For a long time, information on the Breaking Bad movie was practically as elusive as Walt
and Jesse themselves.
Now, we've gathered every last shard of information we could get our hands on while we wait for
El Camino to finish cooking and finally crystallize on our screens.
After months spent referring to the Breaking Bad film using the semi-secret codename "Greenbriar,"
Netflix finally revealed the movie's actual name in August of 2019.
The film will be called El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, and will hit Netflix on October
11, 2019.
Eventually, El Camino will also reportedly air on AMC, Breaking Bad's home network, but
no date has been announced yet for the film's cable debut.
Until Netflix announced the October release date for El Camino, very little was known
about the movie, although Bob Odenkirk implied that filming had already been completed when
he talked to The Hollywood Reporter promoting the upcoming fifth season of the Breaking
Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, on which Odenkirk stars.
When asked if the film was in fact happening, Odenkirk replied,
"I find it hard to believe you don't know it was shot.
They did it.
You know what I mean?
How is that a secret?
But it is.
They've done an amazing job of keeping it a secret."
If secrecy was the goal, Netflix and the Breaking Bad team definitely succeeded.
Mere days after Odenkirk gave his interview, exciting fans with the possibility that filming
might already be completed, Netflix announced a release date less than two months away.
After months of uncertainty about whether a movie was even happening, the Breaking Bad
film was practically on our doorstep, and we hadn't even realized it was coming.
Although Aaron Paul spent the better part of a year playing his cards extremely close
to his chest, numerous sources speculated early on that he'd be reprising his role as
Jesse in the eventual Breaking Bad film, and that the film would revolve around him.
Now those suspicions are confirmed.
Breaking Bad saw Jesse evolve from a high school dropout who taught Walt how to deal
drugs into the heart and soul of the show, holding fast to the conscience and morality
that Walt slowly and methodically stripped away.
As Walt became more ruthless, Jesse seemed to balance him by becoming increasingly more
sympathetic.
The final season of Breaking Bad led to Jesse getting kidnapped by a gang of neo-Nazis and
forced to cook crystal meth for them, until Walt ultimately came to his rescue in the
finale.
The last we saw of Jesse, he was driving away from the neo-Nazis' meth lab in a stolen car,
laughing in relief at the endless possibilities granted to him by his long-awaited freedom.
Despite being the star of the series, it's unsurprising that Walter White may not play
a role in the movie, due to his death in the series finale — he's hit by a stray bullet
when he initiates his plan to mow down the neo-Nazis that have captured Jesse, and bleeds
out in a meth lab.
Still, it's hard to imagine any version of Breaking Bad without Cranston, who was the
indisputable star of the series and brought one of the most memorable TV characters of
the 21st century to life in Walter White.
"This is not meth."
While it appears as though El Camino will take place after Walt's death, Cranston has
said that if asked to return, he would most definitely do it.
He told The Dan Patrick Show in November 2018:
"I don't know if there's an appearance — flashbacks, flash forward, but I'm excited about it because
it's Breaking Bad and it was the greatest professional period of my life and I can't
wait to see all those people again, even if I just come by to visit."
It's hard to imagine how a flash forward could allow Cranston to come back, but a flashback
— or even a dream or hallucination — could be a reasonable way for Walt to make an appearance
in the film, even if he's not the star.
Whatever the method, we hope El Camino finds a way to work Walt in, even if it is just
for a single scene.
Although Bob Odenkirk seems to be more in the loop than most people regarding El Camino,
he still speaks about the film as though it's simply something he's heard about, and not
something he's worked on.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Odenkirk said:
"I've heard so many different things about it, but I am excited about the Breaking Bad
movie.
I can't wait to see it."
Of course, as any Breaking Bad fan could tell you, no one is better at selling a lie than
Odenkirk, who plays the slippery lawyer Saul Goodman — or Jimmy McGill, back before he
changed his name — on both the original series and the spinoff, Better Call Saul.
"Dude's like Houdini.
Seriously, when the going gets tough, you don't want a criminal lawyer.
You want a criminal lawyer.
Know what I'm saying"
If he was trying to throw us off the scent and he actually is in El Camino, we'd probably
never even suspect the lie until his face suddenly showed up on our TV screens.
So while right now we're willing to take Odenkirk at his word that he's merely eagerly awaiting
El Camino as a fan, just like the rest of us, we also wouldn't be too surprised if he
has a supporting role after all.
"Joke's on me, HA HA.
Simple as that."
We last saw Jesse Pinkman driving off into the night after Walt freed him from his abductors
at the end of "Felina."
Jesse never gave any indication about where he might have been headed, but according to
the logline of El Camino, we're about to find out.
Netflix promises us:
"In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse must come to terms with his past in
order to forge some kind of future."
This seems to indicate that El Camino — presumably titled after the type of car Jesse drives
in this final scene — is about more than just Jesse's physical journey away from his
kidnappers, but will address his emotional one as well.
The part about "[coming] to terms with his past" almost definitely refers to the repercussions
of Jesse's illegal actions with Walt.
