Field Of Dreams

PLOT

Ray Kinsella lives with his wife, Annie, and daughter, Karin, on their Dyersville, Iowa, corn farm. Troubled by his broken relationship with his late father, John Kinsella, a devoted baseball fan, he fears growing old without achieving anything.

While walking through his cornfield one evening, he hears a voice whispering, "If you build it, he will come." He sees a vision of a baseball diamond in the cornfield and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (who in real-life died in 1951) standing in the middle. Believing in him, Annie lets him plow under part of their corn crop to build a baseball field, at risk of financial hardship.

As Ray builds the field, he tells Karin about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Several months pass, and just as Ray is beginning to doubt himself, Shoeless Joe reappears, asking if others can play, and returns with the seven other Black Sox players. Annie's brother, Mark, can't see the players. He warns the couple they are going bankrupt and offers to buy their land. The voice, meanwhile, urges Ray to "ease his pain."

Ray and Annie attend a PTA meeting, where she argues against someone who is trying to ban books by Terence Mann, a controversial author and activist from the 1960s. Ray deduces the voice was referring to Mann, who had named one of his characters "John Kinsella" and had once professed a childhood dream of playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When Ray and Annie have identical dreams about Ray and Mann attending a game at Fenway Park, Ray finds Mann in Boston. Mann, who has become a disenchanted recluse, agrees to attend one game. There Ray hears the voice urging him to "go the distance", seeing statistics on the scoreboard for Archie "Moonlight" Graham, who played in one game for the New York Giants in 1922 but never got to bat. Mann also admits to hearing the voice and seeing the scoreboard.

They drive to Minnesota, learning that Graham, who was a physician, had died years earlier. Ray finds himself in 1972, encountering an elderly Graham, who says he happily left baseball for a satisfying medical career. During the drive back to Iowa, Ray picks up young hitchhiker Archie Graham, who is looking for a baseball team to join. Ray later tells Mann that his father dreamed of being a baseball player then tried to make him pick up the sport instead. At 14, after reading one of Mann's books, Ray stopped playing catch with his father, and they became estranged after he mocked John for having "a hero who was a criminal." Ray admits that his greatest regret is that his father died before they could reconcile. Arriving at the farm, they see various all-star players have arrived, fielding a second team. A game is played and Graham finally gets his turn at bat.

The next morning, Mark returns, demanding that Ray sell the farm or the bank will foreclose on him. Karin insists that people will pay to watch the ballgames. Mann agrees, saying that "people will come" to relive their childhood innocence. Ray and Mark scuffle, accidentally knocking Karin off the bleachers. Graham — despite knowing he will be unable to return after stepping off the field — saves her. Having become old Doc Graham again, he reassures Ray that he has no regrets. As he heads back toward the cornfield, he is commended by the other players, and before he can disappear into the corn, Shoeless Joe calls out, "Hey, rookie!" Graham stops and turns to Shoeless Joe, who deliberately tells him, "You were good." Doc Graham's eyes shine with tears before he smiles, turns back toward the corn, and disappears into it. Suddenly, Mark too can see the players and urges Ray to keep the farm.

Shoeless Joe invites Mann to enter the corn, and Mann disappears into it. Ray is angry at not being invited but Joe rebukes him, glancing towards the catcher at home plate, saying, "If you build it, he will come." When the catcher removes his mask, Ray recognizes him as his father as a young man. Ray realizes "ease his pain" referred to his own regrets.

Ray introduces John to his wife and daughter, initially without referring to him as his father. As John begins to head towards the cornfield, Ray, calling him "Dad", asks if he wants to have a catch. John gladly accepts as hundreds of cars are seen approaching the field, fulfilling the prophecy that people will come to watch baseball.

CAST

Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella

Amy Madigan as Annie Kinsella

Gaby Hoffmann as Karin Kinsella

James Earl Jones as Terence Mann

Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson

Timothy Busfield as Mark

Burt Lancaster as Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham

Frank Whaley as young Archibald Graham

Dwier Brown as John Kinsella

Lee Garlington as Beulah Gasnick

Michael Milhoan as Buck Weaver

Steve Eastin as Eddie Cicotte

Charles Hoyes as Swede Risberg

Art LaFleur as Chick Gandil

In addition, Anne Seymour, who died four months before the film's release, makes her final film appearance as the kindly Chisholm publisher who helps Ray and Mann. The identity of the actor who provided "The Voice", who speaks to Ray throughout the film, has remained unconfirmed since the film's release. Some believe it is Costner or Liotta, but the book's author W. P. Kinsella said he was told it was Ed Harris (Madigan's husband). Then-teenagers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were extras in the Fenway Park scene.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

based on W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel Shoeless Joe.