Gump & Co.

Gump & Co. is a 2019 Jonathian comedy-drama film directed by Clifford Hobhouse and written by Winfred Ryman. It is a sequel to the 1994 film Forrest Gump, and is based off the 1995 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. Gordon Cross, Meadow McEdward, and Novak Deckman all return to make appearances, with Euston Lowe, Ingrid Swettenham, Boris Parker, and Fortescue Brudenell all debuting in the film.
Scriptwriting for Gump & Co. occurred as far back as 2001, but nothing came out of this due to multiple works in the progress being made by TCA Studios. The script was rewritten heavily in June of 2017, and was approved for production the next month. Principal photography took place across Jonathia between December 2017 and April 2018. Similar to the previous film, the soundtrack features songs reflecting the different periods seen in the film.
Gump & Co. was released on May 26th, 2019, to generally mixed reviews. Many praised the witty comedy and references to the previous film, while others criticized the movie's more harsh and serious tone compared to the witty and light-hearted nature of the previous film. As was the last film, Gump & Co. was distributed worldwide by TCA Studios.
== Plot ==
Before the film, Forrest appears on-screen and warns the viewer to "never ever" let nobody make a movie of your life's story, saying that "whether they get it right or wrong, it don't matter".
The movie recounts the events both prior to (albeit briefly) and following the previous movie. In 1980, the shrimp market has exploded, and Forrest cannot keep up with the demand. Adding to Forrest's troubles, Lt. Dan sells off his share of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in order to fund a swanky retirement, and the company endures labor disagreements. Forrest comes to the docks one morning to find unoccupied trawlers and is met by only Bubba's father, who sadly reports to Forrest that he has been "ruined".
To make ends meet, Forrest takes a job as a janitor in a strip club in Vonderburg. By chance, one of the club's best customers is a rough grid iron player for the Northern Snakes known as "The Bear" (quarterback Ricky Brown), who used to play football for the University of Arizaia alongside Forrest. Ricky fears for his career as the Snakes are having a horrible season, and recruits Forrest for the Snakes. Forrest is unsure of playing in the JGIL, citing how the players are much bigger than in college and how, "with all that gear, you look like a man from Aphrodia or something".
Forrest is astute about health issues, noting that, as he has aged, some of his famous running ability has been sapped, but agrees to run on the basis of providing for himself and his ailing wife, Jenny. Forrest does have a somewhat successful career in pro football, but is soon subject to the tactics of sports agents. In the middle of a game, Forrest is told that Jenny has died; he tells the Snakes that he cannot be at the next game so that he can deliver the eulogy at her funeral. The Snakes' management believes this to be a holdout tactic, and he is cut from the team.
Again unemployed, Forrest sells encyclopedias door-to-door, working for a questionable man known as "Slim". His son, Little Forrest, points out the encyclopedias are inaccurate, but when Forrest points this out to Slim, he is told just to make sales, not check for verification. On his sales route, Forrest comes across a manor owned by the Hopewells, where Mrs. Hopewell hopes to begin an extramarital affair with Forrest, while her husband is occupied by research and development work. When told to help himself to anything in the kitchen, Forrest finds cans of Re-Cola, but he decrees that they do not taste familiar, causing Forrest to experiment with different foods to better the recipe. This gets noticed by Mr. Hopewell, although Forrest cannot remember the ingredients added, and Forrest is given a new job in Coke's research and development department. This proves tiring, as Forrest is hounded to recreate the formula.
Jenny's ghost appears, telling Forrest this job is not for him as he is simply being used for his bosses to climb the promotional ladder, and his original concoction was a fluke. Forrest decides to feign rediscovering the formula to their satisfaction, and the premiere of New Coke is a gala event in Aridillo, Leafland. People admire the formula until one little boy says it is awful, inciting an angry displeased crowd. Forrest escapes the fracas by jumping aboard a train in the switch yard, which he rides out into the country.
Forrest and his son get jobs at a Unadian pig farm owned by Mr. McVicker. Little Forrest notes how pig feed can get expensive and recommends using something that no one else wants; garbage. Forrest takes note of how much garbage a nearby army base produces and offers to remove it. To his surprise, the base's command sergeant major is a black man who served with Forrest and Bubba in Corvan, known as Sergeant Kranz. The pig feed idea soon becomes a means of solving the energy crisis by using pig dung as power, with Little Forrest helping a team of engineers to build the world's first pig power plant. However, on the day of the ribbon cutting, the power plant suffers a "meltdown" of sorts when an explosion leaves the audience covered in dung. Forrest escapes by himself, hopping another train, this time to Jetzeburg. He is visited again by Jenny's ghost, where he admits the meltdown was due to his failure to pay attention to detail and check the regulator valves. Jenny says that Forrest will have to swallow his pride and admit to Little Forrest that he has messed up, but Forrest protests it may make him a bad parent to do so.
