The Rainmaker ( 1997 ) Ending Explained | Movie Spoilers
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Today I am going to explain a very inspirational nice film called the rainmaker released in the year 1977 this film is based on the book by the same name the film starts with a guy named Rudy baler who was a law student. In his opening voice-over, he narrates his college days. He was a third-year student at Memphis State College.
He was from a poor family hence to pay the tuition fees he used to work at a restaurant. After completing his Lord degree the restaurant owner Mr. Prince took Rudy to the town's infamous law firm. It was called Bruiser stone and Associates. Rudy didn't like this idea as the owner of this firm Mr. Bruiser. He used to defend criminals and thugs. His activity was sort of shady. He was famous as an Ambulance Chaser. Rudy had a student loan to clear hence he accepted this offer.
Bruiser says in his firm there is no option of a fixed salary. He has to generate his own fee. If he generates 100 dollars then the firm will keep 70 and he will get 30. Bruiser says this way he will get cases, experience, and money. This was a shady offer yet Rudy accepted it. He already had two cases. One was an old lady who wanted to make her will. the second case was a lawsuit against an insurance company called great benefit. Bruiser asks Rudy to register these cases in the firm's name. Later he calls his assistant Dick Sheppard and tells him to help Rudy as he used to handle insurance cases. Before this Dick was working in an insurance company, and its unethical practice made him quit. Since then he was here, he had a law degree but hadn't been able to pass the bar. Rudy says his bar exam is in three weeks. He had been kicked out of his dorm, he was sleeping in his car.
Later Rudy pays a visit to Mrs. Birdie's house who wanted her will written. She was an eighty-plus-year-old lady who used to live alone. She wanted to remove her son from inheriting her property and was keen on donating it to a paster guy coming on TV. Rudy sensed some family issue here, he advised her not to take hasty decisions. As he was leaving he noticed Mrs. Birdie's outhouse. He asks for rent. Mrs. Birdie was sweet, she agreed with few conditions.
Later Rudy pays a visit to the insurance case client Mrs. Black. Mrs. Black's son Danny Ray Black was suffering from leukemia, doctors advised him bone marrow transplant. This treatment was expensive, it was beyond his financial strength. For situations like these, he had taken health insurance from a great benefit company. But now the insurance company was rejecting his claim stating, Bone Narrow treatment is an advanced procedure. Danny's plan is a basic one that doesn't include this. They have rejected it seven times.
Mrs. Black shows all the correspondence she had with the company. Rudy was shocked to see this. He lays out his firm's offer, the firm will bear all the cost, and they pay nothing. If they get a settlement then the company will take a 33% cut. Mrs. Black agrees, and she, Danny, and Mr. Black signs the agreement.
Rudy and Dick start their routine. Bruiser had contact with many staff at hospitals, they use to inform him about accidents, and violence cases. Dick used to follow it up. On the first day, Dick explains the system to Rudy, and they sign a guy who was clearly in no state to decide the best lawyer for himself. Rudy doesn't like this, for him it seemed undignified but Dick justifies it. He says this is how real lawyers get cases. There they see a young lady with broken legs.
Bruiser learns about this lady, it was a domestic violence case. Her name was Kelly Riker, she was brutally attacked by her husband with a baseball bat. Rudy was preparing for his exam when Bruiser asked him to take this case. At the hospital's canteen, Rudy reads in a newspaper that says the FBI was looking into Bruiser's shady business. Corruption is written all over. Just then Kelly's husband shouts at her and threatens her. He was already out on bail. Rudy closely observes Kelly's condition from a distance for some time. There was a fracture in her legs, a head injury, and her hands were swollen. Rudy meets her and talks patiently. He was clearly hesitant to talk with her seeing her in this condition. That's why he doesn't say much and just gives her his card. There was no one in Kelly's family, hence for a few days, he takes care of her. They both become good friends. Meanwhile, Rudy also clears his bar exam. While preparing for Danny Ray's case, his and Danny's friendship grows.
