Also known as the rain man, he memorized 12 thousand books: Who is Raymond Babbitt?

Doctor: Raymond, do you know what autistic means?

Raymond Babbitt: Yes.

Doctor: You know this word, right?

Raymond Babbitt: Yes.

Doctor: Do you think you are autistic?

Raymond Babbitt: I don't think so. No. I'm definitely not.

Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of abrasive, selfish, young wheeler-dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed virtually 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 with only his father's beloved vintage car and rosebushes. Valeria Golino also 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.

Kim Peek: A mega savanna with an extraordinary memory who inspired the character Raymond Babbitt in the movie Rain Man. Although the movie is fictional, the character is actually inspired by the true story of Kim Peek.

In the movie, Raymond is portrayed as having autism. But Kim actually had a condition in which the bundle of nerves connecting the two hemispheres of the brain was missing.

Kim's memory abilities were astonishing. Throughout his life, he memorized more than 12,000 books, including the Bible, and specialized in 15 subjects such as geography, music, literature, history, and sports.

Surprisingly, Kim could actually read two pages at a time, with his left eye reading the left page and his right eye reading the right page. It took only 8 seconds to read and memorize two pages.

Kim Peek's story

Laurence Kim Peek (November 11, 1951–December 19, 2009) was an American savant. He is known as Megasavant because he has an extraordinary memory. His photographic memory is overdeveloped as a result of a congenital developmental disorder in his brain. He also experienced problems in the social field. He was the inspiration for the character Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man.

Laurence Kim Peek (November 11, 1951 – December 19, 2009) was an American savant. Known as a "megasavant", he had an exceptional memory, but he also experienced social difficulties, possibly resulting from a developmental disability related to congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 movie Rain Man. Although Peek was previously diagnosed with autism, he is now thought to have had FG syndrome. The Utah Film Center's Peek Award honors his legacy.

Kim Peek and Barry Morrow, the screenwriter of the Rain Man movie, meet by chance at the conference of an association where Kim Peek's father, Francis Peek, is the manager. Impressed by Kim's amazing memory, Francis begins to take shape in the scenario of the movie Rain Man.

According to Fran Peek, Kim started memorizing things around him between the ages of 16 and 20 months. After reading and memorizing the books, he puts them upside down on the shelf to show that he has finished the book. Peek, who could memorize almost everything he read after 1 hour of reading, is thought to have memorized 12,000 books in 15 different fields.

Rain Man movie summary

2h 13m | dramatic comedy

Directed by Barry Levinson | Screenplay: Barry Morrow, Ronald Bass

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino

Most of us were probably unfamiliar with the concept of "autism" until the movie Rainman. Here, "Rain Man", in which the magnificent duo Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise gave a truly great double performance, portraying two brothers with completely opposite characters, is now considered a classic by most cinema authorities...

The film tells the dramatic but also funny adventures of Charlie, a dashing person who lives a materialistic life in Los Angeles, and Raymond, who has a different disease. Tramp Charlie dreams of benefiting from an inheritance of $3 million upon the death of his father, from whom he has been estranged for years. However, his father, who left him only a 1949 model Buick, left the entire fortune to Charlie's older brother Raymond, whose existence he did not know before.

An important detail is that Raymond is an autistic genius who needs care! Materialistic Charlie does not intend to give up at least part of the inheritance. For this reason, he kidnaps Raymond from the clinic where he is staying and takes him on a trip across the country. Although he is exasperated along the way by his brother's habits that make life difficult, he is amazed by the autistic man's superhuman ability in mathematics and memory. Eventually, he even tries to cheat in Las Vegas casinos by taking advantage of this rare ability. Along the way, Charlie will have the opportunity to discover not only Raymond but also a part of his past and perhaps himself.

Four Oscar statuettes were awarded to director Barry Levinson, screenwriter Ronald Bass, starring Dustin Hoffman, and, of course, the Rain Man movie itself. Tom Cruise returned from the awards ceremony empty-handed...

What is Savant Syndrome?

Savant syndrome, which occurs as a result of damage to certain parts of the brain; In addition to being a challenging disorder, it reveals many behavioral patterns that amaze and fascinate everyone with its advanced intelligence functions.

This syndrome, which causes difficulty in tasks such as tying shoes or buttoning a shirt, but allows one to read the right page of a book with the right eye and the left page with the left eye at the same time, and makes one memorize the entire telephone book, important dates, license plates and city streets, is of course just the scenario of the movie "Rain Man". not.

In real life, there are “Rain Men” with surprising intelligence and memory functions.