Goofs

When Forrest and Jenny are "walking" along past a candlelit vigil in front of the White House, it is noticeable that they pass the same five or six people several times (as well as a couple of the guards at the gate).

Forrest is standing in Jenny's foyer upon entry to her apartment. While they are talking it's possible to see in the background there is an ironing board with the iron laying flat, as if it had been knocked over. While screen shot quickly focuses on the son watching television then quickly back to Forrest and Jenny, the iron has been stood up correctly. Forrest and Jenny had not moved.

During the Protest Rally at the Washington Monument, the tree leaves are not consistent. Behind Forrest on the podium, the trees in the background have no leaves as if it were late autumn or winter. The trees surrounding the reflection pool in front of Forrest are all Green as if it were summer, and in a later scene as Forrest watches Jenny board the bus back to Berkeley, the leaves on all the trees are different colors as if it were the heart of autumn.

The girl behind Forrest and Jenny on the school bus disappears and reappears between shots.

When Forrest is giving his speech about the war in front of the reflecting pool and he runs down to meet Jenny, he walks by the same guy twice.

During the integration of the University of Alabama, the soldiers escorting the black students are depicted as paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division. This was actually performed by the Alabama National Guard, after they put under direct federal control by President John F. Kennedy.

The moon is shown as waxing, almost full, and is lit from the top right; an impossible situation at night.

When Forrest receives his Letter of Discharge, he is only wearing five ribbons - Purple Heart, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Medal, but is missing the ribbon device for the Medal of Honor for which he was awarded by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

When Forrest is playing football for Alabama, a teammate gives him the ball and he runs for a touchdown. The hand-off was a forward which is illegal on a kicking play. This should have been a penalty and the touchdown would not count.

Several inaccuracies in the military uniforms crop up in the film. Ribbons out of order, the wrong style of helmet, the wrong collar, etcetera. These are simply mistakes. There is no law in the USA for military uniforms in movies to be incorrect in order to avoid "impersonation." They simply got things wrong.

Car tire tracks are visible in the segment remembering Nathan Bedford Forrest's Civil War ties with the KKK. However, this footage is taken from D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), and the CG team chose to leave the goof in.

It has frequently been claimed that the particular Sesame Street (1969) "Bert and Ernie" sketch that Forrest Jr. was watching at Jenny's apartment in 1982 did not air until 1991. The Muppet Wiki, however, did recently claim that the sketch actually first aired in 1980.

Throughout the film Lt. Dan refers to Forrest as Private Gump, despite him achieving the rank of Sergeant at the time of his discharge (signified by the patch on his sleeve).

This is deliberate on Lt. Dan's part as he likes to rib Forrest, who was a private when he was under Dan's command.

When Forrest decides to end his cross country run in the Monument Valley of Utah, he was running east. He turns, says he is tired and going home, then starts jogging through the crowd heading west toward the mountains, which is the wrong way to get home to Alabama.

This doesn't suggest he is running straight back to Alabama. If he's tired of all the running, he's not going to do more running. He could simply be heading towards the nearest town in order to make arrangements to get home by some other means.

Forrest and Bubba clearly state to Lt. Dan upon meeting him for the first time that they are from Alabama, but, shortly afterward, Lt. Dan says "So you boys are from Arkansas, huh?"

This is deliberate on Lt. Dan's part as a way of ribbing the dim-witted Forrest and Bubba.

When Forrest is given his discharge papers, he sets down his ping-pong paddle and (computerized) ball to salute the officer. When he picks the paddle back up, he also pretends to pick up the ball, which didn't end up getting animated.

In the montage of Forrest's and Lt. Dan's first successful shrimp catch after the hurricane where they are emptying their full shrimp nets onto the deck of the boat, the shrimp nets are full of headless shrimp. Shrimp caught in nets are complete animals, and they are processed on the boat after they are dumped, at which time their heads are removed. Shrimp boats do not catch pre-processed shrimp from the waters of the gulf.

When Lt. Dan falls off the wheelchair, he gets up with the help of his (invisible) legs.

There's a scene where the Chinese flag appears backwards. Apparently the video frames were reversed in editing.

When Forrest is playing ping pong, the computerized ball starts moving very quickly. If you follow it closely, you can see that it bounces off his elbow at one point instead of the paddle (right before the ball bounces and then seems to hit the camera).

The letter from Apple Computer, dated 1975, uses the 'Apple Garamond' font below the logo. Apple did not use this font before the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Until then, the logo featured the Motter Tektura font. The Garamond font itself was only designed in 1977.

During the 4th of July 1976 celebration scene at Forrest's house with Jenny, the fireworks show on the television shows the Statue of Liberty after it was restored. The Statue was restored in 1986.

Using George Wallace's symbolic blocking of the doorway to the University of Alabama (June 11th, 1963) as a time reference, we know that Forrest is named to the college football All-America team in 1963 where he later meets John F. Kennedy. However, the Associated Press announced their All-America team on December 6th, 1963 - two weeks after JFK was assassinated. Forrest Gump should never have met JFK.

In a sequence set around 1970, someone is shown reading a copy of USA Today. The newspaper wasn't created until 1982.

In 1974, one of Forrest's shrimping attempts yields, among other pieces of garbage, a Mello Yello can. Mello Yello was introduced in 1979, and the can bears the revised logo introduced circa 1989.

As Forrest's mother comes into the room with young Forrest and Elvis Presley, you can see Elvis playing the guitar. Elvis plays one or two more notes after the song stops.

When Forrest and Jenny watch the fireworks, the sound from the fireworks bursting comes exactly on the same time as they appear. There should be a delay as the sound travels over some distance.

Forrest belches after drinking all those bottles of Dr. Pepper but we don't see his mouth move.

While Jenny is angrily throwing rocks at her childhood home she falls to the ground yet you can hear two more rocks hit the house.

Several times during the movie, road signs for US 17 are visible. US 17 does not run through Alabama. It does run thru the South Carolina coast where the movie was filmed.

Through most of the Vietnam scenes we see groves of palm trees that are not found in Asia. In the foreground shots we see the Sabal palmetto. Sabal is a genus of New World palms, exclusively. This distinctive palm thrives in its native range where the Vietnam parts of the film were actually shot - in South Carolina, which also bears this palm on their state flag.

Forrest and mother live in Alabama but exterior elementary school steps scene was shot at 208 Bull Street, Savannah, Georgia. The building has the visible seal of the state of Georgia and the seal of the city of Savannah.

The woman on the bench in Savannah tells Forrest to go a few blocks ahead to Henry St. though it is actually behind them.

When Forrest is running across country, two media people report he is from Greenville, Alabama, not Greenbow, Alabama. Greenville is an actual city. Greenbow is fictional.

Forrest's doctor may have told him that he has strong legs, but his muscles will have atrophied during the time he was in braces so he would not be as fast as a regular person when he emerged from his braces, never mind much faster, as portrayed in the movie.

Prior to the Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House, a newsman announces that four service members, one from each service, are being awarded the Medal. When Forrest bends over to show President Lyndon B. Johnson his wound, there are four members from each of the services with the Medal around their necks, meaning that Forrest makes five.

When Forrest is radioed by the family housekeeper Louise that Mama Gump is sick, Lt. Dan says "Go, Margo" (the name of the actress that plays Louise).