Red Dragon

    What a collection of scars you have. Never forget who gave you the best of them,                      

   and be grateful, our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real.

Will Graham is an FBI agenct called out of retirement by thd FBI to assist in the capture of a serial killer nicknamed the tooth fairy. He originally retied several years earlier after nearly meeting his maker at the hands of a co-agent, Dr Hannibal Lecter, who turned out to be the serial killer he was searching for. Whilst Graham survived and captued Lecter, he is still haunted by the events, particualrly as he needs to ask Lecter for help in catching the tooth fairy. The Tooth Fairy is a disturbed man named Francis Dolarhyde, who worships Hannibal Lecter after learning of his crimes. Dolarhyde also calls himself the "The Great Red Dragon", because of his obsession with the William Blake painting. Graham later discovers that Lecter is manipulating him by corresponding with Dolarhyde.

Two complications hinder the investigation. On the one hand there is Freddy Lounds, a tabloid reporter who once ran afoul of Graham during the Lecter case and is now dogging him to get the story on The Tooth Fairy. On the other hand there is the correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde which eventually sees Lecter providing Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, endangering Graham's wife and son. Fortunately, both complications are solved: the first because Dolarhyde kills Lounds after the latter writes unfavourably about him in the newspapers, the second because Graham manages to evacuate his family from their house before any harm can come to them.

In the meantime Dolarhyde meets Reba McClane, a blind co-worker at Chromalux Film & Videotape Services. Dolarhyde and McClane begin a romantic relationship. Dolarhyde's newfound love conflicts with his homicidal urges, which manifest themselves in his mind as his separate personality "The Great Red Dragon". After his association with Reba, Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him. In order to stop killing, he believes that he must dominate the dragon by consuming the original copy of the painting. Dolarhyde goes to the museum, beats a museum secretary unconscious, and eats the original Blake watercolour of The Red Dragon.

Graham eventually realizes that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos, which he only could have seen if he worked for Chromalux, the company that transers the home videos to video cassette. Dolarhyde's job at Chromalux gives him access to all home movies that pass through the company. Sensing that he is about to be caught, Dolarhyde goes to see McClane one last time, but he finds her talking to a co-worker, Ralph Mandy. Enraged, Dolorhyde kills Ralph Mandy, kidnaps McClane and, having taken her to his house, sets the place on fire. He apparently intends to kill her and then himself, but finds himself unable to shoot her. After he apparently shoots himself, McClane escapes.

Graham is given Dolarhyde's scrapbook, saved from the wreckage of the house, which details the killer's obsession with the Blake painting and his admiration of Hannibal Lecter's murder style. The book also exposes the abuse Dolarhyde suffered as a child at the hands of his grandmother, which evidently turned him into a monster.

However, it turns out Dolarhyde did not shoot himself, but used the body of a previous victim in order to stage his own death. Dolarhyde pursues Graham to his home and attacks Graham's son. Here we have this killer in Graham's home....and the battle begins. Can Graham save his family????

The film ends with Dr. Chilton informing Lecter that there is a young woman from the FBI waiting to speak with him; presumably Clarice Starling......

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