Movie Smarts

The Silence of the Lambs Quiz: Listen Closely

The big scenes are easy to remember. How many of the little details stayed with you?

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Watch the trailer.

The Silence of the Lambs: This Interview Is Going to Be Uncomfortable

A young FBI trainee is sent to question a brilliant prisoner who enjoys having the upper hand. She needs his insight to help catch a killer, but he would rather turn the conversation toward the secrets she keeps herself. The case becomes a race against time, with every useful clue carrying a personal cost. Listening carefully may help her, though nothing about these meetings feels safe.

Pay attention to the details. That is the whole point of this interview.

1. Who plays Clarice Starling?
- Michelle Pfeiffer
- Jodie Foster
- Geena Davis
- Julianne Moore
Michelle Pfeiffer was offered Clarice first and turned it down, finding the material too dark, and Foster, who had wanted the part since reading the novel, lobbied hard for it. Julianne Moore took over in the sequel Hannibal when Foster declined to return.
2. Who plays Hannibal Lecter?
- Jeremy Irons
- Brian Cox
- Anthony Hopkins
- Gary Oldman
Hopkins is on screen for only about a quarter of an hour, and he based Lecter's unnerving voice on a blend of Katharine Hepburn and Truman Capote. Brian Cox had already played the character, spelled Lecktor, in Michael Mann's Manhunter five years earlier.
3. Who directed The Silence of the Lambs?
- Michael Mann
- Jonathan Demme
- David Fincher
- Brian De Palma
Demme came to it from Married to the Mob and the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, hardly a horror pedigree. His trademark here is having Lecter and the other men look straight into the lens, so the audience gets the stares Clarice gets.
4. Who wrote the novel?
- Patricia Cornwell
- James Patterson
- Thomas Harris
- John Sandford
The 1988 novel is the second Lecter book, following Red Dragon, and Harris later added Hannibal and Hannibal Rising. He is famously reclusive and almost never gives interviews; Patricia Cornwell writes the Kay Scarpetta forensic novels instead.
5. What was Lecter's profession before prison?
- Psychiatrist
- Law professor
- Surgeon
- Forensic pathologist
Lecter was a practicing psychiatrist in Baltimore until the FBI profiler Will Graham caught him, a case told in Red Dragon, and he has been locked up for years when Clarice arrives. One former patient's severed head turns up in a storage unit.
6. What is the nickname of the killer Clarice is helping hunt?
- Buffalo Bill
- The Chesapeake Ripper
- The Red Dragon
- The Tooth Fairy
Buffalo Bill's real name is Jame Gumb, and the nickname is a grim joke from Kansas City homicide about the way he skins his victims. Gumb is modeled on real killers such as Ed Gein; the Red Dragon and the Tooth Fairy are the killer in Harris's previous book.
7. Who sends Clarice to interview Lecter?
- Barney Matthews
- Frederick Chilton
- Jack Crawford
- Paul Krendler
Crawford heads the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and is played by Scott Glenn, who prepared with the real profiler John Douglas, the model for the character. Douglas played him recordings made by real killers, which Glenn said shook him badly.
8. What is the name of the institution's boastful administrator?
- Dr. Frederick Chilton
- Dr. Alan Bloom
- Dr. Will Graham
- Dr. Charles Raspail
Chilton hits on Clarice and later sabotages her by telling Lecter that her offer of a deal was a fake. The last scene has Lecter, free in the tropics, spot Chilton stepping off a plane and announce he is having an old friend for dinner.
9. What insect is found in the killer's victims?
- A cicada
- A dragonfly
- A monarch butterfly
- A death's-head hawkmoth
The hawkmoth is named for the skull-like marking on its back, and the killer lodges a pupa in each victim's throat as a symbol of the change he craves. The skull on the poster's moth is really a Philippe Halsman photo of seven nude women posed by Dalí.
10. What is the kidnapped senator's daughter called?
- Ardelia Mapp
- Stacy Hubka
- Frederica Bimmel
- Catherine Martin
Catherine is the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, and Gumb lures her with a fake broken arm and a sofa he cannot lift alone. She is kept in a dry well in his basement and survives partly by taking his dog hostage; Frederica Bimmel is the first victim found.
11. What is the name of the killer's little dog?
- Pippin
- Peaches
- Princess
- Precious
Precious is a poodle, and Catherine lures her into the well with a chicken bone and threatens to break her neck unless Gumb lowers a phone, which rattles him more than the FBI does. Catherine is carried out at the end with the dog in her arms.
12. What kind of wine does Lecter mention with his infamous meal?
- Chianti
- Chardonnay
- Merlot
- Port
'A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.' In the novel the wine is a big Amarone, swapped for something American audiences would recognize, and Hopkins added the slurping noise himself.
13. What does quid pro quo mean in Lecter's bargain with Clarice?
- Something for something
- Speak only the truth
- Time is running out
- Trust no one
The Latin means something for something, and Lecter trades insights into Buffalo Bill for pieces of Clarice's childhood, above all the night she tried to rescue a lamb from slaughter at her cousin's Montana ranch. Those screaming lambs give the film its title.
14. What equipment helps the killer see Clarice in the dark?
- An infrared mirror
- A light-sensitive mask
- A thermal camera on a rifle
- Night-vision goggles
Gumb cuts the basement lights and stalks Clarice in night-vision goggles, so the sequence plays in green from his point of view while she gropes along the walls; she fires at the sound of him cocking his revolver. Ted Levine plays him.
15. Which set of major Oscars did the film win?
- Picture, cinematography, editing, score, and sound
- Director, costumes, makeup, editing, and score
- Actor, actress, song, sound, and effects
- Picture, director, actor, actress, and adapted screenplay
Picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay are the big five, and only It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had swept them before. It had opened over a year earlier, and its studio, Orion, was bankrupt by the time the awards arrived.

