Not much is known about Sheldon Jeffrey Sands, aside from the fact that he is a member of the Central Intelligence Agency and was at one point stationed in Mexico. He operates under his own system of morals, considering himself to be the one to keep the balance in society (as explained in a scene where he callously shoots a cook because his dish is 'too good'). He maintains a calm demeanor, but is clearly quite wily and dangerous, as he kills without second thought and with prodigious skill, making him something of an anti-hero. He has a fondness for obvious costumes and cheesy gadgets, such as a fake arm that he uses to hide the gun in his real hand, and a faux mustache and beard.In the film, a drug lord named Barillo has hired an army general named Marquez to kill the President and help him overthrow the government. Sands hires El Mariachi to make sure this does not happen and Marquez never takes power. It is unknown if this was his assignment from the CIA or just a personal plot, but he uses his manipulative talents to orchestrate a complicated plan, using El's painful personal history (sometime between Desperado and this film, El married and had a child with Carolina, only to have both wife and child murdered by Marquez) to his advantage.Various informants eventually turn on him, however, including AFN Agent Ajedrez, with whom he seems to have a personal relationship. It is revealed that she is in fact Barillo's daughter, and she helps capture Sands. Barillo informs him that he has seen too much and has a henchman remove Sands' eyes with a power drill. He is then released and made to fend for himself on the streets of Mexico. He manages to gain the assistance of a young gum-selling boy he had met previously (a boy in a yellow t-shirt appears in all three films in the trilogy) and uses him to track down and execute Barillo's men. He shows remarkable prowess with a gun, managing to shoot quite expertly shortly after being blinded. He is shot several times himself, however, and it appears as though he is down for the count. Ajedrez appears and pulls him to his feet, sarcastically asking See anything you like? He then shoots her, revealing that he is wearing the fake arm seen earlier in the film, and replies calmly, No. It is clear that he survives the ordeal, although what happens beyond that is unknown.Robert Rodriguez has expressed interest in making two more films about the blinded gunman, thus making two trilogies with five films. Johnny Depp, who enjoyed making the film, has stated that he would be onboard should that idea come to fruition. (He also portrays a priest in a confessional, who is actually meant to be Sands himself, and does a Marlon Brando impression for it. Depp and Brando were friends in real life.) It was revealed in the director commentary on the DVD that Depp himself came up with many of the ideas for the character, such as his fondness for obnoxious tourist-y t-shirts and the character's first and middle names. He stated in Rolling Stone magazine that he based the character on a guy [he] used to know, in the business, who on the outside was very charming soft-spoken and almost hypnotic in the rhythm he used to speak. ... You knew this guy was aiming to f*** you over, but somehow you stuck around because he was just so fascinating to watch. Rodriguez has also said that Sands was rotten to the core, and that he was impressed with how Depp still managed to make him somewhat sympathetic. Track 9 on the movie's soundtrack, Sands' Theme, was written entirely by Depp (although it is jokingly credited to Tonto's Giant Nuts ). Rodriguez requested that each of the main actors give him four or eight notes of a melody for their character, but Depp came up with the entire track. Show less «