Double Escape:

An Analysis of Cast Away

by a former student

Using the restroom, eating three full-course meals daily, and having a roof over your head are common events. Imagine all taken from you. Would you be able to survive? Director Robert Zemeckis gives us a potent character struggling for survival. Chuck Noland, played by Tom Hanks, is a work-hound committed to the FedEx Company trying to expand a new branch. After an excruciating plane crash, his life is changed forever. With a whole new world in front of him, Chuck must rely on his love for Kelly, played by Helen Hunt, to survive. We are drawn into an extensive, grueling ordeal. Chuck not only has to keep his sanity -- he has to stay alive. This believable piece of work causes us to think about our own lives. Are we living the way we should? Are our relationships what they need to be?

If you think of what it means to being ‘cast away,’ you can consider different alternatives. A fisherman could cast his line into the depths of the ocean -- but he still holds on, so he has not 'cast away'. An emperor of early civilization could cast away a peasant into exile. Even a high school freshman could be cast away from the popular crowd, therefore meeting new friends elsewhere. But what about a man cast away from everything he has ever known? A man on a deserted island. In this classic scenario, you would think of the man as being cast away, but in this film, the life of the man is cast away.

The structure of this film is, as we shall see, a double escape. It is divided into three parts: Chuck’s life as a FedEx employee, the struggle to survive on the island, and the resolution with Chuck back in the United States. When the plane crashes, Chuck escapes his busy life. Although the crash is depicted as a horrible event, it enables the adventure to begin.

We meet Chuck delivering a FedEx package. FedEx plays a big role in this film. Not only is FedEx Noland’s employer, but it also comes to play in many different plot points throughout the film. His upbeat, stressful job always keeps Chuck busy as both a victim and enforcer of the busy lifestyle. He lives and dies by FedEx’s motto: The World on Time. "Time rules over us without mercy," says Chuck, "not caring if we’re healthy or ill, hungry or drunk, Russian, American, beings from Mars. It’s like a fire. It could either destroy us or keep us warm. That’s why every FedEx office has a clock. Because we live or die by the clock. We never turn our back on it. And we never, ever allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time. Locally, it’s 1:56. That means we’ve got three hours and four minutes before the end of the day’s package sort. That’s how long we have. That’s how much time we have before this pulsating, accursed, relentless taskmaster tries to put us out of business!"

He puts his job on top priority. Scheduled to spend Christmas with his girlfriend, his plans are altered by a single message. He leaves his girlfriend after exchanging gifts, saying, "I’ll be right back." I’ll be right back takes about four years. While traveling through a storm, Chuck’s plane crashes. Although this wreck frees Chuck of his fast-paced lifestyle, completely cast away from his job at FedEx, the filmmakers still find a way to incorporate his company. Packages wash up onto shore. When at first Chuck can’t bring himself to open any of them, we realize how dedicated he is to his profession.

How is Chuck Noland cast away? First of all, he is on a deserted island. He has to find food, water, and shelter solely to survive. He is away from his girlfriend and everything he knows as normal. This middle class manager transforms into a lean marksmen. The director does a good job of embedding the message of being cast away. Although controversial, the decision to have no dialogue for over half the movie reiterates the loneliness and turmoil felt by the character. Could you imagine having no one to talk to for over four years? I know I would probably go insane. The film acknowledges the limitations of having no companionship. We need some sort of social acceptance. This is why the ever-so-popular Wilson is introduced. While struggling to make a fire, Chuck cuts his hand. In frustration he grabs the closest thing to him, which happens to be a brand-new volleyball he had opened earlier, and he throws it against a rock. He realizes he has left his mark: a hand-print of blood easily made into a face. Meet Chuck’s new and only friend, Wilson.

We realize that, although his life is passing him by, Chuck still has everything to gain. Beginning the struggle as a hard-nosed, time-craving businessman, Chuck changes his outlook. Through years of solidarity, he becomes calm. Although a grown man, fending for himself for four years matures him quickly. His whole mindset must change. He has no restaurant waiting for him around the palm tree; he must catch his own food. He must hold onto the things most precious to his memories of normalcy just to get through each day.

What makes this film so good and enjoyable to watch is the unfamiliar use of consumer goods. Our own consumer favorites turn into important keys for survival. Chuck uses ices skates for knives, recording tape becomes rope, and a dress becomes a sturdy fishing net. In our own lives, these goods are purchased not because they are useful, but because of the fantasies advertised by our culture. The desert island does the job of stripping away all those layers of fantasy.

The dedication Chuck shows to get himself back to civilization also has an impact -- his never-give-up approach in spite of failing time and time again. Constructing rafts, learning to fish, and keeping healthy show his ability to be saved. Chuck keeps on going. He must give everything he has to be able to become what he once was -- an average man again. His unrelenting prowess earns him the raft that eventually releases him from the island.

We witness the hardships Chuck faces once he comes back to the place he has been longing to be for four years. Everything he left has changed: his girlfriend has married another man; his company is run completely differently than before. He comes back to nothing. His return has become his new island. Even so, the film prepares for a possible 'happy ending.' As Chuck delivers a final package, a woman flirts with him, foreshadowing a future past the ending of the film. He is left at a crossroads. This is the double escape, first from the island, then from his limitations. Now Chuck can decide where he wants to venture, not confined to one place, not caught by time, not living a life cast in concrete.