Tom Hanks gives commencement speech at Harvard University graduation | full video

[applause]. Wilson's bestie, Buzz's buddy, Ryan, savior America's dead. With wit and Grace, grit and gumption, his performances tap the heart and soul and show us why in Tom We Trust. Jefferson Hanks, doctor of Arts. [applause]. Thank you. Show more

[applause]. In the name of the Society of Scholars, I declare that these persons are entitled to the rights and privileges pertaining to their several degrees and that their names are to be forever born on its role of honorary members. It is now my great privilege to invite one of our honored guests to address this assembly. Graduates, family colleagues, friends, let us welcome Tom Hanks. [applause]. Show more

We have one more surprise for you. [music]. In honor of Dr Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, we hereby present this Chronicle of every movie he has ever been. In what we only have. Three minutes, Ian hit it. [music]. Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia was quite a hit. Moving to a fixer-upper starter home in money pits- Catch Me If You Can- and The Da Vinci Code were off the charts. Emailing Meg Ryan- nerdy jokes, he captured all our hearts. Ping pong, football, shrimp and boats. And taking care of Jenny's son got pest actor for his role in Forrest Gump. Run forest, run Private Ryan, Mr Banks and Wilson- he'll save all of them. Got it playing Mr Rogers. Wow, that man can rock a card again playing Mr Rogers, while that naked mother cardigan playing miss her Rogers. Show more

While that man can rock a cardigan playing as her orders. While I'm making cardigan, two minutes blessing Richard Nixon as he leaked the news on Watergate, a man called Otto made me cry. The terminal was pretty great. Elvis, Big League of Their Own- there's no crying in baseball. Goodness, why is there so much? Are we going to say them all? Greyhound? Oh, is that a bus? Or was it the Polar Express? Love the polo 13. Commercially was a success teaming up with Disney as Geppetto in Pinocchio. David pumpkins, snl01- an epic Cameo, David pumpkins, that's another. Show more

What an epic caviar. David pumpkins, asanello. What an epic Cameo taking pumpkins as a mellow on an epic epic cameo. [music]: good morning, attention, volunteers. And you do. Toy Story 3, Happy Days and Family Ties, That Love. Oh, Maya MRT- he knows you're alone in punchline bachelor party and dragon bet. You think we're done here, but we haven't even started yet. Go see him in Asteroid City at premieres on June 16.. It premieres on June 16th. Show more

[music]: listening all your movies gave us palpitations, quite severe. Still. You meet our childhoods and we're so happy that you're here. So you made our childhoods and we're so happy that you're here still. You made our childhoods and we're so happy that you're here until you meet our childhoods, and we're so happy, happy. [music]: love you from Earth to the Moon and we're so glad you're here today. You've always been there for us, so we'll never leave you passed away. So let's away with all this fuss. There's nothing left here to discuss. You've always got a friend in us and there's just one thing left to say: Tom Hanks is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get. [music]: amazing performance by some members of the: Hasty Pudding. Show more

It could easily have been written by Tom Lehrer, who recited the the chemical elements in a way just like this. Extraordinary that they managed to do this. Hasty Pudding, of course, is its own phenomenon at Harvard, and I think Tom Hanks has been very appreciative of this. Dr Hanks top that. So now he is being introduced as the speaker. [laughter]. [applause]. All right, you know, thank you. Okay, now listen. It's not fair, but please don't be embittered by this fact that, without having done a lick of work, without having spent any time in class, without once walking into that Library in order to have anything to do with the graduating class of Harvard, it's faculty or it's a distinguished alumni. I make a damn good living playing someone who did. It's the way of the world, kids. On behalf of all of us who studied for two years at Chabot Community College in Hayward, California [Applause], [Music]: two semesters at California State University, Sacramento, and for 45 years at the at the Hard Knocks, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree, and one damn thing after another. Thank you, I do not. Thank you. I don't know much about Latin, I have no real passion for enzymes, and public Global policy is something I scan in the newspaper just before I do the Wordle. And yet here I am. Show more

Closing. Closing for Josiah Palace and Vic. Thank you guys. Some of us here can recite by repetition the preamble to a television show we might have seen five days a week about a strange being from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men: Superman, who disguised as a mild-mannered reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper- there were many Metropolitan newspapers once, and some of them were great- who could change the course of Mighty rivers and Ben Steele with his bare hands. He was faster than a speeding bullet, he was more powerful than a locomotive and he was able to leave tall buildings at a single bound, and those are very, very impressive superpowers, nope. Well, what was most impressive about his powers was how he chose to wield them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, cats were saved from trees and evil doers were banished to The Phantom Zone and the innocent were rescued with reliable and assuring regularity. But in those half hours, which have since grown to many full-length films and multiverses- and God, you kids see them all- was the ongoing struggle for not just the protection and safety of the world, but, two, the exposing of crooks and their lies to the light of day. Superman, you see, and and his proxies of Wonder Woman and Captain America and Black Panther and the Black Widow and the Fantastic Four- my God, there's a million of them- they are all enmeshed in that never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way. Show more

