Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Man on Fire,’ an explosion sets off a chain of events that brings down some of the most powerful people in the country. The corrupt system is brought down by the efforts led by John Creasy, whose friend, Paul Rayburn, and his family are among the victims of the explosion. The only survivor is Paul’s daughter, Poe, who is also a witness. She snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to go to a party with her boyfriend. She woke up too late to realize that her father would be up soon and discover that she was missing. She borrows her boyfriend’s bike and races back home, but on the way, she is cut off by two white vans and a biker following them. Later, she realizes they were behind the explosions, but it isn’t until much later that the true faces of the culprits come to light. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Perpetrators Were Hiding in Plain Sight
The explosion that killed the Rayburn family, along with hundreds of other people, is considered a terrorist attack on the city of Rio de Janeiro. An organization called FRP, led by an incarcerated man named Ferraz, takes responsibility for the crime, and President Carmo vows to bring them to justice. Creasy focuses on finding the people in the two vans and, especially, the mysterious biker, whose face only Poe has seen. He discovers that a man named Osmar oversaw everything, including the part about sending killers after Poe. Soon, Creasy gets his hands on Osmar and gets the name of every person inside the two white vans, but the name of the biker remains a secret. So, he decides to get it from the source.
Creasy breaks into prison to meet with Ferraz, who gives him some shocking answers. It turns out that he and FRP, which had an entirely non-violent past, are nothing but patsies. The real culprit behind the explosions is President Carmo, his assistant Soares, and CIA agent Henry Tappen. Considering his bad performance as the country’s leader, Carmo feared that he would lose the upcoming elections. He knew that only something drastic could push the people back towards him, rather than letting them vote for people like Ferraz, who want an actual change in the country. This is when Tappen came in with the idea of the explosion. He advised Carmo and Soarez to stage an explosion to make it look like a terrorist attack.
The threat of such a level would give him the power to suspend the state of democracy and declare a state of emergency. Once that happens, he can continue to enjoy his power as the country’s leader, throwing any dissenter in jail and making sure there is no one to oppose him. The reason Ferraz went ahead and took responsibility for the attack is that his wife and children are being held by Carmo’s people. If Ferraz doesn’t do as asked, his family will be killed. So, in order to protect them, he accepted the label of a terrorist and confessed that he and FRP orchestrated the whole thing. But that’s not where the story ends.
Creasy Discovers a Shocking Connection to the Explosion
When Creasy comes to Rio, Paul Rayburn takes him to a building that is still under construction. Paul tells him that the FRP has already made a threat of explosion. The still-under-construction building is part of a mega project that would better the president’s image in front of the public, so that’s what they would be targeting. While Paul may have been wrong about the true orchestrators of the explosion, he was right in believing that the unfinished building would be the target, or at least, that’s what it was supposed to be. When Carmo, Soares, and Tappen made the plan, the half-made building was set down as the target. But then, Paul brought in Creasy.
It turns out that, through his own investigation, Paul had become suspicious of his employers and had started looking into them. More importantly, he found out that someone within the CIA had been helping them. The possibility of a mole in the agency led Paul to realize that he couldn’t trust anyone. This is why he sought out Creasy, knowing that his friend was not only an invaluable asset on the ground but also a highly loyal person whom Paul could trust with his and his family’s lives. When Tappen discovered what Paul was up to, he became concerned that he would be exposed. The fact that someone as skilled as Creasy, even though he might be a bit rusty, led him to make a major change in the original plan.
Instead of destroying the new building, Tappen suggested that Carmo and Soares go for the one that would create more uproar. This building would also have to be in the neighborhood that is considered one of the safer places in Rio, raising the level of alarms and making Carmo’s path to victory much easier. He pointed the finger at the residential building that Paul called home, and Carmo and Soares decided to go forth with the plan, without considering the fact that hundreds of people would die in the process. When Creasy discovers that his arrival was the reason for Paul and his family’s death, he feels guiltier than ever. It also makes him more adamant about killing Tappen and exposing Carmo and Soares in front of the whole world.
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