Plot

In 1981, at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia, a man named Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) recounts his life story to strangers who sit next to him on a bench. Forrest offers them chocolates from a box and says that his mother used to say, "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get".

In 1951, in Greenbow, Alabama, young Forrest is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine and is unable to walk properly, even though he had very strong legs. Forrest Gump was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest's mother named him after this ancestor, possibly to remind him that "sometimes we all do things that just don't make no sense". Forrest's mother instills a sense of pride in him and is adamant not to let anyone tell Forrest that they are better than him.

He lives alone with his mother (Sally Field), who runs a boarding house out of their home (which was a large estate that had been in their family for several generations) that attracts many tenants, including a young Elvis Presley (Peter Dobson), who plays the guitar for Forrest and incorporates Forrest's jerky dance movements into his performances. On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran (Robin Wright) on the bus. Jenny offered her a seat when nobody else would, and the two become best friends. They were together all the time. Jenny helped Forrest and taught him how to read.

Forrest is often bullied because of his physical disability and low intelligence. At an early age he is deemed to have a below-average IQ of 75. Forrest is denied admission in the normal school and his mother sleeps with the school principal (Sam Anderson) to make sure he is not sent to the gifted school.

Jenny encourages Forrest to run when he encounters bullies in the field. While fleeing from several bullies, his leg braces break off, revealing Forrest to be a very fast runner. Jenny's mother passed away when she was 5. It is implied that Jenny is being sexually assaulted as a kid by her father. She is eventually removed from his custody and given to her grandmother.

Forrest's talent in running fast eventually allows him to receive a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1963, where he is coached by Bear Bryant (Sonny Shroyer). He witnesses Governor George Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door (when he was protesting the Federal order to allow African American kids at the university). At the same protest, Forrest returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones (one of the first African American students to be allowed into the University).

Forrest becomes a top kick returner, is named on the All-American team, and meets President John F. Kennedy at the White House. Jenny studies at a girls' only college and Forrest unknowingly interferes with her life when he beats up her lovers who try to take advantage of her. Jenny tells Forrest that he would not be around always to protect her. Jenny takes Forrest to her room and gets him to touch her breasts, due to which he ejaculates prematurely.

After graduating college in 1967, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army. During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier nicknamed "Bubba" (Mykelti Williamson), who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service. Bubba family had been catching and serving shrimp for several generations and knew everything about the business. Jenny is expelled from college after her topless photos make it to playboy. Because of the spread, she gets a job singing topless in a Memphis bar. Forrest goes to meet her and tells her that he loves her. Jenny says that Forrest doesn't know what love is and tells Forrest to stay away from her.

In 1968, Bubba and Forrest are sent to Vietnam, serving with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region. After months of routine operations, Forrest learns the value of good personal hygiene and to change socks every chance they get. Forrest got to see a lot of the countryside on his patrols, and he was confused that they were always looking for this guy named Charlie. There was always someplace to go and Forrest was asked to check out a lot of fox holes used by the enemy to hide.

It rained a lot for 4 straight months. Forrest saw every kind of rain there is, stinging rain, big old fat rain, rain that came from the side and even rain that seemed to come from the ground up. Forrest wrote a lot of letters to Jenny, but she never replied. Their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and Bubba is killed in action. Forrest saves several wounded platoon mates-including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise). Forrest carries the wounded men from the battle zone on his back and to safety. Dan resisted but Forrest carried him away regardless.

Dan is Forrest and Bubba Blue's platoon leader during the Vietnam War, whose ancestors have died in every U.S. war and who regards it as his destiny to do the same. Dan loses both his legs-and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

During the rescues, Gump was hit in the buttocks by a bullet that jumped up. He was sent back stateside for R&R. He gets to eat a lot of ice cream. Lt Dan is recovering right next to Gump but hates him for saving his life. While at the hospital, Gump is introduced to ping pong.

At the anti-war "March on the Pentagon" rally, Forrest meets a man who "had an American flag for a shirt" and briefly reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie lifestyle. Gump hits men who mistreat Jenny. He gives her his medal of honor, as he got it for doing what she told her to do. He also develops a talent for ping-pong and becomes a sports celebrity as he competes against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy, earning him an interview alongside John Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show.

Forrest spends the holidays and the 1972 new year in New York City with Lieutenant Dan, who has become bitter due to the loss of his legs. Forrest soon meets President Richard Nixon (as part of the US ping pong team) and is put up in the Watergate complex, where he accidentally witnesses and reports some men with flashlights in the building across the street that's keeping him awake (alluding to the Watergate scandal). Forrest is eventually discharged from the army.

Returning to Greenbow, Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles (for $25K). He uses the earnings to buy a shrimping boat in Bayou La Batre, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Lieutenant Dan joins Forrest in 1974, and they initially have little success. After their boat becomes the only one to survive Hurricane Carmen, they pull in huge amounts of shrimp and create the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, after which Lieutenant Dan finally thanks Forrest for saving his life. Lieutenant Dan invests into what Forrest thinks is "some kind of fruit company" (Apple) and the two become millionaires, but Forrest also gives half of the earnings to Bubba's family. Forrest then returns home to see his mother as she dies of cancer.

In 1976, Jenny-in the middle of recovering from years of drugs and abuse-returns to visit Forrest, and after a while he proposes to her. That night she tells Forrest she loves him and the two make love, but she leaves the next morning. Heartbroken, Forrest goes running and spends the next three years in a relentless cross-country marathon, becoming famous again. He eventually decides that he's grown tired of running (metaphorically and physically) and returns home to Greenbow.

Back in 1981, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny, who asked him to visit her. As Forrest is finally reunited with Jenny, she introduces him to their son, named Forrest Gump, Jr. Jenny tells Forrest she is sick with an unknown disease implied to be Hepatitis C and the three move back to Greenbow. Jenny and Forrest finally marry, but she dies a year later. The film ends with Forrest seeing his son off on his first day of school.