In Empire of the Sun, Jim latches on to a series of heroes to survive the horrors of war, and Spielberg underlines his character’s descent into fantasy when he introduces Jim’s first - and most important - hero, Basie.

Rifling through the small amount of items Jim has with him, Basie discovers a comic book called Wings. Its cover features a picture of a pilot wearing aviator sunglasses and a cap. At the end of the scene, Spielberg reveals Basie’s face for the first time and the character bears more than a passing resemblance to the illustration on the comic.

Jim has turned Basie into his comic book-inspired idea of heroism.