All the answers

1. Who plays Clarice Starling?

Jodie Foster

Michelle Pfeiffer was offered Clarice first and turned it down, finding the material too dark, and Foster, who had wanted the part since reading the novel, lobbied hard for it. Julianne Moore took over in the sequel Hannibal when Foster declined to return.
2. Who plays Hannibal Lecter?

Anthony Hopkins

Hopkins is on screen for only about a quarter of an hour, and he based Lecter's unnerving voice on a blend of Katharine Hepburn and Truman Capote. Brian Cox had already played the character, spelled Lecktor, in Michael Mann's Manhunter five years earlier.
3. Who directed The Silence of the Lambs?

Jonathan Demme

Demme came to it from Married to the Mob and the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, hardly a horror pedigree. His trademark here is having Lecter and the other men look straight into the lens, so the audience gets the stares Clarice gets.
4. Who wrote the novel?

Thomas Harris

The 1988 novel is the second Lecter book, following Red Dragon, and Harris later added Hannibal and Hannibal Rising. He is famously reclusive and almost never gives interviews; Patricia Cornwell writes the Kay Scarpetta forensic novels instead.
5. What was Lecter's profession before prison?

Psychiatrist

Lecter was a practicing psychiatrist in Baltimore until the FBI profiler Will Graham caught him, a case told in Red Dragon, and he has been locked up for years when Clarice arrives. One former patient's severed head turns up in a storage unit.
6. What is the nickname of the killer Clarice is helping hunt?

Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill's real name is Jame Gumb, and the nickname is a grim joke from Kansas City homicide about the way he skins his victims. Gumb is modeled on real killers such as Ed Gein; the Red Dragon and the Tooth Fairy are the killer in Harris's previous book.
7. Who sends Clarice to interview Lecter?

Jack Crawford

Crawford heads the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and is played by Scott Glenn, who prepared with the real profiler John Douglas, the model for the character. Douglas played him recordings made by real killers, which Glenn said shook him badly.
8. What is the name of the institution's boastful administrator?

Dr. Frederick Chilton

Chilton hits on Clarice and later sabotages her by telling Lecter that her offer of a deal was a fake. The last scene has Lecter, free in the tropics, spot Chilton stepping off a plane and announce he is having an old friend for dinner.
9. What insect is found in the killer's victims?

A death's-head hawkmoth

The hawkmoth is named for the skull-like marking on its back, and the killer lodges a pupa in each victim's throat as a symbol of the change he craves. The skull on the poster's moth is really a Philippe Halsman photo of seven nude women posed by Dalí.
10. What is the kidnapped senator's daughter called?

Catherine Martin

Catherine is the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, and Gumb lures her with a fake broken arm and a sofa he cannot lift alone. She is kept in a dry well in his basement and survives partly by taking his dog hostage; Frederica Bimmel is the first victim found.
11. What is the name of the killer's little dog?

Precious

Precious is a poodle, and Catherine lures her into the well with a chicken bone and threatens to break her neck unless Gumb lowers a phone, which rattles him more than the FBI does. Catherine is carried out at the end with the dog in her arms.
12. What kind of wine does Lecter mention with his infamous meal?

Chianti

'A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.' In the novel the wine is a big Amarone, swapped for something American audiences would recognize, and Hopkins added the slurping noise himself.
13. What does quid pro quo mean in Lecter's bargain with Clarice?

Something for something

The Latin means something for something, and Lecter trades insights into Buffalo Bill for pieces of Clarice's childhood, above all the night she tried to rescue a lamb from slaughter at her cousin's Montana ranch. Those screaming lambs give the film its title.
14. What equipment helps the killer see Clarice in the dark?

Night-vision goggles

Gumb cuts the basement lights and stalks Clarice in night-vision goggles, so the sequence plays in green from his point of view while she gropes along the walls; she fires at the sound of him cocking his revolver. Ted Levine plays him.
15. Which set of major Oscars did the film win?

Picture, director, actor, actress, and adapted screenplay

Picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay are the big five, and only It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had swept them before. It had opened over a year earlier, and its studio, Orion, was bankrupt by the time the awards arrived.