This is a story about Charlie Babbitt.? Charlie Babbitt is played by Tom Cruise.?? Immediately preceding Rain Main, Cruise had played Brian Flanagan in Cocktail, Vincent Lauria in the Color of Money, and Maverick in Top Gun.? In the words of Archie Bunker, he played a mick, a wop, and a regular American.? But aside from showing virtuosity with ethnically diverse characters, in 1988 Cruise was the quintessential Hollywood matinee idol.? He was also a victim of typecasting.? It seemed that Hollywood wanted Cruise to reprise his role in Risky Business interminably: the young, handsome, cocky, self-centered hustler who must desperately raise a lot of money after taking an unauthorized trip in his father?s classic automobile.? For his role in Rain Man, Cruise was offered a chance to show off his range, to play a character that was a departure, to shed Hollywood?s typecasting straitjacket.? So Cruise played the role of Charlie Babbitt as a young, handsome, cocky, self-centered hustler who must desperately raise a lot of money after taking an unauthorized trip in his father?s classic automobile.
Now about Charlie Babbitt?s back story:? Charlie?s mother died when he was two; his father Sanford never remarried, and he was very distant with his son. One night when Charlie was 16, he drove his father?s beloved 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible without Daddy?s permission.? Charlie Babbitt claimed that he earned the clandestine joyride by getting straight A?s.? His father and the Cincinnati Police Department called it theft.? So Charlie sat in jail for two days, evidently long enough for him to learn how to kite checks and run Ponzi schemes.? Now an embittered and hardened criminal, Charlie Babbitt decided to cut off all ties with his father and move out west.
When? Rain Man begins, Charlie is a Los Angeles car dealer. He is trying to import four grey market Lamborghinis, which Charlie has promised to sell to four rich Americans, and taken $80,000 of their cash in down-payments.? But standing in Charlie?s way is a classic example of how over-regulation by the federal government screws the honest, hard-working entrepreneur every time.? Thanks to that pinko, tree-hugging liberal President Ronald Reagan and his Environmental Protection Agency, Charlie Babbitt cannot deliver his Lamborghinis to his customers as promised, and he faces financial ruin.? Unfazed, Charlie Babbitt decides to drive his Italian whore to Palm Springs, because there just isn?t any good shopping in Los Angeles.? While en route, Charlie receives word that his father, long estranged, has died.? Charlie must now skip Palm Springs and take his Italian whore to Cincinnati, which is like Palm Springs except with crappy weather and more black people.
While sitting in the office of his father?s attorney, Charlie Babbitt discovers the contents of his father?s last will and testament.? From the estate, Charlie inherits some rose bushes and the very same Buick that he stole a decade earlier. ??An undisclosed beneficiary receives the paltry sum of $3 million cash. Charlie is pissed.? He learns that the fortune is being funneled to one particular patient at a loony bin located on the other side of the Ohio River.? The patient is named Raymond (played by Dustin Hoffman). Raymond is afflicted with autism (the real kind, not a make-believe diagnosis to give disability benefits to kids who just won?t behave).? Charlie Babbitt then discovers that Raymond is his older brother, a person heretofore Charlie didn?t even know existed.? ?Why didn?t anybody tell me I had a brother?? becomes Charlie?s refrain, which makes a perfect counterpoint to Raymond?s incessant recital of Abbot and Costello?s Who?s On First routine.?
Raymond?s trustee is Dr. Bruner, the director of the Wallbrook Institution and Country Club for Retards.?? Dr. Bruner has cared for Raymond for more than 20 years, and he is now in charge of the $3 million from Sanford Babbitt?s estate. According to Dr. Bruner, Raymond Babbitt is an autistic savant.? While he is afflicted with a severe neurologic and developmental disorder, he also has a photographic memory and extraordinary skill in math. ?Raymond doesn?t do well with change; he is a slave to routine and habit, a life that revolves around books he doesn?t understand, TV shows like the People?s Court and Wheel of Fortune, and tapioca pudding.? After spending just a few minutes with his newfound brother, Charlie moves into action.? He kidnaps Raymond and decides to use him as a bargaining chip to wrestle half of the $3 million from Dr. Bruner. He quietly drives his autistic brother and his Italian Whore in his inherited convertible to an historical hotel in uptown Cincinnati. There, Charlie continues to plot his scheme.? After banging Charlie in front of his autistic brother, the Italian Whore figures out that Charlie plans to use Raymond as a hostage to extort Dr. Bruner to pay a $1.5 million ransom.? She is shocked that her boyfriend, who makes a living by flipping heavily leveraged luxury cars to rich bastards while thwarting U.S. customs laws, would be such a greedy, shallow, insensitive boor.? So the Italian Whore walks out on Charlie and decides to become a carnie, ending up on a trapeze with a bowtie-wearing pervert.?
Due to Raymond?s fear of flying, Charlie is forced to drive his hostage across country in the Buick. Charlie?s scheme is to get the two to Los Angeles, and then hire Leland McKenzie to use his lawyerly skills and a David E. Kelley script to wrestle $1.5 million from Dr. Bruner.
During their road trip, Charlie begins a character transformation.? The self-centered, greedy, white collar criminal repeatedly caters to his brother?s whims, and does everything he can to make Raymond feel at home on the road.? Charlie also learns the reason his father sent Raymond to the loony bin.? Evidently it is a bad idea to entrust a retard with a baby and scalding bath water.? Raymond sings Charlie a Beatles song which further triggers Charlie?s childhood memories.? Raymond is the shadowy, protective figure from Charlie?s childhood, whom? Charlie falsely recalled was an imaginary friend called the Rain Man.? Charlie sincerely believes ? albeit falsely ?that he can cure Raymond; that all Raymond needs is brotherly love, exposure to the outside world, and a night with a Las Vegas hooker.? Charlie, the lone wolf who cut off all ties with his family a decade before, is now discovering that he needs family in his life, even if it means having a brother who is entirely dependent upon him. Charlie is convinced a life with him in Los Angeles is better for Raymond than a life in an institution.? He expresses his love for his brother, and this new, nurturing Charlie Babbitt by deciding to exploit him. Charlie takes him to Las Vegas and makes a fortune at a Caesar?s Palace blackjack table due to Raymond?s unshakeable talent for counting cards.
Now that Charlie has plenty of money to cover his business losses and avoid financial ruin, he decides he no longer wants his father?s money.? And now that Charlie is flush with cash, his Italian Whore has returned, leaving the bow-tie wearing pervert to perform for children?s television.? But Charlie, having completed his transformation, now decides that he wants to gain custody of his brother even without the inheritance, because having a man capable of fleecing Caesar?s Palace might come in handy.?? But a hearing with a court-appointed psychiatrist does not go well for Charlie?s quest.? Barry Levinson leaves his director?s chair, jumps in front of the camera, and proceeds to badger, confuse, and humiliate Raymond to such an extent that Charlie gives in.? As Raymond boards an Amtrak train that will return him to the Wallbrook Institution and County Club for Retards, Charlie promises to visit his brother in two weeks, or as Raymond sees it, 1,209,600 seconds.
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