Right from the opening, the first line of dialogue we hear tells us the name of our protagonist, along with that of the man he greets: “Doctor Pavel, I’m CIA.” On a surface level, this is a straightforward, formal greeting—CIA addresses the doctor by his title as a show of respect and identifies himself. However, as we will find, even the simplest uses of names in this film contain hidden layers of meaning that tell us far more about the characters than how they handle a given social situation. We will return to this line in a minute. The following exchange primes the viewer to focus on the names, as well as drawing their attention to the significance of our antagonist: “And why would I want them?” “They were trying to nab your prize. They work for the mercenary– the Masketta Man—Bane.” There is nothing redundant about the way CIA names Bane three times. Bane is all these things—they are three names for one man, and all describe him truly. The names are spoken almost ritualistically, like an incantation, like the popular urban legend of “Bloody Mary”. As Bane himself says in one of the deleted scenes: “Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.” Indeed, from the moment he is named, his Master Plan begins to unfold.

It is here that the film makes a pivotal turn that subtly changes everything. CIA declares his Flight Plan: “The Flight Plan I just filed with the agency lists Smee, Maimen, Doctor Pavel Heere, but only Juan Avyu. First Juan to talk gets to stay on my aircraft!” Upon any close inspection, this simple passenger list quickly becomes a mind-boggling riddle that shatters our complacency and unravels our assumptions about what we are seeing. Why call Doctor Pavel by his first name earlier, but his full name now? Who is Juan Avyu? Why does CIA specifically expect someone named Juan to talk?

With this kind of riddle, it is quite easy to lose focus chasing after one hypothesis after another, so let us home in on the things we can be sure of. CIA is certain that one of the passengers is named Juan Avyu. He knows or suspects that multiple passengers are named Juan. Out of those, the first one to talk can be assumed to be Juan Avyu, and the others are not part of his Flight Plan. Lastly, as much analysis as I’ve done on this film, I don’t feel confident in my ability to discuss the characters Smee and Maimen, so I will leave that to others. For now, let us simply say that they are accomplices of CIA who will be given safe passage.

CIA accosts one of the captured men, seemingly singling him out at random, and holding him by the open door of the plane. “Who paid you to grab Doctor Pavel?” he demands, waving a gun. When the man does not answer, CIA fires the gun out of the plane, saying “He didn’t fly so good! Who wants to try next?” in reference to the man’s inability to fly after being shot and thrown out of a plane. Let us pause here. Why should we assume the man was chosen at random? As we’ve just outlined, only Juans are suspected of knowing the information that CIA expects to discover, so we should assume that only Juans are targets of his interrogation. Keep this in mind, as it will be important later. To his second target, CIA demands: “Tell me about Bane! Why does he wear the mask?” Again, CIA somehow knows that this man is a Juan. Upon once again receiving no answer, he becomes suspicious—this mercenary, this man, this weapon should behave like a simple tool that only carries out the will of its wielder. Instead, it shows a determination to act in the best interest of some unseen agent. CIA decides to voice his confusion: “A lotta loyalty for a hired gun!” It is at this point that we hear a new voice: distorted, confident, and deeply ominous. “Or perhaps he’s wondering why someone would shoot Amon before throwing him out of a plane.”

This line marks the beginning of a gradual power shift. This Masketta Man has deduced not only that CIA merely pretended to kill the first man he interrogated, but also that he was named Amon—Juan Amon, we can safely infer. While it is true that CIA announced he would only be expecting Juans to talk, it is unclear how Bane could have known which Juan was which. By exhibiting knowledge he ought not to possess, he indicates to his captors that he may have more control over the situation than it seems. The exchange that follows centers around identity, which I hope you now realize is crucial to a complete understanding of the film: “At least you can talk. Who are you?” “It doesn’t matter who we are. What matters is our plan. No one cared who I was until I put on the mahsk.” Bane is downplaying the importance of his identity, which may seem to contradict the emphasis on names we have been seeing up until this point. However, by contrasting identity with intention, Bane articulates a profound point: he defines himself not by names or signifiers that refer to him externally, but instead from the internal motivations that drive him. This is not a dismissal of identity, but rather a reframing of it as something subject to an individual’s free will. He also speaks in the first-person plural rather than singular, implying this worldview applies to others besides himself.