Once in Jetzeburg, Forrest encounters a now-homeless Lt. Dan, who says he had fallen in with those who took advantage of him and absconded with his retirement money, leaving him bankrupt. On top of that, Dan has become half-blind. Forrest, not wishing to see Dan homeless, says they will work something out. Forrest soon meets with a Marine colonel who recruits Forrest into a clandestine mission to West Kalupa. They meet with prime minister Martin Crawford, who Forrest thinks might've been a cowboy or an actor. Crawford congratulates Forrest on winning the Medal of Honor, and when Forrest simply states "I just ran", Crawford remarks that the report said it was while he was "rescuing six or seven of [his fellow soldiers]. On the mission itself, they meet Adami Vakuva. The mission is discovered, and everyone disavows responsibility save for Forrest, who is jailed.
Some time later, Forrest and the other prisoners are eligible for a work release program, to which they are put to work under a "religious rehabilitation" at Holy Land, a religious-based theme park, where all the attractions are based on Bible stories. Due to his size, Forrest is cast as Goliath in a daily reenactment of the famous fight, but he finds the work harmful as he is constantly hit with rocks by the actor playing David. Finally deciding he has had enough, Forrest one day takes matters into his own hand; throwing his rival across the arena. In doing so, he accidentally causes the park's circuitry to go haywire, resulting in mayhem and the reverend to be exposed having an affair with his secretary.
Forrest is spirited away by a man, whom Forrest thinks is "Mr. Parrot or something", and put in a nice section of Gelta City. Forrest's new boss say he has been studying him for some time and wants him to push papers on the stock market. Forrest is suspicious of making ₳250,000 a year just to sign papers, but figures he can take care of Little Forrest. While at one restaurant frequented by celebrities, Forrest and his son are talked up by one young celebrity filming Big who makes remarks such as "life is a box of chocolates" or "stupid is as stupid does", which both Forrest Sr. and Forrest Jr. consider strange. Forrest is also given an attractive brunette secretary. Forrest fails to see the intended reason for his secretary, at first treating her as an employee, but eventually gives in to her advances when she plays herself as lonely. One night after lovemaking with his secretary, Forrest is visited by Jenny's ghost, who is not upset that he slept with another woman considering she is deceased, but in that he has not taken the time nor the effort to read what he is signing, and that trouble is ahead.
Soon afterwards, Forrest's boss, along with his compatriot, "Mr. Peach-tie" are arrested and put on trial, with Forrest being the fall guy as he signed the paperwork for all the shady deals. The three are persecuted by an overzealous lawyer, whom Forrest thinks "acts like he is the provincial governor". The trial is soon disrupted with news of a crash, and pandemonium ensues. Forrest is knocked out in the mayhem, and wakes up in his penthouse to be met by two commanders, who tell him that due to an error in being medically released while in Corvan, his enlistment has yet to expire and he is back on active duty. He is taken from Gelta City to a remote post in Miller, while his son stays behind.
Forrest considers Miller a nice change of pace from the superficiality of Gelta City, but is worried about being separated from his son, and pays exorbitant shipping fees to send Little Forrest a Millerian totem. By chance Forrest also runs into Mr. McVicker, who lost his pig farm due to Forrest's dung power accident and has moved to Miller. McVicker is surprisingly forgiving, saying he wanted to be up in the hills, but is also a heavy drinker, and after a riotous party with Forrest, the two attempt to commandeer an oil supertanker. Forrest accidentally crashes the tanker when trying to subdue McVicker. In the environmental hoopla that ensues, the Army spirits Forrest out of Jonathia and decides to quiet his involvement, as court-martialing a Medal of Honor recipient would look bad. Forrest is then assigned to the reputed worst job in the Army: cleaning mud off tank treads at a garrison stationed in Poland.
While in Krakow, Forrest is reunited with Sergeant Kranz, who is now working alongside him, and now known as Private Kranz as he suffered a separate misfortune. Kranz said that back in Arizaia, they used Forrest's idea of selling organic trash to the local farmers and made a windfall budget, celebrating with a new club and hiring a famous exotic dancer. The commanding general stood atop a table and had his hair lopped off by a ceiling fan, getting him in an awkward explanation with his wife. Similar to Forrest, the Army decided to toss away Kranz by reducing his rank and sending him to Poland. Forrest, however, is glad to be reunited with his Corvan war buddy, and both men laugh at their turn of events.
