Everything about Franz Sanchez totally explained
Franz Sanchez is a fictional
drug baron in the
James Bond film
Licence to Kill. He was played by
Robert Davi.
Character
Sanchez is a
South American drug lord of mixed parentage (as his name indicates, his mother was
German) whose empire based in Isthmus (a fictional republic) stretches from the north of
Alaska to
Tierra del Fuego in
Argentina. He specialises in
cocaine. He has an elaborate infrastructure for transporting his drugs - initially using submarines and later finding a process for dissolving cocaine in gasoline for covert transport. He also finances a
televangelist, Professor Joe Butcher, in order to use his show as a contact point for his distribution network. Befitting his wealth, he lives in lavish style, with multiple homes and a base where his drugs are processed hidden beneath Butcher's remote meditation institute. He has a pet
iguana with a diamond collar, which perches on its master (in a manner similar to
Ernst Stavro Blofeld's cat). He is also known for his uncommon brutality in dealing with those he perceives as disloyal to him. Not everyone who crosses him is killed, as he believes "there are worse things than dying." Sanchez brutally whips his girlfriend,
Lupe Lamora, with a
stingray-tail whip as a punishment for infidelity. It is also heavily implied that under his orders his henchmen remove the heart of a man she's slept with.
In
Licence to Kill, Sanchez is pursued by Bond's old friend
Felix Leiter, a former
CIA operative who is working for the
DEA. With Bond's help, Leiter captures and imprisons Sanchez. However, after bribing a DEA agent with two million dollars, Sanchez escapes from prison and arranges an attack on Leiter after his wedding. His henchmen invade the Leiter house, kidnapping Leiter and raping and killing his new wife, Della. Sanchez then feeds Leiter to a shark and returns him to his home, seriously injured, and with a sick warning note: "He disagreed with something that ate him".
Bond – who resigns
MI6 when he's ordered to drop the matter – pursues Sanchez to Isthmus City seeking revenge, and infiltrates his organisation – which involves uniting drug dealing across the entire Pacific – in order to destroy it. At the fiery conclusion to the film, Bond sets the underground facility on fire and, when Sanchez attempts to escape with a convoy of his
Maserati and petroleum tankers filled with his cocaine-gasoline blend, pursues and destroys them one by one. Bond then catches up with Sanchez and causes the last tanker to wreck with both of them on it. Just as a fuel-soaked Sanchez is about to kill him with a
machete, Bond sets him on fire and he stumbles in agony into the wreck, causing a huge explosion that incinerates the drug lord completely.
Character
Sanchez as a character is almost uniquely realistic among Bond villains. Firstly, Sanchez is a drug dealer straight out of the real-world headlines (he is clearly based on
Pablo Escobar, whose "Plomo or plata" creed is quoted). He isn't a megalomaniac or terrorist and has no interest in global political domination, but only in expanding his drug trading clientele and making more money. He pays off law enforcement and politicians in the manner of a real-life drug lord, but probably would have never faced Bond had he not attacked Felix and Della Leiter, and so become the subject of Bond's personal vendetta. Sanchez, unlike nearly all other Bond villains who tend to be
sociopathic, despite his criminality is highly amiable – notably to his family-like gang of "amigos". When loyalty and respect are given to him, their "Patron" reciprocates this, with affection, even, and rewards it very well. He originally shows significant hospitality to his Far-Eastern visitors and is extremely hospitable to Bond when he believes they've mutual enemies and that Bond is a mercenary for hire, unaware 007 is bent on assassinating him. However, the instant that loyalty to him is ruptured, Sanchez's personality changes, not to the usual
sadism, but to extreme cold ruthlessness. This is illustrated through his fury and gruesome annihilation of henchman such as
Milton Krest who are one by one framed by Bond as being disloyal.
Notable phrases
Sanchez speaks English interspersed with Spanish (and, almost a first for a Bond film, mild profanities). He prolifically uses the Spanish term "Amigo" meaning friend throughout the film – even when addressing his enemies.
"You'd better understand something, amigo. Loyalty means more to me than money" – to Krest.
"I want you to understand, this is nothing personal; it's purely business" – to Leiter as he's lowered into the shark pool.
"You have big
cajones, amigo. You come into Isthmus, without references throwing around a lot of money. But you should know something: nobody saw you come in, so nobody has to see you go out" – to Bond who is pretending he wants a job.
When, after Krest has been exploded very messily all over the millions of dollars in a
decompression chamber, one of the gang asks, "But what about the money, Patron?"
"Launder it."
Last Words: "You could have had everything." To which Bond replies, "Don't you want to know why?" – buying just sufficient time to show Sanchez the etched cigarette lighter Della and Felix gave him and, as realisation dawns, use it to brutal effect.
Henchmen
Further Information
Get more info on 'Franz Sanchez'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://franz_sanchez.totallyexplained.com">Franz Sanchez Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
