Near-Ending Crash

His machine broke and he was high in the air. Like the "Lecturer" said, man can't achieve flight like the birds can.

[deleted]

Looked to me like one of the wings broke loose-- flopped down-- in which case, no, he probably couldn't have glided. (Although he might have spun downward in a spiral pattern. Perhaps some avian-aeronautics expert can weigh in.)

It sounded like something broke, but his body was giving out too. I don't think it was sabotaged, I think it was a hubris/Icarus type of thing. He'd been working on it a long time but he decided to use it very suddenly and impulsively (and at a really inopportune time), perhaps the contraption wasn't ready. The lecturer hints at that with the voice over about man not being able to compete with the millions of years of physiological adaptation birds have as an advantage over any human inventor. Before the breaking sound, Brewster is panting and screaming; even with all the exercising and preparation he can't physically sustain the effort it takes to fly like a bird can because the human body just isn't fit for it. It was an impossible task in the first place, and his bird lady/guardian angel wasn't around to help him out this time because he alienated her. Considering that she always had to resort to pretty non-magical ways of helping him out (killing people, distracting the clerk so he can steal the camera, following the police chase in her car), she probably couldn't have magically saved him in that situation; the only thing she could do to save him would be prevent him from trying to fly in the first place, which she doesn't - she just leaves.

But hmm, I don't know why she's fiddling with his wings when he first walks in.

His sin doomed him to death. Had he been faithful he would've flown away.