Was Forrest Gump's "One less thing" remark a historical reference or just an idiom?
In Forrest Gump, it is often shown that small things the character does have outsized effects on the world around him, and many of these are real-world historical events or outcomes.
At one point, after Forrest has achieved financial success with Bubba Gump shrimp, he mentions Lt. Dan has invested him in "Some kind of fruit company", with the related letterhead showing the logo for Apple Computers, implying he was an early investor in the soon to be huge company.
He then remarks that they called him up one day and told him "we don't need to worry about money anymore", to which he replied, "Good, one less thing."
I've always thought the "One less thing" line might be a reference to an early Apple marketing slogan or other historical Apple reference, implying that Forrest's reply had influenced the company, but I've never found any evidence of such.
Was this just Forrest using a common idiom, or was it another example in the film where an off the cuff reaction by Forrest has other "real world" historical implications? Did Apple ever use that phrase in real life?
Best Answer
It's pretty common expression which, here, has been shortened.
In full it would be
"Good, one less thing to worry about."
The idea here is that Forrest has a lot of things to be concerned about but, now, money isn't one of them!
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Answer 2
Forrest Gump was not making a reference to Stevenotes.
"One more thing" was a signature line of Steve Jobs when he released new products during keynote addresses. These started after Jobs' company NeXT Computer was bought by Apple in 1997 in order to use NeXT OS as the basis of Mac OS X.
The film Forrest Gump was released in 1994, while Jobs was still at NeXT.
The first "one more thing" was the announcement in 1998 that Apple had its first profitable quarter since Microsoft invested heavily in the company.
Answer 3
It turns out this question is based on a false premise, the wording referenced in the question doesn't match the script, it was misheard.
The question assumes the wording in the scene is:
And so then I got a call from them saying we don't have to worry
about money no more, and I said, "Good, one less thing"
However, in the script it states that it was not Apple ("them") who called forest, but rather Lt. Dan ("him"). Thus, since Forest never had any contact with Apple, the possibility of a tie in on the phrase "one less thing" doesn't make sense.
From the script:
EXT. GUMP HOUSE MAILBOXES
Forrest takes out a letter and opens it.
FORREST (V.O.)
Though he did take care of my Bubba-
Gump money. He got me invested in
some kind of fruit company. And so
then I got a call from him saying we
don't have to worry about money no
more.
EXT. BUS STOP
FORREST
And I said, "That's good. One less
thing."
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