Red Dragon (2002)

Anthony Hopkins: Hannibal Lecter

Photos 

Quotes 

• Hannibal Lecter : And be grateful. Our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real.

• Will Graham : I thought you might enjoy the challenge. Find out if you're smarter than the person I'm looking for.

  Hannibal Lecter : Then, by implication, you think you're smarter than I am, since it was you who caught me.

  Will Graham : No, I know I'm not smarter than you.

  Hannibal Lecter : Then how did you catch me?

  Will Graham : You had... disadvantages.

  Hannibal Lecter : What disadvantages?

  Will Graham : You're insane.

• Hannibal Lecter : Remarkable boy. I do admire your courage. I think I'll eat your heart.

• [last lines] 

  Dr. Frederick Chilton : There's someone to see you, Lecter. A young woman... says she's from the FBI, but she seems much too pretty for that if you ask me.

  [Lecter appears unmoved] 

  Dr. Frederick Chilton : I'll tell her you said no.

  [Chilton walks away offscreen, as Lecter looks up and makes eye contact with the camera] 

  Hannibal Lecter : ...what is her name?

• Dinner Guest : Hannibal, confess. What is this divine-looking amuse bouche?

  Hannibal Lecter : If I tell you, I'm afraid you won't even try it.

• Hannibal Lecter : [after he stabs Will]  Shh. Don't move. You're in shock now. I don't want you to feel any pain. In a moment, you'll begin to feel light-headed, then drowsy. Don't resist, it's so gentle, like slipping into a warm bath. I regret it came to this, Will, but every game must have its ending.

• Hannibal Lecter : [in the final letter to Will]  My dear Will, you must be healed by now... on the outside at least, I hope you're not too ugly. What a collection of scars you have. Never forget who gave you the best of them, and be grateful, our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real. We live in a primitive time, don't we, Will? Neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it, any rational society will either kill me or put me to some use. Do you dream much, Will? I think of you often. Your old friend, Hannibal Lector.

• Will Graham : I need your opinion now.

  Hannibal Lecter : Then here's one... you stink of fear under that cheap lotion. You stink of fear Will, but you're not a coward. You fear me, but still you came here. You fear this shy boy, yet still you seek him out. Don't you understand, Will? You caught me because we're very much alike. Without our imaginations, we'd be like all those other poor... dullards. Fear... is the price of our instrument. But I can help you bear it.

• Hannibal Lecter : I'll call you if I think of anything else, would you perhaps like to leave me your home phone number?

• Hannibal Lecter : Tell me, Will. Did you enjoy it? Your first murder? Of course you did. And why shouldn't it feel good? It does to God. Why only last week in Texas, he dropped a church roof on the heads of 34 of his worshippers, just as they were groveling for him. He wouldn't begrudge you for one Journalist.

• Hannibal Lecter : You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.

• Hannibal Lecter : A robin red-breast in a cage, puts all of Heaven in a rage. Think to yourself that every day is your last. The hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise. As for me, when you want a good laugh, you will find me in fine state... fat and sleek, a true hog of Epicurus's herd.

• Hannibal Lecter : Ah yes Dr. Chillton. Gruesome isn't he? Fumbles at your head like a freshman pulling at a panty girdle.

• Hannibal Lecter : First he kills the pet, and then the family. Freddy was your pet, Will.

• Hannibal Lecter : That's the same atrocious aftershave you wore in court.

  Will Graham : I keep getting it for Christmas.

  Hannibal Lecter : Christmas, yes. Did you get my card?

• Hannibal Lecter : What were the yards like?

  Will Graham : Big backyards. Fenced, some hedges. Why?

  Hannibal Lecter : Because if this pilgrim feels a special relationship with the moon, he might like to go outside and look at it. You even seen blood in the moonlight, Will? It appears quite black. If one were nude, say, it would be better to have outdoor privacy for that sort of thing.

• Will Graham : We've been on the wrong track this whole time, Doctor, you and I. Our whole profile's wrong. Well, we've been looking for someone with a crazy grudge and some kind of anatomical knowledge. Decertified doctors, med school dropouts, laid-off mortuary workers...

  Hannibal Lecter : From the precision of the cuts, yes, and, uh, his choice of souvenirs.

  Will Graham : See, that's where we're off target. He's not collecting body parts.

  Hannibal Lecter : Then why keep them?

  Will Graham : He's not keeping them. He's eating them.

• Will Graham : I might not have time.

  Hannibal Lecter : I do. I have oodles.

