Forrest: Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes.

Forrest: (voice-over) Now, when I was a baby, Momma named me after the great Civil War hero, General Nathan Bedford Forrest... She said we was related to him in some way. And, what he did was, he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bedsheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something. They'd even put bedsheets on their horses and ride around. And anyway, that's how I got my name. Forrest Gump. Momma said that the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense.

Mrs. Gump: 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: Did you hear what I said, Forrest? You're the same as everybody else. You are no different.

Principal: Your boy's... different, Mrs. Gump. Now, his I.Q. is seventy-five.

Bus Driver: Are you comin' along?

Forrest: Momma said not to be taking rides from strangers.

Bus Driver: This is the bus to school.

Forrest: I'm Forrest Gump.

Bus Driver: I'm Dorothy Harris.

Forrest: Well, now we ain't strangers anymore.

Forrest: (voice-over) I, 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 sweetiest voice... in the wide world.

Girl: You can sit here if you want.

Forrest: (voice-over) I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. She was like an angel.

Jenny: What's wrong with your legs?

Forrest: Um, nothing at all, thank you. My legs are just fine and dandy.

Jenny: Then why do you have those shoes on?

Forrest: My momma said my back's crooked like a question mark. These are going to make me as straight as an arrow. They're my magic shoes.

Jenny: Are you stupid or something.

Forrest: Mommy says stupid is as stupid does.

Jenny: I'm Jenny.

Forrest: I'm Forrest. Forrest Gump.

Forrest: (voice-over) From that day on, we was always together. Jenny and me was like peas and carrots.

Football Coach: Who in the hell is that?

High School Coach: That there is Forrest Gump. Coach. Just a local idiot.

Football Coach: He must be the stupidest son-of-a-bitch alive. But he sure is fast!

Katzenbach: Governor Wallace, I take it from that, uh... statement that you are going to stand in that door, and that you are not going to carry out the orders of this court, and that you are going to resist us from doing so. I would ask you once again to responsibility step aside and if you do not, I'm going to assure you...

Forrest: Earl, what's going on?

Earl: Coons are tryin' to get into school.

Forrest: Coons? When racoons try to get on our back porch, Momma just chase 'em off with a broom.

Earl: Not racoons, you idiot, niggas. And they want to go to school with us.

Forrest: With us? They do?

Jenny: Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you're gonna be?

Forrest: Who I'm gonna be?

Jenny: Yeah.

Forrest: Aren't I going to be me?

Forrest: Hello, I'm Forrest... Forrest Gump.

Army Bus Driver: Nobody gives a bunk of shit who you are, fuzzball! You're not even a low-life scumsucking maggot! Get your faggoty ass on the bus. You're in the Army now!

Forrest: (voice-over) So Bubba was from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and his momma cooked shrimp. And her momma before her cooked shrimp. And her momma before her momma cooked shrimp, too. Bubba's family knew everything there was to know about the shrimpin' business.

Bubba: I know everything there is to know about the shrimpin' business.

Drill Sergeant: Gump! What's your sole purpose in this Army?

Forrest: To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant!

Drill Sergeant: Godamnit, Gump! You're a goddamned genius! That's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard. You must have a godamned I.Q. of a hundred and sixty! You are godamned gifted, Private Gump!

Forrest: Done, Drill Sergeant!

Drill Sergeant: Gump! Why did you put that weapon together so quickly, Gump?

Forrest: You told me to, Drill Seageant.

Drill Sergeant: Jesus Christ! This is a new company record. If it wouldn't be a waste of such a damn fine enlisted man, I'd recommended you for O.C.S., Private Gump. You are gonna be a General some day, Gump! Now, disassemble your weapon and continue!

Bubba: Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There, uh, shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole... shrimp gumbo, panfried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp... shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... that's, that's about it.

Jenny: You can't keep doing this, Forrest. You can't keep tryin' to rescue me all the time.

Forrest: They was tryin' to grab you.

Jenny: A lot of people try to grab me. Just -- you can't keep doing this all the time!

Forrest: I can't keep it. I love you.

Jenny: Forrest, you don't know what love is.

