Rain Man (1988)

This is one of my favorite movies.

Summary

-When a self-centered L.A. businessman learns that his father left his fortune to an autistic savant brother in Ohio that he never knew existed, he takes his brother out on a road trip, hoping to get a bigger share of the inheritance

Cast

-Dustin Hoffman: Raymond Babbitt

-Tom Cruise: Charlie Babbitt

-Valeria Golino: Susanna

-Gerald Molen: Dr. Bruner

-Bonnie Hunt: Sally Dibbs

-Jack Murdock: John Mooney

-Michael D. Roberts: Vern

-Ralph Seymour: Lenny

Did You Know?

-When Raymond Babbitt starts rambling off random facts, including one about Qantas Airlines, the fact he utters is true. From 1921 to 2023, that airline never lost any airplanes

-The elderly man talking about the Pony Express in the waiting room is an 89 year old local named Byron Cavnar. He was there already when film crews arrived. He got onto the topic of the Pony Express and director Barry Levinson got such a thrill out of it. He let Cavnar keep talking. The dialogue he speaks was genuine and not scripted

-Sir Michael Caine states this is one of his favorite movies. Later on, he found out that he had a brother he never knew about. This brother had lived in the Cane Hill Mental Hospital with a diagnosis of epilepsy. With great care, he said "Tom's performance was beautifully done."

-The character Raymond Babbitt was inspired by a savant named Kim Meek. Meek would travel the world, impressing all with his knowledge of minute details from history. Dustin Hoffman spent time with Meek and made a promise to Kim's father, who was his caregiver, that he would "share Kim with the world"

-Initially, Raymond Babbitt was supposed to be a mentally handicapped person. Dustin Hoffman insisted on Raymond being an autistic savant. His insistence is the reason director Martin Brest quit

-Dustin Hoffman got a thorough understanding of of how men with autism and their families interact by working with them for a year. Also, while first starting out in acting, Hoffman worked in a psychiatric care home, taking his experiences from there as well

-The boy at the pancake counter is Jake Hoffman, Dustin Hoffman's son

-When scenes were filmed in the casino, Dustin Hoffman would take off to play blackjack. Someone had to be assigned to him during takes

-The Italian restaurant that Raymond and Charlie go to, where Raymond counts the dropped toothpicks, is Pompilio's Restaurant in Newport, Kentucky. That restaurant is still there today and still open for business. There's a large mural on the wall depicting Charlie and Raymond in their Buick Roadmaster, parking in front of the restaurant

-Tom Cruise wearing Ray Ban sunglasses helped boost sales of that company's sunglasses

-Bonnie Hunt's film debut

-The radio station slogan Raymond repeats is from an actual radio station. "The future of rock and roll" is from independent radio station WOXY, 97.7 FM, in Oxford, Ohio. It shut down completely in 2011, moving to internet broadcasting in 2004

-During one of the Blackjack casino scenes at Caesar's Palace, the dealer is a real life Blackjack dealer named Nick Mazzola. He appeared in the 1995 film Casino. He was a real dealer between the 1970s-1980s

-When Charlie takes Raymond from the Walbrook center, they are seen walking down a long tree-lined driveway. In 2007, a lot of these trees were diseased, most likely from emerald ash borers that had invaded and destroyed the trees. These insects are from Asia and can destroy trees. They had to be removed and replacements planted. Prior to the trees' removal, many people came and recreated the scene of Charlie and Raymond walking down the drive from the convent

-"Walbrook" is actually the St. Anne's Convent, in Melbourne, Kentucky. It houses over 200 hundred nuns

-Originally, the character of Charlie Babbitt was supposed to be a 56-year old man

-The address that Raymond keeps repeating, the Walmart at 400 Oak Street, where he buys underwear, is the address for the Vernon Manor Hotel. It's where a lot of the production crew and cast were staying at the time of filming

-When Charlie and Raymond enter Las Vegas, they see a billboard for a radio station called KOMP. 92.3 KOMP is a real Las Vegas-based rock music station still on the air as of 2019

-In the scene where Raymond is experiencing a violent outburst from a smoke detector beeping, from a toaster oven fire, is one of the reasons that adults with autism need to be in a group home that can provide the loving care they need to prevent issues like that from happening