The Silence of the Lambs (Recap)

A famous Hollywood movie made in 1991. The film can be described as a beautiful combination of crime and horror. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins played a vital role in making this a memorable film thanks to their lively performances. The first part of this film was Hunter Man while the third part Hannibal also gained worldwide fame. This film is based on the famous novel by Thomas Harris. The said film simultaneously managed to win Academy Awards in five top categories, including the Best Actor and Actress awards.

The film opens with a fateful day in Quantico, where a promising young F.B.I cadet, Clarice Starling, is summoned by her superior, Mr. Crawford. As she waits for him at his office, she studies his wall full of news article clippings, and gruesome crime scene pictures of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill who the F.B.I is currently after. From what they gathered so far, Buffalo Bill murders overweight women and skins different parts of their bodies. Mr. Crawford assigns her the task of visiting a prison to interview an infamous psychiatrist-turned-cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and hand him a questionnaire. Clarice is chosen because she has a double degree in criminology and psychology, which should equip her to deal with Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist. Crawford believes Hannibal's insight could prove useful in the pursuit of Buffalo Bill. Before Clarice leaves, Mr. Crawford warns her of how manipulative Hannibal Lecter can be, and advises her not to talk about anything personal to avoid getting Hannibal in her head.

At the Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Dr. Chilton guides Clarice to Hannibal’s cell, while making suggestive remarks to her. He then begins telling her how dangerous and intelligent Hannibal is so that whatever happens, Clarice must not touch the glass barrier. He tells her that a few years back, Hannibal complained about having chest pains, but when they tried getting him help, he took the opportunity to maim a nurse’s face and ate her tongue. The hall is filled with the most notorious serial killers, and Hannibal’s cell sits at the very end. He also knows that Mr. Crawford intends to use him to understand and eventually arrest Buffalo Bill. When asked why Buffalo Bill skins his victims, Clarice says he does it to make trophies, like most serial killers. But Hannibal the Cannibal denies keeping trophies, and Clarice counters that it's clear because he ate his victims. The following days go by normally for her as an FBI academy student, only now she spends study hall researching Hannibal Lecter.

But not long after, Mr. Crawford calls her to inform her that Miggs is dead. Hannibal spent all day saying words to him until Miggs somehow swallowed his own tongue and died. Clarice then updates that she thinks Hannibal’s last words, which are the phrase "look into yourself," were a code. Hannibal then tells her that the head she found is his former patient, Benjamin Ras pail, whom he assures that he didn't kill, but only kept his head. Clarice now believes that his former patient is linked to Buffalo Bill and that Hannibal knows Buffalo Bill's identity. Hannibal finally offers a psychological profile of Buffalo Bill in exchange for better facilities, where he can view trees out of an open window, and be far from the rude Chilton. He tells her to make her decision quickly since Buffalo Bill must already be searching for the next special victim. On the next day, Clarice is summoned out of her training to accompany Mr. Crawford investigating a recently discovered dead body of a woman in Virginia.

On their way there, Crawford shows her another Buffalo Bill’s victim’s body he found a few weeks ago, whose back had been skinned. Apparently, Buffalo Bill kept her hostage for three days without raping her before he shot, skinned, and dumped her body. After asking the local police to leave, the FBI unzips the body bag in front of them and begins to examine it. Without taking long at all, Clarice is able to point out that the victim must be taken from out of town because her accessories and make-up don’t look like that of a local. Up next, Clarice takes the cocoon she discovered for her biologist friends to study, and they reveal to her that it’s a Death’s Head moth, a species exclusive to Asia. At the same time, we are finally shown a view of Buffalo Bill’s house, where he keeps several insect terrariums and is sewing in his birthday suit. On the next day, Clarice overhears a news coverage of the kidnapping of the woman seen in the previous scene. With this kidnapping, the US government is now putting Catherine’s rescue as a priority, so they send Clarice for another chat with Hannibal Lecter. This time-taking with a series of charming offers if Lecter could help catch Buffalo Bill. Clarice begins to share how her father was murdered by two armed robbers when she was little. In exchange, he asks if Catherine was a large woman, which Clarice confirms.

