Dario is a supporting villain in the James Bond film Licence to Kill. He is a henchmen of drug lord Franz Sanchez and played by Benicio del Toro.

Benicio Del Toro as Dario in ‘Licence to Kill’.

The sneering Dario is first seen when he uses his large knife to kill a man Lupe Lamora has relations with, by carving out his heart, on Sanchez’s instructions. Dario, along with Braun and Perez, escape while Sanchez is captured by Felix Leiter and Bond. The three ambush Felix and his new wife Della in their home. They rape and murder her and bring Felix to Sanchez. He laughs and smiles while Felix is being attacked by the shark.

Dario is then sent by Sanchez to kill Pam Bouvier, the only Leiter contacts left alive, in a bar. Bond and Pam manage to escape from Dario and his companions, not before Pam is shot in the back. Dario does not know that this doesn’t kill her, as she is wearing a bulletproof vest. Dario disappears for much of the film but reappears with the Stinger Missiles when Sanchez is showing Bond and the drug dealers his drug plant. While in Sanchez’s drug manufacturing plant, Dario recognises Bond from the bar and blows off his cover, forcing Bond to start a fire inside the factory.

After Sanchez leaves Bond to fall from a conveyor belt into his brick-cocaine shredder, Dario steps in with his knife and attempts to force Bond in. Pam reappears to Dario, who is met with disbelief (“Heh heh, you’re dead!”). She quips, “You took the words right out of my mouth,” and shoots him at least once before her gun empties. Dario laughs as he gets ready to throw his knife but Bond takes the opportunity to grab Dario’s foot and pull the villain into the shredder. He screams in agony as he is dropped into the shredder by Bond and is ground to bits. After his death Bond responds, “Switch the bloody machine off!”

See also:

• Bond henchmen