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Will Graham
Will Graham
Played By: William Petersen
- Anti-Hero: Petersen's Graham is much more in conflict with his own inner darkness and almost seconds away from snapping than Norton's Graham.
- Berserk Button: Graham doesn't like it when people bring up his past experience with Lecktor.
- FBI Agent: One of the FBI's foremost profilers.
- Color Motif: Blue.
- Cowboy Cop: Subtle, but he counts. The best at his profession but a risk? Check. Assaults a reporter? Check. Charges through Dollarhyde's kitchen window with no backup? Check.
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Knight in Sour Armor
- Locked into Strangeness: Graham's hair has some gray tinges, due to his experience with Lecktor.
- Precision F-Strike: "Keep the fuck away from me!"
- Shirtless Scene: Petersen gets a few.
Hannibal Lecktor
Dr. Hannibal Lecktor
Played By: Brian Cox
- Adaptational Jerkass: While his cannibalism is excised from this adaptation, he also lacks the Affably Evil and Noble Demon traits of his other counterparts, instead being depicted as arrogant and condescending towards Graham and others around him.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Not by much, since he's still Hannibal Lecter, but there's no indication this version is a cannibal.
- Adaptation Name Change: "Lecktor" instead of "Lecter".
- Composite Character: His backstory is an amalgamation of his own as well as another serial killer Graham killed, Garrett Jacob Hobbs.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's a total Jerkass no matter how friendly he likes to make himself out to be; just check his cheerful demeanor when speaking to a secretary on a phone call. You almost expect him to chirp, "Just let your fingers do the dialing!"
- It Amused Me: Pitted Graham and Dollarhyde against each other just for fun.
- Jerkass: Particularly when compared to Anthony Hopkins and Mads Mikkelsen's genuinely Affably Evil takes. This Hannibal barely tries to act civil and when he does, it comes off as sarcastic and insincere.
- Manipulative Bastard: Much like Hopkins' Lecter, he is quite capable of toying with the lives of others from inside his prison cell.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Lektor tells this to Graham, based on his ability to connect with murderers’ mentality to reconstruct their crimes and his Anti-Hero tendencies. Obviously he’s talking out of his ass, but it shakes Will up nonetheless.Lecktor: You want the scent? Smell yourself.
- Serial Killer: Murdered college girls before his arrest.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Lecktor appears in two scenes, but his presence hangs like a pall over the film.
- Smug Snake: In contrast to both his literary counterpart and the version played by Anthony Hopkins, this version is less successful in endeavors and his arrogance feels less earned as a result.
Francis Dollarhyde
Francis Dollarhyde
Played By: Tom Noonan
- A God Am I: "You owe me awe!"
- Adaptational Badass: Unlike in Red Dragon, in this film he performs a brutal Last Stand with the police and he looks outright implacable until Graham empties his revolver (loaded with Glazer rounds) into him.
- Adaptation Name Change: Traditionally his last name is spelled with one "l" rather than two.
- Adaptational Ugliness: This film's Francis is badly balding, has eerily pale skin, and his facial scarring is very noticeable. In the novel, surgery has removed all but the faintest of scarring, he has the physique of a competitive bodybuilder, and is noted by female coworkers to be rather handsome with luscious hair and smooth skin.
- Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard not to feel some sympathy for him, despite his actions.
- Bald of Evil: A bald pate.
- Berserk Button: Will Graham used Freddy Lounds to push several of them...
- Big Bad: Catching him is the main focus of Manhunter.
- Blind and the Beast: With Reba, naturally.
- Cool Shades/Sinister Shades: When working in his photo lab.
- Color Motif: Green.
- Creepy Souvenir: The photos and recordings that he takes of his victims certainly count.
- Dissonant Serenity: Remains icily detached during the shootout, barely reacts to being shot.
- Establishing Character Moment: He's not seen in the film til halfway though, but the first time he's seen he's terrifying.
- Evil Is Bigger: Is 6'7'', over 200 pounds and very, very physically strong.
- Evil Is Hammy: In his debut scene, although only there in this version as he later goes more towards Dissonant Serenity and Tranquil Fury.
- Evil Sounds Deep: He speaks with a deep, intimidating voice.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Though it is not delved into as much as the novel or other adaptations, Will Graham states he is a victim of child abuse. In an interesting variation on this trope, Will's empathy never wavers, but he simultaneously understands Francis is still a monster, and it never gets in the way of his duty to capture him by any means necessary, including lethal force.
- Genius Bruiser: Eluded authorities long enough to cause Crawford to bring back Will Graham, and thoroughly prepares before each murder.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: He was in the midst of a Heel–Face Turn until a psychotic delusion convinced him Reba was cheating on him.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Believes that if he simulates being loved enough times (by killing whole families and arranging them to look like they're admiring him), then he will become someone who is wanted and loved.
- Kill It with Fire: How he opts to dispose of Lounds.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Kills Dandridge after seeing him with Reba.
- No Kill like Overkill: Is shot seven times (six in the Director's Cut) before finally dying.
- Serial Killer: Kills entire families.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: In comparison to other portrayals of the character.
- Split Personality: "Francis is gone. Francis is gone forever."
- Sympathetic Murderer: His backstory is less detailed in this version, but even Graham is saddened that an innocent child has been shaped into such a deranged maniac.
- Tranquil Fury: When he thinks that Reba is cheating on him, he becomes a silent, Jason Voorhees-esque spree killer.
- Tragic Monster: So utterly broken and deranged that it's hard not to pity him.
Jack Crawford
Jack Crawford
Played By: Dennis Farina
- Actually Pretty Funny: Can't help but snicker when Will says that Dollarhyde has had sexual relations with his mother during the "interview" with Lounds.
- Batman Gambit: Hopes that having Graham slander the killer in the paper will provoke him into attacking Graham, who they have under surveillance.
- FBI Agent: Graham's superior.
- Manipulative Bastard: Somewhat, he's called out on it early on by Will, but he admits he'd do it again.
Freddy Lounds
Freddy Lounds
Played By: Stephen Lang
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Stephen Lang is many things—but he is not "lumpy and ugly and small. He had buck teeth and his rat eyes had the sheen of spit on asphalt."
- Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed. While the book version of Lounds was a legitimately competent journalist who only turned to the tabloids out of a stalling career and had a Morality Pet in the form of his girlfriend, this Lounds is far younger and lacks both of these qualities.
- Adaptation Personality Change: In the book, Lounds is pretty open about being an unethical Slimeball and only turned to writing for tabloids because he was a has-been whose career as a journalist had stalled, while this Lounds is more of a fast talker and a young up-and-comer who does his best to look like an Intrepid Reporter rather than glorified paparazzi.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Lounds is an unapologetically sleazy and unethical Immoral Journalist, but it is impossible not to feel bad for him when the Tooth Fairy tortures and murders him.
- Asshole Victim: Deconstructed. Lounds is definitely an asshole, but it's made abundantly clear he didn't deserve what he got.
- Gory Discretion Shot/Nothing Is Scarier: His torture and mutilation at the hands of the Tooth Fairy isn’t seen, though his screams of pain are heard.
- Immoral Journalist: He has no ethics or scruples whatsoever.
- Jerkass: While not as much of an open dick as the book version of Lounds, he’s still an unethical, smug weasel who repeatedly harasses Graham for the sake of getting himself some glory; in the Back Story, he snuck into Graham's hospital room to take pictures of his injuries.Lounds: (snapping pics of Graham having fled the asylum) Gotcha.