From here, our antagonist and protagonist clash in the iconic repartee for which this film is best known: “If I pull that off, will you die?” “It would be extremely painful.” “You’re a big guy.” “For you.” There have been countless essays written about these few words and their deeper significance. For the purposes of this essay, I will simply say that the line “for you” adds another layer to Bane’s concept of identity. Even though he believes he has the power to define himself through his decisions and intentions, he does not see his identity as entirely immune to external forces. He is a big guy, yes, but only for CIA, not necessarily for anyone else, and certainly not as an essential trait that would exist within him independently of any outside observer. At this point, CIA again decides that whatever plan Bane might be advancing, at least he can talk, and that’s what matters. He resumes his interrogation: “Was getting caught part of your plan?” “Of coursh! Doctor Pavel refused our offer in favor of yours. We had to find out what he told you.” “Nothing! I said nothing!”

Here we have another riddle: what offer did Bane make to Doctor Pavel, what offer did CIA make, and why did Doctor Pavel prefer the latter? Furthermore, why bother insisting that he said nothing when Bane is in captivity? Of course, the simple answer to the last question is that he knows Bane’s Master Plan, and fears punishment later if Bane suspects betrayal. In any case, it seems we are still missing a few essential pieces of these riddles. CIA congratulates Bane for his success in getting himself caught, acknowledging him as a worthy opponent. Then he asks: “Now what’s the next step of your master plan?” This is the cue Bane has been waiting for. “Crashing this plane… with no survivors!” As armed invaders crash through the windows, lowered from a plane flying above CIA’s, Bane breaks his restraints and assaults CIA, who silently thinks “No! This can’t be happening! I’m Incharge Heere!” (As the viewer, we hear this line telepathically without subtitles thanks to the cutting-edge mind-machine interface technology the film employs.) Wait—what was that?

His last name is Heere? Earlier, he named Doctor Pavel as “Doctor Pavel Heere.” It’s reasonable to assume the two are related—most likely brothers. Of course, other analyses have pointed this out, but I intend to show that it goes much deeper than that. Let us continue through the film and revisit this point later. Bane and his men make short work of CIA’s tribe, and as the plane is suspended by a cables, he forcibly takes Doctor Pavel’s blood using a syringe and injects it into a dead body. As one of his henchmen prepares to escape with him, Bane stops him with a hand on his shoulder. “No! They expect Juan Avus in the Wreckage Brother.” “Have we started the fire?” “Yes! The fire rises!”

Juan Avus? This may be the final piece we need to make everything fall into place. Here, at the end of the film, this name must be what will turn everything on its head and finally let us make sense of what we’ve seen. Obviously, this must be Juan of the Juans of whom CIA spoke—somejuan who might be expected to talk, but not Juan who would know the crucial information that would ensure he could stay on CIA’s aircraft. Most viewers are satisfied to assume that the man Bain instructs to stay on the Wreckage Brother must be Juan Avus. After all, why else would his staying there lead to investigators finding someone by that name? However, something about this doesn’t feel quite right. First of all, Bane refers to Juan Avus in the third person, rather than simply saying “they expect you in the Wreckage Brother.” Furthermore, why should it matter whether Juan is found there if Bane escapes? It can’t be the case that the man left behind is intended to be misidentified as Juan Avus either, because no action is taken to disguise him. Here, though, we hit on something important—such an action was taken to disguise someone else: the dead body injected with Doctor Pavel’s blood.

If we assume that the discovery of Juan Avus in the Wreckage Brother is intended trickery, and that Juan Avus is therefore someone who escapes alive, then there is only one possible person he could be: Doctor Pavel. This also explains why Bane told the man to remain on the plane. The body needs to be mutilated so that the face can no longer be identified, forcing a DNA match instead, which will show it to be Doctor Pavel. Presumably, there isn’t enough time to do this and still escape the crumbling plane alive, so Bane leaves the task to his loyal gun. Now we have a new, far more pressing question: if Doctor Pavel Heere’s blood will identify the body as Juan Avus, then what is his true identity? We can infer that whatever database the investigators use to match his DNA will refer to him by this name, but what does that tell us? There is still another layer we need to examine, another discrepancy we must peel away to find the truth. Something still isn’t quite right.

Most viewers assume that the plane is named “the Wreckage Brother”, since Bane says that’s where they expect to find Juan Avus. However, this leads us to a somewhat clumsy framing: if Doctor Pavel publicly goes by the name “Pavel Heere”, then that’s who most people around him will assume he is. Is Pavel Heere a false identity? Is the expectation that Juan Avus should be on the plane, but Pavel Heere (assumed to be a different person) should not? That doesn’t make sense either, because if someone publicly claiming Juan Avus was expected on the plane, we should have seen some kind of confusion regarding that person and Doctor Pavel. There is exactly one explanation that fits: none of these are correct, because one of our assumptions is wrong. Pavel Heere and Juan Avus are one and the same, but the crucial point Bane makes is not that Juan Avus was expected on the plane. Instead, it’s that someone, somewhere, knows Doctor Pavel’s true identity as Juan Avus, and expects to identify him based on his blood. What, then, is the Wreckage Brother, if not the plane? It is the mahsk Juan Avus wears: his own body.

