The COVID-19 Lessons of 'Cast Away'

In one of the opening scenes of the mega-blockbuster hit “Cast Away,” FedEx systems engineer Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks) buzzes around a Moscow warehouse barking orders at scrambling workers.

“We live or we die by the clock!” Noland shouts. “We never turn our back on it, and we never, ever allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time.”

A few days later, Noland has something slightly more significant than package deliveries to contend with. He’s stranded on a remote island by himself — the lone survivor of a harrowing plane crash that kills all of his colleagues.

In many ways, the lessons of “Cast Away” have never been more relevant. We’re all now somewhat stranded — forced to navigate a new landscape, unsure if our old, normal life will ever return. We’re forced to adjust with each passing day. How we adapt and pivot will measure our success moving forward. If we cling to a past that no longer exists, we will fall behind. Kodak was ahead of the game when it invented the first digital camera in 1975, but it failed to adapt. It thought the world would stand still.

Noland, meanwhile, was preparing for change. There are 3 takeaways from his situation that we might benefit from applying to our daily lives.

1. We need small victories: Noland never lost sight of the bigger picture — returning home to Memphis to his beloved Kelly. But that simply wasn’t going to happen in a day. He needed some other short-term accomplishments. By discovering how to secure drinking water, build a fire, kill a fish, make tools, and complete other seemingly mundane tasks, he achieved micro successes that were essential not just for his physical survival, but more importantly for his mental. We need to make sure that despite the uncertainty of the times, we’re seeing some small victories every day. These can be completing work tasks, reading books, watching new movies, learning some skills, doing home workouts, etc. We need small victories to get us through this.

2. Companionship: There were no other people on the island, but Noland realized he needed support during his struggle. That came in the form of the now-famous volleyball, Wilson. He gave Wilson a face, hair and treated it like a significant other — routinely running ideas by it and sleeping with the ball by his side. Times are tough, but we are all in this together. Take time to not just call family and friends but maybe some people you don’t regularly speak to as well. Write some thank you cards. Most importantly, don’t hesitate to reach out to the people you value. We need companionship to get us through this.

3. A Greater Purpose: For Noland, that greater purpose was getting back home to Kelly. He kept the locket she’d given him by his side the entire time he was stranded, and at the end of the film, he explains to a colleague that Kelly was with him on that island. We now need something bigger to look toward. It can be a season, a trip, a new job or even a person we just want to see again but can’t right now. We need a greater purpose to get us through this.

As Noland reflects on his entire five-year ordeal at the end of the film, he makes one final statement that might behoove us to remember. “I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?”

P.S. If you are in search of a book recommendation, our team at The Daily Coach highly recommends The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson. This book shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family.

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