Character Analysis
Sergeant JT Sanborn seems like a decent-enough guy, but he definitely doesn't think too much of our protagonist, Will—well, at least at first. In fact, he even contemplates killing him.
Yup, his fellow soldier.
But before you get all judgy-bear on that, we have to give you the backstory.
Everything Will Be Fine...as Long as We Do Things My Way
Sanborn tries to be welcoming to Will at first. You know, show him how things are done, teach him how not to get killed—typical orientation stuff. He tells Will to keep the boards on his window to protect against shrapnel. Will refuses:
SANBORN: Maybe you shouldn't take this down, you know. We get a lot of mortars at night, you know. The plywood on the windows help with the lateral fray coming through. That's why it's up there.
WILL: Yeah, well, it's not going to stop a mortar round from coming in through the roof, you know. Besides, I like the sunshine.
Then, later, he encourages Will to take things easy on his first day by letting the robot do some recon before diving into disarming a bomb. Will refuses.
Then, when Sanborn tries to keep an eye on Will and stay in contact with him over the radio to make sure the team is effectively supporting him during missions—yes, you guessed it, Will refuses. He's not interested in doing things Sanborn's way. At all.
When Will repeatedly ignores Sanborn's recommendations and, you know, standard safety protocols, Sanborn gets a little...cranky, shall we say. In fact, he even slugs Will in the face for taking off his radio during an operation.
And yeah, as we mentioned, he even considers killing Will. When they're testing ammo, Sanborn implies to Eldridge that they have a purrrrfect opportunity to get rid of Will and make it seem like an accident:
SANBORN: You know, these detonators misfire all the time.
ELDRIDGE: What are you doing?
SANBORN: I'm just saying s*** happens, they misfire.
Hey, we get that Sanborn is afraid that Will's methods are going to get everyone killed. But considering the murder of one of your own men is pretty extreme. Just shows how desperate these guys feel in this situation.
Luckily, Sanborn doesn't actually go through with that plan, and he and Will eventually bond after a gunfight in the desert forces them to work together. They end up boozing in Will's barracks, and although Sanborn is still making plenty of fun of Will, it seems mostly like a good-natured sparring fest.
Well, until Will mounts Sanborn and pretends he's a bucking bronco, that is. Sanborn doesn't like that.
Daddy-in-Training
Sanborn's relationship with Will is at the center of his journey in the film: he goes from hating the dude to getting along with him pretty well. Pretty simple. But there's another notable change in Sanborn as well: he goes from not wanting kids at all to deciding that he has to be a father—and all in the space of a few days.
Take a look at Sanborn's thoughts on the subject when he, Eldridge, and Will are having their drunken bonding sesh:
SANBORN: My only problem is the girl I do like, I can't stop her from talking about babies, man.
WILL: Well, give her your sperm, stud. Go on, do it. C'mon, chicken, should just give it to her.
SANBORN: No, hell no.
WILL: Make babies.
SANBORN: I know when I'm ready. I ain't ready for that yet. I know that.
Then, a mere few days later, Sanborn is suddenly all about the baby-making:
SANBORN: I'm not ready to die, James.
WILL: Well, you're not going to die out here, bro.
SANBORN: Another two inches. Shrapnel zings by, slices my throat. I bleed out like a pig in the sand. Nobody'll give a s***. I mean, my parents'll care, but they don't count, man, who else? I don't even have a son.
WILL: Well, you're going to have plenty of time for that, amigo.
SANBORN: Naw, man.
WILL: You know?
SANBORN: I'm done. I want a son. I want a little boy, Will.
We suppose it makes sense. When you're constantly confronted with death, as Sanborn is, you might think about what could make you live on—and for lots of people, that's what children do for them. Sure, it seems a little sudden, but we imagine that dealing with life-or-death situations every single day makes you a little, er, volatile?
Anyway, as far as we know, Sanborn does make it out safe and sound soon after that convo, so we like to think he got the chance to have that son—or to do whatever else he wanted to do with the rest of his life.