FAQ for
Hannibal (2001) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Hannibal can be found at here.

Yes. The movie is based on Hannibal, a 1999 novel by American writer Thomas Harris. The novel was adapted for the movie by American screenwriters and David Mamet and Steven Zaillian. Hannibal is a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991). It was followed by a second sequel, Hannibal Rising (2007) and one prequel Red Dragon (2002), all based on novels by Thomas Harris. Prior to The Silence of the Lambs, there was another Hannibal Lecter movie, Manhunter (1986), also based on Harris' 1981 novel, Red Dragon, but not considered to be part of The Silence of the Lambs franchise.

Anthony Hopkins reprises his role as the cannibalistic serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, this time in the guise of Dr Fell, new curator of the Capponi Library in Florence, Italy. FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling is also back, although she is played by Julianne Moore, not Jodie Foster. Barney Matthews (Frankie Faison), the nurse who admitted Clarice to the locked row of cells in which Lector was being held at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, is seen again in a small part at the beginning of the movie. Justice Department official Paul Krendler, played by Ray Liotta rather than Ron Vawter, returns in an expanded and more sinister role. Added to the cast is Mason Verger (Gary Oldman), a pedophile horribly disfigured by Lecter and the only one of his victims to survive. It is Verger who calls upon Clarice to help locate Lecter and bring him to justice. Also added to the main cast is Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) of the Florence Questura, who recognizes Fell as Lecter and attempts to capture him for Verger.

In an interview for Total Film magazine, Foster said:

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The official reason I didn't do Hannibal is I was doing another movie, Flora Plum. So I get to say, in a nice dignified way, that I wasn't available when that movie was being shot... Clarice meant so much to Jonathan and I, she really did, and I know it sounds kind of strange to say but there was no way that either of us could really trample on her.

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Ten years, evidenced by the news reporter who mentions Clarice Starling's previous brush with Hannibal Lecter as being ten years prior.

According to the film, Mason Verger is the only surviving victim of Dr. Lecter's 14 victims. In the novels, it is said that there are three known surviving victims: (1) Verger, (2) an unnamed victim residing in a mental hospital in Colorado, and (3) Will Graham from Red Dragon. Manhunter, the original film to feature Graham and Lecter, wasn't much of a success and is not a part of the Hannibal franchise. Although the novel, Red Dragon, was written in 1981, before The Silence of the Lambs (1988) and Hannibal (1999), it wasn't filmed until 2002, after the filming of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Hannibal (2001), so the character of Will Graham hadn't yet been introduced to the Hannibal franchise.

Mason was a sexual deviant who was also infatuated with Lecter. Lecter had given him a 'popper' [in the book, a mixture of hallucinogenic and hypnotic drugs] before suggesting that he cut off his face and feed it to the dogs. Verger was based on the real case of a man named Michael who, while under the influence of PCP, did the same thing -- cut off parts of his face and fed them to some dogs. For more information on Michael, see here.

The song is called Vide Cor Meum (See My Heart). Composed especially for the movie by Patrick Cassidy, the song was later used in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.

Yes, he denied it. Benjamin Raspail was the man whose severed head was found by Clarice in the locked storage garage in the beginning of Silence of the Lambs. In that movie, Hannibal Lecter identified the head as belonging to Raspail but claims not to have killed him, merely that he concealed Raspail's remains as he found them. Lecter later claims Raspail was killed by his (Raspail's) lover, who is the same person as Buffalo Bill. However, during the conversation between Clarice and Paul Krendler in the archives in Hannibal, Clarice casually mentions that Hannibal killed Benjamin Raspail in order to improve the quality of the orchestra Raspail played in, since he was such a dreadful player. This claim is also confirmed in the opening scene of Red Dragon, where Lecter feeds parts of a flautist's corpse to the unwitting members of the orchestra board, though this flautist is never mentioned by name in either the film or the credits. In the book, Raspail was indeed Lecter's victim. The head in the storage locker belonged to Raspail's boyfriend Klaus. Klaus was actually killed by a jealous Buffalo Bill, who was once Raspail's lover. In the movie, the character of Klaus was omitted completely, perhaps to avoid introducing characters that had no significant role in the plot. Probably because it was important to establish Buffalo Bill's first kill, which started his career as a serial killer, Raspail was made Bill's first victim, and not one of Hannibal's.

In Ridley Scott's commentary on the film, he says that the reason they walk right past Lecter is a combination of a) the fact that Lecter is standing still (whether they consider him no harm or an inadequate food supply is unclear), and b) the boars feel an "animal connection" of sorts with Lecter (in other words, they sense Lecter as another animal and leave him alone). Another possibility is that the hogs were attracted to blood and were accustomed to feeding while hearing screams. Since Lecter wasn't screaming and had no blood on him, they walked past him and went straight to the screams. In the novel of Hannibal, it is said that the boars smelled no fear on him, so they went past him to eat the screamers.

Stripped of her gun and her FBI status, Clarice goes alone to the Verger estate to look for Lecter. She finds him strapped down and about to be fed to Verger's vicious boars. She shoots the two henchmen guarding him. Just as Clarice sets Lecter free, the boars break out of the barn and Verger arrives to watch the carnage. One of Verger's henchmen shoots Clarice, so Lecter takes her into his arms as the boars go after the two downed henchmen. Verger orders his personal physician, Dr Cordell, to go into the swarming mass of squealing, ravenous boars to retrieve a gun, but Lecter convinces Cordell (who greatly dislikes Verger) to feed Verger to the boars and blame it on Lecter. Lecter takes the barely conscious Clarice to Krendler's lakehouse, where he removes the bullet and tends to her wound. When Clarice awakens from a morphine-induced nap, she laboriously makes her way to a telephone to call for backup and then downstairs where she finds Lecter preparing an elegant dinner for Krendler, who appears to be drugged. Clarice is horrified when she sees Lecter lift off the top of Krendler's skull, scoop out a portion of his brain, sauté it, and feed it to Krendler. When Krendler refers to Clarice as a "corn pone" one too many times, Lecter wheels Krendler to the kitchen and prepares to make his getaway, knowing that Clarice has called the FBI. Clarice tries to hit him with a candlestick, but Lecter catches her hair in the refrigerator door. He kisses her and is about to walk away when she slaps a cuff on his wrist and cuffs him to herself. When she refuses to give him the key, Lecter picks up a meat cleaver. "This is really going to hurt," he says, and the cleaver comes down. In the next scene, Clarice is standing over the lake, watching for any signs of Lecter, who has disappeared. Her backup arrives, and Clarice identifies herself but says nothing about Hannibal Lecter getting away. In the final scene, Lecter is seated on an airplane, one of his own hands missing, about to enjoy his carry-on lunch. A small boy looks curiously into the box and asks what some of the food is. One of the containers holds what looks like sautéed brain. Lecter offers the boy a bite.

Short answer: Yes and no. Critical response to the movie was very mixed. According to the critic review site Rotten Tomatoes, the general consensus was:

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While superbly acted and stylishly filmed, Hannibal lacks the character interaction between the two leads which made the first movie so engrossing.

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No. The packaging is obviously different, but the content on each of the DVDs is exactly the same.