Rain Man is a 1988 American
drama film directed by
Barry Levinson and written by
Barry Morrow and
Ronald Bass. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish young , Charlie Babbitt (
Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his
multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (
Dustin Hoffman), an
autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Charlie is left only his father's car and his collection of rose bushes. In addition to the two leads,
Valeria Golino stars as Charlie's girlfriend, Susanna. Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting
Kim Peek, a real-life
savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and
Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of
Bill, an earlier film that Morrow wrote.