The day before Danny's court hearing, Bruiser takes Rudy and Dick to lunch. Gives them a bonus to punks. Dick wonders how come Bruiser suddenly became so kind. He feels that Bruiser might be going underground. FBI may raid their office at any time. Dick tells Rudy to remove Danny Ray's file from the office. Their law firm was about to sink. For safety, Rudy removes the files. The next day FBI raids and Bruiser goes underground. Rudy and Dick were now in a pickle as now they have to decide about Danny Ray's case. Rudy was full nervous on his first day of court, as he didn't even have a license. After passing the bar, the lawyers had to take a license from the BAR association. It would take some time for new applications. Rudy thought Bruiser would lead the proceedings hence his license was not an issue. Since Bruiser was now missing, he decides to go all alone. The presiding judge Hale had a cough, he was a vivid tobacco consumer. At first Judge Hale was furious, he shouts at Rudy to get a license. But Opposing's lawyer, Leo F Drummond, sympathizes with Rudy. He says if he had passed the bar, he should be given a chance to plead. They won't have any problem. Off coarse his motive was to have an inexperienced lawyer.
Now Judge Hale officially orders an oath of law to Rudy. The judge suggests an out-of-court settlement by inviting Rudy and Leo to his room. Leo tells that the company is ready to pay up to $75,000 in compensation if he convinces his clients. Rudy was interested hence he assures him that he will get back to him. Dick tells Rudy to accept the offer as he was going to get $25,000 from it. Danny says now the money is of no use, now it can't help me with treatment. If the claim was received on time, then it was a different matter. He tells Rudy to continue the case and send the insurance officials to jail for Negligence. Rudy and Dick start their own firm on partnership bases. They take an office on rent. Meanwhile, Judge Hale dies of a heart attack. A strict African-American judge, Kepler, is appointed in his place. Judge Kepler fast-tracks the case by looking at the condition of the case. Everyone Judge, Rudy, Dick, Leo, and his fellow lawyers go to Danny's house and listen to Danny's statement. Danny was visibly weak, he sticks to his statement of negligence and demanded justice.
Rudy visits the shop where Kelly was working. She had recovered well. He asks her on a movie night. While watching an intimate scene Rudy kisses Kelly. Kelly was cooperating but suddenly she remembered her violent husband and ran away.
The next day, Rudy went to the insurance company to recoding statements from officials. He wanted to interview claims handler Jackie Lemanczyk, Leo says she has resigned. Rudy asks about another guy called Russel, who was downsized. Clearly, Leo was stalling and Rudy sensed it. Danny Ray Black dies of leukemia within a few days from this. Dick and Rudy go to his funeral. Dick says now this case is of wrongful death, in which compensation is more. Mrs. Black now wanted to take the case forward. Rudy consoles her. Now both parties finalize the jury. Dick learns that Leo has installed a secret microphone in their office and is tapping phones. He removes all microphones from the office with the help of a private detective. Ruddy gets an idea with this. He asks the detective to make a fake call to him as jury member Billy Porter. The detective does that. Leo hears this fake phone call and accuses the real Billy Porter of favoritism in court. The real Porter guy angrily attacks Leo on the court itself and beats him up.
A scuffle breaks out in the court hall. Judge Kepler angrily scolds everyone and Billy Porter was fired from the jury. Kelly was working in her shop, her husband attacks her again. She dials Rudy this time. Rudy took her to Mrs. Birdie's house. He and Mrs. Birdie took her care for a few days. Kelly decides to divorce. When she and Rudy were at her house to get her clothes and belongings, then there her husband arrives. He attacks both of them. This time Rudy hits him in the head with the baseball bat, which causes his death. Kelly panics, she takes the blame for that murder on her head. Rudy runs from there. The police arrest Kelly and sends her to jail. Rudy meets her and assures her that he will get her out by any means. Now the court case moves forward.
In cross-examination, Leo shows Mrs. Black the insurance policy and says that the policy clearly states that it covers only basic treatments and not advanced treatments like bone-marrow transplants. He also shows the black family physician Dr. Page's letter, which says Danny Ray could not survive even after a bone marrow transplant. Mrs. Black says Dr. Page is not an expert, he is just a Physician. She always wanted the best treatment for her son. Now in the witness box comes Mar Lufkin, Vice President of the Claims Department. Rudy asks him, who is Jackie Lemanczyk? Was she the claim handler of Danny Ray's case? And when was she fired from the company? Mr. Lufkin states that Jackie Lemanczyk was Danny Ray's clams handler and she was not fired from the company, but she himself left the company for her own personal reasons. Dick now traces Jackie Lemonczyk and gets all the information from her. The next day, Rudy offers Jackie as a witness. Leo objects to this as he was not given prior notice about it. Dick interrupts to tell the judge that they listed Jackie as a potential witness in the pre-trial. So, must be allowed. The judge allows them. Jackie comes to the witness box and explains the workings of the insurance company.
