In the discussion (16)
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- During filming Hoffman and Cruise called the movie two schmucks in a car and constantly worried it would not work.
- Principal photography happened during the 1988 Writers Guild strike, so the final scene was apparently winged without writers.
- The ending is questioned as unsatisfying for a Best Picture winner, since it lacks a sappy payoff where Raymond stays with Charlie.
- A sentimental Amtrak scene always lands for someone who spent the 80s riding Amtrak between a mom's house and a dad's house.
- Card counting is meant to be the climax that brings the brothers close and saves Charlie's business; the ending is neither victory nor defeat, and its ambiguity is liked.
- Jokes imagine a modern version with Raymond as a Marvel superhero, a Wallbrook driveway epilogue, or Lenny killing Charlie.
- Airline versions deleted the airline-accident scene, except on Qantas.
- Choosing a flight at the airport and hopping on last minute was possible through the late 90s.
- Three weeks in, Hoffman thought the movie was a disaster and told Levinson to get Richard Dreyfuss; Dreyfuss is described as Hoffman on steroids in the asshole department.
- The film was written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass; Morrow created Raymond after meeting real-life savant Kim Peek.
- Hoffman beat Gene Hackman for Best Actor and hugged him; they were playhouse classmates who shared Hackman's apartment on 2nd Avenue and 26th Street, where Hoffman slept on the kitchen floor before moving in with Robert Duvall on West 109th Street.
- The three as roommates is pitched as a documentary or original series, compared to LeBron, Wade and Carmelo on one AAU team.
- Asked whose career they would rather have, one voice picks Duvall and Hackman is picked as well; Hackman was the most liked by other actors; Denzel and Will Smith took movies to work with him.
- Hackman won a second Oscar for a supporting part in Unforgiven, something Hoffman never did.
- Duvall is picked as the best storyteller of the three, with Godfather and Apocalypse Now stories.
- The Replacements is called a top-five Hackman performance, with scenes apparently done in one take.