Franz Sanchez

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James Bond character

Franz Sanchez
Gender	Male
Role	Villain
Affiliation	Self-employed
Current status	Deceased
Portrayed by	Robert Davi

Franz Sanchez is a fictional character in the James Bond film Licence to Kill. He was played by Robert Davi.

[edit] Character

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Sanchez is a South American drug lord who 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." In one of his more despicable acts, he brutally whips his girlfriend, Lupe Lamora, as a punishment for infidelity. It is also heavily implied that he removed the heart of the man she had slept with.

Sanchez addressing the Japanese drug dealers during a meeting at Isthmus

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, who is later patially fed to a shark and mamimed by Sanchez, and raping and killing his wife, Della.

Bond pursues Sanchez to Isthmus City (based on real life Panama) seeking revenge, and infiltrates his organization 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 allows him to stumble into his own tanker, immolating himself in the ensuing explosion.

Sanchez differs from other Bond villains in the fact he was drug dealer and had no interest in world domination; he probably would have never faced Bond had he not attacked Felix and Della and triggered Bond's personal vengeance.

This crime lord is based on real life drug baron for he allows his girlfriend Lupe to live because she reflects a beautiful image of his life. Lupe Lamora is a seductive young woman and yet he allows her to live despite her infidelity.