I saw Cast Away last weekend and was thought it was pretty good. However, I don’t understand why he didn’t open the last package–the one with the wings or whatever on it that he delivers back to Texas at the end of the movie. Obviously, I missed something. And why did that package “save his life?” Was it simply that the wings (or whatever) gave him the idea of needing some sort of sail to get over the breakwater? Silly, I know, but I had just finished seeing The Family Man (any discussion of which belongs in the Pit because it was so putrid) so this was about 3 1/2 hours into a very long afternoon…
On another note, did anyone else find the end of the movie (that is, everything after the point when he’s rescued) dissatisfying? It seemed to me that there were two key points to the movie–(1) his survival on the island, which was presented fairly well, although I think it would have been an extremely powerful scene to see his attempted suicide and (2) the aftermath of his return. I mean, he was presumed dead for 4 years yet his relationship with Kelly gets wrapped up in two short and rather sterile scenes. She’s what kept him going for the four years and to simply walk away because of the new life she has, in the face of her own ambivalence, was simply too neatly tied up for me. Your thoughts?
Just saw it last night, and I must confess the “angel wing” package confused me for the same reasons.
As for the ending, I felt the same way, but couldn’t think of any more satisfying way to wrap things up. Except maybe not having him start falling for someone else right away. But I think the wonderful island scenes carry the film regardless…
The package saved his life because the idea of deliving this package (along with his girlfriend) was what kept him going on the island. The idea that he was going to see that this package was delivered prevented him from giving up.
I, however, have another question: Why was a package going from Memphis TN (where the plane was taking off from) and going to Texas on a plane headed for the South Pacific??
When he was opening up the washed-ashore FedEx packages to find stuff in them, he didn’t open that one because the box was drawn on. Obviously, he thought, that this package was made with a lot of care, and wasn’t a typical FedEx package. Maybe it was the hope of that which kept him encouraged to escape?
What puzzled me is why he returned the package to the sender, not the receiver. If the addresses were still legible, shouldn’t he have delivered it as intended?
Was it because the sender was a cute redhead, recently single, and the receiver was probably an unattractive married man? Hmm…
zev: The package was being returned, not delivered, at the end. I forget what the artist said in the first scene as to where it was going, but I think it was somewhere far away from Texas.
Actually, the package that was picked up in the beginning of the film was delivered… you see the Fed-Ex guy walking to his truck with it (the camera is attached to the package) and then you see the door of the van close. It opens again in Moscow. An American wearing a cowboy hat signs for it.
I can only assume that this was a new package (since it must have been at least a week or so later - Tom Hanks was in Moscow when the first package was delivered) and it was going to somewhere in Southern Asia was it not?
As wooba said, the original package was delivered. I figured that this was a new package that was being delivered and the sender (maybe to be cute?) attached the place’s logo to the package.
In any event, even if the original package was being returned, the question still stands. If it was going (being returned) to Texas from Tennessee, why was it on the plane? Was it being routed through the Jakarta hub?
wow! I thought we were the only people who did double features at the theater. Actually, this time we went to extremes and made it a TRIPLE feature. We spent all day at the movies and saw Family Man, Cast Away, and Miss Congeniality. Strangely enough, Miss Congeniality was the only one with a satisfying ending. Cast Away was way too ambiguous, not to mention that I knew everything that was going to happen because the trailer revealed too much. Family Man just plain sucked. It would have been much better had they shown some kind of montage a la Notting Hill at the end, one that showed the family and the life that Nic and Tea finally ended up with. The coffee scene was just a copout.
Let me fill in a few details that wooba’s post is missing.
The sequence at the very, very beginning of the film explains a lot. There is a parcel exchange going on between the (welder/artist) wife in Texas and the cheating (cowboy hat) husband in Moscow. (Remember when the husband gets his wife’s parcel, there is a partly undressed Roosky floozy with him?; he sez “It’s from my wife…” when he gets it.)
This sets up the rationale of there being another winged package going from TX to Moscow – apparently the exchange of parcels from wife to hubby is a regular routine (remember the FedEx pick-up guy asks “What color [wings] this time?”) – and the reason for their split-up four years later (remember, his name had been sawed off the ranch gate at the end).
However, it still doesn’t explain why Tom Hanks didn’t open it on the island. For all he knew, there could have been something really useful in there like matches, a GPS system, etc, etc.
Assuming that the customs documentation said it was a metal sculpture, he could have put that to good use on the island…
I remember now that at the beginning, the artist tells the Fedex driver she’ll have another package for him in a couple of days. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who was confused.
“…it still doesn’t explain why Tom Hanks didn’t open it on the island”
Well, now this calls for some speculation. The way I figger it, ol’ Tom had two reasons for living: doing his job and loving Helen Hunt.
The HH aspect has little mystery, so I’ll move on to the job thing. It’s obvious from how long it took before Tom broke down and opened the packages how deeply ingrained his sense of responsibility to his FedEx responibilities were.
I think he kept the winged package unopened as a symbol to his connection to the civilized man he was before he got marooned. He opened all but one because of his survival needs; but, to him, to open all the parcels would have represented a total abandonment of his intergity, dignity – and maybe even his sanity.
And he was obviously deeply affected by the picture on it, for some reason. What it meant to him is open for speculation, but he drew it everywhere. My impression was that that was one reason he didn’t open it. It meant something more to him because of that picture.
I liked the ending. I don’t see how it was “neatly” wrapped up. If they wanted to do a trite ending, they would have had her waiting for him or else leaving her husband for him. I was cringing during the movie, anticipating one or the other. I think the way they did it helped demostrate just how the island had changed him. But anyway.
My question (and that of those I saw it with) is why did he have another volleyball in his truck at the end? We came up with two possibilities: either he missed Wilson and felt more comfortable with the ball around, or else he was going on a trip across the country to replace everything he found in the packages he opened. I think the second option makes more sense, but I didn’t see any ice skates or dresses in the car, just the volleyball. Thoughts?
Well, if he wanted to replace everything that he opened, he’d need the addresses and whatnot for the missing packages. Imagine looking at a package manifest for a planefull of packages and trying to figure out which one was a volleyball.
And, anyway, I think he missed Wilson. Hell, I didn’t like the movie and I missed Wilson…
