Cast Away

“I never should have got out of the car.” Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) in Cast Away

Cast Away is my favorite Tom Hanks film.  Hanks’ second collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis tells the story of a Federal Express system engineer named Chuck Noland who is stranded on a desert island in the South Pacific.  I am naturally drawn to survival stories that show normal people who confront unexpected situations. The Edge, All Is Lost, Life of Pi, and The Martian have some similar themes that I also enjoy.

As always I will be discussing the third act of the film in detail so please consider this a spoiler alert.

Time is a key theme of the film.  Except for the opening shots in the Texas panhandle, the first act of the film is swift as Chuck rushes from a Fedex hub in Moscow (one of his first lines is “tick-tock, tick tock”) lecturing the employees on increasing productivity, to Red Square, then through Paris to Memphis for an all too short Christmas dinner, then back on a plane toward Malaysia.  Once the second act begins time suddenly loses all meaning and many of the scenes are longer.  As a reminder though Chuck has an old watch that his girlfriend Kelly (played by Helen Hunt)gives him which has stopped ticking but still carries her picture, giving Chuck something to survive for (and for the audience to be reminded of).   Chuck also keeps time by making marks on a rock.

The presentation of geography in the film is also interesting as it makes the world seem very small until Chuck is confined to one small place.  

Wisely the film takes its time introducing the audience to Chuck’s world before dropping him onto the island.  He is verbose and seems to have friendly relationships with a lot of people but only real intimacy with Kelly.  When his best friend, Stan, speaks of his wife’s illness, Chuck is silent, until he thinks of something practical, much later.

Cast Away relies on the actors’ presence and the situational scenes to convey the relationship between Chuck and Kelly rather than expository dialogue.  At the time the film was made Hanks was a huge star famous for playing everymen.   The audience already had a lot of affection for Hunt (who had starred in Mad About You-which I never saw much, but I really liked her Oscar winning role in As Good As It Gets).  It is easy to imagine their backstory.  Chuck and Kelly probably met at a party and she is divorced and unsure about making a long term commitment which on the surface is fine with him because of the travel demands of his job.  They live together but probably rent as opposed to own.  When they are together they cling closely in part because they are always making up for lost time and because they have no children (all their time together is only for each other).

Chuck seems to be longing for more.  He tries twice to reach Kelly on his Russia trip, both times unsuccessfully (foreshadowing their ultimate fate).  Chuck clearly does not want to go on this Malaysia trip but is probably nowhere near from taking another position that would keep him home more, in part because he is so good at what he does.  Kelly says that she is “terrified” when Chuck gives her the ring.  Would she have accepted?  Based on Kelly’s demeanor later in the film, probably, but something would have had to change or the relationship may not have survived.  

The plane crash scene is harrowing and uses the high sound of the engines and the inside perspective to isolate Chuck.  Pure luck seems to save Chuck as everyone else on the plane is killed.  He is believably disoriented during much of the aftermath of the crash though is able to activate the raft which then causes him to drift to the island.

The idea that a man is on an island for a long time could appear boring to the viewer but Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles constantly keep things moving as Chuck first adapts to his circumstances and then gradually learns to focus on survival once he realizes he is there to stay.  The Chuck is a problem solver by trade and the most intriguing parts of the film show him finding ways to make things easier for himself (a la getting water from a coconut).  The most frustrating part of this section of the film is when Chuck tries to take the raft toward a ship and is violently sent back by the surrounding tide.  Chuck is at the mercy of the tide, which ultimately sends him help later.

The longest single scene is probably the one in which Chuck learns to make fire and it feels the appropriate point that it is during this part where Chuck, a little worn down, starts talking to Wilson.  I think many people could see themselves doing the same.  From a narrative sense it helps the audience know a little of what Chuck is thinking but it also adds a character to the film.  One of the best elements about the later scenes on the island is that Chuck has gotten a bit weary of Wilson.

Interestingly, in the aforementioned All Is Lost, made years later, star Robert Redford is nearly silent throughout the film and the story is no less compelling, though that film only focuses on the character’s plight on his boat and shows nothing of his life before (spoiler alert) or depending on how the ending is interpreted, after.

The island, which would seem to be a tropical paradise based on a surface description, (South Pacific, warm climate, palm trees) is filmed in grey colors and appears uninviting.  It is messy, has a lot of rocks, is pretty small and is subject to intense tropical storms.  When the sun is out Chuck usually covers his head to suggest that even that is uncomfortable, although I suppose this is preferable to being stranded in the Artic.

After Chuck has been on the island for a few weeks of course there is a time cut that moves the action forward four years.  Chuck, formerly a little overweight and pale, is now gaunt and, tan, and with very long hair and beard.  He has become an expert fisherman but the lack of human contact has given him a deadened look.  Once Chuck finds the port a potty he is able to figure out how to turn it into the sail of a raft and the rest of the island scenes focus on Chuck preparing to leave, filling in that he seriously considered suicide about three years into his stay.

For all of Chuck’s preparations though nature still has challenges for him on the raft as he survives at least one violent storm, loses his sail and the nonstop exposure to the sun, along with his decreasing  food and water supply, make him very weak.  The most heartbreaking scene of course is when Wilson falls off the raft and Chuck has to make the difficult decision to stop going after him so he does not lose the raft.  Narratively this makes sense.  In the story Chuck is about to reenter society and it would be out of place for him to be talking to a volleyball in front of other people.  But in the film we do not know this and Chuck’s wails after losing Wilson are wrenching.

I think a big dramatic moment is missed when the film does not show Chuck’s first contact with humans but instead cuts to four weeks later after the ship spots him, and he is already reunited with Stan.

