Sheldon Sands

Sheldon Jeffrey Sands is a fictional character from Robert Rodriguez's 2003 film Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He is portrayed by Johnny Depp. He is mainly the catalyst of the movie and the movie's anti-hero.

Personality
Sands is portrayed as a borderline sociopath who will kill without the slightest hesitation; Rodriguez even described him as a "mass murderer". He can be a charming eccentric or a ruthless killer, depending on what the situation demands. He even killed a cook who made puerco pibil "too good". Towards the middle of the movie he is shunned by the CIA and left hanging in Mexico after his mission comes to a sudden halt. He scurries around the city trying to run and hide from the people he felt were following him; signs of paranoia (although it is likely he was being followed).

Towards the end of the movie, however, Rodriguez reveals Sands as a man not without mercy, during the final standoff between Sands and two of his enemies he tells a little boy (whom he had been using as a guide to lead him around the city after his eyeballs were taken out) "I don't hear you running".

Sands is shown to be quite witty, often engaging in clever wordplay. In the opening scenes of the movie, when he is talking with Belini (Cheech Marin), he gives him $10,000 for the information he has provided him. When he gives the money to Belini he says "I couldn't find a briefcase small enough for $10,000 in cash." Upon saying this, he hands the money to him in a Clash of the Titans lunch box in order to make Belini feel foolish for asking for so little money. Sands uses the word "savvy?" to ask El Mariachi if he understands him, much like Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.

In all of the scenes in which he is talking with Belini, Sands is wearing a fake arm with his real arm underneath the table wielding a silenced pistol trained on Belini. He persuades El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to join his side by alluding to the mysterious drifter's unpleasant past. He also uses his manipulation to persuade a retired FBI agent (Ruben Blades) to come back to the work force to catch a notorious drug cartel leader, portrayed by Willem Dafoe. He does this by reminding Blades' character that his partner was brutally tortured and murdered by the drug lord.

Characterization
In a 2003 issue of Rolling Stone, Depp was named as one of its "People of the Year," and gave an interview in which he briefly discussed his role as Sands:

"The idea behind him is there was this guy I used to know in Hollywood, in the business, who on the outside was very charming – soft-spoken and almost hypnotic in the rhythm he used to speak. He refused to call me Johnny – always called me John. You knew this guy was aiming to fuck you over, but somehow you stuck around because he was just so fascinating to watch."

Depp also said in an Entertainment Weekly article that he "imagine[d] this guy wore really cheesy tourist shirts," that he had a "sideline obsession with Broadway," and that he favored strange, obvious disguises—all three qualities can be observed in the film. It was also revealed in the director's commentary on the DVD that Depp himself came up with the character's first and middle names. He also composed the character's musical theme—the director requested that each of the main actors come up with a few bars of notes for their character, but Depp came up with the entire piece, which can be heard on the soundtrack (although the track is attributed to "Tonto's Giant Nuts," which is not Depp's band, but merely a humorous pseudonym of the actor's invention).