I'm David Farrier and New Zealand are accidentally marooned in America and I want to figure out what makes this country tick.

Back when I was at school in Bethlehem, New Zealand, each year we'd have to study a film in English class.

We'd watch it and then we'd endlessly discuss it,

pulling apart the themes, characters and story.

At the end of the year we'd have exams

and a big chunk of the English exam was writing about

that movie and there was one movie that really stuck with me.

Run Forrest Gump was box office gold in 1994. It was the highest grossing film in America that year and it was a really big hit in New Zealand as well.

It was a big hit everywhere.

And I think Forest Gump is one of the most American movies I've ever seen,

inserting the fictional character of Forest Gump, played by Tom Hanks, into various historically important

American moments. The film managed to sink into pop culture. I feel like most of us have probably heard this line either in the movie or quoted at us, usually sarcastically.

My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

Forest Gump also did something not many films have ever done something truly magical.

It leapt out into real life.

Because on any day of the week in America,

you can stroll directly into a restaurant that wouldn't exist without Forrest Gump, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

You other been on a real shrimp boat?

No.

But I've been on a real big boat.

For this episode, I want to learn about how the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company came to be,

a real life restaurant chain that wouldn't exist without a fictional character named Benjamin Bubba Blue.

...