Jenny: You remember that time we prayed, Forrest? We prayed for God to turn me into a bird so I could fly far, far away?

Forrest: Yes, I do.

Jenny: You think I can fly off this bridge?

Forrest: What do you mean, Jenny?

Jenny: Nothing.

Jenny: Forrest, you stay away from me, okay? You just stay away from me, please.

Forrest: So bye-bye, Jenny. They sendin' me to Vietnam. It's this whole other country.

Jenny: Listen, you promise me something, okay? Just if you're ever in trouble, don't try to be brave, you just run, okay? Just run away.

Forrest: And just like that, she was gone.

Lt. Dan: What's wrong with your lips?

Bubba: I was born with big gums, sir.

Lt. Dan: Yeah, well, you better tuck that in. Gonna get that caught on a trip wire. Where you boys from in the world?

Bubba & Forrest: Alabama, sir!

Lt. Dan: You twins?

Forrest: No, we are not relations, sir.

Forrest: (voice-over) Now, I don't know much about anything, but I think some of American's best young men served in this war. There was Dallas, from Phoenix. Cleveland, he was Detroit. And Tex was, well, I don't remember where Tex come from.

Forrest: (voice-over) One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.

Forrest: (voice-over)I even wrote Jenny and told her all about it. I sent her letters. Not every day, but almost. I told her what I was doin' and asked her what she was doing, and I told her how I thought about her always. And how I was looking forward to getting a letter from her just as soon as she had the time I'd always let her know that I was okay. Then I'd sign each letter, "Love, Forrest Gump."

Forrest: Hey, Bubba...

Bubba: Hey, Forrest. Forrest, why'd this happen?

Forrest: You got shot.

Forrest: (voice-over) Then Bubba said something I won't even forget.

Bubba: I wanna go home.

Forrest: Bubba was my best good friend. And even I know that ain't something you can find just around the corner. Bubba was gonna be a shrimpin' boat captain, but instead he died right there by that river in Vietnam.

Man: It was a bullet, wasn't it?

Forrest: A bullet?

Man: That jumped up and bit you.

Forrest: Oh, yes sir. Bit me directly in the buttocks. They said it was a million-dollar wound, but the Army must keep that money, 'cause I still ain't seen a nickel of that million dollars. The only good thing about being wounded in the buttocks is the ice cream. They gave me all the ice cream I could eat.

Soldier: Now the secret to this game is, no matter what happens, never, never take your eye off the ball.

Forrest: (voice-over) For some reason, ping pong came very natural to me.

Soldier: See, any idiot can play.

Forrest: (voice-over) So I started playing it all the time.

Lt. Dan: Now, you listen to me. We all have a destiny. Nothing just happens, it's all part of a plan. I should have died out there with my men! But now, I'm nothing but a goddamned cripple! A legless freak. Look! Look! Look at me! Do you see that? Do you know what it's like not to be able to use your legs?

Forrest: Well... Yes, sir, I do.

Lt. Dan: Did you hear what I said? You cheated me. I had a destiny. I was supposed to die in the field! With honor! That was my destiny! And you cheated me out of it! You understand what I'm saying, Gump? This wasn't supposed to happen. Not to me. I had a destiny. I was Lieutenant Dan Tyler.

Forrest: Yo-You're still Lieutenant Dan.

Abbie Hoffman: We must declare to that fucking impostor in the White House -- Johnson. We ain't going to work on your farm no more! Yeah!

Forrest: (voice-over) There was this man, giving a little talk. And for some reason, he was wearing an American flag for a shirt...

Abbie Hoffman: Now, I'm going to bring up some soldiers that are going to talk about the war, man...

Forrest: (voice-over) ... and he liked to say the "F" word. A lot. "F" this and "F" that. And every time...

Abbie Hoffman: ... that war has come home, and we have to stop these politicians...

Forrest: (voice-over) ... he said "F" word, people, for some reason, well, they'd cheer.

Abbie Hoffman: ... these guys just told Lyndon Johnson where to stick this fucking war! Yeah!

Forrest: I want you to have this [Medal of Honor].

Jenny: Forrest, I can't keep this.

