Cast Away is a 2000 American survival drama film directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, and Nick Searcy.

Hanks plays a FedEx troubleshooter who is stranded on a desert island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific, and the plot focuses on his desperate attempts to survive and return home.

The two talk of getting married but keep experiencing setbacks due to Chuck being constantly called away to work, which also starts to put a strain on their relationship.

During a Christmas dinner, Chuck experiences pain due to an infected tooth, just before he is summoned to resolve a FedEx problem in Malaysia.

While attempting to start a fire, Chuck cuts his hand and furiously throws several objects including a Wilson volleyball, leaving a bloodstained handprint.

After a section from a portable toilet enclosure washes up, he begins constructing a raft, which he successfully launches past the surf with Wilson, the unopened FedEx package and his belongings in tow.

As he is given a hero's welcome at the FedEx Headquarters in Memphis, he meets his dentist Jerry Lovett, whom he discovers has married and had a daughter with Kelly.

In a 2017 Actor Roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Hanks stated[3] I made Cast Away because I wanted to examine the concept of four years of hopelessness, in which you have none of the requirements for living—food, water, shelter, fire and company.

After most of the film was shot, production was paused so he could lose the weight and grow his hair and beard to look like he had been living on the island for years.

It is a traditional Russian song written by Lev Knipper called "Oh, My Field" ("Polyushko, Polye") and it is available on various collections of Red Army hymns.

The official soundtrack CD is an anthology of musical pieces from all the films up to that point that were both directed by Zemeckis and scored by Silvestri.

[10] The Cast Away soundtrack consists of 10 tracks, with performers including Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Charles Brown.

[11] FedEx provided access to their facilities (Memphis, Los Angeles, and Moscow) as well as airplanes, trucks, uniforms, and logistical support.

While researching for the film, he consulted with professional survival experts, and then chose to deliberately strand himself for one week on an isolated beach in the Gulf of California, to force himself to search for water and food, and obtain his own shelter.

At the time of the film's release, Wilson launched its own joint promotion centered on its products "co-starring" with Tom Hanks.

[25] Upon opening, Cast Away reached the number one spot at the box office, beating another Helen Hunt film, What Women Want.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Flawed but fascinating, Cast Away offers an intelligent script, some of Robert Zemeckis' most mature directing, and a showcase performance from Tom Hanks.

In his review, he praised Hanks for doing "a superb job of carrying Cast Away all by himself for about two-thirds of its running time" by "never straining for effect, always persuasive even in this unlikely situation, winning our sympathy with his eyes and his body language when there's no one else on the screen."

However, he also mentioned how he felt that the film is "a strong and simple story surrounded by needless complications, and flawed by a last act that disappoints us and then ends on a note of forced whimsy.

[38] The DVD version of the film is a THX certified two-disc Special Edition release that features a DTS 6.1 ES audio track and several bonus features, including galleries, special effects vignettes, audio commentary, trailers, TV spots, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, featurettes and more.

A FedEx commercial during Super Bowl XXXVII parodied the final scene of the film, in which Chuck Noland returns a package to its sender.

"[43] Media executive Lloyd Braun of ABC first suggested the idea of a Cast Away–type television series at a dinner party in 2003.

"[45] On December 31, 2002, at Madison Square Garden, Phish played a clip from the film on the jumbotron to introduce their song "Wilson" during their concert.

[46][47] On April 15, 2022, at Progressive Field, Tom Hanks threw the ceremonial first pitch at the Cleveland Guardians home opener, accompanied by a replica of Wilson from the movie.