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The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 psychological horror film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally. Based on the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, it tells the story of Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee hunting "Buffalo Bill", a serial killer who skins his female victims. To catch him, she seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. The film stars Jodie Foster as Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, with Ted Levine, Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald, and Kasi Lemmons in supporting roles. It is the second of five films featuring the Lecter character following Manhunter (1986), although none of Manhunter cast reprise their roles in The Silence of the Lambs.

Development began before the release of the novel in 1988, when Gene Hackman bought the film rights.

The Silence of the Lambs premiered in New York City on January 30, 1991, before its wide release on February 14. It grossed $272.7 million worldwide on a $19 million budget—becoming the fifth-highest-grossing film of 1991—and received critical acclaim. It was praised for its ..., although some criticism was directed at its alleged homophobic and transphobic themes. It won numerous accolades, and became the third film to win Academy Awards in all the major five categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is also the only Best Picture winner widely considered a horror film, and one of only six horror films to have been nominated in the category.

The Silence of the Lambs was followed by the sequel Hannibal in 2001 and the prequels Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal Rising (2007).

Plot
In 1990, Clarice Starling is pulled from her FBI training at the Quantico, Virginia FBI Academy by Jack Crawford of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. He assigns her to interview Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, a former psychiatrist and incarcerated serial killer. Crawford believes Lecter's insight could prove useful in the pursuit of a serial killer nicknamed "Buffalo Bill", who skins his young female victims.

At the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Dr. Frederick Chilton makes a crude pass at Starling before he escorts her to Lecter's cell. Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's interviewing and rebuffs her. As she is leaving, a prisoner flicks semen at her. Lecter, who considers this unspeakably rude, calls Starling back and tells her to seek out his old patient. This leads her to a storage facility, where she discovers a jar containing a man's severed head. She returns to Lecter, who says the man is linked to Buffalo Bill. He offers to profile Buffalo Bill on condition he be transferred away from Chilton, whom he detests. Another Buffalo Bill victim is found with a death's head moth lodged in her throat.

Buffalo Bill abducts Catherine Martin, a senator's daughter. Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Lecter a fake deal, promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps them capture Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine. Instead, Lecter demands a quid pro quo from Starling, offering clues about Buffalo Bill in exchange for personal information. Starling tells Lecter about her father's murder when she was ten years old. Chilton secretly records the conversation and reveals Starling's deceit before offering Lecter a different deal. Lecter agrees and is flown to Memphis, where he meets and torments Senator Martin. He gives her misleading information on Buffalo Bill, including that his name is "Louis Friend".

Starling deduces that "Louis Friend" is an anagram of "iron sulfide"—fool's gold. She visits Lecter, now imprisoned in a Tennessee courthouse, and requests the truth. Lecter says all the information she needs is contained in the Buffalo Bill case file, then insists on continuing their quid pro quo. She recounts a traumatic childhood incident of hearing spring lambs being slaughtered on a relative's Montana farm. Lecter speculates that Starling hopes that saving Catherine will end the recurring nightmares she has of lambs screaming. Lecter returns the Buffalo Bill case files to Starling as Chilton arrives and has the police escort her from the building. Later that evening, Lecter kills his guards, escapes from his cell, and disappears.

Starling analyzes Lecter's file annotations and figures out that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim, Frederika Bimmel. Starling travels to her Ohio hometown and discovers both she and Buffalo Bill were tailors. At Frederika's home, she notices unfinished dresses and dress patterns identical to the patches of skin removed from the victims. She phones Crawford and says Buffalo Bill is making a "suit" with human skin. Crawford is already en route to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with hospital archives and finding a man named Jame Gumb. Gumb smuggled death's head moths into the U.S. and was refused a sex-change operation, mistakenly believing he was transsexual. Starling continues interviewing Frederika's friends while Crawford and an FBI HRT storm Gumb's address in Illinois, finding the house empty. Meanwhile, Starling goes to interview another person, Jack Gordon, who knew Frederika. At the house, she realizes Gordon is Gumb after spotting a death's head moth flying loose. She pursues him into a cavernous basement and finds Catherine trapped in a dry well. In a dark room, Gumb stalks Starling with night-vision goggles, but reveals himself by cocking his revolver. Starling shoots and kills Gumb.

