FAQ for
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

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 The Silence of the Lambs can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/parentalguide.

There are two schools of thought on this. One could certainly argue that it is, since it features three of the same characters from Manhunter: Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox in Manhunter, Anthony Hopkins in Silence), Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina in Manhunter, Scott Glenn in Silence), and Dr. Frederic Chilton (Benjamin Hendrickson in Manhunter, Anthony Heald in Silence).

On the other hand, Manhunter was not a successful film, which is why Dino De Laurentiis chose not to produce this film. When it was released, it was not marketed as a sequel to Manhunter. All references from the book that mention the Red Dragon or Will Graham have been excised from the film. The two returning cast members, Frankie Faison and Dan Butler, play different roles. It's also worth noting that in early drafts, when the producers were not sure if they could use the characters from Manhunter, Ted Tally changed those characters' names to cut all ties with Manhunter. They were eventually changed back. However, given that Tally also wrote Red Dragon, which featured three out of four actors returning to their roles, including Frankie Faison playing his Silence role, it is more like that Manhunter is meant to be part of a separate continuity, while Red Dragon is meant to be a direct prequel to The Silence of the Lambs.

A picture of one of Buffalo Bill's victims has the year 1989 on it, so it must be either 1989 or the beginning of 1990.

The offer to move Lecter to Plum Tree Island, in exchange for information useful in capturing Gumb, turns out to be a ruse. It is unclear whether Lecter knew that the actual name of the island was Anthrax Island or not at the time he accepted the offer. Anthrax is a sheep disease. Given their discussions of Starling's traumatic memories involving the sheep slaughter, there are two possibilities: that Lecter saw this clue from Starling (along the lines of his own anagram clues) as a gesture of good faith and decided to help her anyway while plotting his own escape; or (less likely) that Lecter was genuinely duped into helping them, and only later realized that the offer was a fake--and that Starling had chosen Anthrax Island as an in-joke between them (she being the sheep, and he being the disease).

Contrary to how the movie portrayed it, the building he escapes from is Pittsburgh's Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial, not a Memphis courthouse.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldiers_and_Sailors_National_Military_Museum_and_Memorial

The song is "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus.

The closing scene of the movie, one of the most famous in movie history, has Hannibal saying: "I'm having an old friend for dinner", as he watches Dr. Chilton setting foot on the Bahamas. This strongly suggest that Chilton ended up as one of Hannibal's meals. A small reference was made in the sequel novel Hannibal, where it was mentioned that Chilton disappeared 7 years earlier while on vacation, strongly suggesting Hannibal had gotten his revenge (albeit in the novel, Chilton disappeared in Jamaica, not the Bahamas). However, this is never specifically stated in the sequel movie. The only reference to Dr. Chilton in Hannibal is made by Barney, when he says that Lecter, when possible, preferred to eat "the rude", and Dr. Chilton "was a bad man", which also strongly implies Chilton became Hannibal's victim.