Maps of Movies
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Where The Silence of the Lambs says it takes place, and where it was really shot.
The Baltimore asylum, the Memphis courthouse and the killer's home were all shot in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Scenes and places
The FBI Academy at Quantico (1991)
Trainee Clarice Starling is called away from her training by Jack Crawford, who sends her to interview a jailed psychiatrist. It is billed as a survey, but it is really a hunt for a serial killer known as Buffalo Bill.
Set in FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia — The FBI training campus in Virginia where Clarice Starling is a trainee. Google Maps · Apple Maps
The FBI training campus in Virginia, which let the production film some scenes on site.
Filmed at FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia — Filmed on the real campus; the Bureau allowed the production in. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The Baltimore asylum (1991)
Starling meets the hospital director, Dr. Chilton, who makes unwelcome advances before taking her to Lecter. Lecter is courteous until he works out why she was really sent, and then he turns dismissive.
Set in Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane — The hospital where Hannibal Lecter is held. Its director, Dr. Chilton, makes unwelcome advances on Starling before taking her to the cell.
A secure psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane, which in the story is in Baltimore.
Filmed at Western Center, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (exterior) — The outside of the building stands in for the Baltimore hospital. The site is now cleared, and the coordinate is the site centre. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
Filmed at Old Allegheny County Jail, 440 Ross Street, Pittsburgh — A film-location blog places the hospital interiors, corridors and cells, in this jail; one source. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The storage unit with the jar (1991)
Lecter hands Starling an anagram as a clue. She works it out and follows it to a storage unit holding a severed head in a jar.
Set in A "Your Self" storage facility outside downtown Baltimore — A rented storage unit, paid for ten years in advance, that holds a severed head in a jar.
A self-storage building, the kind of place where a locked door can keep a secret for years.
The museum and the moth (1991)
Starling takes the moth found in a victim's throat to museum entomologists. They identify it as a death's-head moth, a species that normally lives in Asia, so someone must have raised it here.
Set in A natural history museum (entomology lab) — Museum entomologists examine an insect found in a murder victim's throat.
A big natural history museum, with the researchers and collections needed to identify an insect.
Filmed at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh — Filmed here, according to a regional magazine and a film-location blog. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
Lecter's cell in Memphis (1991)
Lecter has been moved to Memphis. Starling solves the false name he gave and confronts him in his temporary cell. He gives her a cryptic clue, then makes her tell him about the spring lambs she once tried to save.
Set in Memphis, Tennessee (courthouse cell) — Lecter is moved to a temporary cell in a courthouse in Memphis. Coordinate is the city centre, not the courthouse. Google Maps · Apple Maps
A civic courthouse where a prisoner can be held for a few days and a senator can come to ask him questions.
Filmed at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, Pittsburgh (ballroom) — The hall stands in for the Tennessee courthouse where Lecter is held in a caged cell. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The childhood ranch (1991)
In the story Starling tells Lecter, she is an orphan on a relative's farm who hears spring lambs being slaughtered. She tries to free them, runs away with one lamb and is brought back.
Set in A relative's sheep ranch in Montana — The ranch where the ten-year-old Starling lived after her father's death, and the setting of the lambs memory.
A working sheep and horse ranch in the story, far from any city.
Belvedere, Ohio (1991)
Starling works out that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim, a tailor from Ohio. She goes to the victim's home and finds unfinished dresses and patterns that match the skin taken from the victims.
Set in Belvedere, Ohio — The Ohio hometown of Fredrica Bimmel, the first victim.
A small Ohio town on the river, in the story the home of the first victim.
Filmed at Bellaire Bridge, Benwood WV to Bellaire OH — A film-location blog lists the bridge as a film location for the road into Ohio; one source. Bimmel's house is listed separately without coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The raid in Calumet City (1991)
Crawford's team identifies Jame Gumb as the prime suspect and raids his vacant home in Calumet City, on the edge of Chicago. Starling is sent the other way, to talk to people who knew the first victim.
Set in Calumet City, Illinois — The suburb on the edge of Chicago where Crawford's team raids the suspect's vacant home. Coordinate is the city centre. Google Maps · Apple Maps
An Illinois suburb just south of Chicago.
The house of Jack Gordon (1991)
Starling follows her lead to a house where a polite man introduces himself as Jack Gordon. His calm cracks the moment she spots a death's-head moth.
Set in Jack Gordon's house — The house where the man calling himself Jack Gordon lives. The film does not tie it to a mapped place in the sources used here.
A large old Victorian house on a quiet Pennsylvania street.
Filmed at 8 Circle St, Perryopolis (Layton), Pennsylvania — The Victorian house used as Buffalo Bill's home; the basement scenes were built on a set. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
The call from the tropics (1991)
Starling graduates from the FBI Academy. At the celebration afterwards, a phone call arrives from a tropical place nobody names.
Set in An unnamed tropical location — The place a phone call comes from at the end; the film does not name it.
A small island town in the Bahamas, off the coast of Florida.
Filmed at Alice Town, Bimini, Bahamas — Wikipedia says the final scene was shot in Alice Town. Google Maps · Apple Maps
How to get there:
Characters
- Clarice Starling — A young FBI trainee sent to interview a jailed psychiatrist in the hunt for a serial killer.
- Dr. Hannibal Lecter — A brilliant psychiatrist held in a hospital for the criminally insane, who trades clues for personal secrets.
- Jack Crawford — The FBI Behavioral Science Unit chief who sends Starling to Lecter.
- Buffalo Bill (Jame Gumb) — The serial killer the FBI is hunting, who removes his victims' skin.