History Film / TheSilenceOfTheLambs

->'''Hannibal Lecter''': First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?\\

* ShoutOut: Silence'' closes with a ToBeContinued. After the Copyright notice and MPAA logo, a logo appears with the text "A Luta Continua"-- Portuguese for "The Struggle Continues" ("To be continued"). Which three other Creator/JonathanDemme films also have.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: "Buffalo Bill" is dead, the FBI have rescued Catherine and Starling graduates and becomes a full agent. However Lecter has escaped, killing five people in the process and is a far greater threat than Bill ever was. While Lecter does insist to Starling that he won't go after her--and hints strongly that he's gonna pay back Chilton for everything he put him through too, the fact that Lecter's still out there at all still doesn't make her any less uneasy about it though]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: "Buffalo Bill" is dead, the FBI have rescued Catherine and Starling graduates and becomes a full agent. However Lecter has escaped, killing 5 people in the process and is a far greater threat than Bill ever was. While Lecter does insist to Starling that he won't go after her--and hints strongly that he's gonna pay back Chilton for everything he put him through too, the fact that Lecter's still out there at all still doesn't make her any less uneasy about it though]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: "Buffalo Bill" is dead and the FBI have rescued Catherine. However Lecter has escaped, killing 5 people in the process and is a far greater threat than Bill ever was. While Lecter insists to Starling that he won't go after her--and hints strongly that he's gonna pay back Chilton for everything he put him through too, the fact that Lecter's still out there at all still doesn't make her any less uneasy about it though]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: "Buffalo Bill" is dead and the FBI have rescued his hostage. However Hannibal Lector has escaped, killing 5 people in the process and is a far greater threat than Bill ever was]].

'''Hannibal Lecter''': No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?

* AdaptationSpeciesChange:
** The cocoons Buffalo Bill used were from black witch moths in the book but the film understandably went with the more iconic death's head (although at least one death's head moth does show up later in the book).
** Precious, Jame's beloved and very spoiled pet dog, is a poodle in the books but a bichon frise in the movie.

* ChekhovsClassroom: Inverted. Dr. Chilton instructs Clarice on the extremely stringent physical procedures in place for dealing with Lecter in his cell. By the end of the film, Clarice has violated almost all of them.
-->Do not reach through the bars, do not touch the bars. You pass him nothing but soft paper - no pens or pencils. No staples or paperclips in his paper. Use the sliding food carrier, no exceptions. If he offers you anything, do not accept it.

* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: The film ends as [[spoiler:Hannibal Lecter]] walks away into the crowd.

* ChekhovsGun: We also see Bill's night-vision goggles early in the movie, and they don't reappear until the end.

** Dr. Lecter beats the life out of two police officers while the movie plays Bach's ''The Goldberg Variations''.

{{The film|of the book}} adaptation of the novel ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', directed by Creator/JonathanDemme and starring Creator/JodieFoster. It was released in 1991.

Like the book, the film adaptation of ''The Silence of the Lambs'' is self-contained, and features even ''less'' references to both ''Red Dragon'' and its 1986 film adaptation, ''Film/{{Manhunter}}'' (though a number of visual motifs from that movie carry over here), to say nothing of this movie recasting every role that had previously appeared in its predecessor (in part because Creator/BrianCox wasn't available to return as Lecter, with the rest of the ''Manhunter'' cast never being approached afterwards). A {{sequel series}} to the film, titled ''Series/{{Clarice}}'', premiered in February 2021 on Creator/{{CBS}}.

** Every step of Lecter's elaborate {{prison break}} foreshadows some aspect of Buffalo Bill's M.O., possibly hinting that he was trying to leave Starling a few clues before he vanished. First, he mutilates one of the guards by [[spoiler:tearing flaps of skin from his back and splaying them out like wings]] hinting at Bill's obsession with moths. Then he gets out of prison by [[spoiler:cutting off a guard's face and using it as a mask]], hinting at Bill's desire to [[spoiler:change his identity by making a suit from women's skin]]. Finally, he confuses the police by [[spoiler:switching clothes with one of the guards and throwing the guard's corpse into an elevator shaft]], much like Bill [[spoiler:moves into his victim's house to confuse anyone who finds ''his'' old house]].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Catherine, who lives in an apartment, is shown to have a cat she didn’t have time to feed when she was abducted. It's never made clear whether anyone else fed the cat instead of her.

The film also stars Creator/AnthonyHeald as Dr. Chilton and Creator/BrookeSmith as Catherine Martin, and

[[redirect:Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs]]

[[redirect:TheSilenceOfTheLambs]]