This set up the most crucial turning point in the story of Forrest Gump. After being inseparable as kids, the two ventured on different life paths, with Forrest leaving school to join the army and Jenny ultimately succumbing to a life of drug and alcohol abuse. Throughout all of Forrest Gump's various misadventures, high points, and low points, his guiding light remains Jenny, the girl he has been desperately in love with since his childhood. Unsurprisingly, this concept was dropped for being a bit too ridiculous. One of the book's most notorious plotlines involved Forrest Gump becoming an astronaut and venturing into outer space alongside an orangutan named Sue.

This was ultimately removed from the film largely for reasons of length and pacing, with more emphasis instead being placed on Forrest's Ping-Pong career. In the book, Forrest's aforementioned higher IQ allows him to master the game and become a world-class player. One accomplishment of Forrest's that was omitted from the movie was his proclivity for chess. However, the Forrest Gump novel included even more for Forrest to do, and some of his in-print exploits were downright bizarre. From becoming a champion football player and a war hero to establishing a multi-million dollar corporation and even emerging as a world-renowned Ping-Pong master, Forrest ends up leading quite the storied existence. Throughout the Forrest Gump film, Forrest travels through multiple historic events, experiences a variety of weird and wonderful adventures, and takes on a number of unexpected vocations. Lieutenant Dan doesn't play a part in the company, nor does he inherit it after Forrest leaves the shrimping business for good. After hitting it big with his shrimp company, Forrest begins to yearn for a simple life and sacrifices the company to Bubba's family before hitting the road as a one-man band. But in the Forrest Gump novel, instead of returning to the states, Forrest begins raising shrimp in small ponds in Vietnam. In the movie, Forrest leaves the company behind to return to a simple life in his old home after his mother's passing. Related: Forrest Gump Is Secretly Dead - Theory Explained

These underscore how both the Forrest Gump novel and movie adapted history, though things play out differently in the book. After teaming up with the legless Lieutenant Dan, Forrest establishes a massive shrimp-based empire and quickly becomes a millionaire. One of the most memorable parts of the film version of Forrest Gump sees the Vietnam vet return home to America and fulfill a promise to the deceased Bubba to start a shrimping enterprise.

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