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.
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)
Continuity mistake: While Clarice reads Hannibal's letter and Hannibal narrates it, Lecter says, "Do you imagine your Daddy BEING shamed by your disgrace?" but what's written is: "Do you imagine Daddy shamed by your disgrace?" (00:34:20)
Continuity mistake: While Hannibal narrates what Clarice is reading on his letter, Hannibal concludes by saying, "I imagine you sitting in a dark basement room, bent over papers and computer screens. Is that accurate? Please tell me truly, Special Agent Starling. Your old pal, Hannibal Lecter, M.D." But on the letter's second page he writes, "... 200 hawk, one wiring hanging down. Is that fairly accurate? Tell me truly, Special Agent Starling. Regards, Hannibal Lecter, M.D." (00:35:20)
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: 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 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)
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.
Continuity mistake: In Italy, when Hannibal grabs the glass with a napkin around, the way the napkin is folded changes between shots.
Continuity mistake: In the pig pen, when Clarice is shot down, her gun changes positions between shots.
Visible crew/equipment: When we see the FBI agent running through the woods, if you look at the ground you can see track marks. They are consistently the same distance apart and starts once it goes to the angle from the front. Clearly marks from the tracking camera.
Continuity mistake: When the hogs are attacking the dummy in Sardinia, the dummy's head changes from being orange-colored and very fake looking, to realistically fleshy and brown in the close up. (01:01:15)
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 scene where Hannibal picks up a meat cleaver to chop off the handcuffs attaching him to Starling; in one shot it is covered with chopped herbs, in the next it is clean.
Other mistake: Clarice handcuffed Hannibal. Apparently Hannibal opted to amputate his own hand, but the next scene shows officers descending on Clarice at the lake shore. Had Hannibal amputated his own hand, she would still have been wearing the other cuff. She wasn't.
Suggested correction: It's not known how much time passed between these two scenes. At least enough for Hannibal to tend to his wound and escape. It's quite possible she found the key during that time.
Revealing mistake: When Pazzi is visiting Hannibal, you can see a group of monks at the top of some steps waiting for their cue - the camera gets closer to them and they all start walking down. (00:48:00)
Suggested correction: This doesn't reveal anything. Some people were not walking, then they started walking.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Clarice wakes up in Krendler's house heavily drugged, she looks at her things on the chest outside of the room. Her denim jacket is there. However, we see her take this off and leave it in her car when she decides to go in to the Verger barn.
Revealing mistake: When Pazzi is killed, there's a shot of his cell phone and phone battery slamming into the ground followed by a splatter of his innards. However, there is a (rather obvious and poorly timed) jump-cut in the middle of the shot, right before his innards splatter down from above. His cell phone is still moving about a bit, when suddenly it goes perfect still in an unnatural way. It also moves ever-so-slightly to the left when the cut happens. It's supposed to appear to be one continuous shot, but it's clear they dropped the cell-phone, waited for it to settle, then dropped the innards and tried to edit it so the shot moved faster.
