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Charlie Barrett (Tom Cruise) has imported four Lamborghinis to Los Angeles for resale. He needs to deliver the vehicles to the buyers who have already made down payments in order to repay the loan he took out to buy the cars, but the cars are being held at the port due to the cars failing emissions tests. Charlie directs Lenny (Ralph Seymour) to lie to the buyers while he stalls for time with the creditor. After finishing there, he and his girlfriend Susanna (Valeria Golino) head off to Palm Springs for the weekend. Those plans go awry when Lenny calls Charlie in his car to alert him that Charlie's father in Cincinnati has passed away. They turn around and fly out to Cincinnati to attend the funeral and settle the estate, despite the fact that he and his father Sandford have had a long-estranged relationship. Charlie tells Susanna of how the 1949 Buick Roadmaster Convertible, which still sits in Sandford's garage, was the source of the estrangement. Charlie at 16 brought home a great report card and wanted to borrow the car. Sandford said no. Charlie took it anyway and went out with three friends. They were pulled over by the police and informed that the car was reported stolen, and Charlie sat in jail for 2 days before Sandford bothered to come get him. Charlie also says something from his childhood about how when he was scared, the Rain Man would come and sing to him. He doesn't know what that means but doesn't care anymore either.
The reading of the will to Charlie shows that Sandford left the Buick to Charlie, but the house and the rest of the $3M estate is left to a trust for a beneficiary. Charlie later learns that the beneficiary is the Walbrook Mental Facility, run by Dr. Bruner (Gerald Molen), a longtime friend of Sandford's. While Charlie is inside the facility talking to Bruner, Susanna is joined in the car by one of the facility's residents, who speaks of how his dad used to let him drive the car. Charlie comes out and tells the man to get out of the car. That man continues to talk about it having old leather seats and his dad let him drive it. Charlie asks who his dad was. The man replies, "Sandford Babbitt." Bruner has come out by now and introduces Charlie to his brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). Bruner describes Raymond as a "high-functioning autistic" and a savant who is used to routines and rituals, and has difficulty communicating and learning. He just memorizes. The inheritance is in Raymond's name for the facility.
Charlie admires the books Raymond keeps in his room, but is baffled as to how despite having read the books, when Charlie asks him if he'd read individual Shakespeare plays, Raymond says he doesn't know if he actually read them. Raymond also recites the Abbott & Costello "Who's on First?" routine, which is his habit when he's nervous. Raymond goes outside for a walk with Charlie. They talk baseball, with Charlie saying he can take him to Los Angeles for them to see a Dodgers game. Charlie retorts with who's pitching when over the next several games. They walk to the end of the driveway, where Susanna was asked by Charlie to bring the car, and they all leave the facility.
Driving over a metal bridge, Raymond mimics the noise the tires makes as it goes over. They all stop at a hotel and get a suite for the night. Raymond exclaims he needs his books, and the bed needs to be near the window, and tonight's dessert is supposed to be tapioca pudding. Charlie gives Raymond the phone book to read and calls room service for the necessary routine dinner.
That night, Raymond is in his bed reading the phone book when he hears noises. He mimics the sounds and walks to where the noise comes from, which is the bed where Charlie and Susanna are. Raymond sits on the edge of the bed and watches the television while continuing to ape the noises. Charlie learns his brother is there and yells for him to leave. Susanna tells Charlie to go and check on Raymond and apologize, but Charlie instead just scolds him and turns out the light. Susanna is mad at Charlie because she knows the doctor did not tell Charlie to take Raymond out of there like Charlie told her he did. Charlie tries to defend the situation, saying he deserves half of the estate. Susanna is disgusted and leaves.
The Babbitts are having coffee at a diner the next morning. Raymond sees the nametag of their waitress and says her phone number. He memorized it from the phone book last night, having gotten midway through the G's. He needs toothpicks and the maple syrup on the table before the pancakes get there or the pancakes will be no good. Charlie grabs Raymond by the neck and tells him to knock it off. Raymond "Ow!"'s and then writes in his notebook. Charlie grabs the book and reads of "serious injury". Charlie then goes to the pay phone and calls Bruner demanding his half of the trust. Bruner says Raymond stays at the facility voluntarily so Charlie's actions don't amount to kidnapping, but Charlie should still bring him back. Charlie says he'll see Bruner in court and hangs up. The waitress is bringing toothpicks to the table but drops them. Raymond says there are 246 on the ground. The waitress says there are four left in the box.
At the airport Charlie calls Lenny and tells him he'll be there in a few hours. Raymond is afraid to get on any plane, stating dates and casualties of crashes they all have had over the years. The only one he'd fly is Qantas since they've never had a commercial jet crash. Charlie has had enough and starts to bring Raymond to the boarding area, but Raymond freaks out. Charlie calms him down and tells him they won't fly. They'll have to drive back to Los Angeles instead, so they head back out in the Buick. At night, they come across an accident scene and are brought to a stop. Raymond gets nervous and leaves the car and wanders towards the scene. Charlie has him walk ahead with the car slowly tailing him until they can get off the highway, which is the only way Raymond will get back in the car.
