|
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
|