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Rain Man

year 1988decade 80sdirector Barry Levinsongenre Dramagenre Comedy-dramagenre Road movie

134 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Dustin Hoffman Raymond Babbitt
Tom Cruise Charlie Babbitt
Valeria Golino Susanna
Jerry Molen Dr. Gerald Bruner
Bonnie Hunt Sally Dibbs
Beth Grant Farmhouse Mother
Barry Levinson Dr. Marston (uncredited)
Nick Mazzola Blackjack Dealer

Rain Man | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennesseyproducer Craig Horlbeck
Explore episodeClose episode

Most Rewatchable Scene

Vegas blackjack sequence

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:52Read transcript
  • The will reading, where Charlie learns he got the rose bushes and a used car while the beneficiary got $3 million, ending with "If there is a hell, sir, my father's in it" and laughing his ass off.
  • A combined pick: Charlie meeting Raymond at the car, then Charlie touching Raymond's things in his room ("definitely not a weekend visit, Vern"), including the uncut sheet; called a really well-written scene.
  • The breakfast toothpick scene: Raymond counts 246 with four left in the box.
  • The doctor's explanatory scene is very 80s and they would never do it that way now, but it still earns sentiment; it leads into the phone-booth fart scene.
  • The bathtub scene is a little forced but really well acted; in the Premiere piece Hoffman is quoted saying the key scene where Tom finds out he is the Rain Man was the first take, which Levinson kept.
  • Reading the Tootsie material shows Hoffman was a big rehearsal guy, while Levinson worked on an if-we-got-it-we-got-it basis, and they somehow navigated that.
  • The breakfast where the card-counting scheme is hatched begins the last 45 minutes, called a favorite part of the movie, running through the Vegas blackjack section.
  • It is asked whether Vegas was the number one reason to do this movie; wanting to finally talk about Hoffman is given as a reason too.
  • Charlie letting Ray go back to Wallbrook, with the head touching and Barry Levinson being weirdly good, and the Amtrak ending with "one for bad, two for good" are also nominated.
  • The pick is Vegas: the seven minutes of blackjack are called unassailable, and it is affirmed as definitely Vegas.
  • The Vegas sequence is instantly iconic and may have sent more teens and twentysomethings to Vegas than any movie stretch; Swingers references it. It is Hollywood Vegas rather than the real chain-smoking grind.

What’s Aged the Best?

The music and Hans Zimmer score; Charlie's Ferrari; the Rain Man would save me line; asshole Cruise; the Bonnie Hunt cameo; the old Vegas view from Caesars; the traffic, bathtub and smoke-alarm sequences; the autistic-savant premise; Raymond crashing the sex scene; Valeria Golino; The Hangover's parody; the Rain Man Suite; Cruise's 1988; Qantas

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:16Read transcript
  • The music holds up: a great 80s score, the Iko Iko use, and the two Hans Zimmer pieces.
  • Asked for Hans rankings, the answer is Zimmer number one, Gruber being pretty problematic. — Chris Ryan
  • Charlie Babbitt's 1983 Ferrari ("400 I") and the line "when I was a kid, I always thought the Rain Man would save me," framed as foreshadowing.
  • Asshole Cruise ages best: telling Raymond to shut up, and ordering large pepperoni after being told pepperoni is not wanted; this is straight asshole rather than the cocky version in The Color of Money, Top Gun or Days of Thunder.
  • A question is raised whether hotel room service ever let guests freestyle an order like beer for two and the closest thing to tapioca pudding.
  • A weird, very young Bonnie Hunt cameo.
  • Freezing on the view from the Caesars suite shows old Vegas: a "holiday in" across the street, none of today's casinos, and the Barbary Coast, thought to be the Cromwell now.
  • The smoke-alarm scene was left out of the rewatchable-scene picks because it is disturbing; the traffic, bathtub and smoke-alarm moments are praised as tension-building sequences.
  • The autistic-savant concept in movies and TV has aged well because it keeps being revisited.
  • Raymond crashing the sex scene is weird but works, a 9.9 degree of difficulty; he just wanted to see what was on TV.
  • Valerie Galena (as transcribed) is great in this; she became the queen of Hot Shots, made a couple of American thrillers, went back to Italy and appeared in Portrait of a Lady on Fire. — Sean Fennessey
  • The Hangover's parody of Rain Man is an addendum that plays all the same notes.
  • The Rain Man Suite lives on as a Vegas idea; the hosts recall being given a suite during a Summer League trip, with high ceilings and multiple rooms.
  • Cruise's 1988, with Cocktail and Rain Man making him the biggest under-35 star in the world.
  • Qantas is called the biggest pick: still no crashes, apart from early propeller crashes.
  • Asked how often he has flown Qantas, the answer is never; only Air New Zealand. — Chris Ryan

What’s Aged the Worst?