The next day, it's raining. Raymond is afraid of them driving in the rain so they have to stop at a roadside inn for the day, and Charlie bitches the whole day about it. He also continues legal wranglings on the phone, then checks with Lenny to see if Susanna has come back there yet. The next day they finally resume the journey. Raymond says he isn't wearing underwear. Charlie says he gave Raymond a pair of his, but Raymond doesn't like those because they're not boxers from the Cincinnati K-Mart. Raymond goes on and on about this incessantly until Charlie finally stops the car, gets out and yells out into the distance that underwear is underwear no matter where it comes from. Charlie decides to try and see a doctor with Raymond. They enter the next town and while Charlie enters a phone booth, he finds that Raymond has left the car. Raymond is walking and stops in the middle of a crosswalk since the electric sign changed to "Don't Walk," and now he's holding up traffic. Charlie gets him to safety.
Seeing the town doctor, the receptionist doesn't know what "autistic" means that Charlie has written on the form about Raymond. Charlie tells the doctor about Raymond's talent with numbers. The doctor gives Raymond some difficult math problems, which Raymond solves in a matter of two seconds each time right down to the eighth number after a decimal when necessary. The doctor then asks simple math and Raymond gets them wrong. Charlie is amazed.
Raymond is getting nervous because he's about to miss Judge Wapner on The People's Court, so Charlie finds a farmhouse and tries to lie his way in. The woman who answers the door gets nervous when Raymond starts singing the show's theme song and closes the door. Raymond sees the TV from outside and gets more nervous. Charlie scolds him as if this is his fault. The woman returns and asks what's going on. Charlie tells her the truth, sorta, and ultimately Raymond gets to watch the show in there while the family sit with him and Charlie makes more calls. Afterwards, they get a motel room for the night. While Raymond is brushing his teeth, he says something about the Rain Man. Charlie realizes that Raymond was the Rain Man from Charlie's youth. Raymond gets an old photo he has of the two very young brothers. Raymond says when he went away, Charlie waved from the window and said goodbye to the Rain Man. Charlie understands now and asks what Raymond used to sing to him, and Raymond softly sings "I Saw Her Standing There", and Charlie joins in. Charlie then turns on the bathtub and Raymond screams. Charlie turns off the water. Raymond repeats over and over "hot water burn baby", and Charlie now figures out that's why his parents sent Raymond away, because Charlie was burned by hot water and they thought it was because of Raymond.
Charlie calls Susanna and they have a civil conversation. Charlie also buys a portable TV for Raymond to avoid any future problems with his routine program-watching. He then calls Lenny and receives word that the cars have been seized by the creditor. Charlie screams into the desert and now has to repay an $80K loan immediately, and his business is kaput.
The Babbitts drive through Las Vegas and stop at a diner. Raymond is flipping through the table jukebox and winds up memorizing where every song is located on the dial. Charlie gets an idea. He gets a deck of cards, shuffles them and deals out 42 cards face-up, making sure Raymond is watching. He then asks which ten cards remain. Raymond rattles them off. Charlie is ecstatic. They're headed back to Vegas, and on the way Charlie does his best to make sure Raymond understands the tips and methods for correctly counting cards.
They arrive at Caesars Palace, get new suits and haircuts, and head to a blackjack table. They totally clean up, winning over $85K. Security is now watching them though. Raymond eventually gets distracted by a spinning Wheel of Fortune and walks away from the table. Charlie goes to get him and decides they should cash out. They've won enough to cover the loan, plus they wind up getting a free room for the night. First they go to the bar. Charlie heads to the bathroom while Raymond watches his portable TV. A prostitute makes her way to Raymond and starts to make conversation. Charlie returns and starts to tell her to beat it, but then decides to see how this plays out since both Raymond and the woman say the two of them are just talking. The talking doesn't last much longer as Raymond starts asking weird questions. He even says they were out there counting cards at the blackjack table. She leaves, Charlie returns and they both admit she was very "sparkly."
In the luxury suite, Charlie has requested (and received) that Raymond's bed be near the window. Raymond thinks his K-Mart suit is better than his fancy new one. Charlie tells him that K-Mart sucks. Raymond talks as if he needs to meet the woman back at the bar at 10:00 and he should learn to dance. Charlie decides to teach him. Things are great until Charlie tries to hug Raymond. Raymond yells as if he's being hurt. Later, Susanna shows up, and her and Charlie reconcile. They all go back downstairs, and security needs to speak with Charlie. They accuse him of card-counting even though there's no physical proof, but they recommend that they take their winnings and leave now. So they leave. While in the elevator, Susanna and Raymond dance a bit and she also innocently gives Raymond his first kiss since he says he'd be OK with that. He says it felt "wet."
