History Literature / RedDragon

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Francis Dolarhyde setting [[spoiler:Freddy Lounds]] on fire.

!!This book and the film adaptation of the same name provide examples of:

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The 2002 film has a nicer ending. The ending of the book implies that Molly is going to leave Graham, who is laid up in the hospital, largely unable to move and with a face that has been cut to shreds. We later hear from Starling's narration that he's become an alcoholic. In the film, Graham still has his family, not to mention [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished Edward Norton's face]].
* AdaptationDistillation: Both film adaptations cut corners in order to have a more clear focus. ''Manhunter'' only briefly references the painting and psychology of the killer while ignoring Lecter's cannibalism in favor of focusing on the actual hunt for the killer and its effect on Graham (hence the title), while the 2002 film has a greater focus on the Lecter/Graham relationship and the mental state of the titular Red Dragon, Francis Dolarhyde.
* AdaptationDyeJob : Dolarhyde is blond in the novel and the two film adaptations. Creator/RichardArmitage has dark hair.

* AttackItsWeakPoint: Added into the climax of the film, which deviates a bit from the book. [[spoiler:Instead of just attacking straight out, Dolarhyde takes Josh hostage. Graham, having already read Dolarhyde's Big Book of Crazy and knowing his FreudianExcuse, begins to criticize his adoptive son with the same words that Francis's grandmother used to use on him. It's the last nail in the coffin for Dolarhyde, who is not "a freak, but a man with a freak on his back": ''he begins to sympathize with his own intended victim,'' and throws Josh free so that he can fight the person he ''really'' hates. [[BatmanGambit Which was Graham's plan all along, of course.]]]]

* CallForward: The movie ends with Hannibal being asked if he wants to see a [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs female FBI inspector]] and ends with him saying: "What is her name?" This creates something of a ContinuitySnarl since the film is set roughly eight years before ''Silence''.
* TheCameo: Music/LaloSchifrin appears in the movie as a composer.
* CannibalismSuperpower: Hannibal Lecter invokes this to Will, at least in the 2002 film; "Such a brave boy. I think I'll eat your heart...".

** [[spoiler:Dolarhyde may also have just been playing her to make the investigation think he's dead and earn enough time to take his revenge on Will. Since the entire scene is shown, both in book and films, from Reba's point of view, we don't and can't know whether he seriously intended to shoot her in the face.]]

* DistantPrologue: After Lecter attacks Graham but Graham still manages to subdue him, the rest of the story--Graham's hospitalization and retirement, Lecter's trial and sentencing--is told through newspaper clippings during the credits. The film then picks up "several years later."

** How Graham realizes Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper plays out differently in the book and film. In the book, Graham saw a medieval manuscript in Lecter's office which he knew contained a "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_Man Wound Man]]" surgical diagram which matched how the Ripper displayed one of his victims. In the film, Graham found a cookbook in Lecter's office with a note for "sweetbreads" (the culinary name for the thymus, an organ removed from a Ripper victim) written on the margins.

* EvilIsHammy: Dolarhyde - in the 2002 movie, it's easy to see early shades of [[Film/HarryPotter Voldemort]] when Ralph Fiennes gets evil. That movie also has Hannibal, which Anthony Hopkins always plays as a guy really full of himself.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the 2002 film, Lecter continues his habit of multi-layered clues during Graham's second visit by quoting: "A Robin Red breast in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage." On the surface, this merely reflects Graham's frustrations with the case... but when he has this quote referenced, it's from the poem "[[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43650/auguries-of-innocence Auguries of Innocence]]" by Creator/WilliamBlake. The librarian immediately refers Graham to a book of Blake's artwork, where Will sees the story's eponymous painting.

* MythologyGag:
** During the first scene we see Francis Dolarhyde in in the film, he's wearing a mask that covers his eyes. This is a reference to Creator/TomNoonan's Red Dragon costume in ''Film/{{Manhunter}}''. Later, the suit that he wears [[spoiler:when he goes to eat the original "Red Dragon" painting]] is modeled after Creator/WilliamPetersen's appearance in ''Manhunter''.
** At the end of ''Red Dragon'' Hannibal is informed of [[SequelHook a young female FBI agent who wants to question him]].

* PeriodPiece: Cars and set pieces clearly date the Edward Norton movie to circa 1990, since it's a prequel to ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''.

* ScareChord: The 2002 film version has a Music/DannyElfman score which has lots of these.

* SequelHook: The 2002 film features a scene set an unspecified amount of time after the events of the Tooth Fairy case, with Dr. Frederick Chilton telling Hannibal Lecter that he has a visitor from the FBI looking to investigate what the audience knows is the Buffalo Bill case. Lecter then asks for her name, setting up ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' as an ImmediateSequel.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Freddy Lounds, sort of. [[spoiler:He gets set on fire by Dolarhyde, and in the book survives for the better part of the day before finally succumbing. Although he also dies in the film, it's within minutes of the attack, meaning he is at least spared the extended suffering of his book counterpart.]]

* WolverinePublicity: Hannibal Lecter is a somewhat minor character in this story, with Dolarhyde being the real antagonist. However, Lecter's face takes up about 2/3rds of the film's poster/cover.