In the final season, Jesse agreed to cooperate with DEA agent Hank to incriminate Walt, in
exchange for leniency for himself.
However, Hank is murdered before their deal can ever be finalized, making Jesse a fugitive
by the conclusion of the series.
Jesse may also have to wrestle with some personal demons, such as the deaths of his ex-girlfriends
Jane and Andrea, who both died because of their involvement with Jesse.
Perhaps one way Jesse will deal with the consequences of his actions will be by going to check on
Andrea's orphaned son, Brock, and making sure he is all right.
Even before the logline of El Camino was revealed, Breaking Bad fans already had reason to suspect
that any potential film would have to take place after the finale of the series.
Not only were rumors already swirling around the possibility of a Jesse-centric film, but
there's simply no other time in the Breaking Bad narrative where a feature-length story
might fit.
Walt and Jesse meet in the pilot of the series.
Before that, Jesse is a small-time drug dealer and Walt is a high school chemistry teacher
— hardly the stuff movies are made of.
"It is fascinating, really,"
After that, the tale of Breaking Bad was so tightly woven that it didn't seem possible
that there were another two minutes of relevant story that we didn't see play out during the
course of the series, let alone two hours.
There was even an entire episode dedicated to getting a fly out of their lab.
We saw everything.
"Okay, on three.
One…"
"Ah, f--!”
Cranston confirmed the post-finale time frame in an interview with ET, where he said that
he's "still dead" in the film, and the official logline also indicates that El Camino will
be picking up right where the finale left off.
However, if it's been a while since you've watched Breaking Bad and you're worried you
won't remember enough to understand El Camino, Aaron Paul has suggested you rewatch only
one scene to prepare yourself for the film — Jesse's heartbreaking monologue from season
three.
"I have nothing.
No one.
Alright?
It's all gone.
Get your tissues ready, because if that scene is any indication of what El Camino will be
like… ouch.
In the process of announcing the name and premiere date of El Camino, Netflix also dropped
a teaser trailer.
If it's been a while since you've watched Breaking Bad, you may not recognize the character
at the center of the teaser, but he's someone who's been around since the very first season
of the show.
In the short clip, which is set in a police station, we hear a man telling a roomful of
officers that he doesn't have any idea where "he" is or where "he" is headed.
The camera then pivots around to reveal the speaker: Skinny Pete.
Skinny Pete was introduced in season one of Breaking Bad as the one responsible for introducing
Jesse to drug kingpin Tuco Salamanca.
Skinny Pete later deals crystal for Jesse, sobers up, relapses, and ultimately helps
Walt seek revenge against his former business partner.
Now it seems as though the DEA may think that Skinny Pete is the key to locating Jesse,
but despite their rocky relationship, Skinny Pete shows no sign of turning on his friend.
"I don't know what to tell you.
But no way I'm helping you people put Jesse Pinkman back inside a cage."
Breaking Bad would never have become the critical and cultural smash it was without the vision
of Vince Gilligan, who not only created the show, but was responsible for penning some
of its most memorable episodes, including "Box Cutter," "Face Off," and the series finale,
"Felina."
Back when the news first broke that a feature-length follow-up may be in the works, fans were relieved
to hear that it would, once again, have Gilligan at the helm.
While Gilligan did not write or direct every episode of Breaking Bad, it looks as though
he'll be doing both duties for El Camino.
This won't be the first time Gilligan has ventured back into the story of Jesse and
Walter since the show wrapped in 2013.
He is also the creator of the ongoing spin-off series Better Call Saul, which premiered two
years after the conclusion of Breaking Bad.
After being immersed in this world for more than a decade, there's no one better than
Gilligan to bring Jesse and the tattered remains of Walt's once-great meth empire back onto
our screens.
On the heels of the Breaking Bad finale, Gilligan told GQ his theory about what happens to Jesse
after the events of "Felina."
He said:
"My personal feeling is that he got away.
But the most likely thing, as negative as this sounds, is that they're going to find
this kid's fingerprints all over this lab and they're going to find him within a day
or a week or a month.
And he's still going to be on the hook for the murder of two federal agents.
But yeah, even though that's the most likely outcome, the way I see it is that he got away
and got to Alaska, changed his name, and had a new life.
You want that for the kid.
He deserves it."
The murders Gilligan is talking about are of Walt's brother-in-law Hank Schrader and
his partner Steven Gomez, who were both killed in the final few episodes of Breaking Bad.
Of course, Jesse didn't commit either murder — Hank and Gomie were killed in a shootout
with the neo-Nazis Walt hired to kill Jesse when he thought Jesse was stealing the money
he'd buried in the desert — but the DEA has no way of knowing that.
Assuming Gilligan hasn't changed his mind in the years since Breaking Bad ended, it
sounds like we can hopefully look forward to a happy ending...hopefully.
The only other options are that Jesse dies, or he winds up in a drab prison cell being
watched by ranks of faceless guards for the rest of his life, all for murders he didn't
commit.
That sounds pretty, um, what's the word we're looking for here?
"Sounds kind of Kafkaesque.
Yeah, totally Kafkaesque."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.