Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
This movie contains 67 potentially triggering events.
precious breaks her paw falling into the well but is otherwise unharmed and catherine is seen leaving the house with precious in her arms (i think she adopted her)
No, but there are flashbacks of the death of a female character's father who is killed when she was still young. She later mentions how her uncle, who she was under the care of, sent her to live in an orphanage.
A female character, who is abused while being held prisoner, threatens to hurt/kill a small dog and is verbally abusive (mildly) towards another female character who shows up to help her, but first must find the bad guy.
A teenager is kept in a well and sprayed with a hose for misbehaving. Others were killed before the events of the film. There’s also a disturbing scene where Hannibal asks Clarice if she was sexually abused as a child - “did the rancher force you to perform fellatio? Did he sodomise you?” - and she says no but it’s still not a nice thing to hear
Buffalo Bill's dog, Precious, yelps because Catherine pinches her leg to make Bill think she's hurt. Catherine is seen holding Precious. In the book this is because Precious is not actually hurt and I think holding her in the film would also be to stop her running round and showing that she's not really hurt. Catherine is otherwise affectionate to Precious in both the film and the book. Spoilers: Catherine threatens to hurt Precious but no indication is given that she would actually go through with it, she sees the threat as a way to potentially escape Buffalo Bill. At the end Catherine seems to adopt Precious so the dog probably saw a vet and went on to live a happy life with Catherine. We don't see this but that's the impression I got.
Specifically, a cocoon containing a dead moth and, later, other specimens of insects are seen displayed. The death of lambs via slaughtering on a ranch is discussed, but not shown on screen.
i cannot believe they kill this dragon. i wanted to see it lif but it die. what happen next? hanil lecror decide to BE DRAGON. scare me and my beautiful wife. i kill her too she asked. i say ok
Yes. First a moth in a cocoon in found in the throat of a dead woman. It is then dissected. Later, in a home, many live moths are seen flying in large cages. At one point a man allows one to climb over his face. At the end of the movie, a fly is crawling on a man’s face. There are images of moths and butterflies throughout the movie.
Not exactly. A body is hung from the cage bars of a lone prison cell in the middle of a room, but the person is not hung by the neck. Just hung up in some manner for display after it was multilated.
*spoilers* When Hannibal pretends to be an injured police officer in order to escape, he begins to shake aggressively on the stretcher. We don't know if it is an actual seizure or if Hannibal is faking it.
Sort of- in Clarice's childhood memories, she recounts an incident where she woke up to the sound of screaming lambs on the night they were sent to slaughter. It isn't shown, and the slaughter is not described.
Clarice's father dies before the beginning of the film's events; there is a flashback scene of young Clarice at her father's funeral/looking at his body.
(SPOILER)
Hannibal is a cannibal, so we hear from him and other people experiences where he ate/tried to eat someone. There is one scene where when he escapes, he eats part of a guard's cheek. It's not too graphic though.
Not in this category, but Clarice gets jizz thrown on her face walking back from talking to Dr lector by another patient at the facility. It is gross and may affect you
Buffalo Bill is said to not be trans by doctors in the film but that doesn’t dictate if someone is trans IRL and Bill is portrayed as sexually predatory and a killer of women. (Also misrepresentation of GNC people, who can be trans and aren’t predatory, if you believe the character is GNC instead. More on that in the Man in a Dress category, though) The film vilifies trans people and is despised by most trans viewers.
@kiki10 Agreed
! Spoiler kinda! One of Hannibal Lecters victims is hinted towards being a trans person, Hannibal goes on to misgender them and say their legal name, calling them mentally ill.
Buffalo Bill is shown experimenting with tucking, and is also shown using the skins of victims to make garments with breasts and female genitalia on them
A character is coded as transgender, although several characters (including hospitals that perform gender corrective surgery) claim that they are not transgender.
A character is trapped in a well. Another character must find their way out of a completely dark basement while trying to avoid being killed. Dr. Lecter's cell is rather small as well, and he remains in it for much of the film.
When Clarice enters the basement near the end and the lights go out, the camera switches to hand-held and night vision for a scene. Not necessarily shakey cam, but it's a bit wobbly
(SPOILER ALERT)
One of the main moments of screaming is when the kidnapped girl Catherine notices a fingernail on the wall of the well she is being held captive in, having her realise where she is and who has her. She screams and cries in a fit of panic, dread and fear, as Buffalo Bill torments her by screaming back.
The movie handles transgender issues in a clumsy, dated way that can come off comical. The depiction of Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who is crafting himself a woman-suit, is often parodied. However, the film’s intention was not for this character’s behavior to be comedic.
YMMV. The villain, serial killer Buffalo Bill, is portrayed as a "man who wants to be a woman" due to psychosis. Psychiatrists assert that Bill is mentally ill, and not actually a trans woman; Bill is always called "he". The film takes care to point out that "real" trans people are not serial killers. Because of this, I have heard some trans people argue that this film is unusually progressive for its time. Personally I disagree; it reinforces the idea that medical professionals deserve to decide who is and isn't trans. And obviously the film has been responsible for popularising harmful stereotypes of trans people, even if that wasn't the intent.
Buffalo Bill is a bit complicated as he’s not an actual trans woman (and there’s even a scene in the novel that tries to both make it clear and try to humanize trans people more by distancing him from them) ,but it’s still pretty iffy
[00:05:41] - Several crime scene photos are briefly shown on a wall, some depicting nude corpses. These photos are also visible in the background of the scene for the next few minutes.⠀
[00:19:07] - An inmate in a forensic hospital is shown masturbating naked on a bed, with his back to the camera.⠀
[00:36:41] - Crime scene photos show a deceased nude woman lying on the ground, front side down.⠀
[00:46:15] - A nude cadaver is shown face down on a table during an autopsy.⠀
[00:49:50] - The character "Buffalo Bill" is shown sitting naked at a desk, with his back to the camera.⠀
[01:36:43] - There is full-frontal nudity shown during the scene where "Buffalo Bill" is dancing naked in a room, though his genitals are tucked between his legs.
Several different characters at different points in the film make sexual comments and/or advances towards the main character, ranging in degrees of severity and aggression.
Clarice has s***n thrown at her by an inmate at the mental institution. One scene shows Buffalo Bill fully nude, though his genitals are tucked between his legs. Sexually suggestive language is used in some scenes.
[SPOILER] Buffalo Bill is killed and the girl is saved which I consider to be a happy ending for the film. However, Dr. Lector escapes and he eludes to Agent Starling that he is going to eat someone he knows. While He is having this conversation by phone we can see him watching Dr. Chilton and then following him through a crowd.