About

Tom Hanks vs. Tank is an image macro series that uses two screenshots from the 1998 war film Saving Private Ryan. Usually taking the form of an object labeling meme, the series expresses unsurmountable odds.

Origin

On July 24th, 1998, the film Saving Private Ryan was released in the United States.^[1] In the film, Captain Miller (portrayed by Tom Hanks), on the verge of defeat, raises his pistol toward an oncoming tank following the storming of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France (shown below).

On April 20th, 2015, Imgur ^[2] user pugdogg55 posted a GIF of the moment. They captioned the post "When your downvote causes the comment to get deleted." The post received more than 80 points and 560 views in nearly four years (shown below).

Spread

On October 22nd, 2018, Redditor JMM123 posted an object-labeled variation of the image. In the image, Tom Hanks is labeled "Me," the gun is labeled "Trying to drink less" and the tank labeled "my friend" (shown below, leeft).

The following month, on November 14th, Redditor ^[3] Funbobby15 posted a variation of the scene, breaking them moment into two images. On top, Captain Miller raises his pistol, and Miller and the pistol is labeled "me" and "downvote," respectively. The tank, pictured underneath, is labeled "repost with 20k upvotes." The post received more than 4,000 points (88% upvoted) and 50 comments (shown below, center). That day, Redditor^[4] CraaZzy__ posted the image in the /r/MemeEconomy subreddit, where it received more than 46,000 points (77% upvoted) and 1,800 comments in 24 hours.

The following day, Redditor^[5] pilalla posted a version that references No Nut November. The post received more than 5,900 points (96% upvoted) and 40 comments (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not Available.

External References