The reentry scenes are absorbing as Chuck returns both a different man and to a world that has moved on.  Formerly talkative he is now a little uncomfortable with people.  When he does speak he is deliberate and direct, though he seems to carefully pick his words beforehand.  Although Fedex gives Chuck the red carpet treatment Chuck is put off by all the fish in his suite and would probably be happier in his own home, but he does not have one yet.  He does not even have a wallet and is pulling money from an envelope.

Chuck’s reunion with Kelly, in her house, with her husband and daughter not onscreen but all around them in the surroundings, is understandably awkward.  They never ended their relationship but are no longer together (even though they still love each other) and part of Chuck’s reason for going to see her is to say goodbye.  

In the final scenes Chuck seems to be on his way to finding peace in his life having come to terms with his ordeal.  He ends the film at a literal crossroads (the same one from the opening shot), looking toward a woman whose box with angel wings had given him faith on the island when he most needed it.  Chuck may follow her, he may not but I think it is wise to the audience draw its own conclusions.  

There is some debate as to whether Kelly moving on is appropriate.   Let us take a look at the timeline.    Chuck flies west from Memphis on Christmas Eve night and is deep over the Pacific, south of the Cook Islands, which are west of the International Dateline, when the plane goes down, which also happens at night.  This means Chuck arrives on the island on Christmas Day 1995.  On the day Chuck leaves the island he writes on the rock that he was there was there for 1500 days, which would put the date as February 2, 2000.  

How long Chuck was on the raft?  Kelly says Chuck drifted 500 miles (how the world knows where his island was only a month after he was found is left for us to imagine-I would have loved to read the Time article that is on Kelly’s table or see some of the news coverage).  I do not know how long it would take someone to drift 500 miles on a raft (Chuck did row at least some of the distance).  But when Chuck leaves he is at least somewhat nourished and brings a lot of coconuts with him.  As the days go by the coconuts run out and Chuck fishes but gets progressively weaker.  By the time Chuck is found he seems near death.  He has no protection from the sun and has become too weak to fish or swim.  I would guess Chuck spends about a month on the raft which would put the date around early March 2000.

When Chuck he is rescued and the title card says four weeks go by before he arrives home so it is late March, early April when he gets home.  Kelly describes the final play of the Superbowl XXXIV between the Tennessee Titans and the St. Louis Rams which was played on January 30, 2000.

Kelly’s daughter is glimpsed briefly and looks to be a little over a year old.  If the girl turned one about the time Chuck left the island Kelly has been with her husband for probably at least two to two and a half years.  I would surmise that Kelly would have wanted to have kids fairly quickly after getting married perhaps due to her age (Helen Hunt was 37 at the time of the film’s release or may even have been pregnant when married, hurrying the process).  I think that means Kelly would have waited at year or more before starting to move on which seems reasonable given she had no indicator that Chuck was alive.  

When Kelly’s reserves go in the rain she tells Chuck some of what she went through.  Hunt does a wonderful job conveying all her mixed feelings (glad Chuck is alive, sad that she cannot be with him and angry with herself for not waiting).  The fact that Kelly now has a daughter makes it nearly impossible for her to leave with him since to leave would mean breaking up a family.  Also Chuck has changed so much that even if they were together the relationship would be completely redefined.

Though nearly the entire film is told from Chuck’s point of view (we never see any rescue efforts while he is on the island) three short beats are not.  When Chuck proposes to Kelly we find out at the same time that she does as he is walking away from the car and then comes back.  Near the end when Chuck starts to drive away Kelly is watching him drive out of her life again and cannot take it and runs after him.  Lastly, when Wilson falls off the raft we see it is from the Wilson's point of view (if Chuck had seen him earlier he could have stopped him).

I have a few behind the scenes thoughts I would like to add: 

Years ago I read a much darker draft of the script where as I recall the relationship between Kelly and Chuck is strained at the start of the story due to Chuck’s long absences. When Chuck is eventually rescued Kelly comes to see him in a hospital as he is recuperating and the feeling is somewhat inevitable that she would have moved on since they were close to breaking up anyway.  In that draft of the script the reunion is more of a peaceful closure to the relationship than anything else.  The scenes on the raft are more harrowing and state that he was on the raft for 42 days.

Robert Zemeckis’ characters usually have to work hard to accomplish their goals and face hard but Chuck really gets put through the ringer.  Perhaps only Denzel Washington in Flight suffers more.

During the filming of the island scenes there were actually 80-100 members of the crew nearby yet Hanks convinces the audience that he is utterly alone, especially in the later scenes.

This has been well documented but the way this film was shot is unique.  The first half of the film up to the time cut was filmed in early 1999.  The second half was filmed in the spring of 2000.  Between the two filming periods Hanks did not cut his hair or shave and lost about 50 pounds.  In order to maintain the same crew during the break Zemeckis made the supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer which was released in the summer of 2000.  Cast Away came out in December of that year.  I do believe the results show not only in Hanks’ look but in his performance, in which he had a year to develop his approach to the second half of the film.

To compare, The Martian, a Ridley Scott film starring Matt Damon as an astronaut who spends over a year stranded on Mars, was shot over a couple of months and a body double was used to represent Damon’s character’s weight loss in a scene in which he has appears without clothes near the end of his ordeal.  In most of the scenes near the end Damon is in a spacesuit so his appearance matters less.  I enjoyed The Martian plenty and am now interested in reading the book so my point is only to illustrate how atypical the approach the Cast Away filmmakers took.

In conclusion Cast Away is a powerful film and I enthusiastically list it among my favorites. *****