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The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Silence of the Lambs can be found here.
Yes. The movie is based on The Silence of the Lambs, a 1988 novel by American writer Thomas Harris. The novel was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter Ted Tally. There have since been two movie sequels, Hannibal (2001) and Hannibal Rising (2007) and one prequel Red Dragon (2002), also based on novels by Thomas Harris. Prior to The Silence of the Lambs, there was another Hannibal Lector movie, Manhunter (1986), which was based on Harris' 1981 novel, Red Dragon.
There are two schools of thought on this. One could certainly argue that The Silence of the Lambs is a sequel to Manhunter, since it features three of the same characters from Manhunter, that is, Hannibal Lector, Jack Crawford, and Dr Frederick Chilton (played respectively by Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, and Benjamin Hendrickson in Manhunter and Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, and Anthony Heald in The Silence of the Lambs). On the other hand, Manhunter was not a successful film, which is why Dino De Laurentiis chose not to produce this film. When The Silence of the Lambs was released, it was not marketed as a sequel to Manhunter. All references from the book that mention Will "the Red Dragon" Graham have been excised from the film. The two returning cast members, Frankie Faison and Dan Butler, play different roles. It's also worth noting that in early drafts, when the producers were not sure if they could use the characters from Manhunter, Ted Tally changed those characters' names to cut all ties with Manhunter. They were eventually changed back. However, given that Tally also wrote the screenplay for Red Dragon, which featured three out of four actors returning to their roles, including Faison playing his Silence role, it is more likely that Manhunter is meant to be part of a separate continuity, while Red Dragon is meant to be a direct prequel to The Silence of the Lambs.
FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is sent to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane to interview Dr Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) and, hopefully, obtain information that will help the FBI identify a serial killer known to them as 'Buffalo Bill' (Ted Levine). Bill kidnaps his victims --all tall, overweight girls -- holds them for three days, kills them for some reason, and their bodies eventually turn up floating in the river. Lector offers to feed her information but only if she will tell him about herself. Clarice tells him how she was orphaned at 10 years of age and sent to live on a sheep and horse ranch in Montana. One night she awoke to a terrible screaming and discovered the rancher was slaughtering the spring lambs. She grabbed a lamb and tried to rescue it. When she was found the next day, the rancher sent her away to live in an orphanage. Lector concludes that Clarice's fervent desire to save Bill's current victim, Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), daughter of Tennessee state Senator Ruth Martin (Diane Baker), will ultimately help her to silence the sound of the lambs screaming in her mind.
A picture of one of Buffalo Bill's victims has the year 1989 on it, so it must be either 1989 or the beginning of 1990.
Quid pro quo is Latin for "what for what" or "something for something." It refers to a reciprocal exchange. In the context of the movie, Lector promises to feed information about Buffalo Bill to Clarice Starling but only if she will tell him things about herself in return.
Roden (Dan Butler) and Dr Pilcher (Paul Lazar) identify the one taken from the victim's throat as a Death's-Head moth (Acherontia styx), a species found only in Asia. In reality, the cocoon was made from Tootsie-Rolls and gummy bears, in case the actress swallowed it. Photos of a real Death's Head moth can be seen here.
The song is "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus.
Contrary to how the movie portrayed it, the building he escapes from is Pittsburgh's Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial, not a Memphis courthouse. See here for details.
Following Lector's advice -- that Bill covets that which he sees everyday -- Clarice drives to Belvedere, Ohio to talk with the parents and friends of the first victim, Frederika Bimmel. In looking over Frederika's bedroom, Clarice notices the the triangular gussets on Frederika's dresses match the pieces of skin Bill cut from one of his victims. Clarice calls Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) to inform him that Bill is making a "woman suit" of real skin. Crawford is already in route to Chicago, having identified Bill as Jame Gumb, but they find that the house where he's supposedly living has been abandoned. Clarice continues to poke around in Belvedere and is eventually led to the house of "old Mrs Littman." Mrs Littman doesn't live there any more, but the current resident, who calls himself Jack Gordon, offers to give her Mrs Littman's son's business card and invites Clarice inside to wait. When she notices spools of thread and a Death's-Head moth, she realizes that Jack Gordon is really Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb. She pulls her gun on him, but Gumb leads her on a wild goose chase into the basement, where he has Catherine Martin imprisoned in a well. Gumb dons an infrared mask and turns out the lights, leaving Clarice to feel around in the dark. When he makes the mistake of cocking his gun, Clarice shoots him. Catherine is subsequently rescued. In the final scenes, Clarice is shown graduating from the Academy. At the party that follows, she receives a phone call from Lector, calling from the airport on the island of Bimini in the Bahamas. He assures her that he's not about to come looking for her and requests that she extend him the same courtesy, which Clarice cannot do, of course. He then says that he must hang up because "I'm having an old friend for dinner," as he watches Dr. Frederick Chilton deplane.
The closing, where Hannibal says: "I'm having an old friend for dinner" as he watches Dr. Chilton deplane, strongly suggests that Chilton ended up as one of Hannibal's meals. A small reference was made in the sequel novel Hannibal, where it was mentioned that Chilton disappeared seven years earlier while on vacation, strongly suggesting Hannibal had gotten his revenge (albeit in the novel, Chilton disappeared in Jamaica, not the Bahamas). However, this is never specifically stated in the sequel movie. The only reference to Dr. Chilton in Hannibal is made by Barney, when he says that Lecter, when possible, preferred to eat "the rude," and Dr. Chilton "was a bad man," which also strongly implies Chilton became Hannibal's victim.
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