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The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been 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 Red Dragon can be found here.
Yes. The movie is based on Red Dragon (1981), the first novel in a series of four Hannibal Lector novels by American writer Thomas Harris. The novel was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter Ted Tally. The novel was previously made into a movie, Manhunter (1986), but it was not very successful and is not considered to be a part of the four movie Hannibal franchise.
The four movies have been released in the following sequence: (1) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) , (2) Hannibal (2001), (3) Red Dragon (2002), and (4) Hannibal Rising (2007). However, in story chronology, Hannibal Rising predates Red Dragon which predates The Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal is the last in the storyline.
Four characters and three actors are returning. Anthony Hopkins plays Hannibal Lector in all three movies, but he does not return in Hannibal Rising, as this fourth movie concerns Hannibal's childhood and how he became a cannibalistic serial killer. Anthony Heald as Dr Frederick Chilton from The Silence of the Lambs also returns in that role (he did not appear in Red Dragon). Barney Matthews (Frankie Faison) has appeared in all three movies (he also appeared in Manhunter but in a different role). Scott Glenn's role as Jack Crawford in Silence is played by Harvey Keitel. The character of Clarice Starling does not appear.
Scott Glenn has refused to take part in any of the Hannibal Lecter movies following The Silence of the Lambs owing to the disturbing nature of his research, including listening to real audiotapes of serial killer victims. Brett Ratner, for his part, has said that he met with FBI agents as part of his research before directing the film and found the FBI agents to be quite different from Glenn's portrayal.
Yes. The Silence of the Lambs takes place in 1989 as indicated by a picture of one of Buffalo Bill's victims in the beginning of the film. Red Dragon opens in 1980 (the symphony orchestra scene) and picks up "several years later," after Will and Hannibal have recovered from their wounds, Hannibal has stood trial and been jailed, and Will has retired from active duty with the FBI. An FBI report that Will studies in the movie has a date stamp with presumably the year 1984 on it (it is hard to make out as it is moving and slightly out of focus). Some viewers think that the very end of the film, where Chilton tells Lector that there is a "female FBI agent wanting to talk to you", and then Lecter asks "What is her name?", is an indication that she is Clarice Starling. Therefore, it is possible that the events in Red Dragon take place anywhere from five years before to just before the start of The Silence of the Lambs.
"Red Dragon" refers to a series of watercolors, collectively called The Great Red Dragon Paintings, painted in the early 1800s (between 1805-1810) by the English poet and painter William Blake [1757-1827]. One of these paintings, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, was used in the movie to show Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes)'s transformation from man into dragon. The Great Red Dragon watercolors are Blake's interpretations of a biblical passage in Revelations 14:3-4 in which a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven stars on his head waits before a woman clothed in sun and about to give birth. The most common interpretation of this passage is that the red dragon is Satan, the woman is Jerusalem, and the child is Jesus Christ.
Dolarhyde was having conflicting feelings about becoming the Red Dragon because of his growing feelings for Reba McClane (Emily Watson). When the Red Dragon started telling him to kill Reba, too, he thought that the only way he could release the Red Dragon's hold on him was by eating the painting.
In Silence, Hannibal instinctively felt that Clarice was an inexperienced student, who could be easily intimidated and manipulated. So he used a deep and pronounced intonation to make her uneasy. However, Will Graham is a seasoned veteran who has experience with serial killers and their atrocities, and both men have known each other for some time, so Hannibal knows there is little use in trying to intimidate Graham through a chilling performance. Instead, he uses every opportunity to mock Graham (the remark about the after shave, the fake American accent, trying to 'comfort' him on the death of the tabloid reporter, etc.)
When Will realizes that the one thing both the Leeds and the Jacobi family had in common is that their home videos were processed by Chromalux, he provides the Chromalux manager with a description of what the killer might look like. The manager recognizes him as Francis 'D' Dolarhyde, their manager of Technical Services. At the same time, D sees Will talking to his boss and realizes that the FBI is onto him, so he runs to Reba's house where he finds her just returning from a date with co-worker Ralph Mandy (Frank Whaley). Feeling betrayed by Reba, D kills Mandy, kidnaps Reba, and takes both of them to his house, which he sets on fire intending to kill Reba in order to keep the Red Dragon from taking her. He then aims a shotgun at Reba but can't pull the trigger, so he turns the gun on himself, spraying Reba with blood. Meanwhile, Will and a large squad of FBI agents and police are racing to D's house. They arrive to find the house in flames. Reba informs them that D's body is in the house. A week or two later, Will, his wife Molly (Mary-Louise Parker), and their son Josh (Tyler Patrick Jones) are lounging on the dock, having returned to their house in Florida. Josh goes inside to get the fixings for s'mores. When Josh doesn't return, Will goes looking for him. He sees that all the mirrors have been smashed and finds D holding Josh at knifepoint. Turns out that the burnt remains found in the house belonged to Ralph Mandy, not to D. Will notices that his son has wet his pants and remembers reading in D's journal how his grandmother would berate him for the same. Will begins to yell at Josh in the same manner, but D takes it personally and lunges at Will. Will puts a knife in D's thigh, then he and Josh hide in a bedroom. Will gets his gun out of the closet just as Molly comes looking for them. Peeking through the space under the door, Will can see D sneaking up behind Molly. Will yells for Molly to get down. When Molly drops to the floor, Will fires through the door, hitting D several times as D also fires on him. With both D and Will down, Molly runs to Will, who tells her to take his gun and shoot D. In the final scenes some months later, Hannibal Lector is writing a letter to Will, who has recuperated from the shooting and is out sailing with his wife and son. As Lector closes his letter, Dr Chilton informs him that there is a pretty female FBI agent waiting to talk with him. "What is her name?" Hannibal asks.
An old Girl Scout camping favorite, s'mores are "sandwiches" made from graham crackers, chocolate bars, and toasted marshmallows. Using the graham crackers as "bread", fill with a layer of thin chocolate, e.g., Hershey-type. Place a hot, freshly-toasted marshmellow on top of the chocolate, and add a graham cracker to the top. The hot marshmellow will cause the chocolate to melt.
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