It just so happened that, later that same week, Fox was holding a critics’ screening of "Cast Away" at the Siskel and Ebert Theatre in downtown Chicago. Rather than explaining the plot over the phone, Fox invited Wallace, Davenport, and Kuehne to attend the screening. When the Matt Damon film The Martian came out, critics immediately compared it to Cast Away and wrote “ The Martian is Cast Away in space,” especially because both films featured men marooned, alone, and trying to survive, and both movies were distributed by Fox. The difference is Matt Damon’s Mark Watney had the ability to communicate with people. In a USA Today profile, Damon disagreed with the comparisons. “It’s not Cast Away in the sense that it’s actually a guy who is behaving with the expectation that people are watching him. He’s on video all the time on these GoPros. Nobody’s seeing the video feed live, but he’s behaving as if someday someone might.” 13. Cast Away was depicted in an unauthorized parody film.

In my opinion Wilson in Cast Away is THE best product placement ever. Even if it happened coincidentally, if was perfect. Hanks’ and Wilson’s relationship was genuine and as a viewer I perceived Wilson as a character, not some branded product.While the exact story of Cast Away is not thought to be a true story, there are several real-life accounts of people who spent time on uninhabited lands that may have provided inspiration. Did Wilson pay Cast Away? Find CinemaScore" (Type "Cast Away" in the search box). CinemaScore. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018 . Retrieved July 25, 2020. Wilson the Volleyball’s public appearances didn’t end at the red carpet. A year or so after "Cast Away" was released, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was racing at Darlington and complained to his crew chief that he was having car problems. “Y’all just make me feel like Tom Hanks out here, all alone,” Earnhardt reportedly said over the radio. “I should just get a volleyball to keep me company.”

After receiving the photo, the team didn’t hear from Fox Studios again until the film was set to begin industry screenings in LA. And assoon as the screenings began, calls started rolling in.

Was Wilson The Volleyball Real?

I don’t know where that story came from, but about 10 or 12 years ago, people started to call me a few times a year to ask me about this ball,” May says. “Every time I give a speech or something, someone in the audience asks me about this, and a few years ago, when I was living in Dallas, a local radio station called me because Tom Hanks was in town and they wanted me to bring Wilson down for a reunion. It’s hilarious, really — I’ve been the CEO of four major companies and nobody ever remembers that, they just want to know about that dang ball.” From a sheer exposure standpoint, nothing we’ve ever done can match ‘Cast Away.’” - Chris Considine

Hanks recalled how before he left the production in Fiji, he received a cut and it got infected. Turns out he had a staph infection in his leg and it almost gave him blood poisoning. VanHooker, Brian (April 17, 2020). "What Would Have Happened to Wilson After". Archived from the original on May 1, 2021 . Retrieved April 29, 2021. Nate Smith (January 7, 2001). " Cast Away proves great films still exist". Daily Gazette. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011 . Retrieved November 26, 2008. Tom Hanks famously named the volleyball he befriends in the 2000 film Cast Away “Wilson”. In the film, Hanks plays a FedEx executive stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. Wilson, the volleyball, serves as his only companion for many years on the island until he is eventually rescued. The name is a reference to Wilson Sporting Goods, the manufacturer of the volleyball. Tom Hanks and Wilson became an iconic duo and a powerful symbol of resilience and friendship. The film features Hanks as a FedEx systems analyst who washes up on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes. As he struggles to survive alone on the island, he begins to use a Wilson Sporting Goods volleyball as his confidant, drawing a smiley face into his own bloody handprint on the ball.Why no matches in the FedEx box?: FedEx parody commercial makes deliberate decision not to help provide fire to its own castaway". CNN. January 27, 2003. Archived from the original on July 28, 2012 . Retrieved March 4, 2012. That is, if he’s still floating — as Moore explained, eventually, Wilson would sink, though how long that would take has so many variables that it’s basically impossible to determine. “While he’s out there, Wilson would be subject to photodegradation, which means he would be broken down by exposure to the sun,” explains marine biologist Maddie Kaufman, who is the outreach director of Debris Free Oceans , an organization dedicated to cleaning garbage — like volleyballs — from our oceans. Cast Away' sails to top of box office". Daily Press. December 25, 2000. p.2. Archived from the original on August 31, 2022 . Retrieved August 31, 2022– via Newspapers.com. The rest of Wilson is just different kinds of plastic, and as he photodegrades, flakes of plastic will fall from him. Kaufman explains that those flakes are indistinguishable from food by many fish, so it might get eaten by something tiny, like an anchovy , which then gets eaten by a bluefin tuna , which then gets eaten by a shark. At every stage of the food chain, some plastic would be pooped out, and some would remain in the animal forever, this is why so much plastic is now lodged in the bodies of ocean life . Kaufman also says this might take a more direct route to the shark, as a shark might mistake Wilson for prey, eating much of him before he breaks apart. “If this happens, a shark might stop eating because their stomach would feel full. Eventually, the shark might starve to death because plastic was permanently lodged in its stomach,” Kaufman says. At the time of filming, a FedEx plane hadn’t actually crashed like that in real life—though in 2009 two crew members died in a crash and in August 2015 a plane crashed into the Caribbean Sea—but the company didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that it could happen. FedEx provided filming locations at their hubs in Memphis, Los Angeles, and Moscow, and helped with logistical support.