Heartwarming / Forrest Gump

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Heartwarming Moments in Forrest Gump.

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• Forrest's relationship with his mother is nothing but loving and supportive from beginning to end.
  Forrest: Momma always had a way of explaining things so that I could understand them.
  • "Don't ever let anybody tell you they're better than you, Forrest. If God intended everybody to be the same, he'd have given us all braces on our legs." Mrs Gump will not tolerate anyone making her son feel lesser than them nor will she let Forrest grow up feeling like he doesn't deserve respect.
• "You know it's funny what a young man recollects? 'Cause I don't remember bein' born. I don't recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. But I do remember the first time I heard the sweetest voice in the wide world."
  Young Jenny: You can sit here if ya want.
  • Seems like people who become important in Forrest's life have a tendency of offering him a seat.
    Bubba Blue: You can sit down... if you want to.
• Overlaps with awesome, but when young Forrest's leg braces shatter and he is able to really run for the first time, the look on his face is almost as if to say "Oh, HELL YES!!"
• In one of the most tender Puppy Love moments you'll see, young Jenny sneaks away to Forrest's house when the weather outside scares her and sleeps in an embrace next to him.
• During George Wallace's Stand at the Schoolhouse Door event, Forrest went to pick up and return a notebook dropped by Vivian Malone Jones, one of the black students going to register, completely unaware of the situation around him and what he did. To Forrest Gump, "racism" isn't even a word.
• When Forrest and Bubba first meet Lieutenant Dan he initially treats them with sarcasm and some banter, however when he realizes that both are kind of slow on the uptake with his choice of words, he drops his normal attitude and gives them the standard briefing in order to acclimate them properly into his unit. He isn’t treating them any differently either since he asks them to get some steak afterwards and goes back to his normal attitude.
• The reason Forrest took the actions that ended up getting him the Medal of Honor: He wasn't trying to be brave, he was just trying to find Bubba. Every time he came across another soldier wounded in the ambush, he'd pick him up and take him to safety, because Forrest is a decent person and it was the right thing to do.
• During Forrest's time in the hospital, he’s confronted by Lieutenant Dan who is utterly broken by the fact he didn't die with his men, and the fact he no longer has any legs. When Lieutenant Dan is at his most vulnerable and lowest, Forrest replies to him: You're still Lieutenant Dan. To Forrest, Lieutenant Dan's new handicap doesn't define him, and Forrest still sees him as the man worthy of his respect who led him into battle. Despite taking it really hard, Lieutenant Dan calms down, and while he’s still lost, he is at least willing to keep on living.
• Forrest and Jenny reunite at an anti-war rally at the Lincoln Memorial, with hundreds of hippies cheering. Sappy? Maybe. Adorable? Absolutely.
  • The reaction the row of hippies behind Forrest have when he spots Jenny. At least one of them is smiling when Forrest recognizes Jenny and runs to her.
• Forrest beating up Wesley because he hit Jenny, and even has the decency to apologize to the present Black Panthers for having started a fight.
• Lieutenant Dan defending Forrest (who, up until this point, he has only shown irritation with).
  Lieutenant Dan: DON'T YOU EVER CALL HIM STUPID!!!
  • Early before that while Lieutenant Dan was being bitter at being rescued he still had Forrest's back in 'Nam; after Forrest got shot, what does Dan do? He fires back at the shooter screaming and taunting them while Forrest drags him to the safe zone.
    • As well, as Forrest's direct commanding officer, he would have had to support Forrest's Medal of Honor application.
• There are too many examples to count but Lieutenant Dan finding peace is among the best. It's also when he finally moves to First-Name Basis with Forrest.
  Lieutenant Dan: Forrest, I never thanked you for saving my life.
  Forrest (voiceover): He never actually said so, but I think he made his peace with God.
  • Dan does jump overboard and it startles Forrest enough to jump up and check on him, only to find him contentedly swimming alongside the boat.
  • This is especially true when you consider that, earlier in the film, Lieutenant Dan was a Death Seeker who wanted to die heroically in battle, and he was furious with Forrest for saving his life.
  • And when Lt. Dan shows up at Forrest and Jenny's wedding, with "Magic Legs" and a (Vietnamese) wife of his own. This is also the only time we see Dan and Jenny interacting, and as they are the two most internally pained characters in the film, seeing them finally meet when they're both healthier and happier people feels very right.
  • Just the notion that Jenny said "It's nice to meet you, finally.", signifying that, for as much as Forrest has talked about Jenny, he has done the same for Lt. Dan.
  • Let's not gloss over the fact that Dan marries a Vietnamese woman. If that doesn't amply show he's gotten past his demons and let love hit his heart, nothing will.
  • Really, Lt. Dan’s arc in the film is also a big Reality Subtext for veterans, especially those who served in Vietnam. For context, most Vietnam War depictions in film prior to Forrest Gump typically had downer endings for the main characters serving in the US Army. Forrest Gump is one of the first films (and one of the few) to acknowledge the hardships & difficulties of the Veterans of the War, both during and in its aftermath, but also show that any soldier can still come to terms with their experiences and earn his happy ending. This was something that resonated very well with many Real Life Vietnam Veterans.
