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Little Forrest gets leg braces and diagnosed with a low IQ of 75. He heads off for his first years of elementary school but, back then, admittance to a regular elementary school was based on an IQ score of at least 80.
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While Elvis Presley stayed at the Gump house and practiced his guitar, Forrest did some wacky hip dancing. Forrest's unique movements inspired the signature dance moves of Presley's 1956 song Hound Dog. This dancing was very controversial and even considered pornographic.
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Forrest meets his best friend Jenny on his first bus ride to school. Things seem quite well until we come across Jenny's father and find out why she never wants to go home. Southern U.S. culture and World War II got a lot of parents into bad conditions and practices, resulting in widespread child abuse which Jenny unfortunately fell victim to.
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After breaking his leg braces running from bullies, he got a full ride scholarship to the University of Alabama for football. After breaking records, he made it to the All American Football team and met JFK. For neither the first or the last, he makes a fool of himself on TV by saying "I have to pee".
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George Wallace, the Democratic Governor of Alabama, stood in front of the schoolhouse door of the Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop/postpone it's desegregation. Forrest wanted to know what was going on and, when he found out, he picked up a book a black female now entering the school to be a student.
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Still a mystery today.
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Forrest Gump enters the Army fresh out of college not realizing that what he is about to participate in is the one thing Americans at the time despised the most: the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was so controversial because millions were dying on both sides for an unknown cause. Vietnam was where Forrest met Lieutenant Dan and his new best friend Bubba that died in his arms.
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JFK's younger brother, Robert F Kennedy was assassinated. He was also shot.
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Jenny told him to not be brave and just run. But, when his platoon started getting bombed, he ran back into the jungle and saved everyone he could until he found Bubba. Nixon heard that Forrest was wounded "in the buttocks" and said "I'd kinda like to see that" do Forrest pulled down his pants.
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Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step foot on the moon. Beating Russia to this task accomplished the American goal of shoeing that capitalism and democracy are better systems than communism and totalitarianism. Michael Collins was also on Apollo 11.
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Forrest discovers the game of ping pong while in treatment for his wound in Vietnam. He picks it up fast and plays so well, he got sent to China to play ping pong for the All American Ping Pong team.
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Once Forrest gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, he gets thrown into a hippie protest and thrown onto stage to speak about the war as a Vietnam Veteran. His little speech got cut off by an army official but the hippies played a big role in bringing home soldiers. He met Jenny, they went for a long walk, she got him into a Black Panther meeting and then ran away again.
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Forrest Gump sparked the Watergate Scandal when he caught some guys with flashlights keeping him up at the hotel. This led to Nixon's resignation in 1974 and Ford's presidency. Around this time, there was a great deal of distrust in the government.
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Forrest and Dan get caught in Hurricane Carmen and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co takes off and blooms in business as they are the only shrimp boat to catch all of the shrimp
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Lieutenant Dan invests Forrest's money in Apple. Even though Forrest thought it was a fruit company, he didn't have to worry about money anymore. This scene was included to show the changing times of the 70s, where the soon-to-be popular Apple Macintosh was made. This symbolized a new technological era.
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Forrest started running...and then ran across the country twice. He demonstrated how taking a simple run can change things. He made history on his run by inspiring the "shit happens" and the smiley face sign. His run initiated the jogging craze of 1978-1979. People started running for awareness and publicity of charities and events.
