What did Forrest Gump really say during his Vietnam War speech?
Forrest Gump has more memorable lines than a box of chocolates has truffles. The 1994 film somehow managed to be both incredibly profound and highly accessible. It captured the purity of the human spirit and did so while offering up scene upon scene of immensely quotable dialogue. Although, as it turns out, perhaps the most fascinating chunk of dialogue is the one we don’t hear. I’m, of course, talking about the scene in which Tom Hanks’ character finds himself giving a speech at an anti-Vietnam protest outside the Washington Monument.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump tells the story of a slow but affable man called Forrest. Thanks to his mother, he doesn’t grow up thinking he’s in any way disadvantaged and goes on to live an incredibly rich and varied life. He becomes a college football star, captains a shrimp boat, invests in a fledgling computer company called Apple and, notably, fights in the Vietnam War. Optimistic to the core, he proves an inspiration to those around him. Of course, the person the cares about most of all – his childhood sweetheart Jenny – is also the most unattainable.
After returning home from Vietnam, where he is charged with hunting “a man called Charlie”, Forrest, now a decorated veteran, finds himself pushed onstage at a peace rally and asked to talk about the war. “You mean the war in Vietnam?” he asks. “The war in Viet-fucking-NAM,” the MC (activist Abbie Hoffman) yells. Hesitantly, Gump approaches the microphone and starts to speak.
“There is only one thing I have to say about the War in Vietnam,” he begins, at which point a pro-war army officer tears the wiring out of the fuse box at the side of the stage. The only person who ends up hearing what Gump has to say is Hoffman, who embraces him, wiping away a tear with the line “you said it all, man.”
So what is it that Gump says in those few moments of radio silence? Well, according to one fan theory apparently supported by Tom Hanks, the full speech reads: “Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That’s all I have to say about that.” it’s worth noting that some of the extras who were actually present during that day’s shoot don’t remember anything so dramatic being said by Hanks.
Then again, it was the middle of winter, and people were freezing their socks off, so their minds may well have been elsewhere. You can revisit the full speech scene below.
