LOS ANGELES — Actor Tom Hanks revealed that his character Captain John Miller in 1998 epic war film “Saving Private Ryan” was actually a 13-year-old who had wished to be big, much like his character Josh Baskin in 1988’s “Big,” surprised sources report.
“Few people know this about John Miller, but his origin story is that he is indeed an adolescent trapped in a grown man’s body,” Hanks noted. “He had been bullied by some older teenagers at a carnival near his house before wishing he was bigger on a Zoltar fortune telling machine. Unfortunately for Miller, however, is the fact that this happens in 1943, so he’s promptly conscripted into the United States Army and sent to France to take part in the Normandy invasion. I did my best to convey Miller’s background in my performance as he braves the German onslaught on Omaha beach before embarking on his mission to rescue Private James Ryan, but perhaps I could’ve done a better job if this wasn’t clear to the audience.”
Movie fan Ramon Andrade was taken aback by the news.
“Oh wow, I’m a huge fan of ‘Big’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ but I didn’t know both movies were so similar,” Andrade reacted. “I guess it’s kind of hard to tell what Miller’s origin story is when he’s getting shot at and narrowly avoiding stepping on land mines. I know there’s a whole subplot of the other rangers trying to figure out his hometown, so I suppose that’s an allusion to the fact that there’s more to his backstory than one would assume. Now I can’t wait to rewatch each of them so I can pick up on all the subtleties that I missed before.”
Cinema expert Megha Bhandari expounded upon Hanks’ filmography.
“Not many people know this, but all Tom Hanks movies take place in the same cinematic universe,” Bhandari revealed. “For example, his character in ‘Castaway’ had spent some time in his youth as a child’s cowboy action figure, and his Conductor character in ‘The Polar Express’ is actually Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger. It’s certainly easy to overlook these, but I encourage all Tom Hanks fans to rewatch his movies to see how many of these connections they can pick up on their own.”
At press time, Hanks had also revealed that John Miller had had a love affair with a mermaid before he was drafted overseas.