Oscar-bait disability movies; Raymond crashing the sex scene; the car-import business scenes; the card-counting stigma and casino reaction; Tom Cruise's cigarette smoking

In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:27Read transcript
  • The Oscar-bait run of movies like Regarding Henry looks bad in totality.
  • Raymond crashing the sex scene also goes here: weird, though it somehow works.
  • The car-import business scenes with Lenny are one and a half too many and five minutes too much, like someone gave Oliver Stone an eight ball to write two Lamborghini-importing scenes.
  • The economics of Charlie's business is flagged and deferred to a later spot.
  • The stigma of card counting starts with this movie, yet they don't seem to win enough for the casino to turn on them; up 80 grand in 1988 is guessed at about 400K now.
  • Crowds in Vegas do not gather behind random winners at a table unless it is someone like Tiger Woods or Charles Barkley.
  • Card counting is not illegal, and being called into the manager's office for that amount seems ridiculous; trouble usually starts in the millions. — Sean Fennessey
  • There is no law against counting cards unless using a device; casinos push out players who crush them over months, not for one night.
  • Tom Cruise trying to smoke cigarettes ages worst and is suggested to have cost him an Oscar nomination; fans are invited to make a montage of Cruise smoking in movies.
  • Cruise learned to fly a plane, flip pool cues and drive a race car, yet smokes like an idiot, holding the cigarette like a tree stump, usually at a diner.
  • Hoffman smoked through the Bernstein role and could have given him advice; Cruise also learned a back handspring for The Firm.
  • Bad smoking on screen is called a passion; Cruise clearly never had a cigarette, holds it sideways and never smokes it, because his body is a temple.

Apex Mountain

People's Court; Barry Levinson; the 1949 Buick Roadmaster; Qantas; Caesars Palace; road trips caused by fear of flying; 97X

In the discussion (21)
Approx. transcript time · 01:11:08Read transcript
  • Tom Cruise: no for this movie, though a case is made for 1988; another view puts his peak at 1996 with Mission: Impossible, his first production, and McGuire.
  • Asked directly, the reply is "No, I think I'm going to go with" what a co-host is saying. — Chris Ryan
  • Hoffman's Apex is Kramer vs. Kramer, as decided on an earlier episode; Outbreak and Sphere are mentioned jokingly.
  • People's Court never got better: crushing it in the late 80s and prominently featured in the number one movie, part of the 4:30-6 p.m. TV block with Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
  • Asked if he had heard of People's Court, the answer is vaguely; Judge Judy took it over. — Craig Horlbeck
  • Barry Levinson is a yes for this period: best director and the number one movie at the box office.
  • Levinson was also key to 30 for 30; once he committed, other directors followed.
  • Levinson pretty much invented modern TV with Homicide a couple of years later and has perhaps the most underrated behind-the-scenes career, though his filmography is called hit and miss.
  • Diner created a template everyone ripped off, and Levinson was already an Oscar-nominated screenwriter before that, having written ...And Justice for All in the 70s.
  • Kasdan is proposed as the winner of a most-underrated tournament; Grand Canyon is mocked.
  • Valeria Galena's Apex is Hot Shots.
  • Road-trip movies: no, though this is a great road-trip movie shot sequentially; a list follows: Easy Rider, Thelma & Louise, Almost Famous, Blues Brothers, Midnight Run, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Smokey and the Bandit, Dumb and Dumber and Tommy Boy, with Road Trip, Vacation and Due Date added.
  • Handheld TVs, the Sony Watchman, were a thing for about three years.
  • Who's on First: not its Apex overall, but perhaps for the last 40 years.
  • The 1949 Buick Roadmaster and Qantas Airlines are yeses; Qantas is still throwing the no-hitter.
  • Wheel of Fortune: no.
  • Caesars Palace: yes, still the greatest casino gimmick in Vegas, versus New York-New York being grim inside.
  • Blackjack: no, with personal blackjack peaks recalled instead.
  • A case is made for Cincinnati: this film, the Reds, the Bengals making the Super Bowl, and WKRP reruns.
  • The Apex of road trips caused by a main character afraid to fly: this and Midnight Run, right next to each other.
  • One last Apex: 97X, bam, the future of rock and roll, which has never been topped.

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

Uncut 1984 or 1985 card sheet from Raymond's room; Cruise's sunglasses

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:30:31Read transcript
  • The 1949 Buick Roadmaster is disallowed as too easy.
  • The pick is the 1984 uncut "top sheet" in Raymond's room, possibly 85; guesses at the cards include Ted Kluszewski, Reds, Sandberg, Clemens and Gooden.
  • Cruise's sunglasses: a great run that reinvented sunglasses in movies, the King of Raybans.

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:31:36Read transcript
  • Hoffman would have been the pick years ago, but Cruise wins the movie, and not as a contrarian zag.
  • Another voice agrees and adds that the movie is Cruise's story of transformation, his first real adult part, pointing toward the rest of his career.
  • Barry Levinson is floated: Best Picture, Best Director and the number one movie, though nothing he made after is as good; he is rejected because people see it as a Hoffman-Cruise movie.
  • Removing the film would barely change how Hoffman and Cruise are viewed, but Cruise is said to need it more.
  • Asked who from the last 20 years could pull off Charlie, Leo, Damon, Affleck, Chris Evans, Brad Pitt, E. McGregor, Michael Keaton and others are floated; Hanks would not be believable as a chain-smoking dick.
  • A spoken tally lists two Cruise votes and one Levinson vote.
  • Pressed, the answer is Hoffman: Raymond became an iconic figure, won Best Actor and launched a wave of imitators; Hoffman is the not-overthinking-it answer, Levinson the overthinking one, and Cruise the smart answer. — Sean Fennessey
  • A voice says it really wants Cruise to win and feels bad; a reply says he'll be okay and jokes that he can't win the Oscar or Who Won the Movie. The count is not restated.
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