• Hannibal Lecter : Beneath the yellow folder, you'll find your latest rejection slip from the archives. It was brought to me by mistake with some of my archives mail. I'm afraid I opened it without looking. Sorry.

  Dr. Frederick Chilton : I think we'll remove Dr. Lecter's toilet seat as well

• Hannibal Lecter : Do you like my little exercise cage, Will? My so-called lawyer is always nagging Dr. Chilton for better accommodations. I don't know which is the greater fool.

• Hannibal Lecter : And how is the young Josh and the lovely Molly? They're always in my thoughts, you know.

• [first lines] 

  Hannibal Lecter : Think to yourself that every day is your last. The hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise. As for me, when you want a good laugh, you will find me in fine state, fat and sleek, a true hog of Epicurus's herd.

• Hannibal Lecter : Can I see the photos?

  Will Graham : No

  Hannibal Lecter : Why not?

  Will Graham : It would be obscene.

• Hannibal Lecter : This is a very shy boy, Will. I'd love to meet him. Have you considered the possibility that he is disfigured or that he may believe he is disfigured?

  Will Graham : Yeah, the mirrors.

  Hannibal Lecter : Yes, you notice he smashes all the mirrors in the houses and not just enough to get the pieces he wants. And, of course, those shards in their eyes, so he can see himself there.

  Will Graham : That's interesting.

  Hannibal Lecter : That's not interesting. You thought of that before.

  Will Graham : I had considered it.

  Hannibal Lecter : Uh-huh.

  Will Graham : What about the women?

  Hannibal Lecter : Dead? Mere puppets. You need to see them living, the way they caught his eye.

  Will Graham : That's impossible.

  Hannibal Lecter : Almost, not quite.

• Will Graham : We were at Molly's parents' for New Year's, and Molly's dad was showing my son Josh how to carve a roasted chicken. He said, "The tenderest part of the chicken is the oysters, here on either side of the back." I-I had never heard that expression before, oysters. Then suddenly I had a flash of the third victim, Darcy Taylor. She was missing flesh from her back. And then it hit me. Liver, kidney, tongue, thymus. Every single victim lost some body part used in cooking.

  Hannibal Lecter : Have you shared this with the Bureau?

  Will Graham : No, I... I needed to see you first. But I'm right. I know I'm right. I'm... I'm starting to be able to think like this one.

  Hannibal Lecter : Yeah, it's fascinating. You know, I'd always suspected as much. You are an eidetiker.

  Will Graham : I'm... I'm not psychic, Doctor.

  Hannibal Lecter : No, no, no, this is different. More akin to artistic imagination. You're able to assume the emotional point of view of other people, even those that might scare or sicken you. It's a troubling gift, I should think. How I'd love to get you on my couch.

  Will Graham : Something still doesn't make sense to me. You're the best forensic psychiatrist I know. And somehow, in all our time together, this possibility never occurred to you.

  Hannibal Lecter : Well, I am only human, Will. Perhaps I made a mistake.

  Will Graham : You don't strike me as a man who makes very many mistakes.

• Hannibal Lecter : It was only his first time. Already in Atlanta, he did much better. Rest assured, my dear Will, this one will give you plenty of exercise.

• Will Graham : He had a second tool, too. A bolt cutter. He used that to clear his view.

  Hannibal Lecter : But?

  Will Graham : But I don't think that's what he brought it for. Too heavy. Too... too awkward. And he had to carry it a long way.

  Hannibal Lecter : And what do we make of that symbol?

  Will Graham : Asian Studies at Langley identified it as a Chinese character. It appears on a mahjong piece. It marks the Red Dragon.

  Hannibal Lecter : Red Dragon, correct. This boy begins to interest me.

• Will Graham : I think he meant to use the bolt cutter to enter the house, but he didn't. Instead, he broke in through the patio doors. The noise woke Jacobi, and he had to shoot him on the stairs. That wasn't planned. It was sloppy, and that's not like him.

  Hannibal Lecter : Mm. We mustn't judge too harshly, Will. It was his first time. Have you never felt a sudden rush of panic?

  [as he hisses, Will recoils and backs away a step] 

  Hannibal Lecter : Yeah, that's the fear we talked about. It takes experience to master it. You sensed who I was back when I was committing what you call my crimes.

  Will Graham : Yes.

  Hannibal Lecter : So you were hurt not by a fault in your perception or your instincts, but because you failed to act on them until it was too late.

  Will Graham : You could say that.

  Hannibal Lecter : But you're wiser now.

  Will Graham : Yes.

  Hannibal Lecter : Imagine what you would do, Will, if you could go back in time.

  Will Graham : Put two in your head before you could palm that stiletto.