Question: At the end, at Paul's house, how was Clarice able to use the phone when the cord was cut off?
Question: How did Hannibal manage to make it onto a commercial airplane at the end of the movie? Even if he had a fake ID, wouldn't being on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list make it virtually impossible for him to get through a high security place like an airport, where the feds would likely instruct security staff to stop anyone that even remotely resembles him? The fact that he cut off his own hand at the end of the film would make him easier to spot, as the FBI would definitely share that new detail about him.
Answer: Perhaps he bribed his way through security onto the plane. Or maybe he murdered anyone who even remotely challenged him. He was probably wearing a disguise. It's possible that he had been planning this whole thing for an unspecified amount of time. And don't forget: he is a genius. And determined. He wouldn't let a little thing like protocol get in the way of his escape.
Answer: There is an assumption that he cut his hand off in the end. Ask yourself this for a very graphic movie why did they not show the chopped of hand. You just hear the chop but no sound from Lecter and only an emotional reaction from Starling. It is only alluded to and even if he did happen to chop it off he would be in so much pain as he acknowledged this was going to hurt he would not have been able to escape without help from Starling.
On the plane, you only see him use his right hand, and his left arm is in a sling. Further explaining, he did cut his own hand off to be freed. If he cut Starling's hand off, she would have possibly bled to death, or at least enough that she couldn't have run for him.
Question: Why did Paul Krendler dislike Clarice so much, and why did he ruin her career?
Answer: In the book it says that Clarice had caught Buffalo Bill before he could. It said also that is why he hated her early in the book.
Answer: Starling says to Krendler "Paul, what is it with you? I told you to go home to your wife, that was wrong?", implying that he had made a pass at her and she had rejected him. He replies that it was a long time ago, and that he didn't hold it against her, but combined with Mason Verger's bribe this was most likely the cause of his antagonism towards Starling.
Question: Why did the pigs not attack Lecter when he picked up Clarice? They went straight for the fat guy handcuffed to his accomplice and also to Verger but by passed Lecter. I thought it might be a blood thing which is why Lecter picked Clarice up after she was shot but A - Lecter doesn't know anything about the pigs and B - Mason wasn't bleeding before he got eaten.
Answer: The implication is that the boars are afraid of Lecter, which is why they don't attack him - he shows no fear and exudes dominance.
Next to that the pigs are trained to attack anything that screams. Hannibal stayed calm and thus was ignored.
Didn't Verger describe the pigs (by mentioning their molars and incisors) to Lecter when he was first brought to Verger strapped to the dolly?
He also didn't scream or make noise to get their attention.
I'm inclined to agree here. The boars could sense that Lecter was the most savage predator in the pit, and the animals steered clear of him for that reason. Call it "professional courtesy."
Answer: The implication is that savage animals recognize Lecter as another, even more savage animal. Call it kinship. Lecter has the same effect on attack dogs.
Answer: Probably the same reason the Alsatian dog of Krendler didn't attack him either.
Question: Did Hannibal like Clarice? The perfume in the letter, the fact that he saved her, and cut off his own arm. He could have easily killed her. What was it about her that he liked, or respected?
Answer: There are many factors here, and his feelings for Clarice are complicated. He's attracted to her in a physical male/female way, and probably loved her as much as he was capable, but, as seen in the first film (and book), it is also her unpretentious innocence, honesty, and vulnerability that drew him to her, causing him to be protective. She is the "lamb" who never inflicts harm on anyone, nor does she ever pretend to be anybody other than who she is. Hannibal's victims lacked those characteristics, and he felt no inhumanity or remorse whatsoever when he killed them.
That ending was a movie ending. The book is different and at the end they are seen together at an opera by Barney.
Answer: They actually became lovers in the book. So yes, he loved her.
Question: Why would Clarice take the blame for the botched drug raid instead of telling her superiors that another agent was actually responsible by disobeying her orders to stand down and wait to apprehend Drumgo another day?
Answer: She was the officer in charge and as such, fairly or unfairly, the responsibility for all agents and their actions rests with her so she felt it was still her fault even though she didn't want the action that took place.
Question: What exactly is the deal with the handcuff/hand cutting scene at the end? Even though we see Clarice wince in pain, we see her with both her hands later. Are we to assume that Hannibal cut off his own hand and that's why he was wearing the arm sling on the plane?
Answer: That does appear to be the most likely interpretation of events, yes. The only other possibility, which seems considerably less probable, is that Lecter does know some way of disabling handcuffs with a hard strike - one that still caused significant damage to his wrist, resulting in the need to wear the sling.
