Goofs for
Hannibal (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Hannibal Lecter's left fingers, holding a cigarette, while waiting for Rinaldo Pazzi to leaf through the suitcase inventory.
  
  
• Continuity: When Lecter writes his first letter to Clarice, he licks the envelope to seal it. However, when we see it on her desk before she opens it, the only thing keeping it shut is the seal wax in the centre.
  
  
• Continuity: When Lecter fights with Pazzi they are standing between the projector and the screen, but you can still see the whole slide. It looks as if the projector has been moved out of the way and the shadow we see is cast by another light source.
  
  

• Audio/visual unsynchronized: The voiceover "reading" Hannibal's letter to Clarice is very different from the written version we see.
  
  
• Continuity: The sky changes from dusk to dark and back again several times while the cars drive to the house.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Clarice relinquishes her badge and gun in front of Richmond, Virginia's beautiful skyline (standing in for Washington, D.C.).
  
  
• Continuity: Dr. Lecter signs M.D. very small on the letter, but when Clarice is reading it, M.D. is written very large.
  
  
• Continuity: The right side of the van following Clarice from her house is damaged with a headlight that does not match the undamaged, left side. Later, as the van is seen before crashing into items, the damage is missing and the headlight matches the other side.
  
  
• Continuity: The clock on the wall when Hannibal dines with Paul and Clarice.
  
  
• Factual errors: The typeface on Lecter's copy of the Washington Post is different from what the Post uses for their headlines and text.
  
  
• Continuity: When Lecter closes the fridge door on Agent Starling's hair, a reflection of Agent Krendler is seen briefly where he not only has no tea towel on his head, but also has a complete head.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: On many of the close-up shots of Mason Verger, the actor's top lip is separated from the top lip of his makeup. This is especially obvious on the low shots looking up at his face.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Hannibal is reading newspaper headlines propped up on his piano, one of them purports to be from Washington, D.C. However, the headline uses the British phrasing, "Drugs Bust," instead of the American "Drug Bust," giving away the true source of the printed prop.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: On the surround audio track, as heard in cinemas, the drug bust features sounds of gunfire that don't correspond with where the shooters are standing. Also, at least once the camera angle changes and the sound effects remain in the same place.
  
  
• Continuity: The web site Pazzi accesses about Lecter begins with "In 1992..." Later shots show the same text beginning with "In 1990..."
  
  
• Continuity: When Mason Verger's Italian pig breeders have the swine devour a mannequin, in one shot a pig deforms the mannequin's face with its giant fangs; in the next shot, the mannequin's head is intact and reinflated with no evidence of the prior abuse that should have left it permanently concave.
  
  
• Factual errors: Inspector Pazzi's cellphone is switched off in the library, when Lecter takes it and talks to Clarice. Although it is on vibrate mode, the LCD display is blank.
  
  
• Continuity: When Clarice is handing in her gun and badge, her earrings change from studs to hoops and back again.
  
  
• Continuity: There are several instances while Starling is listening to the recorded conversations from The Silence of the Lambs (1991) where the recordings differ from what was said in the movie. In addition some of the recorded conversations never occurred. Also the conversations were supposedly recorded by the doctor in charge of the institution but the conversation that occurred outside the institution while Hannibal was in the cage is still on tape even though the doctor could not have possibly recorded it since he didn't know it was going to happen and stopped it as soon as he found out.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Clarice is getting interviewed by the board, and Krendler is first introduced, they pan to a shot of the floor and you can clearly see the actor's mark, which a man later steps into.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Pazzi approaches the library to visit Hannibal and retrieve the suitcases, a group of monks are seen waiting for the camera to reach them in order to start walking down the stairs.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Clarice is talking to Mason at his home, when the camera cuts back to Clarice her mouth is shut, but the voice keeps on talking for about 3 seconds.
  
  
• Continuity: When Francesco is on the pay phone, the same woman walks by twice. It is the woman in the green sweater.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Hannibal gives Dante's Sonett to Allegra Pazzi and says, "...this might amuse you," his mouth doesn't match the words.
  
  
• Continuity: The blood and shattered windshield at the beginning of the film disappear and reappear between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Krendler picks up the faked postcard from Lecter, we can see the handwritten text. The last line reads "Sounds like him to me." This last is clearly a part of the dialogue and was not intended for the text of the postcard.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Immediately after Lecter begins to subdue Pazzi, their shadows are shown against the screen upon which Lecter was displaying his slides for his presentation. Since the projector at the back of the room was the source of the image on the screen, their shadows should have hidden the underlying portions of the image but those portions are clearly still visible, probably from a rear-screen projector.
  
  
• Factual errors: The phone number of the Geneva lawyer is four digits too short to be a Swiss phone number.
  
  
• Factual errors: The recorded phone number in Geneva begins with "004123". This is incorrect, as Geneva's area code is 22, hence the number should begin with "004122"
  
  
• Continuity: When Lecter picks up the piece of glass from the broken mirror to give to Verger, he does so with a handkerchief, presumably to avoid leaving fingerprints, but when he hands it to Verger, he does so with a bare hand.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Mason Verger falls into the pit, the pigs do not come to him immediately. In an attempt to draw their attention, the trainers use a clearly visible broom handle, tapping it against the floor in the lower right hand corner of the screen.
  