Forrest: I got it just by doing what you told me to do.

Jenny: Why're you so good to me?

Forrest: You're my girl.

Jenny: I'll always be your girl.

Forrest: (voice-over) And just like that, she was gone out of my life again.

Dick Cavett: Forrest Gump, John Lennon.

John Lennon: Welcome home.

Dick Cavett: You had quite a trip. Can you, uh, tell us, uh, what was China like?

Forrest: Well, in the land of China, people hardly got nothing at all.

John Lennon: No possessions?

Forrest: And in China, they never go to church.

John Lennon: No religion, too?

Dick Cavett: Oh. Hard to imagine.

John Lennon: Well, it's easy if you try, Dick.

Forrest: (voice-over) Some years later, that nice young man from England was on his way home to see his little boy and was signing some autographs. For no particular reason at all, somebody shot him.

Lt. Dan: They gave you the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Forrest: Now that's Lieutenant Dan. Lieutenant Dan!

Lt. Dan: They gave you the Congressional Medal of Honor!

Forrest: Yes sir, they sure did.

Lt. Dan: They gave you an imbecile, a moron who goes on television and makes a fool out himself in front of the whole damn country, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Forrest: Yes, sir.

Lt. Dan: Well, then, that's just perfect! Yeah, well I just got one thing to say to that. Goddamn bless America.

Lt. Dan: Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?

Forrest: I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir.

Lt. Dan: That's all these cripples, down at the V.A., that's all they ever talk about. Jesus this and Jesus that. Have I found Jesus? They even had a priest come and talk to me. He said God is listening, but I have to help myself. Now, if I accept Jesus into my heart, I'll get to walk beside him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Did you hear what I said? Walk beside him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, kiss my crippled ass. God is listening. What a crock of shit.

Lt. Dan: Now hear this! Private Gump here is gonna be a shrimp boat captain. Well, I tell you what, Gilligan, the day that you are a shrimp boat captain, I will come and be your first mate.

Forrest: Okay.

Lt. Dan: If you're ever a shrimp boat captain, that's the day I'm an astronaut.

Forrest: I only caught five.

Old Shrimper: A couple of more, you can have yourself a cocktail. Hey, you ever think about namin' this old boat?

Forrest: (voice-over) I'd never named a boat before, but there was only one I could think of... The most beautiful name in the whole wide world.

Forrest: Lieutenant Dan, what are you doing here?

Lt. Dan: Well, I thought I'd try out my sea legs.

Forrest: Well, you ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Dan.

Lt. Dan: Well, maybe you should just pray for shrimp.

Forrest: (voice-over) So I went to church every Sunday... Sometimes Lieutenant Dan came, too. Though I think he left the praying up to me.

Forrest: No shrimp.

Lt. Dan: Where the hell's this God of yours?

Forrest: (voice-over) It's funny Lieutenant Dan said that, 'cause right then, God showed up.

Lt. Dan: Forrest, I never thanked you for saving my life.

Forrest: (voice-over) He never actually said so, but I think he made his peace with God.

Forrest: What's the matter, Momma?

Mrs. Gump: I'm dyin', Forrest. Come on in, sit down over here.

Forrest: Why are you dyin', Momma?

Mrs. Gump: It's my time. It's just my time. Oh, now, don't you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life. It's something we're all destined to do. I didn't know it, but I was destined to be your momma. I did the best I could.

Forrest: You did good, Momma.

Mrs. Gump: Well, I happened to believe you make your own destiny. You have to do the best with what God gave you.

Forrest: What's my destiny, Momma?

Mrs. Gump: You're gonna have to figure that out for yourself. Life is a box of chocolates, Forrest. You never know what you're gonna get.

Forrest: (voice-over) Momma always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them.

Mrs. Gump: I will miss you, Forrest.

Forrest: (voice-over) She had got the cancer and died on a Tuesday. I bought her a new hat with little flowers on it.

