Graham goes to a prison to meet Hannibal Lector again. Lector is very good at understanding how other people think. Graham asks him for help. It is clear that Graham is afraid of Lecter. Later on, a prison guard finds a letter that belongs to Lecter. The letter is from The Tooth Fairy. Graham and Crawford find out that The Tooth Fairy is talking to Lecter through advertisements in a newspaper. Graham asks a journalist from the newspaper to write an article despising the Tooth Fairy. They feel sure this will result in another advertisement, and this time they will pick up the code. The journalist is caught by The Tooth Fairy (Tom Noonan) and killed.
The Tooth Fairy, called "Francis Dollarhyde", works in a photographic lab. He is attracted to a woman he works with called Reba McClane. Reba is blind. Dollarhyde drives her home one night. They start a relationship with each other. This stops Dollarhyde from killing more people. One night Dollarhyde sees Reba with another man. He thinks she is having an affair but he is mistaken. Dollarhyde kills the other man and takes Reba to his house.
Graham has found out how The Tooth Fairy finds his victims. The Tooth Fairy uses the home movies brought to his job to pick a family to kill. Now that he knows this, Graham is able to find out who The Tooth Fairy is. He goes to Dollarhyde's house with several policemen. Dollarhyde uses a shotgun to kill some of the policemen. Graham kills Dollarhyde and rescues Reba.
The movie was going to be named "Red Dragon" because this was the name of the book. The name was changed because it sounded like a karate movie. It was also changed because a movie named "Year of the Dragon" did very badly in cinemas.
William Petersen worked with policemen in Chicago and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to learn more about his part. Michael Mann took three years to write the movie, and he also spoke to policemen to learn about their jobs. Because of this, books have said the movie is very true to real life.
Tom Noonan started getting ready for the movie by reading about other serial killers. He did not like this idea when he started. He changed his mind and acted his own way instead. He said he wanted The Tooth Fairy to seem like "he was doing this out of love". Joan Allen played Dollarhyde's blind girlfriend. She went to the New York Institute for the Blind to learn about blind people. She walked with a mask on to learn about being blind.
Actors John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, William Friedkin and Brian Dennehy were all asked to play Hannibal Lecktor. Brian Cox played the part instead. Cox read about a Scottish serial killer named Peter Manuel to learn about his part. William Petersen played Will Graham. He was chosen because Michael Mann liked his movie "To Live and Die in L.A.". Richard Gere, Mel Gibson and Paul Newman were also asked to play the part. Tom Noonan says he was asked to act his part because Michael Mann thought he was very scary in real life.
Dante Spinotti, who filmed the movie, made use of strong colors. Parts of the movie with Will Graham and his wife use a "romantic blue". Parts that show The Tooth Fairy use an ugly green or purple color.
When the move was being made, Tom Noonan asked that nobody saw him. Those people who could saw him called him "Francis", because he pretended to be his character the whole time. This made the other actors afraid of him. The first time Noonan met William Petersen was when Petersen jumped through a large window while making the last part of the movie. At first, actor Tom Noonan wore a fake tattoo of a dragon on his chest. The parts of the movie that showed this were made again without the tattoo. This is because Michael Mann and Tom Noonan thought it did not look right.
"Manhunter"'s soundtrack album came out in 1986. It could be bought on cassette, tape and vinyl record but not on CD. In March 2010, the soundtrack came out on CD for the first time. One more song, named "Jogger's Stakeout" by The Reds, was on the CD.
Music in the film's screen credits which are not listed above included:
Books written about the movie discuss the relationship between Graham and The Tooth Fairy. They make a comparison between the characters and how they both live. It has also been said that movie gives the idea that to catch a killer you must think like one.
"Manhunter" came out in the United States on 15 August 1986. It earned $8,620,929 in the United States. Its budget was $15 million, so it did not make as much money as it cost. It was shown in November 1987 during the London Film Festival and came out in the United Kingdom on 24 February 1989. In France, the movie was shown on 9 April 1987 at the Cognac Festival du Film Policier. It won the Critics Prize at this festival. It was also shown at the 2009 Camerimage Film Festival in Łódź, Poland. On 19 March 2011, the movie was showne at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood for its 25th anniversary. Michael Mann answered questions at this event.
"Manhunter" came out on laserdisc in 1986. It also came out on VHS several times. It came out on DVD first in 2000. This DVD was made by Anchor Bay Entertainment and it could be bought with one disc or two discs. A different DVD also came out in 2003. In 2004, MGM also made a DVD of the movie. In 2007, "The Hannibal Lecter Collection" came out. This was a collection of "Manhunter", "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal". "The Hannibal Lector Collection" also came out on Blu-ray in September 2009.
When "Manhunter" came out, its reviews were not very good.
Reviews thought that the music and the color effects were not very good. William Petersen's acting was also thought of negatively. The "New York Times" thought the movie was very bad, and so did the "Chicago Tribune". The "Los Angeles Times" said the movie was too much like Michael Mann's television program "Miami Vice"; and so did "Film Threat", who thought that was why the movie did not do very well. The "San Francisco Chronicle" did not like the movie's acting. On the other hand, "Time" magazine liked the movie. It called "Manhunter" "bold" and "intelligent." Leonard Maltin liked the movie, and called it "gripping".
Today, the reviews for the movie are much better. Salon.com says it is the best Hannibal movie. "Slate" magazine also thought it was very good, and said it inspired television programs like "Millennium" and "". "The Independent", Film4, Sky Movies, BBC, "Total Film"' magazine and "Empire" magazine have all praised the movie as being very good. Television channel Bravo put the movie in a program named "30 Even Scarier Movie Moments" in 2007. The website UGO Networks thought that Tom Noonan's acting in "Manhunter" was the best he has done.
Today, "Manhunter" is more popular. It is thought of as a 'cult movie'. This new popularity might be because of the other Hannibal movies doing very well. The websites Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes compare the modern reviews of the movie and give an average review. Metacritic used ten reviews to give "Manhunter" a score of 78 out of 100. Rotten Tomatoes used 33 reviews to give the movie a score of 94 out of 100.
"Manhunter" shows how police use forensic science to catch criminals. This has inspired other movies and television programs. These include "", "Millennium", "John Doe", "Profiler", and "The X-Files"; as well as movies such as "Copycat", "Switchback", "The Bone Collector", "Seven" and "Fallen".
"The Silence of the Lambs" came out in 1991. It was based on a different book by Thomas Harris. It earned many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is one of only three movies that have won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, and Best Screenplay. After "The Silence of the Lambs", three more Hannibal movies came out. These were "Hannibal", "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal Rising".