阿甘（汤姆·汉克斯 饰）于二战结束后不久出生在美国南方阿拉巴马州一个闭塞的小镇，他先天弱智，智商只有75，然而他的妈妈是一个性格坚强的女性，她常常鼓励阿甘“傻人有傻福”，要他自强不息。
Forrest: We lived about a quarter mile off Route 17, about a half mile from the town of Greenbow, Alabama. That’s in the country of Greenbow. Our house had been in mama’s family since her grandpa’s grandpa’s grandpa had come across the ocean about a thousand years ago, something like that. Since it was just me and mama and we had all these empty rooms, mama decided to let those rooms out, mostly to people passin’ through like, oh, from Mobile, Montgomery, places like that. That’s how me and mama got money. Mama was a real smart lady. Mrs.Gump: Remember what I told you Forrest. You’re no different than anybody else is. Did you hear what I said, Forrest? You are the same as everybody else. You are no different.