Red Dragon Seriously Messes Up Silence Of Lambs' Timeline
The Silence Of The Lambs is a classic beloved by the audience, so it's only understandable why the writers decided to make a prequel — but it created a plot hole, conflicting with the original movie's timeline.
Red Dragon shows a story of a younger Hannibal Lecter and takes place prior to The Silence Of The Lambs' events.
Anthony Hopkins, though reluctant at first, decided to come back to his role in the end, and with help from digital editing, was de-aged to match Hannibal's appearance in this chapter.
After all, he was supposed to be years younger than in 2001 Hannibal.
So Hopkins' Hannibal in Red Dragon did not cause the timeline issues himself. To be honest, the entire movie was well-set and did not mess with the original film…
Until the very end, that is. Because that's when the writers just could resist the urge to wink at the audience with a little reference to the original Hannibal.
As you remember, in 2001 Hannibal, he had a love interest, Clarice Starling. She was an FBI agent — and a reason for the many mistakes and miscalculations enamored Hannibal made in The Silence Of The Lambs despite his already significant experience.
Their relationship is core to the movie, and this is where Red Dragon's writers slipped.
At the end of Red Dragon, we see another FBI agent, Will Graham, miraculously escape death at the hands of another serial killer.
The next clip immediately after that shows us Hannibal in his cell writing a letter to Will, wishing him well. Then, the asylum director Chilton informs Hannibal that a young lady from the FBI wants to speak to him.
This is, of course, referencing Clarice Starling, who Hannibal meets in The Silence Of The Lambs. But it makes next to no sense in terms of the timeline.
Red Dragon is set in 1986 while The Silence Of The Lambs takes place in 1990.
Will Graham is hurt during The Tooth Fairy case, and since Hannibal is writing to him about his health and well-being, it only makes sense that the final scene happens soon after the shootout. 1987 at most, that is.
As you can see, there's quite a gap between the Red Dragon's finale and The Silence Of The Lambs' start — three to four years, to be precise.
Hannibal first meets Clarice in The Silence Of The Lambs, so how is it possible for them to meet at the end of Red Dragon?
There are a few years between these events, and Clarice's appearance in Red Dragon just doesn't make sense.
However persistent she is, even Agent Starling couldn't have possibly been talking to Hannibal for three years straight. Other than this, there's no explanation for this massive timeline plot hole.