PLOT

In 1951, in Greenbow, Alabama, young Forrest is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine, and is unable to walk properly. He lives alone with his mother, who runs a boarding house out of their home that attracts many tenants, including a young Elvis Presley, 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, and the two become best friends.

Forrest is often bullied because of his physical disability and marginal intelligence. While fleeing from several bullies, his leg braces break off, revealing Forrest to be a very fast runner. This talent eventually allows him to receive a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1963, where he is coached by Bear Bryant; he witnesses Governor George Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door at which he returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones,[6] becomes a top kick returner, is named on the All-American team, and meets President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

After graduating college in 1967, Forrest enlists into the U.S. Army. During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier nicknamed "Bubba", who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service. In 1968, they are sent to Vietnam, serving with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region. After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and Bubba is killed in action. Forrest saves several wounded platoon-mates—including his lieutenant, Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs—and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

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. 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. He spends the holidays and the 1972 new year in New York City with Lieutenant Dan, who has become embittered due to disability. Forrest soon meets President Richard Nixon and is put up in the Watergate complex, where he accidentally witnesses and reports some men with flashlights in the building keeping him awake. Forrest is eventually discharged from the army.

Returning to Greenbow, Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles. 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” 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 midst 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 HIV/AIDS,[7] 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.