To be called by his false name, Doctor Pavel must have created an association between that name and his appearance in the minds of those who see him. Thus, his physical body has been made a part of the illusion, something that misleads people even though he has made no alterations to it. In the eyes of investigators, the mangling and physical death of this body will be a part of the plane’s wreckage and yet represent their own distinct wreckage: that of Doctor Pavel Heere himself, brother to Incharge Heere, a false story destroyed by Bane along with the teller’s life—in other words, a Wreckage Brother. Let us return to CIA, or Incharge Heere. If Pavel Heere is a false identity, then surely Incharge Heere is, too? Perhaps the two aren’t really brothers? But then, why would CIA tell a lie like that in his own mind? One possible reason is for self-affirmation. “This can’t be happening! I’m Incharge Heere!” implies that Incharge Heere is someone who would never suffer a defeat like CIA does at the hands of Bane. He’s a strong, competent solider who is always able to maintain control of a situation and emerge victorious from every confrontation. This is who CIA lives as, who he wants to be, who others see him as. While he doesn’t present himself by the name “Incharge Heere,” he presents the demeanor of this idealized version of himself.

Doctor Pavel Heere may then be similar. The repeated use of his title, “Doctor”, alongside this name implies that he wants others to see him as a brilliant scientist, worthy of respect and admiration for his intellect and accomplishments. In this, he and Incharge are brothers: false visions of who they wish they could be and convince others they are. This is what leads me to believe that they literally are brothers. Why would CIA think of himself as having the same last name as Doctor Pavel, but not say this last name aloud? If the personality of Incharge Heere is what he wants others to see, then his connection is the only thing he could possibly be hiding. It’s as if he’s saying “If you’re Doctor Pavel Heere, the renowned scientist, then I’m Incharge Heere, the invincible solider. We’ll get through this together.” He sees through the mask of Doctor Pavel Heere into the true person beneath: Juan Avus. In fact, he likely saw through it the moment they met. The iconic first line “Doctor Pavel, I’m CIA” could be hiding his real name in plain sight: Cornelius Ignatio Avus, perhaps?

Cornelius, then, was lying when he announced his flight plan. He didn’t just intend for Juan Avyu to stay on his aircraft, but Juan Avus as well. Of course, he couldn’t have said that without revealing that Juan Avus was one of the people present. It’s likely that framing the passengers in terms of Juans and non-Juans was a subtle message that he still saw Doctor Pavel as Juan Avus, his brother. Unfortunately for Cornelius, it would seem Bane detected this message as well. Now we can look back at the events of the film with a much clearer understanding of everything that’s happening beneath the surface. Cornelius sees his brother for what is probably the first time in years, and, using the disguise of his initials, says that their brotherhood hasn’t changed. At the same time, he tells his brother that he’s proud of the reputation he’s built for himself and the man he’s become, addressing him as “Doctor Pavel”. This connection also brings new meaning to these lines: “Uh, you’re not allowed to bring friends.” “They’re not my friends.” While Cornelius is simply indicating his confusion over the arrival of more people than he expected, Juan speaks with a dark seriousness that implies something more. The people he’s with are not who he wants to be with, and life has not taken him to where he most wants to be. He’s here with these people because he has to be, not because they’re his friends. Though he accepts the name of “Doctor”, he makes it clear that he is not living his best life, and that he misses an idyllic childhood he shared with his brother so long ago.

Cornelius understands, but must think of a way to respond without tipping off anyone around them. This is the true purpose of his Flight Plan—not to assert that the situation will go the way he intends, nor even to scare out Juan Avyu and extract information about why Bane wears the mahsk. Rather, the plan is a complicated, roundabout way to tell Juan Avus that he is still Juan Avus, just as Cornelius is still Cornelius, and that they are still brothers. He is letting his brother know that it’s not too late to come home again, to set aside whatever may have separated them to begin with and live as brothers again. Cornelius intends to keep Juan more Juan than Juan Avyu on his aircraft, but he doesn’t need to spell it out for that Juan to understand. Going home with his brother—that is the Flight Plan. This plan is the reason Cornelius mentally calls himself Incharge Heere. He must be the man everyone thinks he is one last time to get through this final trial. Tragically, though, this plan is doomed to be stopped by the Master Plan. Bane’s gradual seizing of control represents not only a strategic power shift that allows him to accomplish his practical goal of crashing the plane with no survivors, but also a spiritual power shift that enables him to shape not only his own destiny, but that of those around him—just as he implies when confronted by Cornelius. “What matters is our plan.” The reason he is so vague in his use of “our” is because those present whose plan is not is own will become irrelevant once he wrecks their plan. It won’t matter who they are. The fanciful Flight Plan, the escape from the cruel place life has taken the Avus brothers, is not to become a reality. By getting caught, Bane makes the Flight Plan simply a part of his master plan. By learning that Juan Avus is present, he knows that his blood, his essence, must be found in the Wreckage Brother.

