Field of Dreams (1989)

Ray Kinsella, who is 36, 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 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 Terrence Mann. 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.