Machete (character)

Isador Cortez, primarily known under the alias of Machete, is the name of two fictional characters who are featured in the Spy Kids and Machete films (the latter of which is also featured in a fake trailer in Grindhouse). Both versions of the character are played by Danny Trejo. The Spy Kids and Machete film series depict different versions of the character, and director Robert Rodriguez has stated that their continuities are not connected.

According to director Robert Rodriguez, the character Machete was always intended for Danny Trejo: "When I met Danny, I said, 'This guy should be like the Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme or Charles Bronson, putting out a movie every year and his name should be Machete'". Rodriguez also said, in an interview, that he "wrote [Trejo] this idea of a federale from Mexico who gets hired to do hatchet jobs in the U.S. I had heard sometimes FBI or DEA have a really tough job that they don't want to get their own agents killed on, they'll hire an agent from Mexico to come do the job for $25,000. I thought, 'That's Machete. He would come and do a really dangerous job for a lot of money to him, but for everyone else over here, it's peanuts'. But I never got around to making it".

Although Trejo joked in an interview that the events of the Machete films show what the character "does when he's not taking care of the kids," implying continuity with the Spy Kids films, Rodriguez has stated that the two film series take place in separate narrative universes and follow alternative versions of the character.

In the Machete films, Isador Cortez is depicted as a former Mexican Federale and mercenary. His weapon of choice is the machete, but he is also very proficient with firearms. Cortez is fluent in both Spanish and English. On his chest is a tattoo depicting a woman. Trejo has described Machete as a "badass", and said that his mother had started calling him "Machete".

The Spy Kids version of the character has his own shop that sells spy gadgets, and is the uncle of Carmen and Juni, their father's estranged brother.

In Spy Kids, Machete is first seen in a flashback, at his brother Gregorio's wedding. When Gregorio and his wife Ingrid get captured by Fegan Floop, Carmen and Juni, Gregorio's children, visit their "Uncle Machete", hoping he will help them to save their parents. Machete refuses to go after Gregorio, as they are estranged, but allows his niece and nephew to stay with him, and shows them a one-passenger jet that could get them to Floop's castle. Carmen and Juni take the jet, some of his gadgets, and a map of the castle at night. Machete appears again near the end of the film, when he decides to help the Cortezes against an army of robotic children. When asked why he came back, Machete claimed it is the same reason he left. Gregorio no longer remembers the reason and neither does Machete. Machete then cries in his brother's arms. At the end of the film, he is seen with the Cortez family.

In Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, Machete has built Carmen and Juni a high-tech treehouse after they have become secret agents. Machete then shows some of his latest gadgets - spy watches and the Machete elastic wonder. At the end of the film, Carmen claims she cannot sing, so Machete shows Carmen a microphone that autotunes her voice and Juni a guitar that plays itself. When they are done, Machete informs Carmen and Juni that he did not put any batteries in them and that Carmen was actually singing and Juni was actually playing guitar.

Machete appears near the end of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, when he helps battle the Toymaker's video-game robots. After the battle, Machete becomes closer with the Cortezes.