What's the Difference between The Rainmaker the Book and The Rainmaker the Movie?
| In the Book |
In the Movie |
Rudy Baylor
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Rudy Baylor
Portrayed by: Matt Damon
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Deck Shifflet
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Deck Shifflet
Portrayed by: Danny DeVito
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Kelly Riker
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Kelly Riker
Portrayed by: Claire Danes
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Leo F. Drummond
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Leo F. Drummond
Portrayed by: Jon Voight
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Dot Black
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Dot Black
Portrayed by: Mary Kay Place
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Judge Harvey Hale
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Judge Harvey Hale
Portrayed by: Dean Stockwell
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Donny Ray Black
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Donny Ray Black
Portrayed by: Johnny Whitworth
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Ronny Ray Black
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This Character does not appear.
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Dr. Walter Kord
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This Character does not appear.
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Dr. Milton Jiffy
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This Character does not appear.
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Cooper Jackson
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This Character does not appear.
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Judge Tyrone Kipler
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Judge Tyrone Kipler
Portrayed by: Danny Glover
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Jackie Lemanczyk
|
Jackie Lemanczyk
Portrayed by: Virginia Madsen
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The Rainmaker Book vs Movie
| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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While working for Bruiser Stone and looking for accident victims to sign up at the local hospital, Rudy meets a young married woman (Kelly) who is routinely beaten by her husband, They become friends and meet up at times, but Rudy eventually says he will not see her anymore unless she files for divorce |
Rudy meets Kelly at the hospital, but does not keep in touch much until she files for divorce. |
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Dr. Walter Kord is very upset about how great Benefit treated Donny Ray Black. He let Rudy depose him for free and gives Rudy a list of oncologists will will testify at the trial to ensure the jury knows that bone marrow transplants would have been an effective cure for Donny Ray. Rudy shows the list of doctors to Leo Dummond and says he has ten doctors who will rebut the testimony of Leo's "quack" if he puts him on the stand to say bone marrow transplants are not effective. |
Dr. Kord and Dr. Jiffy are not in the film. When the president of Great Benefit is on the stand, Rudy hands him an internal memo he obtained that says Great Benefit was planning on investing in bone marrow transplant technology. This invalidates their claim that the treatment was not effective.
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Rudy and Deck set up their own small law firm in the cheap part of town. Rudy handles several small cases while getting ready to represent the Black family in court for the bad faith insurance lawsuit. |
Rudy and Deck have nothing else to do other than prepare for the Black lawsuit. |
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Rudy meets with an experienced lawyer named Max Leuberg. He reviews the case right before Rudy is set to go to trial and tells him it is one of the best bad faith insurance cases he has ever seen. Up until this happens, the case has been a David vs Goliath with Rudy the underdog. But now Rudy is the one with the strong case and Leo Dummond is the tiny David who is destined to lose big. |
This does not happen in the film. Rudy is portrayed as the weak lawyer who is destined to lose in court until near the end of the film.
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Rudy broke a window with a bust at the offices of the Jonathon Lake law firm. It was later burned down. The police speak to Rudy about it once. He is not a suspect. |
This does not happen in the film. |