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"Three Expendables, our brothers, men we ate with, fought with, bled with, dead! He puts three slugs into my chest. Thank God...for body armor, even I thought I was dead and then he boogies out with the casualties, all dead! BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS!"
—Stonebanks' telling the young Expendables about Barney's failed mission to kill him

Conrad Stonebanks is the co-founder of a mercenary team called the Expendables and the main antagonist in The Expendables 3. He and Barney Ross started the team years prior but grew to be ruthless and became an illegal arms trader. Barney was forced to kill him and believed he did for many years until he resurfaces again with his own team of advanced mercenaries to take down the team he once helped create.

Biography

Conrad Stonebanks, a former S.A.S.R. operative, and Barney Ross founded The Expendables years ago. They specialized in doing tasks that the government, not wanting to get their hands dirty, would hire them to do. After realizing what little money comes from their (somewhat) morally correct jobs he used his knowledge to go into arms dealing, which brought him great riches and made him ruthless and greedy. Barney intercepted in his business and was forced to execute him, shooting him 3 times in the chest. However, Stonebanks was wearing heavy armor which barely saved his life and made Barney think he was dead.

25 years later, Barney Ross and the current Expendables arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia (after rescuing Doc, one of the surviving original members) to assassinate a war criminal and arms trader named Victor Menz. A helicopter lands on a building and their target, revealed to be no other than actually the long believed deceased Conrad Stonebanks, steps out. Barney and Doc are horrified and shocked that he is alive. In a sudden fit of rage, Barney opens fire on him and his mercenaries.

The Expendables are pushed back and easily outnumbered, forcing them to leave. They are able to evade Stonebanks' men but they see his chopper fly above a warehouse. He aims a sniper rifle at Ross's head but, knowing his old comrade's emotional faults and team loyalty, shoots at Hale Caesar instead, hitting him in the leg and back. Stonebanks then drops a bomb onto the dock, forcing the team to jump into the water and leaves.

The team takes Hale Caesar to a hospital in the U.S. and Barney retires his current team, not wanting them to die on his watch and face an army that has more advantages than them. Stonebanks meanwhile is buying a painting that actually disgusts him for $3,000,000 and taking it to his mansion.

Conrad Stonebanks later went to his high rise office building to conduct a business deal with an Albanian mobster. Barney Ross and his young newly recruited team successfully infiltrate the building with Thorn gaining control of the building's electronic security. They are able to corner Stonebanks and Luna knocks him out.

He wakes up with the team driving in a van to Trench Mauser who is waiting at the plane. John Smilee takes the duct tape off his mouth and Barney immediately strikes his face. Stonebanks starts to antagonize him and the rest of the team, telling them about how they started the Expendables together and his transition from it. He expresses great disgust at Barney, believing he was greatly betrayed by people he believed were his brothers. Barney, having enough, aims a gun at his head and still taunted him, knowing he would not. He told him he planned to beat him and breaks every bone in his body and dropped what's left of him at the Hague. Then threaten's Barney by telling him that when he has an opportunity to kill him himself, he will not use a weapon but his bare hands to make Barney feel what he felt all those years. Thorn realized he was wearing a GPS tracker and the van was hit by a RPG.

Stonebanks' men untied him and blew him off the bridge and attempted to execute the others until he stopped them, wanting to use them.

He later sent a personal video message to Barney Ross that showed him and the younger team who were tied to a wall surrounded by his mercenaries. He challenges Barney Ross, telling him to come get them back. Max Drummer tells Barney Ross that they are in Asmenistan, a third world country where he trains his mercenaries. He also points out that Stonebanks put no effort in hiding his location, wanting him to come get him.

When Barney Ross arrived to the Asmenistanian compound with his original team and a new recruit named Galgo, Conrad Stonebanks watched via two way video surveillance from a building not far from the compound. He revealed that the whole building was rigged with C4 explosives and would go off in 45 seconds. Thorn was able to block the detonation with 3 seconds left, however his device was at 8% and could no longer stop the detonation once it went dead. Conrad Stonebanks then dispatched the entire Asmanian military to the compound (with tanks and aircrafts) to execute them as a plan B. The two teams began a brief dispute, which Stoebanks planned, but overcame differences in order to fight the enemies.

Conrad watched as the united team impressively battled the army with help from Max Drummer who arrived piloting a chopper with Trench Mauser and former Expendable Yin Yang. He grew extremely annoyed and infuriated at his army's failure to kill them and shot two of his men to death in anger and, after Max Drummer landed on the roof of the compound to evac the team, drove a truck inside the building to finish them himself.

He climbed to the near top of the building and intercepted Barney Ross, shooting him in the shoulder and making him land in a flooded room. He jumped down and threw his gun on the ground, wanting to personally finish him with his bare hands. He savagely attacks him but is overthrown and beaten likewise until a stalemate when they push each other to the ground. They quickly grab their nearby guns to shoot the other but Barney is able to reach his pistol first and fire five rounds into Conrad who falls to his knees. Knowing his undeniable defeat he pleads by saying "What about the Hague, huh?" Barney snarls then shoots him in the chest, finally killing him for good and said to his corpse "I am the Hague". Ross barely escaped with his team as the building blew up, destroying Stonebanks' body and what little remained of his military.

Appearances

Trivia

  • After Mel Gibson was cast as Conrad Stonebanks, Aussie director Patrick Hughes suggested the character have an Australian background. Although Gibson was born in the USA, he spent most of his youth in Australia. Like Australian actors Anthony Lapaglia and Simon Baker, Gibson unfortunately lost his native accent due to spending so much time in the States, not able to speak in that tongue. However, his villainous character's background was not mentioned in the film.
  • Conrad Stonebanks stated he was "killed" 20-25 years ago, which means that this would've been around 1984-1989.

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