Here we find further clarity regarding the Wreckage Brother. Not only is Juan Avus brother to Cornelius Avus, whose body will be found in the wreckage of the plane, but the man who leaves the plane alive will be brother to the body injected with his blood—quite literally, they will be related by blood. Furthermore, stating that they will find Juan Avus in the Wreckage Brother does not simply mean that the body will be mistaken for Juan, but that the discovery will be true. It really will be Juan’s essence in that body, and the man once called Juan Avus will be no more. With the death of Cornelius, he will lose his only living link to his past, becoming reborn as a tool to be used by Bane, as shown in deleted scenes where Bane forces him to build a nuclear device. This is the only remaining purpose of the man who can now only be known as Doctor Pavel Heere, his past now in wreckage with no survivors. It is here, after understanding this hidden relationship, this shared hidden past destroyed by the Master Plan, that Christopher Nolan’s true genius reveals itself. This is where the tragic subtext takes on transcendent, spiritual significance, and we comprehend what it is for an identity to die while the body survives. Through Bain’s actions, through his will, he forcibly maintains the identity of Doctor Pavel Heere—and, I would argue, creates it anew by making him into a mere tool. He also creates the Wreckage Brother who will stay behind. Hold on a moment—if the body is the Wreckage Brother, then what is the true name of the plane? Is it something we simply cannot know?

No. Nolan has spent this entire film teaching us that to know a true name is to know what it represents, and vice versa. Now that we have a near-complete understanding of what we’re looking at, what happens on the plane and what it all means, we should be able to deduce the plane’s true name. In fact, we should already know it deep down and must simply call it to our conscious mind, to our lips that we may speak its name and actualize our understanding.

Where is Doctor Pavel Heere, in his final incarnation, born? Where is the Wreckage Brother born? What are we seeing when Bane’s plane flies above Cornelius’s plane, mounting it, filling it with soldiers who conquer it? What does this symbolize? What is the result, and what does that in turn symbolize?

According to Wiktionary, “avus” can mean a grandfather, an ancestor, or a progenitor. This is fitting, given the shared ancestry we find through the name. The word is also distinctly similar to the Latin word “avis”, or bird, which may in fact be the intended spelling. At last, we ascend past the emotional struggle into spiritual realization. The plane is a bird, flying in search of freedom, flying to a better place, only to be ravished and wrecked by another bird, filled with invaders that will create new life in their own image. Within the bird, an egg is fertilized by these invaders: a shell, a dead body containing the blood, the essence of a newborn baby bird. They expect Juan Avus in the Wreckage Brother. They will find the Wreckage Brother in the womb of the Wreckage Mother. This is the true meaning of the Master Plan.

Through his actions, through deciding who will live and who will die, Bane acts as a force of evolution, imposing rules of survival that suit his goals. He fertilizes the egg of the Wreckage Mother, leaves behind the Wreckage Brother, and forces Doctor Pavel Heere, the newborn baby bird, to imprint on him and do his bidding. Through all of this we see the physical and spiritual conquest of one plan, one form of life by another, and how this decides the fate of the identities and hopes entangled within these life-plans. In Bane’s victory, we see the colossal weight of the tragedy he causes, and we cannot help but mourn the flight plan, which is as delicate as it is beautiful.

Dear reader, I hope I have impressed upon you the true meaning of Nolan’s vision as I understand it, as I know it in the core of my being. I hope that over time, audiences will revisit his magnum opus and see what I saw, what they always saw but didn’t realize. We all live by plans, whether they be our own or someone else’s. To comprehend one’s plan is to understand oneself, one’s true nature and true name, to know where that plan will lead, and—just maybe—to choose another plan that might bring one greater happiness. This is the beautiful truth that Nolan lets us behold, if only we can understand. To that, I say only this: Bravo, Nolan.

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