42 Fun Facts About Rain Man

Who plays Charlie Babbitt?

Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt, the hustling younger brother; Cruise took the part after Top Gun and The Color of Money, both released in 1986.

Who plays Raymond Babbitt?

Dustin Hoffman plays Raymond Babbitt, the autistic savant; the role won him his second Academy Award for Best Actor, after Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

Who directed Rain Man?

Barry Levinson directed Rain Man and won the Academy Award for Best Director for it; he also appears uncredited as the psychiatrist at the closing custody hearing.

Which real-life savant inspired the character of Raymond?

Writer Barry Morrow met him in Arlington, Texas, in 1984.

What is Charlie's business at the start of the film?

Charlie runs a business importing grey-market Lamborghinis into Los Angeles; the film opens with his cars held by the EPA over emissions while his buyers demand their deposits back.

To which city does Charlie travel to settle his father's estate?

Cincinnati is Charlie's hometown, where his estranged father Sanford Babbitt lived; Charlie and Susanna fly in from Los Angeles for the funeral and the reading of the will.

What does Charlie inherit from his father, apart from some rosebushes?

Charlie inherits only the 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible and his father's prize rosebushes; the car is the one he was forbidden to drive as a teenager, and the rest of the estate goes into a trust.

Roughly how large is Sanford Babbitt's estate?

Sanford Babbitt's estate is roughly $3 million; the will leaves nearly all of it in trust to an unnamed beneficiary, who turns out to be Raymond.

Who plays Charlie's girlfriend Susanna?

Valeria Golino, an Italian actress, plays Susanna, Charlie's girlfriend who works alongside him; she had won the Volpi Cup at Venice for Storia d'amore (1986) before taking the part.

What is the name of Raymond's doctor at the institution?

Dr. Gerald Bruner runs Wallbrook, the institution where Raymond lives, and is trustee of the Babbitt estate; he is played by Gerald R. Molen, later a producer of Schindler's List.

Why do the brothers drive to Los Angeles instead of flying?

Raymond refuses to fly: at the airport he recites the dates and death tolls of past airline crashes and screams when Charlie tries to board, so the brothers set off west by car.

Which TV show must Raymond watch every day?

Raymond must watch The People's Court every afternoon, counting down 'ten minutes to Wapner'; on the road Charlie talks a farm family into letting Raymond watch it in their living room.

Where does the name 'Rain Man' come from?

Charlie had remembered the Rain Man as an imaginary friend.

Why was Raymond sent to the institution as a child?

Raymond went to Wallbrook in January 1965 because his father blamed him for nearly scalding baby Charlie in a too-hot bath; decades later Raymond panics with 'hot water burn baby' when Charlie draws a bath in a motel.

Which Las Vegas casino do the brothers hit for blackjack?

The brothers play blackjack at Caesars Palace, where Raymond counts cards through a six-deck shoe until security invites them to leave; the scenes were shot inside the real Caesars Palace.

How much does Charlie win in Las Vegas?

Charlie wins about $86,000 at blackjack thanks to Raymond's card counting, enough to clear the debts from his stalled car business and pay back his buyers' deposits.

How much is Charlie offered to walk away from Raymond?

Raymond's doctor offers Charlie $250,000 to drop his custody claim; Charlie turns it down, saying the money no longer matters to him, only his brother does.

How does the film end?

Charlie promises to visit in two weeks; an alternative ending was dropped by writer Barry Morrow.

Which comic actor did agents originally envision as Raymond, with Hoffman as Charlie?

Bill Murray was the agents' first idea for Raymond, with Hoffman as Charlie; Hoffman instead asked to play Raymond himself, and Murray never came aboard.

Which film did Steven Spielberg leave Rain Man to direct?

Steven Spielberg left Rain Man to honour his commitment to George Lucas on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, released in May 1989, months after Rain Man's own December 1988 opening.

Which earlier Barry Morrow TV movie about his disabled friend fed into Raymond's character?

Morrow drew on his own friendship with Sackter for the Charlie-Raymond bond.

Where did Hoffman work when younger, giving him experience with disabled people before the role?

