I just watched Cast Away after I had recorded it. But the recording missed the last few minutes.
Chuck delivers a FedEx package to a house in the middle of nowhere. Leaving, he stops to check his map and a woman in a pickup stops to see if he needs help. As she pulls away, he notices the gold-wing logo on the back of her truck that matches the package and decorations at the house where he had just been. She pulls down the road, and…end of recording.
How does it end?
That’s the end. I think he takes another look around at his options at the crossroads. Roll credits.
Yep. You didn’t miss 5 minutes. You missed maybe 60 seconds.
Yeah. If it had been me, I’d have followed her back home and introduced myself. Especially after that look she gave him. At least, that’s how I interpreted it. 
The ending is one of the things I really love about this movie. He’s literally at a “crossroads” and it’s his choice what the next step is. So much that happened to Chuck Nolan up to that point was out of his control, now he’s in control of his life again.
I really wish they would have done a better job of the transition between getting rescued and meeting up with his ex-fiance. That part of the movie is really clunky to me. But it’s one of those movies that when it’s on, I watch. Tom Hanks is fabulous…I think better than Forrest Gump.
What everyone else said, plus…it’s the same gal at the very beginning of the movie, sending out a FedEx package and expecting one in return (which Hanks has just delivered, a few years late).
We watched Cast Away in the cinema here. That part when he was taking out his tooth, and he told his friend “Spalding” that the funny thing was his dentist back home was named Dr. …? What? Some other sports brand. I thought that was very funny, and when I laughed, I got weird looks from the Thais in the audience who didn’t get the joke.
The volleyball is a Wilson. I remember this one detail very well because my cousin (who was a grown woman when we saw the movie in the theatre) got angry that he left “Wilson” behind. She rants about it to this day, and refuses to watch the movie a second time because he didn’t rescue “Wilson.” :smack:
That’s it! The volleyball is Wilson, and his dentist back home is Dr. Spalding. Thanks! 
The African Explorer?
Hurray!
Hurray!
Hurray!
Wilson 
That’s all I can even say without getting needlessly choked up.
I recall there was a small movement afoot back then to nominate Wilson for Best Supporting Actor. Really. I’d’ve voted for him!
You should make her watch the movie again! At the end, when Chuck is driving to the house to deliver the Fedex package, for a brief moment when the camera scans to the passenger seat to show you the package, you see right next to it:
A BRAND NEW WILSON VOLLEBALL!!! Wilson is BACK, baby!
Thanks for the update everyone. I thought he should have jumped in his car and followed that truck. And if he didn’t I couldn’t imagine what he might do instead.
OK, I didn’t see if from the very beginning. Why did he open all those other packages, but not this one?
Please…he was a Captain!
Man, I’ve not seen this for eight years or so. But I remember it had something to do with the symbol on the package, the symbol of the lady’s company or home. It meant something to Tom Hanks, something rather sacred.
It’s not explained per se. It has something to do with the wings. He’s about to rip the box open, sees the wings, and stops. In my mind, he decided that delivering that package was going to be the thing that kept him alive. Dum spiro spero or something to that effect. Of course, his monologue later never mentions it, so who knows.
BTW, you know that Zemeckis has said that the box contained a waterproof, solar-powered, satellite phone,right?
Yeah. The same joke was used in a FedEx Super Bowl ad (already posted).
That’s what I get for not following links. Sorry.