And in such a struggle, being a Superman is a plus, even with his one lethal weakness: exposure to chunks of the wreckage of his home planet, destroyed by its own hubris and apathy. But hey, there ain't no Superman nor anyone else in his Justice League, there's just us on this planet. Now, on occasions such as this, beware of certain orders who resort to using Sage quotations from historical figures or the words of Legends of literature and art. So the name dropping of famous friends is a claim to some kind of wisdom or super ability. Some people standing at this Podishouldn't be considered much more than lucky sots who are in the right place at the right time with the right goods and the right attitude. Or as a man named Marlon Brando once said to me: Rick, would you pick up that name? I just dropped Marlon Brando. Would you hold on to it till we're done? Thank you, give it back to me. At the end I'm going to need it back. Yes, as a man named Marlon Brando once said to me on a message he left in my telephone answering machine: Tommy, Tommy, handkerchief, this is Marlon brand flakes, calling you to ask where you are. Then later he told me that when he was a young man and registered for the draft, he filled out the form for his name and age, but when it came to his race, he wrote human for Tommy, Tommy, what are we all but human? Show more

Yeah, yeah, we are. We are, oh but human. Now, as an armchair historian who reads non-fiction for pleasure, the books divine that there has never been a graduating class that has not faced the greatest challenges of all time that come. Every spring, the Maelstrom of History swirls so wildly that, no matter the year or the era or the generation, there is always an atmospheric River of events that makes right now the hinge upon which our fate is turning. And we here in the stands look at you all in the caps and the gowns and we hope all at last, help is on the way somewhere. Matriculating today is a man of iron, a woman of Steel, a superhuman, just in the nick of time. Now, this is not because we have failed in our duties or are completely spent. We have done some very super things Over Our Generations. It's because we are all in a cage match, mixed martial arts Battle Royale, with agents of hubris, apathy, intolerance and brain incompetence. The malevolent equals to Imperial Stormtroopers Lex Luthor and Loki, and we could all use a superhero right now. Show more

Now, how hard. The goofy big hands that clap the balls that represent the world on which we live, the streamers in the piadas and someone's very big face rendered large out there amongst the red. There she is, that's it. That's it. We see beings who are young and restless, with energy and Imagination, with righteousness and Enlightenment, and joy and compassion and we celebrate your proclaimed wisdom and your worth ethic. We know no one is faster than a speeding bullet, to our shame, every day to our shame. But we can still, summer, summon more power than a locomotive and we are able to LEAP tall buildings at a single bound if we have the right Gizmo. We can't change the course of Mighty Rivers, if such a thing should be done, and we make machines that bend steel as easily as using our bare hands. And, and we know that to each other we often seem like strange beings from another planet in habits and tastes and languages, with holidays and Foods we eat, names of the days of the week, all the varying. We all have special powers and abilities far beyond the reach of other Mortals. Show more

Some of us can repair a screen door with ease. Some of us can take care of a five-year-old kid and a toddler for 24 hours a day and never stop loving them. Some of us make sense of physics and economics and Global policy. Some of us survive somehow on minim earnings. Some of us graduate from colleges despite years of lockdowns and zooms. Now these achievements are all Stellar, even though, yes, we are all but human. Still, we'd like to look up in the sky and see not a bird, not a plane, but well, someone who is young and strong and super, who will fight the never-ending Battle For Truth, For Justice and for the American way. Someone who will take on that work now. A kooky Uncle once said to me we should all stay in school as long as we can because the moment we graduate we have to work every day for the rest of our lives. Now that that's, you know, a bit bitter, but he was not wrong. Show more

We all get to complain about the man and we all have debts we got to pay and we're all entitled to a day off to lay about. But the work that is called for, that we must do, has no expiration date. It is the construction of our more perfect union, and that job will never, ever be completed. It's one that requires rigorous attention, unfading wherewithal and all hands. The work is the keeping of the promises of our Promised Land, the practice of decency, the protection of freedom and the promotion of Liberty for all, with no exceptions, and man. That takes on a lot of work. It's work that is done on multiple job sites, every single day, and you can call each of them the battle for truth, justice and the American way. Yes, the American way. The American way is exampled in both plain sight and in subtle attitude. It's in moments of routine exchange and in Broad expectations, is in places of historic weight and import, and in the small spaces in which we all stand. The American way could be exampled when you respect the law and the rights of all, because if you don't, who will? When your food is brought to you, when you thank the server, because if you don't, who will you pick up the litter that has missed the recycling bin? Because if you don't, who will? When you vote your conscience and make sure your neighbor has the opportunity to do the same with theirs, because if you don't, who will? Show more

[music] when you make good on your victories and learn from your losses, because both are the results of proud and Noble efforts. If you don't, who will? The American way was first proposed on far from here, when subjects of the king demanded more control over their lives than that dictated by someone else's definition of providence. At the same time, women had no legal recourses. An entire segment of the population had been taken from their Homeland, enslaved to work as chattel, regardless of their age, and the original inhabitants of this continent from sea to shining sea. The only ones who carried the DNA of America were considered sub-human. Yet even with such Paradox, was written down the how to how to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure those blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, no matter as time and conflict and the institutions of our democracy would determine our gender, our race, our Creed, our color, our chosen deities or who we love, for it is our Manifest Destiny to pursue our own happiness. All of us, no exceptions, are entitled to the inalienable rights of Liberty and freedom. Show more

