Question: In the scene right before the big bank heist, a detective comes into the situation room informing the team that a CI Hugh Benny had a tip about Neil McCauley looking at Far East National Bank. How the heck did Waingro (working for Benny and VanZandt) even know about this score? McCauley hadn't even discussed it with Kelso when Waingro took down the armored car.
Question: How did Lauren know what hotel Pacino was in? Pacino never told her or her mom where he was going, as far as I remember.
Answer: When Pacino is comforting his wife at the hospital, she says "She chose you. She picked your place." Guess the implication is he had been staying there for a long time and both Justine and Lauren knew where that was. Best explanation I have been able to find.
Question: At the beginning at the movie, there is a scene with Val Kilmer using a red/pink t-shirt and it is very visible a swelling in the elbow of his left arm. Can anyone tell me what is that?
Answer: It's an injury he picked up while working on "The Doors". One scene required him to dive off a stage, and the director had him repeat this many times. During one take, he landed quite heavily on his left elbow, which caused a permanent swelling.
It's actually Olecranon Bursitis.
Question: Why did Sgt Drucker not simply identify and arrest Chris (Val Kilmer) when he arrived to collect Charlene? They had seen each other just earlier that day at the bank shoot out.
Answer: Sgt. Drucker didn't actually see Chris. He relied on the description that the officers who stopped Chris gave to him over the radio.
They have known who Chris is and what he looks like for most of the movie. Hard to believe the cops at the check point are relying on Drucker's description when they would have his name and picture on file to give to every cop on the force.
Question: Why was De Niro angry at Waingro after the truck operation at the beginning of the movie?
Chosen answer: Because he wasn't supposed to kill anyone. Killing the guards, especially for no reason at all, drew much more heat on McCauley and his crew. It also proved that Waingro was a dangerous loose cannon and not the calm professional the rest of the crew were. Waingro was a huge liability.
Question: During the bank heist, where did the three men's large weapons come from? They could have tucked them in their suits as they did while leaving after the robbery, but the weapons would have been very visible. Where did they come from?
Answer: The CAR-15 type rifles the bank robbers have can be fitted with telescopic stocks. With the stock collapsed and a 11.5 inch barrel (which is what it looked like DeNiro had when he used his rifle to shoot through the windshield of the car he was in) it is relatively easy to conceal the rifle beneath a normal suit jacket. The only thing visible may have been the flash suppressor at the end of the barrel, but most people wouldn't recognize that anyway.
Answer: No, that's a mistake. A carbine style rifle with an 11.5" barrel still has too much length, even once the stock is collapsed. See imagine here: https://c5.staticflickr.com/2/1649/25492440284_c3ba0c97cf_k.jpg It's a long, heavy piece of machinery that would easily profile under a sport coat.
Question: When the cops are using Chris' wife as bait to nab him, how does she warn her husband she's been compromised? I don't remember.
Answer: As Chris is about to walk in to the apartment building, his wife, standing on the balcony, gives a subtle hand wave which people often use to say no, without the cops realising. This was enough for him to realise she wasn't alone in the apartment.
Question: I have two questions regarding the drive-in sequence where De Niro and his crew are double-crossed by Van Zant. Firstly what was the make and model of the white vehicle the deliver guy was driving? And secondly, who was the actor who played the driver?
Answer: The driver was played by a guy called Vince Deadrick, Jr. (It's in the end credits crawl). All I know about the vehicle is it's a dodge.
Question: There's a scene where Al Pacino gets called away from dinner with friends to investigate a girl's murder... who is she? And what's the importance of that part of the story? She doesn't have the same hair as the prostitute Waingrow kills.
Answer: Waingrow is a serial killer. He is kills several young, black prostitutes in LA. Showing Waingrow attacking one and then the body of another is a clever trick to explain to the audience that there is more than one victim without having exposition directly stating this fact. Vincent is coincidentally asked to cover the homicide because his team is available that night and there are apparently no other detectives free.
Question: How did Hanna find out about Michael? I was really confused on that part.
Answer: Richie, the brother of Vincent's informant Albert, was a cell mate of Michael. They happened to recently run into each other on the street and caught up. When Richie asked what Michael was up to lately, he kept insisting that he had nothing going on. Richie thought this was odd because Michael was known to him as an adrenaline junkie. Richie believed that Michael, who he knew in prison as "Slick", was part of the armored car heist he recently heard about. He is giving this information to Vincent because he wants the police to raid a rival car theft ring, eliminating his competition. The information he gives seems flimsy to Vincent until he hears the nickname "Slick", a name a witness heard during the armored car heist.
Answer: Waingro helped Van Zandt track down Trejo. Waingro then tortured Trejo and threatened his family if he didn't give up McCauley. With his back to the wall, Trejo gave Waingro and Hugh Benny the details of the bank heist, but Waingro killed Trejo's family anyway and beat Trejo almost to death. Benny then gives the tip to the police on Van Zandt's order.
BaconIsMyBFF
I wonder how Trejo was tracked, I don't remember his name being revealed during Waingro's time with the crew, or any other information.
Well, we never see the crew prior to their first heist. Trejo could have given Waingro his name during the planning of that heist.
BaconIsMyBFF
Waingro met this crew only once. How would he know who Trejo is or where he lives? Right before the heist, Trejo is asked to mislead police away from the heist.