[[quoteright:243:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_dragon.jpg]]

[[quoteright:250: https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6c15d746_bf57_431c_9edd_43243daff62b.jpeg]]

[[quoteright:243:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_dragon.jpg]]

* SequelHook: The 2002 film features a scene set an unspecified amount of time after the events of the Tooth Fairy case, with Doctor Frederick Chilton telling Hannibal Lector that he has a visitor from the FBI looking to investigate what the audience knows is the Buffalo Bill case. Lector then asks for her name, setting up ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' as an ImmediateSequel.

** How Graham realizes Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper plays out differently in the book and film. In the book, Graham saw a medieval manuscript in Lecter's office which he knew contained a "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_Man Wound Man]]" surgical diagram which matched how the Ripper displayed one of his victims. In the film, Graham found a cookbook in Lecter's office with note for "sweetbreads" (the culinary name for the thymus) written on the margins.

* LipLosses: Francis Dolarhyde bites the lips off [[spoiler: Freddy Lounds]] using his "Tooth Fairy" dentures. It seems to be a symbolic punishment, given that [[spoiler: Freddy is a sleazy tabloid writer who knowingly published insulting falsehoods about the Tooth Fairy; Dolarhyde is thus "silencing" him by mutilating his mouth]]. For good measure, he then sets him on fire and sends him tumbling downhill on a wheelchair, leaving him to die in hospital - but not before providing a barely-coherent witness statement.
* MaliciousSlander: employed by the ''good guys''. The FBI use a tabloid, ''The National Tattler'', to print [[InsistentTerminology libelous attacks]] on the Tooth Fairy in the hopes of getting him to attack Graham.

* MarriedToTheJob: Played with in the novel. Graham really is happily retired with Molly, but is unable to stop himself from chasing Dolarhyde once he learns more about his previous victims. Molly is worried about his health and sanity, but seems unconvinced that the stress was worth the lives saved, and the pursuit of Dolarhyde puts an irreparable strain on their marriage and Will's relationship with Willy, who increasingly prefers his cloying grandparents. [[spoiler:By the end of it, Will is well aware of their dislike of him and the feeling is mutual, and is planning on ending the relationship even before Dolarhyde maims him.]]

** During the first scene we see Francis Dolarhyde in, he's wearing a mask that covers his eyes. This is a reference to Creator/WilliamPetersen's Red Dragon costume in ''Film/{{Manhunter}}''. Likewise, the suit that he wears [[spoiler:when he goes to eat the original "Red Dragon" painting]] is modeled after his appearance in ''Manhunter''.

* PeriodPiece: The cars and set pieces clearly date the Edward Norton movie to circa 1990, since it's a prequel to ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''.

* PublicSecretMessage: Hannibal Lecter places a personal ad filled with Bible verse numbers in a tabloid as a coded message ([[TheBookCipher the numbers refer to the nth letter on the xth page of his edition of ''The Joy of Cooking'']]) to Francis Dolarhyde. The FBI decrypts it, and realizes that it told Dolarhyde where Will Graham lives; they send Dolarhyde another message to lure him into a trap, but he recognizes it for what it is.

** ConsultingAConvictedKiller: Lecter is consulted less because he is a killer and more because he is an excellent profiler in his own right. Even so, he doesn't really tell Will anything Will himself hadn't already thought of- all he does is back up Will's opinions, though this is not so much due to lack of insight as it is Lecter deciding that helping out the [=FBI=] is less fun than pitting Will and the Tooth Fairy against each other. Lecter's only real contribution to the plot is taunting Will and telling Dolarhyde where Will and his family live.
** TheProfiler: Will is given three weeks to profile and catch the Tooth Fairy, and he fails; that Dolarhyde doesn't slaughter another family is down to issues he is going through in his personal life, not anything Graham did. While Will does offer genuine insight into what the Tooth Fairy is like and why he is doing this, he cannot deduce what specific delusion is driving him and is clueless as to what "Red Dragon" means. In the end Dolarhyde is found by hard detective work as much as anything else. Though Graham is a highly skilled and near-legendary [=FBI=] profiler, he has only caught two {{Serial Killer}}s in his entire career by the start of this movie, and both cases put him in hospital, with the first for a mental breakdown brought on by the stress of the case and the trauma of Graham killing the perpetrator.

* CallForward: The movie ends with Hannibal being asked if he wants to see a [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs female FBI inspector]] and ends with him saying: "What is her name?"

* AluminumChristmasTrees: "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed In Sun" is a real painting, one in a series painted by Creator/WilliamBlake. It is currently housed in the Brooklyn Museum.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the book, Graham says that Lecter: ''"... had the first and worst sign [of sociopathy] - sadism to animals as a child."'' This runs contrary to his WickedCultured and AffablyEvil characterization in the subsequent books, and feels rather beneath the Hannibal Lecter we eventually get to know. When ''Literature/HannibalRising'' was released and allowed readers to witness Hannibal's childhood and StartOfDarkness, such uncouth behavior was noticeably absent.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the book, Graham says that Lecter: ''"... had the first and worst sign [of sociopathy] - sadism to animals as a child."'' This runs contrary to his WickedCultured and AffablyEvil characterization in the subsequent books, and feels rather beneath the Hannibal Lecter we eventually get to know. When Literature/HannibalRising was released and allowed readers to witness Hannibal's childhood and StartOfDarkness, such uncouth behavior was noticeably absent.