Movie Review: Cast Away
“Cast Away,” directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, is about Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems analyst who gets stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. The movie dives into themes of survival, the human spirit, and the relentless pursuit of goals, showing the stark contrast between Chuck’s life before and after the crash.
The Dual Missions: Work and Family
From the start, Chuck is driven by two main goals: his dedication to his job at FedEx and his desire to reunite with his fiancée, Kelly. These missions symbolize the core values of work and family in Chuck’s life.
Before the crash, Chuck’s life is all about working hard and spending time with Kelly. After being stranded on the island, these goals turn into two symbolic objects: a FedEx package with angel wings and a pocket watch with Kelly’s photo. Chuck’s determination to leave the island and return to civilization is clear in his drive to deliver the package and reunite with Kelly.
When Chuck finally escapes the deserted island, he meets his fiancée who has since married and had children, and also delivers the package. At this point, both of his goals are complete. The film uses a symbolic way to express this: the protagonist is now at a crossroads, needing to find his next goal and direction. I believe this crossroad scene is deliberately arranged, because at the beginning of the film, where the crossroads is also shown, the delivery person is not Chuck but another courier. Chuck’s life was well on track at that time, but not at the end.
Is Wilson that important?
Wilson, the volleyball companion Chuck creates, has become an iconic symbol of the film. While emotionally significant, Wilson’s role isn’t central to Chuck’s main goals. Wilson represents a way for Chuck to maintain his sanity and have some companionship in the face of utter loneliness.
In a sense, Wilson is bound to leave, because he is only related to life on the island and has no place in the normal world. The director arranged the separation of the two so sensationally, which actually diverted the audience’s attention and hid the temporary nature of the survival phase on the island.
The Hero’s Journey
I think Cast Away is a typical American inspirational movie because the protagonist never doubts his two goals. The only episode is that he tries to commit suicide on the island, not because he begins to question whether these two goals are meaningful, but because he feels that the goals may never be achieved.
Chuck’s positive attitude towards life was actually revealed before the plane crash: facing a colleague whose wife has cancer, Chuck and another female colleague have very different reactions. The female colleague just said she was sorry, while Chuck’s first reaction was that he knew a doctor who could save her life.
Under this premise, “Cast Away” follows Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” archetype, a common narrative structure in mythology stories and modern movies. Chuck’s ordinary world is upended by the crash, throwing him into an extraordinary ordeal. Despite initial reluctance, he embraces the challenge of survival, faces numerous trials, and ultimately overcomes them to return to the normal world transformed.
What’s even more interesting is that the film’s slogan already suggests it:
“At the edge of the world, his journey begins.”
Chuck’s inner transformation
“The Hero’s Journey” archetype is kind of old-fashioned, but each story has its own uniqueness. The real growth of a hero is often not external, but internal: his inner world has undergone a transformation. I think the plot that hints at Chuck’s change is when Chuck knocks out his teeth with an ice skate.
This seems a bit strange, but if you think about it carefully, you will appreciate the exquisiteness. Chuck is indeed always pursuing his two goals, but we have also overlooked an important factor: environment, or in other words, fate. It was fate that brought Chuck to the desert island, and Chuck must know how to pursue his goals in the changing fate and environment.
Before being stranded on the desert island, Chuck believed that “man can conquer nature”. When he encouraged couriers in Russia to seize time, he gave a speech that showed that people must control time tightly, but after being stranded on the desert island, he naturally felt his own powerlessness. Not to mention controlling time, even basic food and shelter could not be guaranteed. The plot of knocking out teeth with ice skates is particularly interesting: when he was a courier, he kept delaying the treatment of his teeth because he was focused on work. It was life on the island that taught him that sometimes he had to learn to compromise between nature and fate, temporarily put aside his goals, and focus on the life in front of him. Prioritizing the painful teeth at the moment is a wonderful metaphor.
Such attitude change is continuous: Chuck later faced Wilson drifting away on the sea, and after chasing him for a while, he did not force him and let Wilson drift away. After returning to the outside world, facing his fiancée who had married and had children, he did not force her, neither, but chose to leave.
“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.”
— Dag Hammarskjold
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