For the fourth time on his journey across America, Forrest Gump, gardener from Greenbow, Alabama, is about to cross the Mississippi River again today.

[watching T.V.]

I'll be damned. Forrest.

Sir, why are you running?

Why are you running?

Are you doing this for world peace?

Are you doing this for women's right?

Or for the environment?

Or for animals?

Or for nuclear arms?

[narrating]

They just couldn't believe that somebody would do all that running for no particular reason.

Why are you doing this?

I just felt like running.

[narrating]

I just felt like running.

[Forrest is running, a young man comes running with him]

It's you. I can't believe it's really you!

[narrating]

Now, for some reason what I was doing seemed to make sense to people.

I mean, it was like an alarm went off in my head, you know. I said, here's a guy that's got his act together. Here's somebody who's got it, all figured out. Here's somebody who has the answer. I'll follow you anywhere, Mr. Gump.

[narrating]

So, I got company. And after that I got more company. And then even more people joined in. Somebody later told me it gave people hope. Now, I don't know anything about that, but some of those people asked me if I could help them out.

Hey, man, hey, listen. I was wondering if you might help me, huh? Listen, I'm in the bumper sticker business and I've been trying to think up a good slogan. And since you have been such a big inspiration to the people around here, I thought you might be able to help me jump into... Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dog shit!

It happens.

What? Shit?

Sometimes.

[narrating]

And some years later I heard that fella did come up with a bumper sticker slogan and he make a lot of money off of it. Another time I was running along, somebody who had lost all his money in the T-shirt business, and he wanted to put my face on a T-shirt, but he couldn't draw that well and he didn't have a camera.

[A truck splashes mud onto Forrest as it goes by. The man hands Forrest a yellow T-shirt wipe his face]

Here, use this one. Nobody likes that color anyway.

[Wipes his face on the t-shirt and hands it back to him]

Have a nice day.

[The man looks at the T-shirt which displays the Happy Face]

And some years later I found out that that man did come up with a idea for a T-shirt and he made a lot of money off of it. Anyway, like I was saying, I had a lot of company. My Momma always said you got to put the past behind you before you can move on. And I think that's what my running was all about. I had run for three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours.

[Forrest stops running]

Quiet! Quiet, he's gonna say something.

I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now.

[The group parts for Forrest as he walks back down the middle of the road]

Now what are we supposed to do?

[narrating]

And just like that, my running days was over. So, I went home to Alabama.