Answer: Hannibal being an accomplished surgeon could have wielded the cleaver to remove a finger or two thus enabling the handcuffs to be removed. He does mention "above the wrist or below" in the scene, thus below the wrist could mean fingers only.
Question: Why, in the opening scene, do Clarisse and the FBI have a huge chunk of dry ice in the SWAT van with them?
Answer: The panel van has no air conditioning. They're using dry ice as a field-expedient cooling system. The action takes place in the early summer in DC where it's hot.
Answer: They use it to fog up the truck's windows and conceal the team inside. One of the agents even pours water on it during the ride and we see the fog coming off it.
Question: How was the "brain-scene" filmed?
Answer: It was filmed using a animatronic robot in some places, then using CGI on the top of Ray Liotta's head (some behind the scenes footage shows him with a green skull cap), so he could be shown moving and talking.
Question: When the pickpocketer, on the request of Pazzi, had gotten Lecter's fingerprint he was also stabbed. He collapses and Pazzi takes a look at the wound which he was covering with his hand. It appears that Pazzi intentionally prevented him from covering the wound so he would bleed out faster. Why?
Answer: Lecter stabs the pickpocket in the abdomen and gives the knife a quick twist, expertly severing the aorta, which was a fatal wound. Nothing could prevent the pickpocket's death, as he only had moments to live. Pazzi realises this when he inspects the wound. There was nothing Pazzi could do, either way.
I don't think Hannibal severed his aorta. The wound was in the groin where the femoral artery runs relatively close to the surface. You will still bleed to death from this artery in around 1 min.
No, the aorta runs from the heart down through the thoracic cavity and the abdominal cavity before it branches into the femoral arteries at the pelvis. Lecter plainly stabbed the pickpocket deep in the abdomen, in the area of his navel, and twisted the knife to sever the aorta. The pickpocket would only have moments to live (or minutes, at most). When Pazzi inspects the wound, the pickpocket's hands are covering his abdomen, which is bleeding profusely.
Being a seasoned police officer, he knew this wound was fatal. We don't know exactly where the injury occurred, but most likely the upper femoral artery or the lower descending aortic artery. Sadly, as an E.R. nurse, I have seen many of these and death occurs rapidly and most don't even make it to the E.R.
Answer: I, myself, wondered this, too. I think that it's because the guy was a criminal and Pazzi didn't want himself to be linked to the pick pocket by either the cops or Hannibal, himself. Remember Pazzi was up to no good - he wanted the reward and so, would stop at nothing to get the money, even if it meant letting another person die. The pick pocket was a loose end that Pazzi had to tie up. The pick pocket's death would also prevent Pazzi from being blackmailed later on down the line.
Exactly, he didn't want any witnesses. It was convenient for Pazzi to have the pickpocket bleed out.
Answer: After their run-in, the pickpocket says, "he tried to hit me in the balls, but he missed." Hannibal must've went for the femoral artery. I thought maybe, the way Gnocco was bleeding, the direction the blood was gushing, Hannibal had separated Gnocco from his "manhood."
Question: What's the exact content (kind of food) of Hannibal's "lunch box" he carries on the plane?
Answer: According to the book (where this scene happens much earlier, by the way) it is an aromatic pâté de fois gras (goose liver pâté) with truffles, figs from Anatolia and a half bottle of St. Estephe cognac. There is also the mention of "fine bread", but no further details are given. Everything was delivered by the Parisian catering firm Fauchon.
Question: Why did Jodie Foster decide not to be in Hannibal ?
Answer: She was just unhappy with the screenplay and the development of the characters. In fact the screenplay was altered 15 times on her requests and those of Jonathan Demme (director of Silence of the Lambs) and eventually neither of them had anything to do with the film.
Question: Why does Clarice not have the handcuffs on when she is found by the police at the end? if Hannibal cut his hand off, then he would slip the cuffs off and she would still be wearing them. Even if she had the key, there was little time to get them or take the cuffs off.
Answer: She had plenty of time to take the bloodied cuffs off, we only see her again when she is outside looking for Hannibal.
Answer: As seen in the first film and in this one, Lecter demonstrates an almost supernatural ability for eluding the law and seemingly being in two places at once. This film was made in the year 2000, before airport security became extremely tight in late 2001. At that time (before 9/11), it was still possible to enter an airport's main concourse through the baggage claim or even from the tarmac without passing through rigorous security. As ingenious as Lecter was, he could have accessed the airport in a number of ways back then. Relieving another passenger of his boarding pass and identification would be no problem for Lecter, either (simply leave the passenger's body in an airport toilet and assume his identity). For the most part, it was Lecter's calm, self-confident charm that allowed him to slither through society always ten steps ahead of the law.
Charles Austin Miller