Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Hannibal (2001)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

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Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
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Hannibal (2001)

In Ridley Scott's follow-up sequel to the original The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - an acclaimed psychological horror film; it was set 10 years following the events of the previous film:

  • the horribly disfigured, paralyzed, wheelchair-bound and wealthy Mason Verger (an uncredited and unrecognizable Gary Oldman), one of the title character's many former victims - and a sole survivor, was introduced; in the past, he had been connected to the title character - Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and was left horribly disfigured; he was revealed to have been a sadistic pedophile (with multiple charges of child molestation) who had been assigned by the court system to become one of Dr. Lecter's patients
  • Verger called upon disgraced FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) to meet with him in his secluded estate in Asheville, North Carolina; the bed-ridden Verger told her (in flashback) how he had pervertedly engaged in a S&M session, including sexual asphyxiation (by hanging strangulation) and drug use (under the influence of amyl nitrite); after Dr. Lecter's suggestion, he peeled the skin off his own face with a mirror shard: ("It seemed like a good idea at the time"); afterwards, Lecter fed the pieces of flesh to the dogs; Verger was now seeking revenge by capturing Dr. Lecter and lethally torturing him with a group of wild pigs
  • FBI agent Clarice calmly viewed a security camera videotape of Dr. Lecter escaping after assaulting an attendant at the Baltimore State Forensic Hospital - with bloody face-eating
  • meanwhile, the famed serial killer Hannibal was traced (via perfume fragrance on a letter he had sent to Clarice after she was reassigned) to Florence, Italy; in Florence, Chief Police Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) was investigating the mysterious disappearance of the head curator of the Capponi Library, a repository of rare books; he was at first unaware that Dr. Lecter had disguised himself as Dr. Fell - the library's new curator
  • at the same time, Pazzi had been notified of a bounty of $3 million - a reward personally offered by Verger for the capture of Lecter, while the FBI was offering a smaller bounty of $250,000; Pazzi deduced that Dr. Fell was indeed Dr. Lecter, and began to make plans to capture Lecter single-handedly to collect the reward (with assistance from Verger's men)
  • in a horrifying scene, Pazzi was chloroformed, captured, and murdered in the Palazzo Vecchio building in Florence by Dr. Lecter after a lecture; the hapless victim was gagged, after which Lecter cut his "bowels out" and pushed him out of the palace window to be hanged, while his entrails were visible hanging down and splashing onto the cobblestone square
  • as Clarice's search for Lecter intensified, Verger's men kidnapped Dr. Lecter in a parking lot of Washington's Union Station, and brought him to Verger's North Carolina estate; Verger's plan (told to Lecter) was to have Lecter slowly consumed by specially-bred wild pigs with "three pairs of incisors, one pair of elongated canines, three pairs of molars, four pairs of pre-molars, upper and lower, for a total of forty-four teeth"
  • also on Lecter's trail was Clarice who infiltrated Verger's estate, shot two guards and freed Lecter, but was shot and wounded by a third guard; Dr. Lecter rescued Clarice by picking up her unconscious body - saving her from wild ravenous boars that savagely attacked two of Verger's guards; although Verger ordered his own physician Dr. Cordell Doemling (Zeljko Ivanek) to shoot Lecter, the doctor disobeyed and pushed his detested boss into the pit (after Lecter claimed he would take the blame); the disfigured Verger was consumed by the carnivorous boars he had vengefully planned for Lecter - suffering a gruesome, grisly bloody death
  • to treat injured Clarice's wounds, Dr. Lecter took her to the secluded lake house of Justice Department representative Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta) and subdued her with morphine; in earlier scenes, Clarice had previously worked with Krendler, but they had a falling-out after his romantic gestures were rejected, and he was continuing to undermine her efforts; Dr. Lecter had set up Krendler's secluded lakeside house for this get-together, including an elaborately-formal meal with china and crystal, and had also stolen hospital surgical equipment
  • after agent Krendler arrived at the house, he was overtaken (off-screen); in an excruciating 4th of July dinner scene (a gourmet meal), the heavily-drugged Krendler was discovered by Clarice seated at a formal dinner table where Dr. Lecter was serving the meal; his brain cap was neatly sliced open and exposed - and parts of his brain were served as sauteed meat by sadistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal; Lecter assured Clarice: "The brain itself feels no pain." Krendler noted: "That smells great" and then ate his last meal when offered a piece of his own brain: ("It is good")
Elegant Dinner Hosted by Dr. Lecter for Krendler and Clarice at Lake house
  • after the meal, Clarice failed in an attempt to attack Dr. Lecter with a candlestick, but was able to handcuff his left wrist to hers, as he threatened: "I'm really pressed for time, so where's the key?" When she wouldn't answer, he reached for a meat cleaver, raised it in the air, and said as he grabbed her: "Above or below the wrist, Clarice. This is really gonna hurt"; she appeared to scream in agony as he hacked with the cleaver - and the screen turned to black
  • in the final scene, it was revealed that Lecter had successfully escaped from the house, and the FBI had arrived to rescue Clarice (she noticeably still had two intact hands) - Lecter had hacked off his own hand!; in the film's epilogue, Lecter (with an arm sling on his bandaged hand) was on an airplane with his own boxed lunch - supposedly containing more of Krendler's sauteed and sliced brain matter

Vengeful Mason Verger's Flashbacked Description of His Disfiguration by Hannibal Lecter

Videotape of Cannibalistic Dr. Lecter's Attack on an Attendant in a State Hospital in Baltimore to Escape Custody


Lecter's Capture and Murder of Chief Police Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi



Lecter's Rescue of Clarice While Verger Was Consumed by Wild Pigs - Pushed Into the Pit by His Own Dr. Cordell Doemling



Clarice Handcuffed to Dr. Lecter

Threatening to Cut Off Her Hand With a Meat Cleaver

Clarice's 'Scream' Before a Fade to Black

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