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Red Dragon (film)
Encyclopedia
Red Dragon is a 2002 thriller film based on Thomas Harris
' novel of the same name and featuring psychiatrist
and serial killer
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
. It is a prequel
to The Silence of the Lambs
.
The film was directed by Brett Ratner
and written for the screen by Ted Tally
, who also wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. It stars Edward Norton
as FBI agent Will Graham
and Anthony Hopkins
as Lecter, a role he had, by then, played twice before in The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal
.
Ralph Fiennes
, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Mary-Louise Parker
, Emily Watson
and Harvey Keitel
are also featured.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
(Hopkins) hosts a dinner party, where his guests might well be dining on portions of a man they knew. Lecter is later visited by Will Graham
(Norton), a gifted FBI agent, with whom he has been working on a psychological profile
of a serial killer
who has removed edible body parts (e.g. kidney
s and liver
) from his victims, leading Graham to believe that the killer could be a cannibal
. During the consultation and brainstorming session, Graham discovers evidence implicating Lecter in the murders. Lecter attacks him, almost disemboweling Graham before his would-be victim overpowers him. Lecter is sentenced to life imprisonment
in an institution for the criminally insane while Graham, severely traumatized
by the experience, retires from the FBI.
Years later, another serial killer appears. Nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy," he stalks and kills seemingly random Southern families during sequential full moon
s. Hoping to capture the killer before his next attack, Special Agent Jack Crawford
(Keitel) goes to Graham's home in Florida to seek his assistance. The death of another family weighing on his conscience, Graham reluctantly agrees. After visiting the crime scenes and speaking with Crawford, he concludes that he must once again consult Dr. Lecter for help.
The "Tooth Fairy" is actually a schizophrenic named Francis Dolarhyde
(Fiennes) who kills at the behest of an alternate personality he calls "The Great Red Dragon." He is obsessed with a William Blake
painting, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, and believes that each victim he "changes" brings him closer to "becoming" the Dragon. His pathology is born from the severe abuse
he suffered as a child at the hands of his sadistic
grandmother (voiced by Ellen Burstyn
).
Freddy Lounds (Hoffman), a tabloid reporter who hounded Graham after Lecter's capture, now follows him for leads on the Tooth Fairy story. There is a secret correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde. Graham's wife (Parker) and son (Tyler Patrick Jones
) are endangered when Lecter gives the Tooth Fairy the agent's home address, forcing them to be relocated to a Kansas
farm owned by Crawford's brother. Lecter is aware that the feds are onto him. He raises the stakes: in return for his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy, he requests a first-class meal in his cell and having his book privileges returned.
Hoping to lure the Tooth Fairy out of hiding, Graham gives an interview to Lounds in which he disparages the killer as an impotent homosexual. This provokes Dolarhyde, who kidnaps Lounds, glues him to an antique wheelchair, then forces him to recant his allegations before biting out his tongue and setting him on fire, depositing him outside his newspaper's offices.
At his job in a St. Louis photo lab, Dolarhyde falls in love with Reba McClane (Watson), a blind co-worker, but his Dragon personality demands that he kill her. He takes her home, where they make love. Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him by going to the Brooklyn Museum
and consuming the original Blake watercolor painting of "The Red Dragon".
Graham, meanwhile deduces that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos, which he could only have seen if he worked for the editing company that transfers home movies to video cassette.
Dolarhyde goes to see Reba and finds her with a co-worker, Ralph Mandy (Frank Whaley
), whom she actually dislikes. Jealous and enraged, Dolarhyde shoots and kills Mandy, kidnaps Reba and, having taken her to his house, sets it on fire. He finds himself unable to shoot her, so Dolarhyde (seemingly) turns his shotgun on himself and fires. Reba, hearing the clock chime and remembering how many steps are from there to the front door, is able to escape as the police show up and the house explodes.
However, it turns out Dolarhyde staged his own death by leaving behind Mandy's charred corpse. He turns up at Graham's home in Florida, where he holds Graham's son hostage, threatening to kill him with a piece of broken glass. To defuse the situation, Graham slings insults at his son that are reminiscent of the ones Dolarhyde's grandmother had used against him. Feeling a sudden sympathy for the boy, the enraged Dolarhyde attacks Graham as the boy flees to safety. Both men are severely wounded in a shootout which ends when Graham's wife Molly fatally shoots Dolarhyde.
After recovering, Graham receives a letter from the incarcerated Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't "too ugly." Dr. Frederick Chilton
(Anthony Heald
) then informs Lecter that there is a young woman from the FBI
waiting to speak with him. Lecter looks up, then asks, "What is her name?"
, the audience and critical reviews for Red Dragon were noticeably more positive than for Hannibal.
Roger Ebert
gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4. The average Rotten Tomatoes
rating was "fresh" with a rating of 69%.
Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris is an American author and screenwriter, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter...
