Continuity mistake: When Inspector Pazzi introduces 'Dr. Fell' to his wife, in a wider shot she has her hand on her husband's shoulder, just sliding off as the shot cuts. In the closer shot we cut to, however, her hand's back on his shoulder. (01:04:53)
Continuity mistake: When Hannibal attacks Francesco after the lecture, their shadows, as well as the entire body of the hanged man in the projected picture, are seen overlapping each other in a close up of the projection screen. This is not possible, as the picture is projected from a slide projector behind them. In preceding and following long shots their shadows are correctly blocking the lower half of the body of the hanged man in the projection. (01:11:45)
Continuity mistake: When Hannibal takes the Inspector's phone, it's supposedly ringing and he speaks on it, but it's turned off - as he pulls it out past the camera we can see that the screen's blank. (01:14:00)
Revealing mistake: At the end of the telephone conversation between Krendler and Verger we see Krendler with his mobile phone, and through Krendler's phone we hear Verger hanging up. The sound we hear is unequivocally that of a receiver being hung up on a desktop telephone, but in all of the shots portraying Verger in this sequence we see him using a mobile phone. With mobile phones a conversation is ended simply by pressing a button—-there is nothing to hang up. (01:21:20)
Revealing mistake: During the scene in which Krendler shows the fake Lecter postcard, look closely and you can read the line: "Sounds like him to me" although this line is part of Krendler's speech, and not part of the message itself. Forgetting your lines, Mr. Liotta? (01:21:55)
Revealing mistake: When the rich guy is drinking Chateau d'Yquem from a straw, you can see, afterwards, Gary Oldman's lips under the thick mask or whatever. This is really obvious. (01:23:35)
Factual error: When Clarice is being questioned about the fake postcard, they are supposed to be in Washington DC, but the James Monroe building located in Richmond, Virginia can be seen through the window. (01:24:56)
Continuity mistake: The first time we hear Dr. Chilton's tapes of Lecter's conversations with Starling, Hannibal's exact words are, Agent Starling is a deep roller, Barney. And yet, later in the movie we hear Clarice listen to the same conversation once more only this time he leaves out the name Barney after his question. This is infact an entirely different soundbyte, but it is supposed to be the same tape. (01:31:11)
Factual error: When Hannibal calls Clarice and gives her 3 seconds to change the battery on the phone, it is possible to change the battery in 3 seconds but you would have to turn the phone back on and let it initialize which would make the whole process take longer than 3 seconds. (01:33:17)
Suggested correction: Please provide evidence, including the make, model, and duration of the initialization process of the phone, to substantiate this statement. It's not known from the information available that it isn't possible to hot swap the battery, meaning it's quite possible in 3 seconds.
Tell you what, why don't you give us all the make and model of phone which can be turned off, have its battery replaced, and then boot back up again, in 3 seconds. It's not remotely possible on any phone, old or new. Anyone who was using cellphones in the era this phone was made knows it, or indeed now for that matter.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene after Hannibal escapes agent Clarice in the mall and leaving her shoes as a gift, Mason Verger's henchman that answers his phone in the van has a reflection of a camera crew in his shades. (01:39:05)
Continuity mistake: Right before Paul says grace, Dr. Lecter checks the time on the grandfather clock. We see a long shot, and the hand's on about 46 minutes. Then there is a closeup of the clock moving past 50 minutes after the hour. When it cuts back to the table, the clock is immediately back to 46. (01:56:19)
Factual error: At the end of the film, Ray Liotta wouldn't be able to raise his eyebrows as the frontalis muscle had been divided. (01:57:10)
Continuity mistake: During the dinner when Clarice tries to stab Hannibal, his hand goes from on her wrist in one shot to the back of her head in the next. (01:58:20)
Continuity mistake: In the flashback seen where Dr. Lecter suggests to Mason Verger peel off his own face, Dr.Lecter picks up the broken mirror piece with a navy or black cloth. Then in the next scene, when he hands it to Mason, there is no cloth. Then, when Mason starts to scrape away at his face, the cloth reappears in Mason's hand.
Factual error: In the scene where the top of Paul's skull and scalp are removed, the scalp looks normal. In order to remove the skull and scalp in such a manner, the blood supply to the scalp would've been completely severed. Without a blood supply, the scalp would've quickly discolored, and certainly wouldn't look nice and normal.
Continuity mistake: When Pazzi sits down during Hannibal's presentation, Hannibal puts his hand on his shoulder. It is suddenly in a slightly different place in the closer shot without there being time to move it. It's very slight but still noticeable.
Continuity mistake: During the brains-for-dinner scene, Clarice sneaks her knife under the table to use against Lecter. A few lines of dialogue and camera angles later, the knife is back on the table, and Clarice sneaks it under the table - again.
Revealing mistake: During the shootout in a market, when a cop is run over, from the shot inside the car the blood and damage are already seen on the glass before he is hit.
Continuity mistake: When Lecter is being wheeled in to talk to Mason Verger, he has blood on his face from the beating he got in the van. When he talks to Verger, the blood is gone.
Continuity mistake: In the kitchen after the brain dinner party, Hannibal throws a towel on top of Paul's open skull. When Hannibal throws Starling against the fridge and she fights back, Paul is sitting with his skull back on.