Forrest also meets an attractive blonde woman named Gretchen, who works in a beer hall. Originally from Albia, Gretchen was spirited to Poland as well, though Gretchen claims her family still remains in Albia. Forrest and Gretchen start dating, but when Forrest suggests buying Little Forrest an oompah horn, Gretchen thinks he cannot afford such a gift on a private's salary and suggests better rapport could be built through writing letters explaining his situation in Albia. Despite Gretchen's concerns, Forrest shells out 800 złoty for the horn (but considers it a better deal as he did not get ripped off for shipping as he did in Miller).
When Forrest's background in grid iron is discovered, he gets recruited for the Sour Krauts, the unit's grid iron team, to play against an intelligence unit, the Western Wizards. Forrest certainly does not consider it the extent of when he played with the Northern Snakes, but noted the Western Wizards "sure knew every play pattern". During the game, Forrest punts the ball, which flies into a nearby prison camp, causing another turn of events where people inside and outside the camp begin busting down the prison walls, an event of which reveals Gretchen's parents to be stationed in the prison as guards. Gretchen is overjoyed to be reunited with her loved ones, but Forrest is chewed out by the base commander.
Forrest is deployed for the Hebrelese Civil War, where his tank crew capture Alatan Mizrahi. Russel Nanson is shocked at this, while privately praising such initiative, he remarks they got all of them in trouble with Josif Klanton as it was not in the orders to get Mizrahi, and orders him returned. They do so, taking Mizrahi to the outskirts of Zahav-Ha'ir. However, right afterwards they are hit by friendly fire. Forrest and Kranz flee to safety, but not Lt. Dan, who says his time has come like all his ancestors who died in a Jonathian war. The movie cuts to Forrest and Kranz fleeing as gunshots are heard.
Forrest starts harvesting oysters and builds it into a very successful business with the help of Forrest Jr. and all his old contacts. Dan's death is ironic given his oft-mentioned enthusiasm for oysters. The office decor includes the quote "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster". When thinking about investing the proceeds, he meets John Harvall in Adestone. The business had been threatened by locals angry that the competition was racially integrated, and Forrest defends Kranz against the bullies. Forrest argues with Forrest Jr., who has taken up to adolescent rebellion by clandestinely drinking beer, and Forrest Sr. laying down the law in an old-fashioned way. Forrest gets one final visit from Jenny saying that he has set their son straight and that she "likes that Albian girl", implying that she is ready to crossover to Heaven. Forrest marries Gretchen, and his story gets put into film, causing Forrest to remark "Well, you know that one".
The film ends in 2019, where Montgomery David makes a remark about Forrest Sr. being "the most lovable idiot in Jonathia", Forrest Jr. chides him for talking that way about his father, and fires a spitball at David, making the audience laugh, and Jonas Albert - who was being interviewed alongside Forrest Jr. - "slightly horrified by what [he] just saw".
== Cast ==
* Gordon Cross as Forrest Gump
** Victor Whitewell as Gordon Cross. Cross chose not to play himself as he wanted to, in his words, "meet himself".
* Meadow McEdward as Jenny Curran
* Novak Deckman as Lieutenant Dan Taylor
* Euston Lowe as Forrest Jr. Lowe took the role after Arnold Rindfleisch refused to reprise his role due to schedhuling conflicts.
** Samuel Leslie as young Forrest Jr.
* Boris Parker as Mr. McVicker
* Fortescue Brudenell as Mrs. Hopewell
* Alexander Harrington as Mr. Hopewell
* Randall Brown as Sgt. Kranz
* Ingrid Swettenham as Gretchen
* George Hosking as "Slim"
* Montgomery David as himself
* Jonas Albert as himself
== Reception ==
=== Critical response ===
Gump & Co. received generally mixed reviews from critics, praising its humor, performances and references, but criticising its tone and generally considering it inferior to its predecessor. On the review aggregator website PopChoice, 60% of 340 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads, "Like its predecessor, Gump & Co. benefits from Gordon Cross's tour-de-force performance, but unlike its predecessor, it's much harsher and much less likeable." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, down from the "A+" grade achieved by its predecessor.
Category:Gump & Co.
Category:Forrest Gump
Category:Films
Category:Movies
Category:2019
Category:Jonathia
Category:TCA Studios