Castaway - Fiction OR A True Story

Cast Away - Fiction or Story

Meaning of Castway - A person who is cast adrift or ashore, left wandering after a Shipwreck are known as CASTAWAY. Some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island either to evade their captors or the world in search of divine peace. Alternatively a person or item can be cast away, meaning rejected or discarded. In ancient times if a person was left ashore as punishment, usually the term "maroon" was used. For eg Andaman & Nicobar Islands of India. There are many such examples across globe.

I have not enough proof whether there is an exact match to this story of Castaway movie of Tom Hanks. But I am pretty sure and have even read stories of such persons who were Castaway, and then returned home, only to find that things are not like past, those old memories which enthused them to stay alive back there, are not a reality anymore, everything has changed, no one really remembers them, even their own relatives, family members, kids.

Many Such people fail to take this bitter truth and start living a self-abandoned life, to the extent that they start missing the days when they were alone at such Islands. Maybe because they had experienced Love of God, living amidst pure nature, all alone, things we can't experience in our chaotic life.

The Film - Cast Away

Castaway is an American Film produced in Year 2000 starring actor Tom Hank, showcasing amazing skills as an actor, and a smart directing job from Zemeckis. This story is about a FedEx executive who alter himself physically and emotionally to survive a cargo plane crash in South Pacific and subsequently stranded on a uninhabited island as a lone survivor.

Chuck Noland (Fedex System Analyst)

A time obsessed FedEx systems engineer Chuck Noland is shredded out of his rapid paced life in a plane crash while his way to Malaysia to fix a problem, he finds himself stranded on the shores of a tropical island. At first, he gets frustrated and later he comprehended to the bitter truth that how little his probability of ever getting back to civilization is.

Astoundingly He survived four long years. And now he has learned to mend his dental problems, catch fish with a spear, predicting the weather with a self-made calendar and most importantly he invented FIRE. A photograph of his girlfriend Kelly and a volleyball named "Wilson" enthused him all these years to stay alive. Wilson was found in one of the fedex boxes which were in the Plane and were washed ashore after the crash. Noland (Tom Hanks) found few more useful stuff in remaining boxes which helped him survive initially. But he leaves one package unopened which still had sender's address, a pair of Wings & Fedex tagline " The World On Time" intact on it, in hope that he will deliver this one day for sure.

And after many failed attemt to get out of the island, committing suicide, he found one day a large plastic section, a porta-loo door from a wrecked ship taken to island by strong tidal winds, and decided to use it as a sail and constructed a raft to sail out. He waited for the right tidal winds and high tides to launch his raft and was successful. After very tough days & rough weather in the vast Ocean, he was picked by a cargo ship after a storm almost ripped his raft apart. He lost his friend WILSON in the voyage which filled him with huge grief.

And then he arrived at Memphis, only to find that his friends & relatives even held a funeral by putting his personal belongings in the coffin, as they could not find his body. Kelly, who is married and has a daughter, fainted over phone when she was being told that Noland has returned alive after 4 years. Poor Kelly! She really loved him, but it was too late. She gifted him the keys of the Car they once shared and they parted once again. You will have tears rolling here, no matter how strong you are.

He was hero to his country and to Fedex, but he was once again abandoned, lonely more than he was at the island. But he was Hero and he proved it by actually delivering the parcel he kept all these years, to its sender. But when he went to deliver, there was no one at there, so he left the parcel with a note on it "This package saved my life. Thank you, Chuck Noland." He then departs and stops at a remote crossroads, confused where to go. He asked a woman driving a pickup truck to know where each road leads. As she drives away, Noland notices the same illustration of Wings on the back of her vehicle as it was on the delivered parcel, revealing that she is the owner of the package. He looks at each road, but then he smiles as he looks at that departing woman.

A new Wilson volleyball sitting in the front seat of his Car seems to be smiling broad..

The Movie ended on CROSSROADS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stranded on the Island, Chuck Noland was going mad, he neither had water to drink nor food to eat. He got sick and tired of eating coconut as food and drinking it's water all the time. He decided to lit fire to cook something for himself, without any fuel, matchbox or lighter he attempts to make fire with a wood stick by churning it, but without success even after hours of churning, instead he receives a deep wound to his hand by the sharp end of the stick. Frustated, In anger he throws several objects, including a Wilson volleyball from one of the packages of Fedex which he found on shore. The stain of blood from the wound left the impression of his palm on the volleyball, the stain faintly looked like a face of a mayan god. He gave the finishing touch to the face and He named it Wilson and begins talking to it.

He then again tried lighting up the fire but with a new technique, and he placed WIlson on a rock near him, like some worshipped God. And Wilson God actually blessed him, and that night both of them had Gala time with lobster barbecue.

The acting was so intense by Tom Hanks that you actually start believing that Wilson is a living being. They fought, sang, & cried together in the movie. When Wilson was drowned in the voyage back to home, you yourself will feel nostalgic about the whole thing. I had my eyes wet to see Wilson drowning in front of his eyes, but Noland did not have that much strength in his body to leave the raft and swim that far to get hold of Wilson. He helplessly cried by taking Wilson's name again and again.

This whole thing made me believe one thing for sure, that we create affections in our life, so much that we can't tolerate that immense pain of separation. In this particular incidence, for us it was only a volleyball, but to him it was his life afriend , companion, partner. But then, in real it was only a volleyball.

Similarly we cry when we loose our loved ones to God, for us they were everything to us, but for God they were Wilson too.

If you remember the story ends with a new Wilson volleyball sitting in the front seat next to him. Life Goes On !!!