ABSTRACT
In the Academy Award winning film Rain Man, Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt, a young man who finds that he has been written out of his recently deceased father's 3 million dollar estate. The beneficiary is his previously unknown older brother called Raymond. The film revolves around a road trip the brothers make to the West Coast of America, a voyage of discovery for both the brothers but particularly for Charlie who begins to recognise the very special gifts his older brother possesses. Although the film is a work of fiction, the inspiration for the film was a real-life megasavant called Kim Peek. In many ways, Kim Peek is even more remarkable than the character Dustin Hoffman played in the film, he has been called a 'living google' and is the world's most famous savant. Sadly, Kim Peek suffered a major heart attack and was pronounced dead at a hospital in his home town on 19 December 2009.
