The Silence of the Lambs

Continuity mistake: Jodie Foster has very blue eyes. When they flashback to her childhood, when she is crossing the lawn to greet her father, the girl playing the young Clarice has dark eyes. (00:20:10)

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Suggested correction: Eye color also can change with age. This happens in 10 to 15 percent of the Caucasian population (people who generally have lighter eye colors).

Babies born with blue eyes can develop brown or darker eyes as melanin is produced. And while eye color can get lighter with age (older than Clarice usually), a child her age with brown eyes won't develop blue eyes. They could turn green maybe, but not the blue color seen.

Bishop73

I just rewatched the scene you were talking about and they're not blue eyes they're actually hazel and the adult Clarice could be wearing contact lenses.

Joey221995

Revealing mistake: When Clarice is at the archive, she sees two articles, one entitled "Baltimore Psychiatrist Receives Highest Honor" and "New horrors in 'Cannibal Trial'." The column beneath both titles to the right is exactly the same, and in the first article, that same column is repeated at the leftmost and rightmost columns and in the second, is repeated at the rightmost column. That same column is scattered on every article she sees. (00:21:35)

Plot hole: It makes absolutely no sense that there would be over a dozen cops and soldiers in the lobby of the courthouse and leave only two cops to guard Lecter regardless that he was locked in the makeshift cell. Yes the plot needs a reason for him to easily escape but this still goes against every conceivable protocol for such a dangerous prisoner especially when there were dozens of armed personnel just in the scene alone when he was being transferred from the plane.

jbrbbt

The Silence of the Lambs mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene in the hangar at Memphis airport, Senator Martin's hair keeps changing in each return shot. (01:02:55)

The Silence of the Lambs mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When they find out Lecter is on the elevator, they look down the shaft at him and there is quite a lot of blood on his back, so much that it even reaches down to his belt. However when they open the elevator shaft and the body falls down, there is only a small amount of blood on his back. (01:23:40 - 01:24:50)

The Silence of the Lambs mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Clarice tries to push up the blocked door of the self storage container she puts her gloves on her lap. In the next scene the gloves have disappeared. (00:24:15)

Factual error: Many of the vehicles in the movie have Pennsylvania inspection stickers on the lower driver's side windshield. This is not surprising being that most of the movie was filmed in Pennsylvania. However, they should have been removed when the car is suppose to be from another state. For example, the Senator's daughter, just before her abduction in Tennessee, is seen driving a car with Pennsylvania inspection stickers. Also, the driver for Yourself Storage in Baltimore also has Pennsylvania stickers on his car.

Factual error: In the scene where the police are preparing to raid the house in Calumet City, IL, you can see hills in the background. Calumet City is about 25 miles south of Chicago - there are no hills like that for hundreds of miles in any direction. (01:37:30)

Continuity mistake: At the beginning when Clarice is jogging through the woods, the sweat on her sweatshirt varies from shot to shot.

The Silence of the Lambs mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the graduation ceremony, a woman cuts a slice of cake and passes it to someone and then, without slicing the cake again, she somehow has another slice to pass to someone else.

kh1616

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Suggested correction: She actually hands the person an empty clear glass dish (the kind used to serve the first piece of cake); the person must have wanted the dish to get something else, not cake.

KeyZOid

Continuity mistake: When Clarice is searching the basement, the first door she approaches is hinged on the left and opens towards her. She opens it, and it turns into a door that has the hinges on the right and opens away from her. (01:43:50)

cinecena

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Suggested correction: There are two doors in that part of the basement. The one she enters is hinged on the left and opens inward. But the other door - the one she exited through to look for Jame Gumb - is hinged on the right and swings outward.

djm

Other mistake: After Clarice is finished interviewing Frederica Bimmel's friend, they cut to the abandoned house in Calumet City IL. The front yard is full of leaves, but yet there is only 1 lone (pine) tree in the yard, and the homes on either side do not have visible trees either.

Brad Solberg

Factual error: In the scene with the ambulance in Memphis, the Tennessee license plate on the ambulance says Davidson County. Memphis is in Shelby County, while Davidson County is Nashville. (01:21:33)

Continuity mistake: While travelling from the post mortem examination, Clarice is in the back seat speaking to her boss. In going back and forth in conversation, her hair changes from being curled up to being curled under, all in one swift change. This is a different style and not done as could be by running your fingers through your hair as the camera cut away. (00:37:45)

The Silence of the Lambs mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jack Crawford and Clarice are examining the dead body in Elk River, the substance they apply under their nostrils changes in shape and amount applied. (00:42:20 - 00:46:05)

Character mistake: Buffalo Bill's revolver is a double action, meaning did not need to cock his gun before firing it (you only need to do so with single-action revolvers. Cocking a double-action just makes the next trigger pull easier.) He could've just shot Starling. His stupidity got him killed.

MikeH

The Silence of the Lambs mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At Chicago, when Crawford and his team are about to break in to the empty house, the red ribbon on the flower box covers both the lid and the box when the agent takes it out of his car. When he rings the bell, the ribbon only covers the lid.

ployp

Deliberate mistake: The number of acts Lecter performed during his escape from the individual jail cell and until he was attended to by an officer (who thought he was an injured officer) would have taken a lot of time and effort to complete - way more time than he could have gone undetected by one of the many officers in the building. Slashing/ bludgeoning to death a person can be done fairly quickly (munching on a victim's face adds time!), but three particular acts required a substantial amount of time, especially for an elderly man whose ultimate goal was escape: Swapping clothes (undressing and dressing) with a police officer and trimming off his face/scalp to appear to be that officer, then getting to a strategic location to be discovered; Setting a dead officer on the roof of the elevator; and, somehow hanging / impaling (crucifixion-style) an officer from the top of the jail cell (which appeared to be around 10' high). The latter feat would be challenging for TWO physically-fit officers.

KeyZOid

Continuity mistake: In the beginning when Starling is talking to Crawford he is sitting forward when he's talking about Lecter's cell. The very next scene when he gives Starling her ID he's leaning back with his leg folded. (00:07:30)

Family5

More quotes from The Silence of the Lambs

Trivia: None of the moths seen in the film are actual Death Head moths. In the interest of avoiding the hassle involved with actually shipping moth eggs over, then halting filming so they could be raised to the proper level of maturity, the production crew simply went with a similar looking domestic breed of moth, and glued false fingernails painted with the trademark skull like visage onto their bodies.

More trivia for The Silence of the Lambs

Answer: Knowing about her past gives him an advantage in how he can manipulate her - he understands her fears, weaknesses, strengths, and so on. A psychiatrist normally deconstructs a patient's psychological make-up to better understand and help them, but in Lecter's case, he uses this knowledge against his victims. However, as he learns about Clarice, he becomes sympathetic and protective toward her.

raywest

Answer: Also, he loves psychiatry and analyzing people. He is bored in his cell and this is a chance to do something he enjoys a lot.

Answer: Clarice's answers also enable Lecter to assess her honesty/ integrity and sincerity, as well as ascertain if she is trustworthy - or even worthy - enough for him to reveal certain kinds of information.

KeyZOid

Answer: I remember a scene where he seems to roll his eyes in a kind of ecstasy as he comprehends, then thanks her, and shortly after touches her hand as he passes the folder. "People will say we're in love."

More questions & answers from The Silence of the Lambs

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