• Forrest tells his story to an old woman. He realizes she just missed her bus, and he tells her so. Her response?
  Old Woman: [crying, smiling] There'll be another one shortly.
  • The old woman is the fourth person Forrest spoke to. The first one, a younger woman, initially didn't appear too interested to listen and just let Forrest talk while she read. By the time her bus arrived, she was listening intently to his story.
• Forrest going to meet Bubba's family and visit his grave. Bubba's mother looks a bit skeptical that a white man would be visiting her family for any good intentions given the time period, but she can tell that Forrest is being genuine.
• Forrest's reason for going into the shrimping business even after Bubba was long dead: he made a promise and said he fully intended to keep any promise he made, even if it included telling a little white lie about not preferring his personal ping pong paddle to earn some sponsorship money to buy a boat with.
  • Similarly, earlier in the film, when Forrest tells Lt. Dan about his plan to buy a shrimping boat, Lt. Dan sarcastically tells him that if he becomes a shrimp boat captain, he will be Forrest's first mate. Later, when Forrest finally does buy a boat, Lt. Dan shows up, keeping his word despite not being serious when he originally said it.
• Forrest sending part of the profits from his shrimping business to Bubba's mother, ensuring that she and the rest of the family can live a better life. After a montage that showed generation after generation of the women in Bubba's family serving white people—not to mention that it's clear that the family is poor—the final Meaningful Echo is of a white woman serving Bubba's now elegantly dressed mother.
  • Even better when you realized that it was a promise he made to the, at that point, dead Bubba.
  • Another nice moment about seeing the now-wealthy Mrs. Blue is that, instead of becoming bitter or bragging (which she, as a descendant of a long line of slaves and servants, had every right to do), she's nothing but kind to her own white housekeeper and treats her with the respect that the women in the Blue family never received.
  • It's a small detail, but seeing Bubba's mother and siblings at Forrest and Jenny's wedding (they sit in the second and third rows on the left) showing that Forrest has kept in touch with Bubba's family.
    • It's also hinted given the scene with Forrest singing in the gospel choir at church, which is predominately black, that Forrest goes to church with Bubba's family.
    • Forrest also donating his profits to the local hospitals and churches, saying that he doesn't need all of that money since it was more than what he knew what to do with.
• "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is."
• When Forrest first sees his son, he asks Jenny if he's like him (showing Forrest has an awareness of his intellectual disability), the face he makes upon finding out he is exceptionally smart is both heartwarming and a Tear Jerker. What makes this worse is this is right before Jenny tells Forrest she's terminally ill.
  Forrest: He's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen but is he smart or is he... (places hand on chest)
  Jenny: He's very smart. He's one of the smartest in his class.
  • Jenny names her son with Forrest Forrest Jr.. She didn't want to marry him (at first), but she did love Forrest enough to name her son after him. Hell, just the fact that Forrest and Jenny even have a son, considering what each of them went through before they got to that point.
  • Notice that Forrest at first assumes that Junior isn't his, and shows nothing but support and happiness that Jenny had a child with someone else.
  • Up to this point, Forrest has only ever described one other person as being beautiful and having that kind of an impact on him: Jenny. Despite his mother and his plethora of close friends, he still only ever referred to Jenny as being beautiful to him. And now he's got someone else in his life that he can have that same love and admiration for. Awww!
• The drill sergeant in the movie is one of the few characters who not only doesn't look down at Forrest, but actually praises him for his efforts, albeit in a weirdly bombastic way, being genuinely impressed at Forrest's skills at rifle assembly and telling him he set a new record.
• Forrest tells Jenny about his experiences when she is on her death bed. He talks about the natural beauty in the places he went. The sunsets on the bayou, the starry nights in the rainforests of Vietnam, the clear mountain lake during his cross-country run, and the sunrise in the desert. He just breaks down crying when he gets to the end.
• When Forrest has Jenny's childhood home bulldozed. He may not have understood why she hated the place so much, or the abuse she suffered, but he knew she was unhappy there and wanted it gone—so he made it go away.
• Doubles as a Brick Joke: When Forrest tells the school bus driver Dorothy Harris that they aren't strangers any more, Dorothy gives him a big smile. 30 years later, she does the same with Forrest Jr. when he introduces himself. Note she went from smoking a cigarette to chewing gum.
• When the film starts, Forrest is wearing dirty, beat-up shoes that REALLY clash with his clean suit. Cue the part when Jenny returns to Forrest's house for a while and you see why: they were a gift from Jenny, and given how deeply he loved her, you can bet he wasn't going to get rid of them that easily.
• The ending of the movie, where Forrest sends his son off to school, having lived a very fulfilling and eventful life (which is by no means over), being a college graduate, a war veteran, a ping-pong champion, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, an extremely successful business owner, and philanthropist with a son who loves him.

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