Hoffman had worked as an attendant at the New York Psychiatric Institute as a young man, an experience he drew on while building Raymond's mannerisms.

Which industry walkout was under way during almost all of the filming?

The 1988 Writers Guild strike ran from March to August 1988, covering nearly the whole shoot; with no writer allowed on set, the director and cast worked out script changes themselves.

Who composed the film's score?

Hans Zimmer composed the synthesizer-based score, his first Hollywood assignment, after his work on the 1988 British film A World Apart caught the director's attention.

Which band's version of 'Iko Iko' plays on the Rain Man soundtrack?

The Belle Stars, a British all-female group, recorded the 'Iko Iko' cover heard in Rain Man; first released in 1982, it climbed to number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989.

Which top prize did Rain Man win at the 1989 Berlin International Film Festival?

Rain Man took the Golden Bear, the top prize of the Berlin International Film Festival, in February 1989, weeks before its Academy Award wins.

How many Academy Awards did Rain Man win?

Rain Man won four Academy Awards from eight nominations at the March 1989 ceremony, including Best Picture, the most of any film that night.

Which of these Oscars did Rain Man NOT win?

Best Original Score was a nomination Rain Man lost, to Dave Grusin's The Milagro Beanfield War; its other unconverted nominations were art direction, cinematography and film editing.

What was Rain Man's box-office distinction for 1988?

It made more than $172 million domestically on a $25 million budget.

Which film beat Rain Man to number one on its opening weekend?

Twins, the Schwarzenegger-DeVito comedy in its second weekend, held number one when Rain Man opened on December 16, 1988; Rain Man took the top spot over the New Year weekend.

Which critic dismissed the film as 'a piece of wet kitsch'?

Pauline Kael, in The New Yorker, called Rain Man 'a piece of wet kitsch' and mocked its star for 'humping one note on a piano for two hours and eleven minutes'.

Which airline was the only one to show the flying scene uncut on its flights in 1989?

Qantas, the airline Raymond insists has never crashed, was the only carrier to screen Rain Man in flight without cutting the airport scene; other airlines removed it.

What misconception about US law is Rain Man credited with popularising?

Rain Man spread the belief that card counting is illegal; counting cards in your head breaks no law, though casinos may ban counters and escort them out, as happens to the brothers.

Which actors starred in the 2008 West End stage adaptation?

Josh Hartnett, as Charlie, and Adam Godley, as Raymond, led the 2008 West End production at the Apollo Theatre, adapted by Dan Gordon; it was Hartnett's stage debut.

How much did the film's hero car, kept by its star, fetch at auction in 2022?

The film's hero car, which its star kept unmodified for 34 years, sold at auction in 2022 for $335,000; the director kept the second, camera-rigged car.

What unusual technique did Kim Peek use to get through books?

He could finish a book in about an hour and remember almost all of it.

Which condition, rather than autism, did researchers later conclude Raymond's real-life inspiration had?

A 2008 study concluded he probably had FG syndrome, a rare X-linked genetic condition, rather than autism; he was also born without a corpus callosum, the bundle linking the brain's hemispheres.

Where was Kim Peek born, and where did he spend his life?

He earned $40 a week doing payrolls for the Salt Lake City School District.

Who co-wrote the Rain Man screenplay with Barry Morrow?

Ronald Bass shared the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with Morrow for Rain Man; a former entertainment lawyer, Bass rewrote the script through the director changes and later wrote My Best Friend's Wedding.

Besides Kim Peek, which intellectually disabled friend of Barry Morrow's helped shape Raymond Babbitt?

Morrow later said the film was less about Raymond's disability than about the brothers' relationship.

Which studio label released Rain Man in the US on December 16, 1988?

United Artists, then part of MGM/UA Communications, distributed Rain Man; the Manhattan premiere at Loew's Astor Plaza preceded the December 16, 1988 general release.

Which studio executive green-lit Rain Man immediately after hearing Morrow's pitch?

Roger Birnbaum, then a studio production executive, bought Morrow's pitch on the spot; he later co-founded Caravan Pictures with Joe Roth and Spyglass Entertainment with Gary Barber.