It feels kind of out of place with the rest of the movie, which has this gritty true crime feel running throughout it, but then we see this guy attempt this wild escape and execute it flawlessly. It just felt far too convenient to be believable.
shareYep, the weakest part of the movie, in my opinion. It's supposed to make Hannibal Lecter look like a genius, but who wouldn't be able to escape with such morons as security guards. Too over-the-top.
shareIt's really easy to answer "realism" question in nearly any good movie.
1. Example: world has seen many wars. World War 2 was especially tragic and horrible. Touched every family in the world.
It's so unrealistic that people want to go to war nowadays -- not only the history tells us, we all know war means death. How is it possible, that with the way WW2 is documented and constantly reminded of, people romanticise and even want to go to war, nowadays ?
2. It is the only time you see Hannibal the Cannibal in action in the movie. It had to be spectacular and intense.
Even the guards that died were portrayed as friendly to Hannibal - they should've been safe, right ?
Complacency. Yes, they were informed that he's a monster. But you fail to get yourself into the situation.
- It's likely that it wasn't the first meal they brought to him. He acted politely. Nothing out of the ordinary.
- Look how limp his hands look when he allows the officer to put the handcuffs on.
- If you're the officer who's assigned to look after him - you're scared, but you dont know why. That makes you curious.
It brings me to another point - as you're curious and afraid, your mind looks for signs to either be afraid, or relax and investigate.
Hannibal does nothing but make you relax. Slow movements. Very polite. Calming music playing in the background. He's got panorama paintings. He's reading a book. He's well behaved and polite whilst doing that. Looks like a friendly-grandpa-like professor.
He's also helping out in catching a serial killer, which sort of places a thought in your head - that means there's a "contract" between two sides, and there should be fulfillment to it, it's sort of in an "awaiting for the other day" stage. It lulls the officer's guard down as well. And when should you strike ? When the guard is down and everyone is complacent.
3. Complacency in power.
Huge police force assigned to the job. The building is full of them. Helicopters are running around, seeing if anyone is trying to free Hannibal. Even FBI is present.
They all are doing protocols. Everything is going fine. Commaradory of sorts, everyone has each other's back.
They all have guns. Guns give false security to people, they feel very powerful and safe whilst wielding a gun.
Sum that all up. Against a single man, who looks like an aged professor, who is not too tall, and not too powerful.
4. No CCTV cameras ? Look at the time of the movie. Technology of security cameras is still somewhat primitive. Back in those days, if you want cameras - they have to be pre-installed and coordinated.
Look how fast it all happened. They're on the clock. Minutes matter. They even flew him out, they didnt transport him the usual way.
There's a billion officers in the building, looking after 1 person. One.
Cameras are most effective when a single man has to watch over A LOT OF space, which is not possible. Cameras make it possible.
And Hannibal is placed in the middle of a court. Huuge space around him. Lights are all on him. he's in a cage. I bet it looked impossible to escape from, even for the officers.
5. He's not the main suspect. He's the helper to catch a suspect. It brings everyone's subconscious level slightly down.
Yes, they're still alert, but they have no "taste" in his power, and he's not the main thing on their mind. Buffalo Bill is the main gravity point. Everyone's thoughts are on him.
Thanks for the question. Thinking about it made me realise how gruesome and well orchestrated that escape scene was. It was both "fictional" and covered it's tracks with "evidence" you can pick on, to make yourself believe in plausibility of it all.
It's a movie. Not a documentary. It's supposed to interract with your imagination, not your knowledge.
But it is one of the most shocking moments in movie history. So it's got that going for it.
shareThe one thing I found hard to believe about the scene was that they didn't have cameras in that room with Lector.
shareIt’s hard to believe the trained medical staff wouldn’t have noticed that he wasn’t actually hurt / injured. And a mask of ripped human skin probably would have been noticeable
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