Hannibal Lecter is an American psychological thriller film series, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. Hannibal is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter. Julianne Moore co-stars, taking over for Jodie Foster in the role of FBI Agent Clarice Starling. Red Dragon prequel stars Edward Norton as FBI agent Will Graham. Original Manhunter and Hannibal Rising sans Hopkins.
FBI trainee Clarice Starling is pulled from training at Quantico by her mentor Jack Crawford of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. He assigns her to interview Hannibal Lecter, a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer, whose insight might prove useful in the pursuit of a serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill, who is murdering and skinning his female victims.
Ten years after tracking down serial killer Buffalo Bill (character), Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Clarice Starling is unjustly blamed for a botched drug raid. She is later contacted by Mason Verger, the only surviving victim of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter. A wealthy Child sexual abuse, Verger was paralyzed and brutally disfigured by Lecter during a therapy session. He has been pursuing an elaborate scheme to capture, torture, and kill Lecter ever since. Using his wealth and political influence, Verger has Starling reassigned to Lecter's case, hoping her involvement will draw Lecter out.
In 1980 Dr. Hannibal Lecter attends an orchestral performance of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)'' in Baltimore, Maryland. He is irritated by a flute player who repeatedly misses his part. Later, he hosts a dinner party in his townhouse for the orchestra's board of directors. During conversation, the disappearance of the flute player is brought up. When one of the guests asks about the ''amuse-bouche'' Lecter made, he responds that if he tells her, she might not try it.
In 1941, eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter lives in Lecter Castle in Lithuania. The German Operation Barbarossa of the Soviet Union turns the Baltic region into part of the bloodiest front line of World War II. Lecter, his younger sister Mischa Lecter, and their parents travel to the family's hunting lodge in the woods to elude the advancing German troops. After three years, the Nazis are finally driven out of the countries soon to be occupied by the Soviet Union. During their retreat, however, they destroy a Soviet tank that had stopped at the Lecter family's lodge looking for water. The explosion kills everyone but Lecter and Mischa. They survive in the cottage until five former Lithuanian militiamen, led by a Nazi collaborator named Vladis Grutas, storm and loot it. Finding no other food in the bitterly cold Baltic winter, the men look menacingly at Lecter and Mischa.
