Corrected entry: In the scene where Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi is talking to Gnocco (the pickpocket) about how to get Hannibal's fingerprint on the bracelet, he tells Gnocco to "wash his filthy hands". Gnocco is holding an orange in his right hand, yet a split second later, when Gnocco is holding his hand under the fountain to clean it, the orange has disappeared. This all happened way too quickly for Gnocco to have had the time to simply drop the orange.
Corrected entry: It wouldn't have taken a crack FBI handwriting expert to see that the fake postcard masterminded by Mason Verger looked nothing like Dr. Lecter's very dramatic penmanship. They already had a 3 page letter to compare with. (01:24:55)
Correction: It's a set up. Clarice even mentions that they should have a handwriting expert look at it, but her suggestion falls on deaf ears, because the other agents want her off the case.
Corrected entry: When the Italian Police Inspector is on the pay phone in the middle of the street and he gets the recording that tells him how to go about collecting the reward money for Hannibal's "capture" there is a message at the end of the info that lets the caller know that they could press 1 for instructions in French, 2 for German, 3 for Italian, etc... However these instructions are in English! If you speak a different language you wouldn't understand it. And anyone who has ever called a machine like that will tell you that the instructions for each different language are in that language... (00:49:48)
Correction: I actually had this happen to me once. I was making a call and it said "To hear these instructions in Spanish, press..." I don't speak Spanish, but if I heard someone say "Ingleis", I would know what they were talking about. It is weird, but obviously not impossible.
Corrected entry: At the restaurant when Inspector Pazzi is watching Dr.Lecter drinking his wine, Hannibal gets up and leaves without paying for his drink.
Correction: In Italy it is possible to pay immediately when getting the drink or just to leave the money on the table if you know how much it costs.
Corrected entry: When Agent Starling was reading the letter from Dr. Lecter, she is in the lab which is lit in florescent light. As she finishes the letter and the camera focuses back on Clarice, the room is lit in a sort of candle or fire light.
Correction: She turns off the light and then the lights to the building are then turned off for whatever reason. She does turn off the light.
Corrected entry: In the scene that shows Clarice coming into her home with a box, there is a hat on the stairpost, after she shoves the box under the bench the hat is gone.
Correction: That hat is always there. You can see a tiny bit of it on the far right of the screen after she shoves the box under the bench.
Corrected entry: At the payphone, Pazzi writes down a phone number on the back of his hand. After listening to the message about the fingerprint, he turns and walks directly to Hannibal's place. When he waves at the camera, the back of his hand is perfectly clean. He never had an opportunity to wash it off.
Correction: Pen ink easily comes off with a little spit and some rubbing. Pazzi could have easily done this on the way over to Hannibal's place to avoid raising his suspicion - it's likely Hannibal would keep track of numbers relating to his capture.
Corrected entry: Right before the final scene with Dr Lecter on the aeroplane, it shows an outside shot of the aeroplane. However, it is light outside the aeroplane (at the very least, sunset) and when it cuts to the interior of the plane, with Lecter and the boy, it's dark... All the interior lights are on.
Correction: The film is not shot in real time. The outside shot is just there to let the audience establish that Lecter is on a plane.
Corrected entry: In the climax scene Hannibal puts Clarice's hair in the fridge and rips the handle off so she can't escape, but the scene right after when the police come we see her outside, with her hair fully intact. How did she get out of the fridge?
Correction: It would be perfectly possible, by pulling very slowly.
Corrected entry: When Clarice is first in Barney's apartment, the fan in his window is spinning. But later during their conversation, Barney gets up and walks to the window to turn on the fan.
Correction: It's only turning slowly because it's being blown by the wind.
Corrected entry: At the end of the film, Hannibal says "This is gonna hurt" and proceeds to cut off his hand. He cuts it off because he and Clarice are handcuffed together. He then makes his escape. In the immediate scene following, with Clarice by the water, she should still have the handcuffs on but does not.
Correction: Clarice knows exactly where the key for the cuffs is - she just doesn't tell Hannibal. Therefore when he escapes, all she has to do is retrieve the key from wherever she hid it and unlock herself - it would take seconds.
Corrected entry: In the end when the police are rushing to Verger's Estate to save Clarice, we see a shot of a ton of police cars along with helicopter heading toward the estate. If the police were really in a hurry, why is the helicopter following the slower police cars? The helicopter could have gone ahead and landed at the estate a hell of a lot faster (probably in time to catch Lecter).
Correction: Police helicopters do not land when they are dispatched on a pursuit assignment. They are only meant to survey/gather intelligence for ground units. There would have been no point in flying ahead of the police cars at the end other than to give early warning to the fugitive that the police were coming; ultimately allowing him to escape faster.
Corrected entry: Hannibal wouldn't be able to fly into US from Italy, as a top 10 FBI criminal, without being caught.
Correction: You can see him put the orange down. Look carefully.