Clarice Starling

Still at the Quantico academy, Clarice is called in by Jack Crawford for what looks like a small job: give Hannibal Lecter a questionnaire. What Crawford really wants is for her to get something out of him about Buffalo Bill, who abducts women and skins them.

Lecter scorns Dr. Chilton and takes an interest in Clarice. He offers a deal: clues for memories. She tells him about the death of her father, a police officer, and the night she ran away from her relatives' farm trying to save a lamb from slaughter.

When Senator Ruth Martin's daughter is abducted, Clarice offers Lecter a fake transfer on the FBI's behalf. Chilton finds out, cuts his own deal and shuts her out. She gets one last talk with Lecter, who hands back the case file with a taunt: Buffalo Bill covets what he sees every day.

Lecter escapes, and Clarice is left with what he gave her: the hint that the killer knew his first victim. She goes alone to the girl's hometown and knocks on Jame Gumb's door.

When she spots a moth in the house, she knows she's found Buffalo Bill. He kills the basement lights and stalks her with night-vision goggles, but Clarice hears the gun cock and fires first. Catherine Martin comes out of the pit alive. At her graduation, Clarice gets a phone call from Lecter.

In 1993, Clarice still has nightmares about the case. Ruth Martin, now Attorney General, puts her on the ViCAP task force, where boss Paul Krendler doesn't trust her. Her friend Ardelia Mapp stays by her side.

The cases lead Clarice to a pharmaceutical conspiracy, a militia and a ring trafficking women. She's abducted more than once, hands in her badge and ends up held in a lab. ViCAP rescues her along with the victims.

A drug raid ends in a shootout, and Clarice becomes the scapegoat. Mason Verger, who wants Lecter dead, and Paul Krendler put her back on the Lecter case to lure him in.

It works. Clarice uncovers Verger's plan and frees Lecter from the hog pen, knowing full well who he is. In the end, she cuffs her own wrist to his so he can't get away, and the police find her with both hands intact.

Jodie Foster won Best Actress for The Silence of the Lambs. She didn't return for Hannibal (2001), and Julianne Moore took over. In CBS's Clarice, the agent is played by Australian actress Rebecca Breeds.