The film differs substantially from Winston Groom's novel on which it was based. Filming took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate the protagonist into archived footage and to develop other scenes. An extensive soundtrack was featured in the film, and its commercial release made it one of the top selling albums of all time.

Released in the United States on July 6, 1994, Forrest Gump was well received by critics and became a commercial success as the top grossing film in North America released that year. The film ended up earning over $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run. The film garnered multiple awards and nominations, including Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Young Artist Awards, among others. Since the film's release, varying interpretations have been made of the film's protagonist and its political symbolism. In 1996, a themed restaurant opened based on the film, and has since expanded to multiple locations worldwide. The scene of Gump running across the country is often referred to when real life people attempt the feat. Although a screenplay was developed on Groom's second novel, as of 2010, no sequel has been officially greenlit.

Forrest Gump, sitting at a bus stop in Savannah, Georgia, watches as a white feather falls to his feet. Forrest picks up the feather and puts it in a book he is carrying, then begins to tell the story of his life to a woman who sits next to him. As his story progresses, the listeners at the bus stop change regularly throughout his narration, each showing a different attitude ranging from disbelief and indifference to great interest and fascination.

Although Forrest has well below average intelligence, his mother is able to get him into a public school. On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny whose life at times is followed in parallel to Forrest's. Having discarded his leg braces, his ability to run incredibly fast gets him into college on a football scholarship. After his college graduation, he enlists in the army. There he makes friends with Bubba, who convinces him to enter the shrimping business with him when the Vietnam War is over. He also meets Jenny again, when he sees her in Playboy Magazine. He then goes to find her, and discovers that she is a stripper/musician working at a bar. Forrest and Bubba are sent to Vietnam, and after several months of patrolling with the 9th Infantry Division their platoon is attacked. Though Forrest rescues many of the men in his unit, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest is wounded during the battle, and is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.

Forrest discovers an uncanny ability for ping-pong while in recovery for the bullet wound in his buttocks. He starts playing for the U.S. Army team, gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status. He eventually plays competitively against Chinese teams and wins against the Chinese. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle while Forrest was away, and became engaged with another man.

Upon leaving military service and returning home, Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles for a fee of $25,000. He uses the money to buy a shrimping boat and fulfill his wartime promise to Bubba. His commanding officer from Vietnam, Lieutenant Dan Taylor, joins him as first mate as a joking promise he made to Forrest. Initially Forrest has little success, but after finding his is the only surviving boat in the area after Hurricane Carmen hits the Gulf states, he begins to pull in huge amounts of shrimp. He buys an entire fleet of shrimp boats, and "Bubba-Gump" shrimp becomes a household name. He returns home when his mother falls ill; she dies soon after. Lt. Dan takes over operations of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and invests the earnings in Apple Computer and Forrest, Dan and Bubba's families are financially secure for the rest of their lives.

One day, Jenny returns to visit Forrest, and after some time he proposes marriage to her. She declines, though feels obliged to prove her love to him by sleeping with him. She leaves early the next morning. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run. Seemingly capriciously, he decides to keep running across the country several times, over some three and a half years, becoming famous again.

In the present day, 1981, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on television, asks him to visit her. Once he is reunited with Jenny, Forrest discovers she has a young son, also named Forrest, of whom Forrest is said to be the father. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering from an unknown virus which has no known cure (speculated to be AIDS, but not proven), that she will soon die of. Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama where Jenny and Forrest finally marry. Jenny dies soon afterward, leaving their son in Forrest's care. He talks to Jenny's grave and tells her how well their son is doing in school. On his son's first day of school, Forrest sits with him at the school bus stop. Opening the book his son is taking to school, the feather Forrest put there falls out. As the bus pulls away, he watches as the feather is caught by a breeze and drifts skyward.

"The writer, Eric Roth, departed substantially from the book. We flipped the two elements of the book, making the love story primary and the fantastic adventures secondary. Also, the book was cynical and colder than the movie. In the movie, Gump is a completely decent character, always true to his word. He has no agenda and no opinion about anything except Jenny, his mother and God."

The film is based on the 1986 novel by Winston Groom. Both center around the character of Forrest Gump. However, the film primarily focuses on the first eleven chapters of the novel, before skipping ahead to the end of the novel with the founding of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and the meeting with Forrest, Jr. In addition to skipping some parts of the novel, the film adds several aspects to Gump's life that do not occur in the novel, such as his needing leg braces as a child and his run across the country.