Deliberate mistake: In the scene where Forrest is describing his heritage, the clip of KKK on horses is taken from The Birth of a Nation. In this clip, you can see tire tracks on the dirt road well before automobiles were supposed to be in existence. Robert Zemeckis decided to leave this mistake in to perfectly match the clip to the original movie.
Forrest Gump (1994)
1 deliberate mistake
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Gary Sinise, Robin Wright, Robin Wright Penn
Revealing mistake: When Forrest finally catches shrimp on the boat, the net drops shrimp on the deck which are not only already dead, they're headless and very obviously processed for shipment to market. (01:32:30)
Drill Sergeant: Why did you put that gun together so fast, Private?
Forrest Gump: Because you told me to, Drill Sergeant!
Trivia: Dave Chappelle was originally offered the role of Bubba in Forrest Gump in a pre-production stage. He was concerned that the character was racially demeaning, so he turned down the part. He has since admitted to regretting the decision.
Question: What does Jenny die of? And is it mentioned anywhere in the film at all?
Answer: In 1981, when Forrest meets Jenny again, she says she has a virus that doctors don't know. This virus was the HIV virus, as 1981 marks the AIDS outbreak in the World.
Answer: It could have been HIV or Hepatitis C or something else. Maybe someone related to the story or even Winston Groom himself told this at some other place. Nonetheless, it's false that it appears in that book.
It absolutely appears in the second book, 'Gump and Company'.
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Answer: It's not specified in the film, but in the sequel book "Gump & Co" the author mentions that Jenny dies from Hepatitis C as a former drug addict in the early 70s. Hepatitis C was an unknown disease until 1989.