FRANZ SANCHEZ

'Franz Sanchez' is a fictional South American drug baron in the James Bond film ''Licence to Kill''. He was played by Robert Davi.

Contents

Character

Character

Notable phrases

Henchmen

Character

Sanchez whose nationality is believed to be Colombian or Panamanian is the biggest drug lord of the Americas. His empire stretches from the north of Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in Chile, and he specializes 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 hidden base where his drugs were processed. He has a pet iguana, which would perch 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 perceived as disloyal to him. Not everyone who crossed him was killed, as he believed there were "worse things than dying." Sanchez brutally whips his girlfriend, Lupe Lamora, as a punishment for infidelity. It is also heavily implied that under his orders his henchmen removed the heart of the man she had slept with.

In ''Licence to Kill'', Sanchez is chased by Bond's friend Felix Leiter, a former CIA operative who is working for the DEA. With Bond's help, Leiter captured and imprisoned 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 wife Della. Sanchez then feeds Leiter to a shark and returns him to his home, seriously injured, and with a warning note.
Bond pursues Sanchez to Isthmus City (based on real life Panama) seeking revenge, and infiltrates his organization which involves uniting drug dealing across the entire Pacific in order to destroy it. After Bond sets his underground facility on fire, Sanchez attempts to escape Bond's wrath, first in a Maserati, then in a petroleum tanker filled with his cocaine-gasoline blend. Bond catches up to Sanchez and caused the tanker to wreck with both Bond and Sanchez in it. Just as Sanchez is about to kill him with a machete, Bond sets him on fire and he stumbles into the petrol tanker, causing a large explosion which promptly incinerates the drug lord.

Character

Sanchez is unique from other Bond villains in several ways. First he was a drug dealer rather than a terrorist and had no interest in global political domination, but only expanding his drug trading clientele; he probably would have never faced Bond had he not attacked Felix and Della and become the subject of Bond's personal vendetta. Sanchez, unlike nearly all other Bond villians, despite his criminality is highly ameniable to his "amigos" when loyalty and respect are given to him, which he reciprocates and rewards very well. He originally showed significant hospitality to his Japanese cohorts and Sanchez was extremely hospitable to Bond after he was captured by the ninja partway through the movie, and supposedly didn't know Bond was trying to assassinate him. However, the instant loyalty to him is ruptured, his personality changes to extreme coldness, illustrated through his gruesome annihilation of his henchman Milton Krest who was framed by Bond of being disloyal to him.

Notable phrases

Sanchez 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".
"You have big cajones amigo. You come into Isthmus, without references throwing around a lot of money; nobody saw you come into Isthmus, so nobody has to see you leave Isthmus.
'Last Words': You could have had everything.

Henchmen

★ Dario

★ Perez

★ Milton Krest

★ Truman-Lodge

★ Braun

★ Joe Butcher

★ Colonel Heller

★ Ed Killifer