History Film / ForrestGump

* 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. Since she neglected to say whether she'd be wearing clothes in that goal, she also ends up doing it in her birthday suit.

** 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 being literal, and… [[{{Mooning}} obliges his request]].
** Jenny also was inflicted with this trope (although the inflictor wasn't any one person other than possibly herself, but rather fate). She tells Forrest "I wanna be up on a stage with just my guitar and my voice…" In adulthood, she gets that dream. She never specified whether she'd do it while wearing clothes, so fate took what she said exactly, and made it exact by having her do it in the nude.

He went to the White House; showed [[LyndonJohnson LBJ]] his butt"''

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 [[CatholicSchoolgirlsRule Catholic Schoolgirl]] to being in one of the early issues of {{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.

--->'''Jenny''': [[DrivenToSuicide Do you think I could fly off this bridge]]?

* {{As Himself}}/{{Not Quite Starring}}:

* 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. Since she neglected to say whether she'd be wearing clothes in that goal, she also ends up doing it in her birthday suit.

* [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Did you just flip off God?:]] While not in a supernatural sense, the entire Hurricane Norman scene, Lieutenant Dan pretty much did that.

* [[DudeWheresMyRespect Dude, Where's My Respect]]: 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.

* DuringTheWar ([[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]])
* DumbIsGood: Forrest is this trope

* HandicappedBadass: Lt. Dan

* HistoricalInJoke: So many that not all of them made it to the movie. Gump inspired and named for a while the trope BeenThereShapedHistory.
* IAmNotSpock: Gary Sinise became so strongly identified as Lieutenant Dan that he decided to just start a band called the [[TropesAreNotBad Lieutenant Dan Band]], with the proceeds from the band's performances going to charity. He also stars in a series of ads as Lieutenant Dan supporting suicide hotlines for veterans.

-->"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."

** 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 {{Apollo13}}, which also starred Tom Hanks.

** Nathan Bedford Forests original vision of the KKK resembled little what the Klan would eventually become years after his death. It is said he never envisioned them to rape and murder black people, but simply as a police force to protect the rights of the white man.

* SeeminglyProfoundFoolin

----> [[FilkSong "Gump"]] by '''Music/WeirdAlYankovic''' (to the tune of The Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump")

He went to the White House; showed [[LyndonJohnson LBJ]] his butt"''\\
-- [[FilkSong "Gump"]], Music/WeirdAlYankovic (to the tune of The Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump")

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

* HistoricalInJoke: So many that not all of them made it to the movie.

* ScarpiaUltimatum: A rather loose variation.

* SeeminglyProfoundFool

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

* HarsherInHindsight: Lt. Dan tells his men to change their socks regularly, and ''always look after their feet''.

* AsHimself/{{NotQuiteStarring}}:

* AsHimself/:{{NotQuiteStarring}}

* AsHimself:

* ChewingTheScenery: Forrest to Jenny, as she's about to leave with her hippie boyfriend:

* Sandbox/PuppyLove: Jenny and Forrest as children.

It's the tale of a good-natured but simple-minded man from [[TheDeepSouth Greenbow, Alabama]] and him telling his life story to other people while at a bus stop. The longer the story continues, you find [[HistoricalInJoke touching important events and people]] from TheFifties to TheEighties (ranging from 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).

* TheGump: (TropeNamer)

''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 film starring TomHanks and directed by RobertZemeckis, and based on a 1986 novel by Winston Groom. It's the tale of a good-natured but simple-minded man [[HistoricalInJoke touching important events and people]] from TheFifties to TheEighties (ranging from ElvisPresley to several presidents), rising to his own measure of fame and fortune in the process, mostly by just being himself. But he's forever pining for his childhood sweetheart Jenny (played by Hanna Hall [[TimeshiftedActor and]] Robin Wright), who takes a different path in life that sometimes intersects with his.

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 champion ping-pong player to shrimp tycoon, without ever quite losing the undying optimism of the era.

* 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.
** And Forrest's berserk button is when someone is hurting Jenny, and he is competely aware that she is being hurt as the hippie who hit her found out.

His girlfriend Jenny was kind of a slut \\

* AbusiveParents: Jenny's Father

* 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.

--->'''Jenny''': Dear God, make me a bird. So I could fly far. Far, far away from here.

* AsHimself:
** Both Presidents [[JohnFKennedy Kennedy]] and [[LyndonJohnson Johnson]] play themselves posthumously and interact with Forrest through the use of archive footage.
** The same technology was also used with RichardNixon, 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. Since she neglected to say whether she'd be wearing clothes in that goal, she also ends up doing it in her birthday suit.

* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: Forrest announces this while meeting [=JFK=] of all people...

** "And that's all I have to say about that..."
** "...But most of all, I thought about Jenny."

** He asked if he could see the spot...

* 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:

'''Forrest Gump:''' ...You told me to, Drill Sergeant?\\

'''Forrest:''' That's Lt. Dan... [turns around and sees Lt. Dan] Lt. Dan!\\

** 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 being literal, and... [[{{Mooning}} obliges his request]].
** Jenny also was inflicted with this trope (although the inflictor wasn't any one person other than possibly herself, but rather fate). She tells Forrest "I wanna be up on a stage with just my guitar and my voice...". In adulthood, she gets that dream. She never specified whether she'd do it while wearing clothes, so fate took what she said exactly, and made it exact by having her do it in the nude.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: "I wanna be up on a stage with just my guitar and my voice..."

* IWasJustJoking: Not actually said, but it was strongly implied that LyndonBJohnson's "desire" to see the wound on Forrest Gump's butt 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 LyndonBJohnson to chuckle to himself and say "goddamn, son!"

** 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).

* TheLongList: "Shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo..."

--->'''Abbie Hoffman:''' "The war... in [[PrecisionFStrike Viet-FUCKING-NAAAAM]]!"

** 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.]]

** Nathan Bedford Forests original vision of the KKK resembled little what the Klan would eventually become years after his death.It is said he never envisioned them to rape and murder black people, but simply as a police force to protect the rights of the white man.

--> '''Hanks''': *inflecting Forrest's voice* So I went to the Academy Award, ''a-gain''. And I won an Oscar, ''a-gain''.

-->'''Forrest Gump''' ''[having just completed assembling his weapon]'': DONE, DRILL SERGEANT!\\

--->"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."