The insurance premium was collected little by little every week, mostly from the poor lower-income working class. Under the policy, all the claims were suspended for one year. Some lame excuse was given. Those who wanted to make easy out-of-court settlement were settled. In some cases, the claim was accepted. Everyone knew that Danny Ray's claim was correct, if they had accepted the claim in one case, then they would have had to accept the claim in all the other bone marrow cases. That was a huge risk. That's why management kept on delaying. When Mrs. Black sued, Mr. Lufkin, called me and said that the company will give me $ 10,000, and I have to resign. Otherwise, they will throw me out and will get nothing. Jackie apologizes to Mrs. Black for being rude. Rudy asks her to go through section U from the company's policy manual. Jackie says there is no section U in it. The manual that was submitted to the court did not have that section. Jackie had stolen some documents and the original manual from the company when she left the company. Which was now in Rudy's possession. He asks her to read section U from it. Leo objected to this and says that the stolen documents cannot be admitted in court.
The judge refuses to admit Manual. Now Leo does a cross-examination with Jackie. He says that she is an alcoholic, and was in the Rehab for days. The insurance company did not accept her claim for rehab hence she is taking revenge. He also accuses her of taking promotions by doing sexual favors with bosses. Dick had Bruiser's emergency contact number, and he calls him. Bruiser had handled many such cases. Regarding one such case that came in 1992, he says that if the lawyers had no hand in stealing the documents, then such documents can be admitted. Dick now starts searching for the files in that case. Rudy gets an urgent all night from the Memphis District Attorney.
Kelly was about to release, DA had declared that the murder was self-defense. After completing some paperwork, Rudy and Kelly come out of jail. Rudy brings her to the house of Mrs. Birdie. The next day the CEO of the insurance company, Mr. Wilfred Keeley appears as a witness. Rudy again asks him to go through section U from the manual provided by Jackie. Leo again objects to it. This time, Dick shows the file of Bruiser's previous court cases to the judge and says that there is no involvement of the lawyers in obtaining these documents. Hence he must permit admission. Judge Kepler allows it after carefully seeing it. Leo was not happy with this but maintains his objection. Now Rudy asks Mr. Keeley to go through section U. It goes like this. All the claim handlers will have to deny claims for 3 months in any case. prolong the claims as long as possible. Rudy says your company received 11462 claims requests in the year 1995 and you declined 9420 claims. He shows another file named medical committee report, whose chairman was Mr. Kelley himself.
He asks him to read it aloud. Mr. Keeley reads the document in which it was written that bone-marrow treatments are now counted among basic treatments. Therefore, the company should make investments to handle such claims. The company knew that the claim was legal but still they did not accept it. As it would have opened the pandora's box. Rudy now ends his arguments. After deliberation, the jury was ready to pronounce its decision. The jury person says we state the Great Benefit Insurance Company as guilty. We award $150000 in claim amount to Plaintiff Danny Ray. We order $5 million in damages to the plaintiff. The Judge lowers down the hammer and seals the judgment. It was the first time that such a big fine was levied on an insurance company. The images of Rudy and Dick appear on TV. Mrs. Birdie and kelly watch this news. Dick gives interviews on TV.
The next day, Mr. Keeley was caught by police fleeing to Israel with his wife. His company did not have that kind of money to pay that much fine, they were running a fraud company. They filed for bankruptcy. Leo calls Rudy and says that no one got anything in this case, he also didn't get his fee. He seemed really sorry. He congratulates Rudy for fighting the case well. Dick had now lost faith in the legal system. Rudy explains the things to Mrs. Black, and she thanks him wholeheartedly. Rudy and Kelly start their lives. Rudy and Dick keep their offices running but they still had no money. Only fame was enough to get new clients. The film ends with Rudy's quotes. This was a nice movie. one can get success keeping one head down and working hard for it. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with the film earning an 82% rating with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10. I guess this movie is evergreen, nothing much has changed, many companies even today deny claims on bogus charges.
