A story of solitude, survival and endurance.

CASTAWAY

You must order the paragraphs to read the synopsis well.

A During a fierce storm, the plane is blown off-course

and ultimately crashes into the ocean. Noland is the only

survivor, and is washed ashore on a small island. Chuck

tries to escape from the island, but there are strong

waves so he is unable to leave, and injures himself in his

leg during the process. Chuck explores the island, and

soon recovers a number of FedEx packages that wash

ashore, as well as the body of one of the pilots. Chuck

gives him a proper burial, and then opens the packages.

He makes use of several of the items for other purposes -

he uses as an axe the sharp end of an ice skate, a veil on

a dress as fishing net....But one of the packages, with a

painting of golden angel wings on it, is left unopened.

While trying to make fire from rubbing wood together,

Chuck cuts his hand. In a fury, he grabs a Wilson

volleyball that was in one package, and throws it. He

fashions the bloody handprint left on the ball into a type

of face, and uses it as a companion in his isolation.

B After returning home, Chuck is saddened to find that Kelly is married. Eventually, he meets with her, and after a tedious chat, they finally admit how much they still love each other, but admit that they have to let the other go.

C 4 years pass on the island, and Chuck continues

to survive day to day. His weight has gone down

considerably, and his hair has grown out. He has

drawn a calendar on a rock in the cave to be able to

count the days, months, years.....One day, he comes

across 2 plastic walls of a broken port-a-potty.

Getting an idea, Chuck decides to build a raft with

the port-a-potty's walls acting as a sail. He chops

down a number of trees, ties them together with

video tape (from one of the packages), as well as

other materials. Biding his time for the proper

weather, Chuck also brings Wilson aboard along with

the angel-wings package, and due to the sails, is able

to make it past the waves, escaping the island.

Chuck sails for some time. During one event, Wilson

ends up floating away. When faced with either losing

Wilson or losing the raft, Chuck lets Wilson go, but is

pained by his decision. Finally, just when it seems all

hope is lost, Chuck is rescued by a cargo ship.

D Chuck Nolan (Tom Hanks) is a troubleshooter for Federal Express, and the film begins with him showing their Moscow (Russia) staff how FedEx does business. After returning to Memphis (FedEx home base) and visiting his girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt), he is again called away to an Asian destination. He is able to ride in the "jump seats" of a FedEx jumbo jet crossing the Pacific Ocean, and is the only passenger.

E Shortly thereafter, Chuck does learn to make fire, and soon is able to spear fish in the waters off the beach. In a small cave, Chuck sets up his new home. One evening, he works out the plane's direction, as well as how far it went off course when they crashed. He estimates that if the search and rescue team looked for the drowned cargo plane, they would search an area twice the size of Texas...making him doubt he'll be found.

F Chuck then sets out to start his life anew. Taking the angel wings FedEx package, he goes to Texas to return it. Finding nobody at the farm where it came from, he leaves it at the door. Driving down the road, he comes to a 4-way road, unsure where to go. A woman in a pick-up truck stops to give him directions, and as she pulls away, Chuck sees the same angel wings painted on the tail of the truck. Chuck watches her go, and the film ends with him deciding which way to go.

VOCABULARYIn the different paragraphs you will find synonyms for the following words. Can you find them?

PARAGRAPH A:-on the coast-funeral-catches-imagines-loneliness

PARAGRAPH C:-meets unexpectedly-waiting

PARAGRAPH B:-after some time-disagreeable

-PARAGRAPH D:-personnel-plane

PARAGRAPH E:-installs-understands-multiplied by two-not to be sure

PARAGRAPH F:-crossroads-feeling doubts

SOME TRIVIAInteresting but useless facts we

like to know about the making of the film

☺Some crew members were left on the island for a few days to survive and learn some skills. They used some of their survival techniques in the movie for the character of Chuck. They were: having trouble lighting a fire, opening a coconut, talking to a volleyball, collecting packages washed up on the beach and catching fish.

☺Most of the nighttime scenes on the island (except the creation of fire scene) were shot during the daytime. The darkness and night sky effects were added in post-production.☺To make himself look like an average

out of shape middle aged man Tom Hanks didn't exercise and allowed himself to grow pudgy. Production was then halted for a year so he could lose fifty pounds and grow out his hair for his time spent on the deserted island. During this hiatus, Robert Zemeckis used the same crew to film What Lies Beneath (2000).

☺ Some of the 'desert island' footage was shot on the mainland with a highway in the background that had to be removed.

☺Alan Silvestri wrote 24 minutes of score (including over seven minutes for the final credits) for a 143-minute film. Aside from the Russian chorus and the Elvis song from the beginning, there is not one single note of written musical score in the film until Noland leaves the island (1 hour and 43 minutes into the movie). Only then does the musical score come in: an oboe, piano and strings are all that Silvestri uses. Every musical cue is a variation on the same melody, which is heard in full at the end.

☺One of the three different volleyballs used in the film was sold in an auction for $18,400.

☺CHUCK NOLAND. “C no land”

☺The production employed several local Fiji islanders in the surrounding archipelago, including the neighboring Mana Island about a mile away. The locals were allowed to keep some of the supplies and tools as tokens of their help.

☺Tom Hanks caught a real infection on his knee while they were in Fiji. They had to cut down the shooting; he had to have surgery and was out of work for five weeks. If he had been a real castaway on the island, he would have died.

☺ To see the island where Cast Away was filmed on, write this link http://www.filmaps.com/films/castaway-ref-155/.The beach where Tom Hanks writes HELP on and sees from the peak is the eastern most part of Monuriki, Fiji

☺Tom Hanks caught a real infection on his knee while they were in Fiji. They had to cut down the shooting; he had to have surgery and was out of work for five weeks. If he had been a real castaway on the island, he would have died.

DO YOUR OWN SEARCHFind this information at home

☺Which nominations got this picture in 2001? Which ones did it win?

☺How many people worked as a crew?☺How many actors appear on this film?

GLOSSARY:

•Storm •Raft •Survival •Christmas •Tropical Island •Stranded •Cargo Plane •Hunger

•Tooth Extraction •Lost Love •Presumed Dead •Sailing •Rain •Suicidal Thoughts •Screaming In Pain •Self Dentistry •Whale •Product Placement •Mail Carrier

•Suicide Attempt •Burial •Barefoot •Seemingly Widowed •Isolation •Airplane Accident •Castaway •Spear Fishing •Coconut •Thirst •Tide•Imaginary Friend •Loneliness •Coral