Because we live in the United States of America, the, the vocabulary of the American way of the law and the rights we share is some part philosophical musing, some part answering a question with a question, some part trying to Bull us all over with your knowledge of Aladdin, some part answering the question with a question. And the rest is all practical, it's, it's even physical and it's certainly tangible. It's the language of telling the truth. What is truth, again in Latin? Veritas, the language of telling the truth. It is the in The Vision Quest for truth that we look to you, newly Incorporated members of the Justice League of Avengers to come to the rescue for the truth to some is no longer empirical. Show more

It's no longer Based on data, nor Common Sense, nor even common decency. Telling the truth is no longer The Benchmark for public service. It's no longer the sound to our fears or the guide to our actions. Truth is now considered malleable by opinion and by zero-send games. Imagery is manufactured with audacity, with purpose, to achieve the Primal task of marring the truth with mock logic, to achieve with fake expertise, with false sincerity, with phrases like: I'm just saying: well, I'm just asking, you know, I'm just wondering. Now, literally, you cannot believe. Your eyes and your ears will help others lie to you. Show more

Someone will report the world to you exactly as you wish it were, full of alternative facts, of conjured narrative, minted buttress the status quo and the Knights offenses, or re-jig the rules and muddy the playing field, depending on where one is on the food chain and the moral Spectr. The American way can be demonstrated without ceasing as a Perpetual Prayer by every big shot and any Plain Jane or Joe Blow. Justice can be an everyday Pursuit, Case by case, with both lightning speed and the slow, inevitable effect of gravity. Truth, the whole truth. Truth feeds up in the High Country, as elusive as serenity, yet as certain as the north star and the Southern Cross. Truth is mined at the intersections of our chosen behaviors and our fixed habits, in our personal boundaries. Show more

Truth has synonyms such as honesty, honor, transparency, and yet the common practice of so many is to play fast and loose with those very words, to create enemies, to claim victimhood, to raise the mediocre into Merit and to make cloudy a Vista that is actually Crystal Clear. Likewise, truth has opposites: omission- you don't need to know that distraction. That's not the real story. This is opinion masquerading as Clairvoyance- oh, here is what is going to happen- and influence peddling. You know, a lot of people are saying truth too as a nemesis equal to any colored Kryptonite that, like a feral hound, is never too far off the path in the weeds and in the shadows, lying in wait for the lethal opportunity to bring truth down. And that Beast is indifference, which will make moot all the permanents found in truth. Indifference will Rust away the promise of our Promised Land. Propaganda and bald-faced lies will erode over time. Idolatry and imagery lose luster and effect. Show more

Ignorance and intolerance can be replaced by experience in the wink of an eye, but indifference will narrow the vision of America's people and make them the light of Lady Liberty's symbolic torch: indifference. Make citizens into indentured servants held in labor by the despots and tyrants whose default setting is cynicism. Who outlawed dissent and ban art and dialogue and books. Who grab power any way they can, enabled by the subterfuge of their co-conspirators, rewarding the rationale of the complicit and surging into the vacucaused by the indifference of a people who have been made Weary by struggle, so wary that they lose hope and are left to yearn to be saved by the fiction of superheroes. Every day, every year and for every graduating class, there is a choice to be made. It's the same option for all grown-ups who have to decide to be one of three types of Americans: those who Embrace Liberty and freedom. For all those who won't or those who are indifferent. Show more

Only the first do the work of creating a more perfect union and Nation, indivisible. The others get in the way and the never-ending battle you have all officially joined. As of today, the difference is in how truly you believe and then how vociferously you promote and how tightly you hold to the truth. That is self-evident that of course we are all created equally, yet differently, and of course we are all in this together, if we do the work, Justice in the American way, are within our grass, no matter our gender, our faith, our station, Our Heritage, our genetic makeup, the shade and Hue of our flesh or the Continental birthplace of our ancestors. Why is that truth so hard for some to accept? Much less respect if you live in the United States of America. The responsibility is yours, ours, the effort is optional, but the truth, the truth is sacred, unalterable, chiseled into the stone of the foundation of our Republic. All of us are able, none of us are super. We are the American. Liberty and justice is for us all because, yes, we have specific names and we have lived every year of our ages, but when it comes to race, we are all uniquely, magnificently, simply human. Or so said Marlon Brando to Tommy. Show more

Tommy handkerchief, May goodness and mercy follow you all the days, all the days of your lives. God's feet, congratulations. [applause] of why we love these movies so much, which is to bring not star power but Humanity absolutely. Show more

Thank you, Dr Hanks, for your inspiring words, for your message of inclusion, for your celebration and defense of veritas, and thank you for the privilege of your presence with us today now as he prepares to step down from his role this summer after a singular career of leadership and service at Harvard and for all of higher education. I proudly recognize and warmly thank the 29th president of Harvard University, my extraordinary colleague and good friend, Larry bakow. So now the pressure's really on. Following Tom Hanks, I suspect that many of you Show more