History Film / RainMan

The film's focus is on the bonding power of family and how when you take care of someone else it teaches you not to be so self-centered. Raymond can't change, but Charlie can, and does. It is also notable for its focus on an autistic character.

* RageBreakingPoint: Charlie has many moments in which he gets angry because he has to deal with Raymond's persnickety issues, but at the beginning of the third act [[[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXxZTxCFPj0 he calls his office]], discovers how much screwed he is financially because of not being there because of having to drive with Raymond, and screams [[AtomicFBomb one of the loudest examples of "son of a bitch!" in cinematic history]] in a rage.

* RantInducingSlight: Charlie has this quite ''frequently''.

* KickTheDog: Charlie may not start off as the most likable guy, but the way he treats Raymond at first after essentially ''kidnapping'' him from the institution he lives at (ie verbally abusing him when frustrated and even manhandling him at one point) is pretty jarring. [[CharacterDevelopment He becomes more tolerant of and patient with his brother as their trip goes on.]]

* LongLostRelative: Raymond
* MadnessMantra: X minutes to [[Series/ThePeoplesCourt Wapner]] and reciting WhosOnFirst.
* MistakenForAttack: It's implied that the real reason Raymond was sent to Wallingbrook was apparently due to a childhood incident. Charlie was nearly burned while in the bath and Raymond had pulled him out, however, their dad Sanford assumed that Raymond was harming Charlie rather than saving him since Raymond was unable to say anything at the time because of his autism.

* WhatTheHellHero: Dr. Bruner clearly only wants what is best for Raymond, but Charlie does point out to him near the end that it would be nice if ''somebody'' had told him he had an older brother. (because it would have been nice to have known him for longer than the few days they spent together) Had Charlie not looked into who was receiving the bulk of the inheritance instead of him, you have to wonder just when would he be privy to that little piece of information.

* WrongfullyCommitted: It's implied that the real reason Raymond was sent to Wallingbrook was apparently due to a childhood incident. Charlie was nearly burned while in the bath and Raymond had pulled him out, however, their dad Sanford [[HelpMistakenForAttack assumed that Raymond was harming Charlie rather than saving him]] since Raymond was unable to say anything at the time because of his autism.

* DumbIsGood: Raymond. Charlie on the other hand is functional, smart and scheming.
** On the other hand, Raymond can count the amount of toothpicks that fell on the floor in seconds, [[spoiler:can count cards]], etc.

* RoadTripPlot: Raymond refused to fly with any other airline but Qantas. (Raymond is correct about Qantas never having had a jet crash, but they have had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas#Airline_incidents several fatal incidents and some near misses]].)

* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Raymond
* JeopardyIntelligenceTest: As demonstrated by Raymond.

* TenMoviePlots: And they called it buddy love.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Charlie

* PassedOverInheritance: The movie opens with Charlie finding out that almost all of his late father's fortune is going to unknown brother Raymond instead of him.

* PersonaNonGrata: The casinos don't know exactly how Raymond did it, but he and his brother are told to take their winnings and never return; also not to try this anywhere else because now their reputation shall precede them everywhere they go.

The film's focus is on the bonding power of family and how when you take care of someone else it teaches you not to be so self-centered. Raymond can't change, but Charlie can, and does.

[[TropeNamer This film gave us]] TheRainman. Every autistic person in recent film and television owes a lot to Dustin Hoffman's brilliant performance, as well as their near mandated DisabilitySuperpower. Whether either is good or bad is up for debate.

''Rain Man'' is a 1988 Oscar-winning film by Barry Levinson, starring Creator/DustinHoffman and Creator/TomCruise. The main character is loosely based around real-life savant Kim Peek (1951-2009), who in reality had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FG_syndrome FG syndrome]], not autism (though nobody realized it until after he died).

* BigBrotherInstinct: Raymond loves his brother dearly, even if he has a funny way of showing it. He protected Charlie from being hurt as a child, which is what put him in the mental institution in the first place.

* {{Bowdlerised}}: Obviously, the TV version is heavily edited, though Charlie's altered "I DON'T NEED THIS!!" manages to be nearly as impactful as the original AtomicFBomb stated above.
** Raymond's rattling off of plane crash statistics and incidents was edited from the version shown on airlines--a quite reasonable cut, actually, so as not to frighten any passengers.[[note]]Qantas, of course, played the unedited version.[[/note]]

* ShownTheirWork: Creator/DustinHoffman's acting as an autistic is very close to how some autistics are in real life. Since classification of autism has always been very difficult, it may be that the movie has changed who gets classified as autistic instead of other similar disorders like [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rett_syndrome Rett syndrome]]. Thus making it seem more accurate than it really set out to be (the movie only had 3 weeks of research). Proof of the difficulty of classification is that if a child cannot be pigeon holed into a disorder, they are often classified as PDD-NOS or an atypical autistic.

''Rain Man'' is a 1988 Oscar-winning film by Barry Levinson, starring Creator/DustinHoffman and Creator/TomCruise. The main character is loosely based around real-life savant Kim Peek (1951-2009), who in reality had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FG_syndrome FG syndrome]], not autism.

[[caption-width-right:350:The BuddyPicture, {{Inverted}}, and one of the greatest [[RoadTripPlot Road Movies]] of all time. Autistic opinions may vary.]]

Charlie decides to whisk (read: kidnap) Raymond away and meet with his attorneys in Los Angeles so he can get -- in his view -- what is rightfully his. Charlie discovers multiple things about Raymond, one being that no matter how much he screams and shouts Raymond does not and cannot change (he has to watch ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and [[ThePeoplesCourt Wapner]], ''has'' to have the syrup on the table ''before'' the pancakes arrive, etc.). The other is that Raymond has near perfect recall and mathematical skills to rival any calculator. Seeing this, it leads Charlie to use Raymond to help his own financial problems and (in an oft parodied / replicated scene) takes Raymond to UsefulNotes/LasVegas to count cards.

* MadnessMantra: X minutes to [[ThePeoplesCourt Wapner]] and reciting WhosOnFirst.

* BittersweetEnding / DownerEnding: Charlie fails to get custody of Raymond, and returns him to the institution.

** Later on, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Charlie's father did love him, but had difficulty showing it. Who knows? Maybe Charlie's father was autistic.]]
*** It's not hard to see why Sanford Babbitt was a bad father, or, at least, a distant one. He lost his wife and then had to have his son put in a mental institution shortly after. Even the act of putting Raymond in the institution may have been somewhat against his will. Little was known about Autism or how to treat it in whatever year it was that Raymond had to go to Wallbrook (many laymen were even unfamiliar with the term "autism" when the film was released, which is why the Doctor functions as something of an ExpositionFairy).

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rain_man1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:The BuddyPicture, {{Inverted}}, and one of the greatest [[RoadTripPlot Road Movies]] of all time. Autistic opinions may vary.]]

-->'''Mooney''': And I remember, too, the day you left home, so full of bitterness and grandiose ideas, so full of yourself; and being raised without a mother, the hardness of your heart is understandable as well. Your refusal to even pretend that you loved or respected me, all of these I can forgive. But your failure to write, to telephone, to re-enter my life in any way, has left me without a son. I wish you all I ever wanted for you, I wish you the best.