Forrest: Now, because I had been a football star, and a war hero, and a national celebrity, and a shrimpin' boat captain, and a college graduate, the city of fathers of Greenbow, Alabama, decided to get together and offered me a fine job. So, I never went back to work for Lieutenant Dan. Though he did take care of my Bubba-Gump money. He got me invested in some kind of fruit company. And so then I got a call from him saying we don't have to worry about money no more. And I said, "That's good. One less thing."

Forrest: (voice-over) And 'cause I was godzillionaire and I liked doing it so much. I cut that grass for free. But at nighttime, when there was nothing to do and the house was all empty, I'd always think of Jenny.

Forrest: (voice-over) And then, she was there.

Jenny: Hello, Forrest.

Forrest: Hello, Jenny.

Forrest: (voice-over) Jenny came back and stayed with me. Maybe it was because she had nowhere else to go. Or maybe it was because she was so tired, because she went to bed and slept and slept like she hadn't slept in years. It was wonderful having her home.

Forrest: (voice-over) Sometimes I guess there just aren't enough rocks.

Forrest: Will you marry me? I'd make a good husband, Jenny.

Jenny: You would, Forrest.

Forrest: But you won't marry me.

Jenny: You don't want to marry me.

Forrest: Why don't you love me, Jenny? I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is.

Forrest: (voice-over) That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road, and when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason, I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured since I've gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went.

Newsman: Sir, why are you running?

1st Reporter: Why are you running?

2nd Reporter: Are you doing this for world peace?

3rd Reporter: Are you doing this for women's right?

Newsman: Or for the environment?

Reporter: Or for animals?

3rd Reporter: Or for nuclear arms?

Forrest: (voice-over) They just couldn't believe that somebody would do all that running for no particular reason.

2nd Reporter: Why are you doing this?

Forrest: I just felt like running.

Aging Hippie: Hey, man, hey, listen. I was wondering if you might help me, huh? Listen, I'm in the bumper sticker business and I've been trying to think up a good slogan. And since you have been such a big inspiration to the people around here, I thought you might be able to help me jump into... Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dogshit!

Forrest: It happens.

Aging Hippie: What, shit?

Forrest: Sometimes.

Forrest: (voice-over) Anyway, like I was saying, I had a lot of company. My Momma always said you got to put the past behind you before you can move on. And I think that's what my running was all about. I had run for three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours.

Forrest: You're a momma, Jenny.

Jenny: I'm a momma. His name is Forrest.

Forrest: Like me.

Jenny: I named him after his Daddy.

Forrest: He got a daddy named Forrest, too?

Jenny: Forrest, I'm sick.

Forrest: What, do you have a cough due to cold?

Jenny: I have some kind virus. And the doctors don't, they don't know what it is. And there isn't anything they can do about it.

Forrest: You could come home with me. Jenny, you and little Forrest could come stay at my house in Greenbow. I'll take care of you if you're sick.

Jenny: Would you marry me, Forrest?

Forrest: Okay.

Forrest: Lieutenant Dan? Lieutenant Dan!

Lt. Dan: Hello, Forrest.

Forrest: You got new legs. New legs!

Lt. Dan: Yeah, I got new legs.

Lt. Dan: Custom-made titanium alloy. It's what they use on the space shuttle.

Forrest: Magic legs.

Jenny: Hey, Forrest, were you scared in Vietnam?

Forrest: Yes. Well, I, I don't know. Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out. And then it was nice. It was like just before the sun goes to bed down on the bay... There was over a million sparkles on the water. Like that mountain lake. It was so clear, Jenny. It looks like there were two skies, one on top of the other. And then in the desert, when the sun comes up... I couldn't tell where heavens stopped and the earth began. It was so beautiful.

Jenny: I wish I could have been there with you.

Forrest: You were.

Forrest: (voice-over) You died on a Saturday morning. And I had you placed here under our tree. And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground. Momma always said dyin' was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn't Little Forrest, he's doing just fine. About to start school again soon. I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner very day. I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day. Teaching him how to play ping-pong. He's really good. We fish a lot. And every night, we read a book. He's so smart, Jenny. You'd be so proud of him. I am. He, uh, wrote a latter, and he says I can't read it. I'm not supposed to, so I'll just leave it here for you.

Forrest: Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny. If there's anything you need, I won't be far away.