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Monday, July 29, 2019

That Thing That Someone's Probably Already Thought Of

SPOILERS for Cast Away

Today I was thinking about Cast Away, the movie in which Tom Hanks is stranded on a tropical island with a bunch of FedEx packages that he opens in the hopes of finding tools to help him survive. He opens all the packages but one, vowing to deliver that one package if he ever escapes. 

In the end, of course, he does indeed escape and deliver the package. The recipient thanks him and Tom Hanks goes off to to whatever happens next in his life in the world of the film. 

With dark amusement, I imagined an alternative ending: the recipient of the package, excited by its arrival, opens it up...and it's a satellite  phone. Tom Hanks goes "D'OH!" End of film. 

Yeah, I'm sure someone's thought of this already. 

2 comments:

Jeff Shyluk said...

Robert Zemeckis made the joke himself that the box had a waterproof satellite phone. There are deleted scenes that explain what was in the package and how it relates to the film. My wife was fascinated with the package and did the detective work to figure it out, but the results are best left on the cutting room floor.

If you need to know, here's an article in Cracked online which exposes this and several other important movie mysteries. It has some spoilers, but you may gain respect for film editors.

https://www.cracked.com/article_19138_7-hotly-debated-movie-questions-that-totally-have-answers.html

Earl J. Woods said...

I suppose I should have known that Zemeckis himself would have come up with the obvious joke! Ah well.