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)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald
Hannibal Lecter manages to steal a pen from the cops and hides it while he's being cuffed in his new cell. He uses it to unlock the cuffs, and kill the two police officers who were in the room. Upon hearing strange sounds from the fifth floor, the police arrives at his cell, only to find a dead officer hung with no inner bowels like an angel, and the other disfigured with tons of blood on his face - yet he's breathing. While the injured officer is being led on an Ambulance, the police tracks down Hannibal on the roof of the elevator - but as they move closer, they encounter a body with no face. This is not Hannibal - this is the dead cop, whose skinned face Hannibal used as a mask to get away... and now he's free. Clarice is aware of his escape, and she's now on her own. Using Hannibal's clues, she tracks down Buffalo Bill's house, while the FBI is storming the wrong house in Chicago. Clarice eners Bill's house, unaware of him being the killer as he idenifies to her as another person. Once she sees the Dead Skull Moth in his house, she realizes the truth, and a chase ensues between her and Buffalo Bill throughout the basement of his house. Clarice finds Catherine, the kidnapped girl, but then the lights turn out. Bill uses a night-goggles to view horrified Clarice walking through the darkness. He raises a gun on her and cocks it... Clarice hears the sound of the gun, turns around and shoots Bill to death. Clarice rescues Catherine and becomes an FBI officer, only to recieve a phone call from Hannibal, who's far away by now on an Island in the Bahamas, and is about to have Dr Chilton for Dinner...
More mistakes in The Silence of the Lambs
Jack Crawford: Starling?
Clarice Starling: Sir?
Jack Crawford: Miggs is dead.
Clarice Starling: Dead? How?
Jack Crawford: Well, the orderly heard Lecter whispering to him all afterrnoon and Miggs crying. They found him at bed check. He swallowed his own tongue.
Trivia: Anthony Hopkins won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Hannibal Lecter, even though he's only on screen for 16 minutes.
Question: What was that rotting corpse lying in the bath at Buffalo Bill's basement, minutes before the light is shut down? Who did it belong to and what has happened to it?
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Answer: The body in the bathtub is Mrs. Lippman, the previous owner of Jame Gumb's home. Notice the long grey hair coming from the scalp. He would have wanted someone young, large, and whole.