 First edition | |
| Author | Winston Groom |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Pocket Books |
Publication date | 1995 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 242 |
| ISBN | 0-671-52170-5 |
| Preceded by | Forrest Gump |
Gump & Co. (alternatively titled Forrest Gump and Co.) is a 1995 novel by Winston Groom. It is the sequel to his 1986 novel Forrest Gump . It was written to chronicle Forrest's life throughout the 1980s. [1]
On the first page of Gump and Co., Forrest Gump tells readers "Don't ever let nobody make a movie of your life's story," and "Whether they get it right or wrong, it don't matter." [2]
However, the character is not an idiot savant, as in the first book, but more similar to Tom Hanks' "warmhearted dope." [3] The text intentionally contains grammar and spelling mistakes in order to indicate the character's deficient education and cognitive difficulties, albeit less frequently than its predecessor, reflecting that Forrest is a more mature and somewhat more astute man. [4]
The story suggests that the real-life events surrounding the film have affected Forrest's life. [5]
In 1980, the shrimp market has exploded, and Forrest cannot keep up with the demand. Adding to Forrest's troubles, Lt. Dan sells off his share of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and the company eventually goes under. To make ends meet he gets a job as a janitor in a strip club, where he meets a former college football teammate who gets in a tryout for the New Orleans Saints. Forrest is concerned that he has lost some of his running ability, but does so for the sake of his family. For a time, Forrest pulls the team up in the rankings, but gets cut when he says he cannot make a game due to Jenny's death and her subsequent funeral. Jenny's mother is in poor health and Forrest resolves to earn money to support his son, Forrest Jr., who only recently became aware that Forrest is his actual father.
Again unemployed, Forrest sells encyclopedias door-to-door, helps create the infamous New Coke, and operates a pig farm, all of which end in disaster.
Once at Union Station in Washington, Forrest sees a homeless, handicapped man, who says he is Lt. Dan, who had fallen in with those who took advantage of him and absconded with his retirement money, leaving him bankrupt. On top of that, Dan has become half-blind. Forrest, not wishing to see Dan homeless, says they will work something out. Forrest soon meets with a Marine colonel who recruits Forrest into a clandestine mission to Iran. They meet with Ronald Reagan. On the mission itself, they meet Ayatollah Khomeini. The mission is discovered, and everyone disavows responsibility save for Forrest, who is jailed.
Some time later, Forrest and the other prisoners are eligible for a work release program, to which they are put to work under a "religious rehabilitation" at Holy Land, along with John Hinckley Jr., where he accidentally exposes Jim Bakker's affair with his secretary.
Forrest then works with Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken on Wall Street, where he and his son meet a young actor there while shooting Big , who makes awkward remarks such as "life is like a box of chocolates", which fails to impress them. After sleeping with his attractive secretary, Forrest is visited by Jenny's ghost, who is worried about Forrest, not on account of the affair but because he has not questioned why he has been getting lots of money to simply sign papers. Sure enough, he is set up to be the fall guy for their schemes, but his trial is disrupted by news of a crash. He's later met by two MPs, who tell him that due to an error in being medically released while in Vietnam, his enlistment has yet to expire and he is back on active duty. He is taken from New York to a remote post in Alaska, while his son stays behind.
Forrest considers Alaska a nice change of pace from the superficiality of Manhattan, but ends up accidentally wrecking the Exxon Valdez after a drunken night with an old friend. In the environmental hoopla that ensues, the Army spirits Forrest out of the States and decides to quiet his involvement, as court-martialing a Medal of Honor recipient would look bad. Forrest is then assigned to the reputed worst job in the Army: cleaning mud off tank treads in West Germany.
Forrest also meets an attractive blonde woman named Gretchen, who works in a beer hall. Originally from East Germany, Gretchen was spirited to the West, but her family still remains in the Soviet zone. Forrest and Gretchen start dating, but when Forrest suggests buying Little Forrest an oompah horn, Gretchen thinks he cannot afford such a gift on a private's salary and suggests better rapport could be built through writing letters explaining his situation in Germany.
When Forrest's background in pro football is discovered, he gets recruited for the unit's football team. During a game, Forrest punts the ball, which flies over the Berlin Wall, causing another turn of events where people in both East and West Berlin start breaking the wall with sledgehammers.
Forrest is deployed for the Persian Gulf War, where he is reunited with Lt. Dan. His tank crew captures Saddam Hussein. Norman Schwarzkopf is shocked at this, while privately praising such initiative, he remarks they got all of them in trouble with President Bush as it was not in the orders to get Saddam, and orders Saddam returned. They do so, taking Saddam to the outskirts of Baghdad. However, right afterwards they are hit by friendly fire. Forrest flees to safety, but not Lt. Dan, who says his time has come like all his ancestors who died in an American war.
