Details

Release year: 2001

Storyline

Living in exile, Dr. Hannibal Lecter tries to reconnect with now disgraced F.B.I. Agent Clarice Starling, and finds himself a target of revenge from a powerful victim.

Top credits

Directors

Ridley Scott

Writers

Cast

Anthony Hopkins — Hannibal Lecter
Julianne Moore — Clarice Starling
Gary Oldman — Mason Verger
Ray Liotta — Paul Krendler

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Did you know

• In the novel's ending, Clarice Starling joins Dr. Hannibal Lecter in dining on Paul Krendler's brain, and accepts his desire for them to become lovers. The novel also reveals that Lithuanian Hannibal's cannibalism stems from his childhood trauma of seeing his sister murdered and eaten by starving Nazis. Producer and director Sir Ridley Scott admitted that he didn't like the psychological explanation of Hannibal's actions and rejected it from the script. Hannibal's childhood experiences became the basis for Hannibal Rising (2007).

• The part of Mason Verger was originally offered to Christopher Reeve, based on his work as a wheelchair-bound police officer in Above Suspicion (1995), which was released six days before the horse riding accident that left Reeve paralyzed for real. Not having read the novel, Reeve showed initial interest in the role, but ultimately declined upon realizing that Verger was a quadriplegic, facially-disfigured child rapist. Had Reeve taken the part, it would've been his last film appearance before his death in 2004.

• A special animatronic puppet of Ray Liotta was used for some parts of the brain-eating scene. Liotta has said that he's not sure exactly which shots are him or the puppet.