Gabriel Cortez

"Death doesn't come when you expect it. Driving a racecar. Or in a gunfight. Death is waiting in the kitchen when you get up at night for a glass of milk. My niece. My sister's oldest. She was a good girl. I practically raised her. Then one night I find her pointing a Glock at me in the kitchen. If she hadn't hesitated, it would have been my brains splattered all over the marble floor instead of hers."

- Gabriel Cortez

Gabriel Cortez is the main antagonist of the 2013 action movie The Last Stand.

He played by Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega.

Biography and Prison Escape
Cortez is a ruthless international drug lord who escaped from Jail to going hometown of Sheriff Ray Owens for revenge and lead his people to fight against Owens. makes a daring escape from FBI custody in Las Vegas, where he has henchmen use a magnet to lift up the van he is being transported in and escape from the roof of a nearby building and using zip-lines to escape to the street, where he has paid several men in orange jumpsuits to confuse the FBI and allow him to escape. Cortez speeds off in a modified Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 that he stole from a car show. He takes FBI Agent Ellen Richards as his hostage as he races southbound toward Mexico at speeds over 200 mph. Agent John Bannister has a blockade set up in Bullhead City, Arizona, but Cortez's men mow down the police officers on site and clear the road for him to continue his getaway. Cortez also uses his extraordinary driving skills to lose a pursuit helicopter and immobilize two SWAT vehicles headed toward Summerton Junction. Before flying to Arizona, Agent Bannister has his team do a financial background check on all agents involved to find out how Cortez managed to escape so easily.

Kiddnaping Agent Richards and The Plan
Sometime past 4:30 in the morning, Owens dispatches deputies Jerry Bailey and Sarah Torrance to visit the residence of the local farmer Parsons, who has suddenly missed his usual milk delivery at the diner. After discovering that Parsons has been murdered, the deputies follow a trail of tire tracks that lead them to Cortez's henchman Thomas Burrell and his mercenary cutthroats, who are planting a mobile assault bridge across the canyon that marks the U.S./Mexico border. Bailey is fatally shot in the middle of a shootout between the deputies and the thugs before Owens rushes in to bring his officers back to his precinct. Bannister calls to inform them that Cortez is speeding their way and that Sommerton is the last chance they have to prevent him from escaping into Mexico.

The Battle in Summertown and Final Fight with Owens
At 7:10 a.m., Owens and his deputies have the town's main road barricaded with cars when Burrell and his men arrive, prompting a lengthy firefight where all of Burrell's men are killed and the town's police force is slowly immobilized. After Owens kills Burrell, Cortez's Corvette eventually arrives in town, veering past the barricade as Owens and the deputies shoot at it. Cortez ejects Agent Richards from the car before speeding through a corn field. Suddenly, he encounters the Mayor's red Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that was commandeered by Owens. A lengthy car chase ensues in the cornfield before both cars collide with a swather. A dazed Cortez continues his escape on foot, but Owens meets him at the bridge. Owens ignores Cortez's bribe offers before both men fight each other. Despite sustaining slashes and stab wounds from Cortez's push dagger, Owens defeats the drug lord and handcuffs him before dragging him back into town using the battered and now roofless Camaro. Agent Bannister arrives to take Cortez back into custody and arrests Agent Richards for taking the drug lord's bribe and aiding in his escape. Cortez has to look at Richards as they are driven away.

Quotes

 * "You should have taken the money, old man."
 * "You fucked up my car."
 * "12,000 Mexicans come across the border all day. What's it to you if one goes back?"