Poster © 20th Century Fox. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAdventure, Drama & Romance
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 23 mins
ReleasedDecember 22, 2000
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorRobert Zemeckis
StarringTom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Nick Searcy
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Cast Away (2000)
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| Cast Away's Details | |
| Genre | Adventure, Drama & Romance |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 12/22/2000 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 23 mins |
| Budget | $90M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Cast Away's Interests | |
| General | Coconuts, ice skates, pocket watches, FedEx boxes, making fire, the one package he won't open. |
| Music | Alan Silvestri. Barely any score on the island, so the waves do the talking. |
| Movies | Life of Pi (2012). Another castaway, with a far less chill roommate. |
| Television | Lost. A whole plane's worth of people, way more problems. |
| Heroes | Wilson. Great listener. Never interrupts. |
| Cast Away's Crew | |
| Director | Robert Zemeckis |
| Writers | William Broyles Jr. |
| Producers | Steve Starkey, Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke |
| Cinematography | Don Burgess |
| Music | Alan Silvestri |
| Edited By | Arthur Schmidt |
| Production | ImageMovers, Playtone |
| Distributed By | 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks Pictures |
Cast Away opens like a FedEx commercial and closes on a long, quiet shrug, and somewhere in between Tom Hanks does some of the best work of his life. The island middle is where it lives. No score, no music, just waves and a guy slowly losing the plot while learning to make fire like it’s the moon landing. Hanks yelling "I have made fire" at the sky is pure cinema. And Wilson, a volleyball with a handprint for a face, becomes the most heartbreaking character of the year without saying a word. The problem is those bookends. The FedEx logo is on screen so often it deserves billing, and the slow stretch at the end plays out the way real life does, which is honest but long. 143 minutes, $429.6 million worldwide. A 7.9 because the island section is untouchable and the rest is just okay. $687 says you draw a face on a ball this week and feel bad leaving it in the garage.
What works: Tom Hanks carries the whole island section alone, and Wilson the volleyball somehow becomes a real character.
What doesn’t: The FedEx scenes at the start and the slow stretch at the end wrap a great survival story in a lot of shrugging.
Who it’s for: People who like survival stories with more feelings than action, and anyone who has ever talked to a houseplant.
Spoilers
Wilson drifts away during the raft escape and Chuck can’t save him. Chuck makes it home, but Kelly has married someone else, and the movie ends with him at a crossroads after delivering the one package he never opened.
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a FedEx troubleshooter who lives by the clock, flies around the world speeding up slow delivery hubs and barely has time for his girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) back in Memphis. At Christmas, Kelly gives him her grandfather's pocket watch and he promises to be right back from a quick work trip. Then his cargo plane goes down over the Pacific in a storm, and Chuck washes up alone on a tiny island with nothing but a few FedEx packages. Suddenly time stops mattering. Robert Zemeckis directs. One hundred forty-three minutes, one volleyball named Wilson.
Anyone with a boat. Or a working lighter. Wilson says hi.
| Tom Hanks | Chuck Noland |
| Helen Hunt | Kelly Frears |
| Nick Searcy | Stan |
| Jenifer Lewis | Becca Twig |
| Geoffrey Blake | Maynard Graham |
| Peter Von Berg | Yuri |
| Chris Noth | Dr. Gerald "Jerry" Lovett |
| Lari White | Bettina Peterson |
| Michael Forest | Pilot Jack |
| Viveka Davis | Pilot Gwen |
| Nan Martin | Kelly's mother |
| Dennis Letts | Dennis Larson |
| Valerie Wildman | Virginia Larson |
| Steve Monroe | Steve Larson |
| Elden Henson | Elden Madden |
| Timothy Stack | Morgan Stockton |
| Joe Conley | Joe Wally |
| Vin Martin | Pilot Albert "Al" Miller |
| Garret Davis | Pilot Blaine |
| Jay Acovone | Pilot Peter |
| Fred Smith | himself |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 7.8 / 10 (698,488 votes) → 7.8 / 10 (698,518 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $429.6M; Domestic box office $233.6M; Opening weekend $28.9M; Profit / loss (est.) +$79.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 88%; CinemaScore B; box office chart updated; RT 88% (156 reviews); Metacritic 74 / 100; CinemaScore B; IMDb users 7.8 / 10 (698,488 votes); movie.guru score 7.4.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.