' novel of the same name and featuring psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
. It is a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film that blends elements of the crime and horror genres. It was directed by Jonathan Demme and stars Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine, and Scott Glenn...
.
The film was directed by Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner is an American film director, film producer and music video director. He is best known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.- Early life :Ratner was...
and written for the screen by Ted Tally
Ted Tally
Ted Tally is an American playwright and screenwriter.-Screenwriter:Born William Theodore Tally in North Carolina, Tally was educated at Yale College and the Yale School of Drama, and has also taught at each of them...
, who also wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. It stars Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
as FBI agent Will Graham
Will Graham
Will Graham is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Thomas Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon. He is an FBI profiler responsible for the original capture of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter and the man who is assigned to locate killer Francis Dolarhyde.Although successful, Graham is...
and Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
as Lecter, a role he had, by then, played twice before in The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal
Hannibal (film)
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter...
.
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
, Emily Watson
Emily Watson
Emily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
and Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
are also featured.
Plot
Baltimore, Maryland, 1980: in his townhouse, psychiatristPsychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
(Hopkins) hosts a dinner party, where his guests might well be dining on portions of a man they knew. Lecter is later visited by Will Graham
Will Graham
Will Graham is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Thomas Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon. He is an FBI profiler responsible for the original capture of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter and the man who is assigned to locate killer Francis Dolarhyde.Although successful, Graham is...
(Norton), a gifted FBI agent, with whom he has been working on a psychological profile
Offender profiling
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...
of a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who has removed edible body parts (e.g. kidney
Kidney
The kidneys, organs with several functions, serve essential regulatory roles in most animals, including vertebrates and some invertebrates. They are essential in the urinary system and also serve homeostatic functions such as the regulation of electrolytes, maintenance of acid–base balance, and...
s and liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
) from his victims, leading Graham to believe that the killer could be a cannibal
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
. During the consultation and brainstorming session, Graham discovers evidence implicating Lecter in the murders. Lecter attacks him, almost disemboweling Graham before his would-be victim overpowers him. Lecter is sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
in an institution for the criminally insane while Graham, severely traumatized
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
by the experience, retires from the FBI.
Years later, another serial killer appears. Nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy," he stalks and kills seemingly random Southern families during sequential full moon
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
s. Hoping to capture the killer before his next attack, Special Agent Jack Crawford
Jack Crawford (character)
Jack Crawford is a fictional character who appears in the Hannibal Lecter series of books by Thomas Harris, in which Crawford is the Agent-in-Charge of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. He is modeled after John E...
(Keitel) goes to Graham's home in Florida to seek his assistance. The death of another family weighing on his conscience, Graham reluctantly agrees. After visiting the crime scenes and speaking with Crawford, he concludes that he must once again consult Dr. Lecter for help.
The "Tooth Fairy" is actually a schizophrenic named Francis Dolarhyde
Francis Dolarhyde
Francis Dolarhyde is a fictional character and the main antagonist featured in the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon.-Character overview:Dolarhyde is a serial killer nicknamed "The Tooth-Fairy" due to his tendency to bite his victims' bodies, the uncommon size and sharpness of his teeth and other...
(Fiennes) who kills at the behest of an alternate personality he calls "The Great Red Dragon." He is obsessed with a William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
painting, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, and believes that each victim he "changes" brings him closer to "becoming" the Dragon. His pathology is born from the severe abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
he suffered as a child at the hands of his sadistic
Sadism
Sadism is the derivation of pleasure as a result of inflicting pain or watching pain inflicted on others. Aspects of it include:* Sadomasochism* Sadism and masochism as medical terms, sadism and masochism as paraphilia...
grandmother (voiced by Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
).
Freddy Lounds (Hoffman), a tabloid reporter who hounded Graham after Lecter's capture, now follows him for leads on the Tooth Fairy story. There is a secret correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde. Graham's wife (Parker) and son (Tyler Patrick Jones
Tyler Patrick Jones
Tyler Patrick Jones is an American teen actor known for his recurring role as Ned Banks on the CBS television show Ghost Whisperer.-Commercials:* Hallmark - Daniel* Macy's Super Saturday Sale...
) are endangered when Lecter gives the Tooth Fairy the agent's home address, forcing them to be relocated to a Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
farm owned by Crawford's brother. Lecter is aware that the feds are onto him. He raises the stakes: in return for his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy, he requests a first-class meal in his cell and having his book privileges returned.
Hoping to lure the Tooth Fairy out of hiding, Graham gives an interview to Lounds in which he disparages the killer as an impotent homosexual. This provokes Dolarhyde, who kidnaps Lounds, glues him to an antique wheelchair, then forces him to recant his allegations before biting out his tongue and setting him on fire, depositing him outside his newspaper's offices.
At his job in a St. Louis photo lab, Dolarhyde falls in love with Reba McClane (Watson), a blind co-worker, but his Dragon personality demands that he kill her. He takes her home, where they make love. Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him by going to the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
and consuming the original Blake watercolor painting of "The Red Dragon".