  
• Continuity: When Clarice meets up with Barney the fan in the window when is on during their conversation. Later during that same conversation Barney walks over to it and it is off. He flips it on.
  
  
• Continuity: At dinner, Clarice grabs the butter knife, but in a later shot when the camera is focused on Hannibal/Paul, she grabs it again before attempting to attack Hannibal as he approaches her with wine.
  
  
• Continuity: During the scene where Pazzi and Benetti are watching the debate, Benetti offers Pazzi a cigarette, Pazzi declines and Benetti starts smoking. In the next shot Pazzi is the one smoking while Benetti has no cigarette.
  
  
• Plot holes: When Hannibal drank his wine he cleared his fingerprints. He doesn't do so with his little cup.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the letter is being read by Starling and there is a voiceover by Lecter, we see Lecter playing Bach's Goldberg Variations on piano. The keys struck by Lecter and the notes we hear do not match exactly, suggesting Anthony Hopkins mimicked playing the piano for the camera.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Agent Starling is watching the fireworks near the end, the fireworks are shown exploding in the sky across the lake, but the accompanying sound effects are in sync with the explosions. If the fireworks were indeed across the lake, the sound would be delayed for about a second after the visible explosion because of the speed of sound.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Pazzi visits the FBI webpage, He clicks on Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, which brings him to a restricted access page, where he is required to login. The FBI Top Ten list is viewable by anybody, no need to login.
  
  
• Continuity: In the opening scene in the Den, Barney opens the pink box and shows Mason the mask, the untied strings used to close the box change position in the different shots.
  
  
• Continuity: In the Fish Market scene near the end when Evelda and Clarice have the shoot out, Evelda's blue scarf is in a different position from when she is shooting the gun, to the next scene when she is shot by Clarice.
  
  
• Continuity: As Lecter pushes Inspector Pazzi on the cart to the balcony, he gets to the edge and stops. In the next shot, they are still in motion for a second then come to a stop.
  
  
• Continuity: As the Fish Market scene ends with the final car crash, the gang member hanging out of the passenger side of the car is tossed around letting go of the machine gun and partially landing on the hood of the other car, with no gun in hand. In the next shot he has the gun back in his hand.
  
  
• Continuity: When Clarice is meeting with the perfume experts, the note from Hannibal is passed to the last person. As he receives the note with the tweezers, he takes it holding it on the bottom corner, in the next scene as he smells it, he is holding it on the top corner.
  
  
• Continuity: When Hannibal Lecter undersigns the letter to Clarice Starling, he draws a line above his name from the "b" of Hannibal to the M.D. But when Starling reads the letter the line suddenly starts above the first "n" of Hannibal.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Hannibal mis-pronounces the word 'tableaux' (plural of 'tableau') as having an 'S' on the end ('tableaus') - an unusual mistake for such a cultured and educated man to make. (However, this may not actually be a mistake on his part, but rather an intended error. There have been times when Dr Lecter purposely mis-pronounces words for the sake of effect, such as the "census taker" speech in Silence of the Lambs. In that scene (after brow-beating Clarice for her humble West Virginia roots) he pronounces "Chianti" as "Key-ant-y" as a subtle taunting with regards to what he perceives as her uncultured origins.)
  
  
• Continuity: In the opening scene, Verger asks Barney questions about Starling's relationship with Lecter that imply it's their first discussion on the subject, yet Verger subsequently tells Barney to "keep all those items from your personal treasure trove coming," implying that they meet on a regular basis.
  
  
• Continuity: As Clarice and Barney are in his apartment discussing the fact that he is dealing in Hannibal Lecter related memorabilia, he bribes her into silence by giving her a block of audio tape cassettes originally recorded by Dr Chilton while Dr Lecter was an inmate at his asylum. However, in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), we see Dr Chilton eavesdropping and recording an actual conversation between agent Starling and Hannibal, yet we see him holding what appears to be a miniature reel-to-reel audio recording unit, which does not use the type of cassettes we see Barney in possession of. Strictly speaking, a reel-to-reel and cassettes are similar in format and mechanics, but there is a large visual difference between the tapes that we see Barney giving Clarice in "Hannibal" and the tape that we saw actually recording the conversation.
  
  
• Continuity: At dinner, Lecter slices a piece of Krendler's brain on the left side. In the next shot the cut is on the right side of his brain.
  
  
• Plot holes: In Hannibal, Dr. Lecter hypnotizes both Mason Verges (Gary Oldman) and Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta) to "make" them slice up their face, and eat their own brains, respectively. However, this is impossible. Hypnosis is not a mind control activity, but actually heightened awareness. Also, people under hypnosis will not violate their own innate moral control.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: In the kitchen scene near the end of the movie when Hannibal has Clarice up against the fridge, she slips the handcuff on him. He then raises his arm showing the handcuff with the key hole clearly visible, in the next shot from a different angle, the key hole is not visible.
  
  

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