}: If there's any question about why Tom Hanks deserved that Oscar nom, name any other actor who could make the audience cry about the death of a [[spoiler:[[ItMakesSenseInContext volleyball.]]]]

* IFellForHours: Averted, from start to finish the crash sequence takes roughly two and a half minutes, a reasonable amount of time for stricken airline to drop from cruise altitude to sea level.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Interestingly, [[spoiler:Kelly was fully willing to drop her new husband for Chuck, and they were seconds away from running off together, only for [[DidNotGetTheGirl Kelly to reconsider]].]] It's an interesting bit of trivia that according to the commentary that the scene [[spoiler: was the part of the movie that confused watchers between the ages of 14 and 20 in the test audience. They were either too accustomed to the idea of the protagonist [[HappilyEverAfter getting the girl in the end]] or weren't yet emotionally ready to grasp the sheer complexity of adult relationships.]]
* AccidentalAdultery: Confusingly, Chuck's long-term partner Kelly says that she "always knew" he was alive, but [[AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder marries a dentist after everyone pressures her to move on]]. [[spoiler: She offers to divorce her new husband to get back together with Chuck, but just changes her mind about a minute later.]]

* ArcSymbol: The winged symbol on the last [=Fed-Ex=] box, for Chuck, symbolizing his unstoppable desire to survive and return home. it's cemented when he paints it on [[spoiler: the sail of his makeshift raft.]]
* {{Bathos}}: If there's any question about why Tom Hanks deserved that Oscar nom, name any other actor who could make the audience cry about the death of a [[spoiler: [[ItMakesSenseInContext volleyball.]]]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Chuck escapes the island and became a celebrity with an upcoming autobiography, but his lover Kelly is already married, and agreed to be BetterAsFriends. However, time will tell if either of them are happier about it and Chuck still feels alone.]]

* ChekhovsHobby: A very subtle one: Right before the family diner scene, the audience briefly sees Chuck's sailing certification and sailing awards. No wonder then that [[spoiler: he finds the right solution to overcome the powerful wave that prevented him from leaving the island and manages to do it when the weather conditions are optimal.]]

--> '''Noland''': Nicholai! Ticktockticktockticktock!

--->[[spoiler:'''Chuck Noland''': So... I made a rope and I went up to the summit, to hang myself. I had to test it, you know? Of course. You know me. And the weight of the log, snapped the limb of the tree, so I-I-I couldn't even kill myself the way I wanted to.]]

-->"Gotta love crab. In the nick of time too. I couldn't take much more of those coconuts. Coconut milk is a natural laxative. That's something [[Series/GilligansIsland Gilligan]] never told us."

--->[[spoiler:You said our life was a prison. Dull. Boring. Empty. I can't begin to tell you how much that hurt. I don't want to lose you. I'm enclosing some salsa, the verde you like. Use it on your sticky rice and think of home. Then come home-- to me. We'll find the spice in our lives again. Together. I love you. Always. Bettina.]]

** One popular theory is that the wings on the package were a symbol of hope for Chuck. Seemingly corroborated when he [[spoiler: paints the symbol on the makeshift sail.]]

!! This film contains examples of:

* RiddleForTheAges: What was in the package Chuck never opened? [[spoiler:According to the script, two bottles of salsa verde.]]

* RiddleForTheAges: What was in the package Chuck never opened?

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Interestingly, [[spoiler:Kelly was fully willing to drop her new husband for Chuck, and they were seconds away fr om running off together, only for [[DidNotGetTheGirl Kelly to reconsider]].]] It's an interesting bit of trivia that according to the commentary that the scene [[spoiler: was the part of the movie that confused watchers between the ages of 14 and 20 in the test audience. They were either too accustomed to the idea of the protagonist [[HappilyEverAfter getting the girl in the end]] or weren't yet emotionally ready to grasp the sheer complexity of adult relationships.]]