At the FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Lecter, who is at a Bimini airport. He assures her that he has no intention of pursuing her and requests that she return the favor, which she says she cannot. Lecter hangs up the phone because he is "having an old friend for dinner", and follows a newly-arrived Chilton into the crowd.

Development
The Silence of the Lambs, a suspense novel by Thomas Harris and the second of four books featuring Harris' character Hannibal Lecter, was published in 1988 to immediate success. According to Empire, it "was one of the genuine publishing sensations of the late '80s, its mix of sheer terror and complex psychological characterization stirring the imagination of The Great American Public". It stayed atop The New York Times Best Seller list for much of 1988, making a film adaptation inevitable. The novel's predecessor, Red Dragon (1982), had previously been adapted in 1986 as Manhunter, which was a financial failure.

Before the novel's release, Gene Hackman partnered with Orion Pictures to buy the rights to adapt it to film. At the time, Hackman sought to become a director and was looking for a project to make his directorial debut on, and said that The Silence of the Lambs was "one of the most cinematic books I've ever read. As I read it, the movie was clicking in my mind." Hackman was set to direct, produce, and star as FBI agent Jack Crawford, and negotiations were made to split the $500,000 for the rights between Hackman and Orion. The producers also had to acquire the rights to the Lecter character, which were owned by Manhunter producer Dino De Laurentiis. Owing to the financial failure of Manhunter, De Laurentiis lent the rights to Orion for free. Ted Tally was hired to write the film in November 1987; Tally had crossed paths with Harris many times, with his interest in adapting The Silence of the Lambs originating from receiving an advance copy of the book from Harris.

In Match 1989, when Tally was about halfway done with the first draft, Hackman withdrew from the project. At the time, Hackman was receiving numerous award nominations for his performance in Mississippi Burning (1988), including for the Academy Award for Best Actor. As he repeatedly watched clips of Mississippi Burning—a dark and violent story—during award shows, Hackman became uneasy about adapting The Silence of the Lambs as it was bound to be even darker. Within days of the 61st Academy Awards, Hackman had given up on the adaptation. Financing fell through, but Orion co-founder Mike Medavoy encouraged Tally to keep writing as the studio took care of financing and searched for a replacement director. Orion approached Jonathan Demme about directing, and he signed on after reading the novel. Demme noted he would not have pursued an adaptation himself, as he mostly made lighthearted, unserious films, but did not hesitate to accept the offer to direct The Silence of the Lambs because he was interested in having a female protagonist.

From there, the project developed quickly; Tally said: "[Demme] read my first draft not long after it was finished, and we met, then I was just startled by the speed of things. We met in May 1989 and were shooting in November. I don't remember any big revisions."

Casting
When Hackman was in charge of The Silence of the Lambs, he planned to cast Michelle Pfeiffer as Clarice Starling, John Hurt as Hannibal Lecter, and himself as Jack Crawford. Pfeiffer was also Demme's first choice for the role of Starling as they had recently collaborated on Married to the Mob (1988), even though at age 34 she was ten years older than the part. While Pfeiffer was interested, she ultimately turned the role down because, like Hackman, the film's subject matter made her uncomfortable. Demme then approached Meg Ryan, who also found the film too gruesome, and Laura Dern, who Orion was skeptical as not being a bankable choice. Jodie Foster began lobbying when she figured that Pfeiffer would not commit, and was awarded the role because of her passion towards the character.

Foster had personal reasons for wanting to be in The Silence of the Lambs; due to her experiences with the stalkers John Hinckley (who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan to impress her) and Michael Richardson (who sent her a death threat), she was interested in partaking in a film that focused on "the business of coming to terms with a killer whose behavior appears to be wholly irrational." Foster joined the film under two conditions: firstly, it had to treat the FBI respectfully, as she appreciated the agency for protecting her during the Richardson incident and Demme had portrayed the FBI negatively in Married to the Mob. Secondly, the violence needed to be kept to a minimum.