- "Antoine lost his entire family in the Great War -- brothers, everyone. He feels he lives on... time that is on loan."
- ―Francisca Uribe[src]
Capitaine Antoine d'Espere was a French pilot based in Buenos Aires, South America in the 1930's who delivered mail over the Andes mountains.
Biography[]
Prior to moving to South America, Antoine d'Espere had served in World War I in the French military. Among the conflict's events he participated in, Antoine was involved in the Battle of Verdun. For his efforts in the war, d'Espere earned the Croix de Guerre medal, but lost his entire family, including his brothers, during the war. Consequently, Antoine felt trapped in a time that was like a loan. Instead of returning to his home country, Antoine opted to retire to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he started working by delivering mail with his plane.[1]
In 1936, he piloted Felipe Uribe for a week on the mail route across the Andes. A year later, Francisca Uribe (who had known him for many years) and Indiana Jones hired him to fly to Peru. D'Espere recognized Jones as a fellow veteran, and shared some his stories of Verdun on the flight. After a re-fueling and dinner stopover in the snow-covered mountains, he resumed the flight, ahead of a storm. Close to the border with Peru, the storm caught up to the plane, causing a nighttime wingtip collision with a mountain peak. D'Espere gained some elevation to allow his passengers to parachute to safety before the plane crashed into a mountainside, killing d'Espere.[1]
Following his death, Jones managed to recover the pilot's corpse and buried him by his plane before seeking shelter with Uribe.[1]
Personality and traits[]
Antoine d'Espere was an heroic pilot who performed an admirable service during World War I, being awarded the Croix de Guerre for his efforts. However, the loss of his family in the conflict deeply affected him that he felt he had nothing to live for minus flying and fighting, wishing to see another great war so he could participate in something exciting than just staying in a "dull life", something a traumatized Indiana Jones found disturbing until he discovered d'Espere's motives.[1]
True to his award and despite his warlike wishes, d'Espere was a kind and helpful man: he enjoyed flying people to their destinations, such as the siblings Felipe and Francisca Uribe del Arco. His comments on the former and his interactions with the latter suggest that they had an amicable relationship, appreciating Felipe's odd jobbies and behaving in a gentlemantly and romantic way with Francisca. While flying Jones and Uribe to Lake Titicaca in their search for Felipe, d'Espere warned them to not scare them with the crash landing he was forced to do and, once one of his plane's wings got damaged and he realized that the plane would go down, ordered Indy and Francisca to jump off to safety with the parachutes while he stayed in the plane to fly as high as he could despite knowing that he would die in the process.[1]
Antoine spoke French, English and Spanish - and recognized Jones as an American who spoke French with a Belgian accent.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
Antoine d'Espere may be a reference to French aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who perished in the Mediterranean. The name may also be a play on words: Espère, a commune in France, means "hope" while the pronunciation of "d'Espere" sounds similar to the English word "despair", meaning the absence of hope.