Forrest Gump/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• Like everyone else, I always thought "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." was rather nonsensical because there are descriptions of them all on the box. Many years later it struck me: it might not be true for most people, but it was true for Forrest's mama, because she was illiterate. - Q4
  • And yet she read "Curious George" to Forrest in the beginning of the film.
  • There are, in fact, many boxes of chocolates that do not include a map or description. In my experience, there are more without the description than there are with.
  • Who reads what the box says anyway?
• Forrest is a simple minded fellow, but he is good at one thing: following orders. Jenny told him to run as a kid, and he ran so fast he broke right through his leg braces. She told him to run if he encountered danger at Vietnam, and again he outran the entire ambush. His drill sergeant told him to disassemble his weapon, and Forrest took it apart so fast he set a new company record. Why? "[Because] you told me to, Drill Sergeant?" How did Forrest get so good at ping-pong? Because the soldier who introduced it to him told him just to never take his eye off the ball. It's the reason why Forrest found the Army so easy, because he ever had to do was follow their orders. So while he may be handicapped in thinking for himself in life, give Forrest a command to do and he will do it to the highest of human potential.

Forrest: (telling Jenny about his Medal of Honor.) I got it just by doing what you told me to do.

• It took me years to realize that Mama was a prostitute. Forrest was obviously born out of wedlock and since it was the 1950s, and women were expected to be more conservative then. She has sex with the principal to get Forrest into school, Mr Gump is "on vacation" and Forrest mentions him and Mama got money from people passing by, so the house had to have been a brothel.

Fridge Horror

• Forrest Gump. Jenny is implied to have died from AIDS. Forrest Gump, Jr. is less than 10 years old. This means one of two things: Jenny gave Forrest AIDS or cheated on him (in the viewer's heart and mind anyway), contracting the disease. Ask yourself if you'll still cry at the end! You will, I will, the Earth will, that rock will, and the VHS/DVD you're watching it with will (destroying your VHS/DVD player) But that's beside the point.
  • As female-to-male transmission of HIV is actually somewhat less likely than male-to-female (for anatomical reasons meaning there's greater chances for tissue tearing in the female and let's leave it at that) it's possible Forrest simply dodged a bullet there. The implication is definitely that Jenny got her illness from her "wild" past. The Fridge Horror extension of that is... how about maternal-to-fetal trasnmission of HIV?
    • Given Forrest Jr.'s age, it's possible she got infected after her son's birth.
      • Even if she was infected before, it's still far from a sure thing that an HIV-positive mother will transmit the virus to the child, especially if the child is born before the symptoms indicating that the immune system is starting to give in appear. Now we just need to hope he wasn't breastfed.