Question: What is the significance of the flintlock pistol the Elder Predator gives Danny Glover?
Answer: It's a reference to the comic where a pirate and a predator became somewhat friendly. The gun was given to the elder predator by the pirate as a thank you gesture. The elder predator then some few hundred years later gave it to Glover as a congratulations.
The comic came out years later to give a back story to the pistol. The only significance of the pistol is to show how long the predators have been coming to Earth.
Question: How old is Edward?
Answer: It is never stated.
Answer: As the other response says, the number of years is never stated. Physically, I think he is supposed to look about twenty years old. Bill wants him to start a proper business. None of the adults seem to think that he should be in school.
Question: In the scene where Tommy believes he is being made, right after he walks into the room you hear him say "Oh no!" right before he is shot. Tommy obviously realizes that he was set up. However, what is it that he sees in the room that tips him off?
Answer: He was expecting a crowded room full of friends congratulating him. Also it was common knowledge among the mafia that being walked into an empty room when you were due to be made meant you were about to be executed, so Tommy likely knew he'd met his end just moments before the shot.
Answer: A man being 'made' is an event shrouded in ceremony. The top people in the family are there, among others to congratulate the new soldier. Tommy walked into an empty room.
Just as others have pointed out, the film implies Tommy realised something was wrong the moment he walked in and saw the place was empty...no other "made men" there for the ceremony. However, I always wondered why he hadn't caught on to what was happening when he saw there were only a couple vehicles parked out in the driveway.
Answer: Either the fact that the room was empty (being made is a big ceremonial event with many people) or he felt the gun pressed against the back of his head right before they shot him.
Answer: There should have been more people waiting for him.
Answer: Wasn't the floor covered with a plastic sheet? That would have given it away.
Or it was a floor with no carpet (tiled, I believe)...easier to mop up.
Question: Maybe I missed it, but did the McAllisters even bother to call home? I don't remember them calling the house at all. Why wouldn't that be the first thing they do? Kevin seems to be pretty independent for his age. He might have not answered the door, but I'm sure he would have answered the phone.
Chosen answer: They did but the power and phone lines were down due to a tree branch that had fallen on them the night before the family left. A flight attendant on their plane mentions that attempts had been made to call the McAllisters' home but "the phones are still out of order".
But how did he call the police at the end if the phone lines were down.
That was several days later. Clearly the phone lines were repaired over the course of the film.
It's ridiculous though that the phones are apparently working by the time they land (Kate's SIL calls everyone on their street). Yet none of them try the house again.
Answer: That is also how Kevin was able to order his cheese pizza from Little Nero's.
Answer: The phone lines were fixed by the end of the movie. Remember, this takes place over the course of several days.
Answer: It's also possible they don't think he's at the house still since the cops did attempt to stop by and see if he was home, but received no answer after ringing the bell. Or they did try to call and left a message, but Kevin may not have thought to check the phone messages if he was out of the house and didn't expect anyone to call. He also didn't want anyone to return until the day prior to Christmas, by which point the mom was already en route and the dad and remaining kids had a plan to come home on Christmas morning.
Answer: The next day, after the cop shows up to check the house, while the Wet Bandits are in the house next door, the phone rings and the answering machine picks up, allowing Peter to leave a message. If the next-door neighbor's phone is working, wouldn't it only make sense for Peter to immediately call his own house? Even if Kevin hasn't returned home from shoplifting a toothbrush and doesn't answer the phone, Peter should still be able to leave a message on an answering machine and most likely keep calling over and over until Kevin answers the phone.
Question: What did Raphael mean with the Josè Canseco joke? I've been wondering for over 20 years.
Answer: Canseco was a star in the 80s, so a bat with his name on it would have been very expensive. Raphael is basically calling him a thief, probably because he doesn't look like he can afford it.
Answer: Jose Canseco had one of the best baseball careers, so anything with his name became priceless but it all came to an end when it was revealed he used steroids.
Answer: The Oakland A's with Canseco on the team won the World Series the year before this movie came out, while the New York Yankees and Mets both posted abysmal seasons. As a proud New Yorker, Raph was surely disgusted that Casey Jones would carry merch bearing the name of another team's star player, especially right after they won a ring! That's the behavior of a band-wagon fan, after all. It seems Casey would agree with him as well, as his response to the insult is not to defend Canseco or the A's, but to shrug and say he got the bats on a 2-for-1 Sale.
Question: Why was Burke's arm bleeding when he was hiding on the vents near the ceiling of the record room?
Answer: In the scene before that he scraped and cut his arm on the file cabinet as he was closing it looking for information.
Question: Is "Dick" Tracy's first name, or his occupational designation?
Answer: His full name was Richard Tracy, but it was used seldomly.
Chosen answer: It's a bit ambiguous. Tracy's creator, Chester Gould, originally named his character, "Plainclothes Tracy," until an editor suggested changing it to Dick Tracy. A "dick" is a dated slang term for a cop or a private detective. Dick appears to be Tracy's first name, but it is also descriptive of his profession. This is called a "double entendre." It's typical for authors to contrive a name that reflects their characters.
Question: Why was Carter deliberately causing enough commotion to drive the other tenants out?
Answer: If there are no other tenants, it means a loss of income for the owners. Carter, meanwhile was destroying the other apartment, making it useless to rent out. Patty and Drake need the income from both apartments that they are renting out in order to pay the monthly mortgage on their Victorian house.
Question: I know that Nuke is a drug but what kind of drug and why dose everyone want the drug so bad.
Answer: We're never given specifics about it, but we do know it's the most addictive drug in history.
Question: When Peyton wakes up in the hospital, images suddenly appear. What exactly is the significance of the light bulb shattering and the little marionette with the huge head supposed to represent?
Answer: It's just psychedelic imagery to try and show his fragile state of mind and how he's losing it. The shattering light-bulb is likely to show that his mind is "shattering" (as light-bulbs appearing above someone's head are often used to signify brains/ideas in fictional, particularly cartoons), and the marionette "dancing" is the first part of the recurring motif in which he sees himself as a "freak." (Which is paid off later when he starts singing a demented song about "Paying five bucks to see the dancing freak!").
Question: Why did Jack and Max try to kill Mason's son Sonny? They have their masks on and there's no way that Sonny would have identified them.
Answer: He survived the first attempt of his family's murder. There's no telling what he saw or heard. As for the masks, the bad guys were taking no chances, security cameras, cell phones and the unexpected eyewitness.
Answer: As a reward for besting the Predator in combat, he proved himself a fierce warrior worthy of praise and the gun was a token of their respect for his strength.