She informs him about the month they found in the previous body, and reveals they found the same cocoon in Ras pail’s head. Hannibal tells her that a moth represents transformation, and based on the fact that buffalo Bill has been skinning his victims, he is preparing for a transformation of his own. Hannibal believes Buffalo Bill was abused as a child, causing him to hate his own identity and think of himself as transgender, though he is actually not. Unbeknownst to them, Dr. Chilton is jealous that the federal government sent for Clarice instead of him is eavesdropping on their conversation. In the next scene, Buffalo Bill is forcing his victim Catherine to rub lotion all over her skin and threatens to hose her down if she says no After Clarice leaves, Chilton puts Hannibal on heavy restraint, and mocks him, saying that he just discovered that the offer Clarice presented him was fake. A convoy of police officers escorts Hannibal on his flight to Tennessee, and when they get off, Chilton couldn’t find his pen but makes no big deal of it They proceed to wheel Hannibal Lecter to face the Senator, who now gives him a real offer in exchange for her daughter’s safe return. And so, Hannibal informs her of Buffalo Bill's physical description, as well as where he possibly leaves.

Hannibal claims to know all this because Buffalo Bill’s boyfriend, Ras pail, used to be his patient until Buffalo Bill killed him. Afterwards, we see Clarice rush into Tennessee’s courthouse to visit Hannibal Lecter. Clarice then reveals that she ran one early morning after hearing screams. This statement symbolizes her desire to do good and save the innocent, and Lecter emotionally thanks her for sharing the memory, but before he manages to say his piece to help her, the jealous Chilton arrives to escort her out, because he wants to be the only one credited for handling Hannibal. But unbeknownst to them, Hannibal has been tucking in a pen’s tip inside his mouth this whole time and uses it to un-cuff himself. Soon after, the police officer downstairs notices the elevator indicator move to the fifth floor although no one is currently authorized to go there, followed by a series of gunshots. Upon arriving, they discover Hannibal’s cell open, and a disembowelled body of an officer on display.

Special forces and ambulance units are sent to the scene immediately to rush the dying officer over to the hospital. When the elevator stops, the police chief quietly informs his team that a wounded Hannibal is hiding on top of the elevator, while the injured officer is rushed to the hospital. Because they need him alive to help catch Buffalo Bill, an officer shoots him in the leg to merely incapacitate him but he remains still. And so, the special unit downstairs decides to open the elevator shaft, only to reveal that it’s a dead fellow officer whose face had been skinned. Unbeknownst to them, the real Hannibal is actually inside the ambulance, wearing the skinned officer’s face. Not long after, Clarice gets informed that the ambulance was found by the side of the road with the medic dead, and additionally, Hannibal also killed a tourist.

Despite it all, Clarice is now more determined than ever to solve Buffalo Bill’s case by studying the case files Hannibal just handed her. This reminds her of the conversation about envy, and how it’s more than likely that buffalo Bill’s first kill was someone he knew personally, Frederica Bammel, who lived in Ohio. Clarice continues the investigation by driving up to Frederica, the first victim’s home, and looking around the house. She then finds dresses with templates identical to the patches of skin Buffalo Bill took from his victims' backs. Clarice is finally able to piece together a theory and calls Mr. Crawford to present it right away. But Mr. Crawford states that they’ve found the culprit thanks to the help of Hannibal Lecter’s hint about the three major sex reassignment clinics. While this is happening, the senator’s daughter Catherine appears to be tying a bone to a string that Buffalo Bill uses to bring her lotion and throws it to the top. Despite what Mr. Crawford said, Clarice still continues her investigation. She meets up with Frederica’s friend, and from there discovers that the victim used to work as a seamstress for a woman called Mrs. Lippman.

Meanwhile, inside Buffalo Bill’s hideout, Catherine has successfully baited the dog. Buffalo Bill panics when he discovers Catherine holding his dog and threatens to hurt it if he doesn’t hand her a phone. At the same time, armed FBI agents arrived in front of a house and prepared to ambush the killer's house. But instead of armed FBI agents at his door, he finds an unsuspecting Clarice, who is here because this house used to be Mrs. Lippman’s residence. During this time, in a completely different city, Clarice’s superior Mr. Crawford ambushes into an empty house, and it’s at this point he finally realizes that Clarice is out there on her own. Back to Clarice, Buffalo Bill lets her in and introduces himself as Jack Gordon.

As she ventures deeper inside the house, she notices a Death’s Head moth inside the house, which automatically makes her realize that she’s found the serial killer. Clarice then hears Catherine's scream for help and finds her inside the well, but the killer is nowhere to be found. Clarice asks Catherine to calm down, while she continues to look for him. This enables her to see Buffalo Bill, the now-dead killer, lying on the ground. The next scene shows the senator’s daughter safely walking out of the building while holding the fluffy dog, while Clarice walks away with a proud Mr. Crawford. During the after party, she suddenly receives a phone call from Hannibal Lecter, who’d like to send his regards and assures her that he doesn’t plan on killing her, because the world is better with her in it, He hangs up, and walks away, leaving Clarice shaken.