Forrest starts harvesting oysters and builds it into a very successful business with the help of Forrest Jr. and all his old contacts. When thinking about investing the proceeds, he meets Bill and Hillary Clinton at Whitewater. The final chapter deals with Forrest arguing with Forrest Jr., who has taken up to adolescent rebellion by clandestinely drinking beer, and Forrest Sr. laying down the law in an old-fashioned way. Forrest gets one final visit from Jenny saying that he has set their son straight and that she "likes that German girl", implying that she is ready to crossover to Heaven. Forrest marries Gretchen, and his story gets put into film.
A sequel had been in the works, due to the success of the first book and film. [6] Screenwriter Eric Roth submitted a script for the sequel on September 10, 2001, but after the September 11 attacks, there was a sense that "the world had changed" and that the plot of Gump and Co. was no longer relevant. The project ended up languishing in development hell. [7]
In 2007, Paramount and producers Steve Tisch and Wendy Finerman took another look at the project, but nothing came of it. [8]
In 2022, [9] Tom Hanks said that a second film was never seriously considered, noting discussions "lasted all of 40 minutes." [10] He expressed gratitude that he was never contractually-obligated to do another film, stating, "I've always said, 'Guys, if there's a reason to do it, let's do it. But you guys can't force me.' There is that natural inclination that is one of pure commerce that says, 'Hey, you just had a hit, so do it again and you’ll have a hit.'" [10]
The publisher, Simon & Schuster, cite a number of positive reviews, including Patricia Holt, in the San Francisco Chronicle , saying it "is a delight". [11] However, The New York Times review called the book's humor “tiresome and banal”. [12]
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. It is an adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom, and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field.
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks's films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America.
Sands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film starring John Wayne that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. The film, which also features John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker, was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant, and directed by Allan Dwan. The picture was a Republic Pictures production.
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy Romancing the Stone (1984), the science-fiction comedy Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990), and the live-action/animated comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). He subsequently directed the satirical black comedy Death Becomes Her (1992) and then diversified into more dramatic fare, including the Best Picture winning film, Forrest Gump (1994), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director.
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The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company is an American seafood restaurant chain inspired by the 1994 film Forrest Gump, based in Houston, Texas, and a division of Landry's Restaurants since 2010. As of October 2022, 35 restaurants operate worldwide: twenty-two in the United States, four in Mexico, three in Japan and one each in Mainland China, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Canada and Qatar. As of 2024, the UK division has permanently closed.
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The Lt. Dan Band is an American cover band originally formed in Chicago in 2003 by Gary Sinise and Kimo Williams to perform at USO shows, entertain troops, and raise money for disabled veterans. The band is named after the character Lieutenant Dan Taylor, whom Sinise portrayed in the film Forrest Gump. Sinise has said in interviews that many people know him by sight as "Lieutenant Dan" rather than by his real name, hence the band's name. The concept came about when Sinise asked for permission to bring musicians on his USO tours. The group was initially known as "Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band".
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Forrest Gump is a 1986 novel by Winston Groom. The title character retells adventures ranging from shrimp boating and ping pong championships, to thinking about his childhood love, as he bumbles his way through American history, with everything from the Vietnam War to college football becoming part of the story.
The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door took place at Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, in a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" and stop the desegregation of schools, stood at the door of the auditorium as if to block the entry of the two African American students attempting to enter: Vivian Malone and James Hood.
Michael Conner Humphreys is an American actor best known for playing young Forrest Gump in the 1994 film of the same name, a performance for which he was nominated for a Young Artist Award.
Robert Pope is a British veterinarian, athlete, author and charity fundraiser. He is an elite distance runner, with a number of successes at the marathon and ultramarathon distances. In 2016 he began a 422-day, 15,700-mile run comprising more than 4 complete crossings of the United States, and became the first person to trace the route run by Tom Hanks' fictional character in the film Forrest Gump. He raised approximately £38,000 for the charities Peace Direct and the World Wildlife Fund.
Laal Singh Chaddha is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film directed by Advait Chandan and written by Atul Kulkarni. The film is jointly produced by Paramount Pictures, Aamir Khan Productions and Viacom18 Studios. It is a remake of the 1994 American film Forrest Gump which itself is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film stars Aamir Khan as the title character alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan, Naga Chaitanya and Mona Singh.
