In the final scenes of “Forrest Gump,” we see the father and son waiting for a school bus to arrive. Forrest Jr. says that he intends to bring an old copy of Margaret and H.A. Rey’s “Curious George” to school for show-and-tell, as his grandmother used to read it to him. Forrest Sr. says that it remains his favorite book. Upon opening it, a feather — a central symbol of “Forrest Gump” — falls out. When the bus arrives, Forrest Sr. lets his son know that he loves him, and the boy moves to get on. The bus driver (Siobhan Fallon Hogan) looks askance at Forrest Jr., asking him if he knows what he’s doing getting on a bus. The child answers that he does indeed, laying out a few details. Satisfied, the bus driver lets him on.
Osment recalls that his scene was written by Zemeckis and by Hanks in a last-minute meeting between the three of them, at a point when the final scenes were quickly being workshopped. Evidently, he and Hanks were called into Zemeckis’ trailer where Osment said, “Tom wrote down my lines on a piece of yellow legal paper.” That impromptu script page made its way into Osment’s personal collection. “My parents kept it around, and I still have this little piece of film history,” he said. He posted a picture of the page in question to his Instagram account in 2014.
When asked if Hanks was as kind and as generous as his reputation dictates, Osment confirmed, saying that “He truly is.” Osment referred to Hanks as his “first great cinema dad.”
There were once talks about a “Forrest Gump 2,” which would have starred Hanks and, presumably, Osment, but those plans dried up in, literally, about 40 minutes.