Graham, meanwhile deduces that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos, which he could only have seen if he worked for the editing company that transfers home movies to video cassette.
Dolarhyde goes to see Reba and finds her with a co-worker, Ralph Mandy (Frank Whaley
Frank Whaley
Frank Joseph Whaley is an American film and television actor known for his roles in independent films.-Personal life:Whaley was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Josephine and Robert W. Whaley, Sr. He is half-Irish and half-Sicilian and grew up in Syracuse. He has two sisters and an older...
), whom she actually dislikes. Jealous and enraged, Dolarhyde shoots and kills Mandy, kidnaps Reba and, having taken her to his house, sets it on fire. He finds himself unable to shoot her, so Dolarhyde (seemingly) turns his shotgun on himself and fires. Reba, hearing the clock chime and remembering how many steps are from there to the front door, is able to escape as the police show up and the house explodes.
However, it turns out Dolarhyde staged his own death by leaving behind Mandy's charred corpse. He turns up at Graham's home in Florida, where he holds Graham's son hostage, threatening to kill him with a piece of broken glass. To defuse the situation, Graham slings insults at his son that are reminiscent of the ones Dolarhyde's grandmother had used against him. Feeling a sudden sympathy for the boy, the enraged Dolarhyde attacks Graham as the boy flees to safety. Both men are severely wounded in a shootout which ends when Graham's wife Molly fatally shoots Dolarhyde.
After recovering, Graham receives a letter from the incarcerated Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't "too ugly." Dr. Frederick Chilton
Frederick Chilton
Dr. Frederick Chilton is a fictional character appearing in Thomas Harris' novels Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs.-Red Dragon:...
(Anthony Heald
Anthony Heald
Philip Anthony Mair Heald, known professionally as Anthony Heald , is an American actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, and for playing assistant principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public...
) then informs Lecter that there is a young woman from the FBI
Clarice Starling
Clarice M. Starling is a fictional character and the protagonist in the novels The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal by Thomas Harris....
waiting to speak with him. Lecter looks up, then asks, "What is her name?"
Cast
- Anthony HopkinsAnthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
as Hannibal LecterHannibal LecterHannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer... - Edward NortonEdward NortonEdward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
as Will GrahamWill GrahamWill Graham is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Thomas Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon. He is an FBI profiler responsible for the original capture of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter and the man who is assigned to locate killer Francis Dolarhyde.Although successful, Graham is... - Ralph FiennesRalph FiennesRalph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
as Francis DolarhydeFrancis DolarhydeFrancis Dolarhyde is a fictional character and the main antagonist featured in the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon.-Character overview:Dolarhyde is a serial killer nicknamed "The Tooth-Fairy" due to his tendency to bite his victims' bodies, the uncommon size and sharpness of his teeth and other... - Harvey KeitelHarvey KeitelHarvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
as Jack CrawfordJack Crawford (character)Jack Crawford is a fictional character who appears in the Hannibal Lecter series of books by Thomas Harris, in which Crawford is the Agent-in-Charge of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia. He is modeled after John E... - Emily WatsonEmily WatsonEmily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
as Reba McClane - Mary-Louise ParkerMary-Louise ParkerMary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
as Molly Graham - Philip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour HoffmanPhilip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
as Freddy Lounds - Frank WhaleyFrank WhaleyFrank Joseph Whaley is an American film and television actor known for his roles in independent films.-Personal life:Whaley was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Josephine and Robert W. Whaley, Sr. He is half-Irish and half-Sicilian and grew up in Syracuse. He has two sisters and an older...
as Ralph Mandy - Anthony HealdAnthony HealdPhilip Anthony Mair Heald, known professionally as Anthony Heald , is an American actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, and for playing assistant principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public...
as Frederick ChiltonFrederick ChiltonDr. Frederick Chilton is a fictional character appearing in Thomas Harris' novels Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs.-Red Dragon:... - Ken LeungKen LeungKenneth "Ken" Leung is an American actor best known for his role as Miles Straume in the ABC television series Lost and roles in such films as Shanghai Kiss, Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Saw.-Early life:...
as Lloyd Bowman - Frankie FaisonFrankie FaisonFrankie Russel Faison , often credited as Frankie R. Faison, is an American actor.-Personal life:Faison was born in Newport News, Virginia, the son of Carmena and Edgar Faison. He studied drama at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, where he joined Theta Chi Fraternity...
as Barney Matthews - Ellen BurstynEllen BurstynEllen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
as Voice of Grandma Dolarhyde
Reception
Red Dragon was a box office success, earning $93,149,898 in the US. Although the film's worldwide and domestic profit margin was less than its predecessor HannibalHannibal (film)
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter...
, the audience and critical reviews for Red Dragon were noticeably more positive than for Hannibal.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4. The average Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
rating was "fresh" with a rating of 69%.