Back in Los Angeles at long last, Charlie brings Susanna to her apartment, and then brings Raymond to his place. He also has purchased a video of "Who's on First?" for Raymond to watch. Bruner calls Charlie. He's also arrived in L.A. in preparation for their meeting with the doctor tomorrow, but he'd like to also see Charlie tonight. They meet up and Bruner states for Charlie's sake that in all honesty, the money in the trust Charlie never has to be given any of it, but Bruner wouldn't be able to stand losing Raymond, so he offers $250K to Raymond as a settlement. Charlie replies that he's actually not even angry about the will or the trust anymore, he just doesn't understand why no one ever told him he had a brother.
The next morning, Raymond is up and he tries to make frozen pancakes. He turns the toaster oven on but he can't open it, so he walks away from it. It winds up smoking and sets off the fire alarm. Raymond panics and can't get out of the house since there's a lock on the door. Charlie is awakened by the alarm and takes care of the smoke. Raymond is repeating "burn". They go out for pancakes. Charlie makes sure the maple syrup is present and Raymond laughs, saying Charlie Babbitt made a joke. They then head to the legal proceeding, where the doctor (Barry Levinson) tries to mediate between Charlie and Bruner.
The doctor asks Raymond what he and Charlie have done over the last week. Raymond says that he drove and then counted cards. The doctor asks Charlie if Raymond had any outbursts. Charlie is defensive and thinks the doctor has already made up his mind as to where Raymond should be anyway, but he feels he can and does have a real relationship now with Raymond. It started as, for lack of a better word, a kidnapping for the money, but that's not the case anymore. He tells the doctor of their connection from earlier at the pancake restaurant, for instance. The doctor asks Raymond if he wants to stay with Charlie. Raymond says yes. The doctor then asks Raymond if he wants to return to the Walbrook facility. Raymond again says yes. The doctor tries to have Raymond differentiate between the two choices but Raymond winds up blending the two into "Go back to Walbrook with Charlie Babbitt." The doctors leave the room to confer, and Charlie has come to the realization that Raymond really should be back at the facility. He tells Raymond he's proud to have a brother. Bruner later meets Charlie and Raymond at the train station, where they'll head back to Cincinnati. Raymond tells Bruner that K-Mart sucks, which he and Charlie laugh about since Raymond made a joke. Charlie assures his brother he'll be visiting him in 2 weeks.
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Initial casting had Hoffman playing Charlie Babbitt and Bill Murray playing Raymond. The script was initially actually written with Dennis and Randy Quaid in mind for the roles.....Director Barry Levinson played the role of the mediating doctor when actor J.T. Walsh, who was set to play him, wound up unavailable at the time of filming that scene.....The Qantas factoid is actually true, as they've never had a commercial airliner crash. When this film was shown on Qantas flights, they took great pride in leaving that scene in. Other airlines edited that segment out of their in-flight showings.....Most of the principal shooting took place during a Writer's Guild strike. As a result, a few scenes, including the ending, didn't have a final script at first. The initial ending actually had Raymond stay with Charlie, but Hoffman fought for the ending we see instead, saying to stay with Charlie would have not matched up with Raymond's character.....Savant Kim Peek was the inspiration for the Raymond character. Screenwriter Barry Morrow even gave his Oscar won for this film to Peek.....Although frowned upon by casinos, card-counting is not actually an illegal practice as long as no external device or additional party is involved.....The film opened modestly but gained popularity through word-of-mouth, eventually topping the box office and becoming the highest-grossing film of 1988 with $172M.....Bonnie Hunt and Michael C. Hall have small roles in the film, as does Dustin's son Jake.
Rain Man was the big winner at the 61st Annual Academy Awards, which was an interesting show in and of itself. There was no host at this ceremony. Announcer Charlie O'Donnell would introduce presenters and speakers over the audio feed, one segment at a time. The presentation of Oscars saw the wording change from "And the winner is..." to "And the Oscar goes to..." Also, this wound up being the final public appearance for Lucille Ball, who along with Bob Hope introduced a classic 1980's gawdy Oscars musical number. Less than a month later, Lucy was gone.
As for the nominations, Rain Man scored eight of them and won four statuettes. Losses came in the categories of Original Score (Hans Zimmer), Film Editing (Stu Linder), Art/Set Direction (Ida Random and Linda DeScenna) and Cinematography (John Seale). Wins were for Original Screenplay (Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow), Director (Levinson), Lead Actor (Hoffman) and Picture. That victory was over The Accidental Tourist, Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning and Working Girl. I must state honestly that I've seen all five of these films, and I do think of those five, Rain Man is the best one, but the film does kinda have some downtime. The first half or so of the film, with all the traveling and exposition playing out on screen, it can get a little draggy after awhile, even after multiple viewings. There was a point years ago in my life where I thought The Accidental Tourist should have won, but I'm not sure it quite holds up today. My wife is a huge fan of Dangerous Liaisons so she perhaps would have given that one her vote, and having seen that one within the last year, it DOES still hold up today. These were pretty even films vying for Best Picture, and you could have probably made an argument for any of the five. But Rain Man is the film that still gets talked about the most in 2014, so perhaps the Academy got it right all along.
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