El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Short description
A direct continuation of the Breaking Bad television series, El Camino follows Jesse Pinkman in the immediate aftermath of his escape from captivity. Hunted by police and other pursuers, and still carrying the weight of what he has lived through, he looks for a way to leave his old life behind and start something new. His friends Skinny Pete and Badger can offer only limited help, so Jesse sets out to gather the money and the contacts he needs to disappear for good.
Vince Gilligan, who created the series, wrote and directed the film and produced it with Mark Johnson and Charles Newirth. Aaron Paul returns as Jesse, the role he played across the show's run, and is joined by Jesse Plemons as Todd, Charles Baker as Skinny Pete, Matt Jones as Badger, Scott MacArthur as Neil and Larry Hankin as Old Joe, among a credited cast of 31. The production involved 184 credited crew members and was handled by Gran Via Productions, Sony Pictures Television Studios and High Bridge Productions. Made between the series and Gilligan's later Saul Goodman America's 250th, it runs 123 minutes.
El Camino was released in October 2019. Its IMDb rating of 7.3 from roughly 340,000 votes and its TMDB rating of 7.1 from a much smaller number of votes point to a broadly favourable audience response, with the far larger IMDb sample suggesting lasting attention from the show's viewers. A critics' rating of 7.3 from 133 reviews places professional assessments at a similar level to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The working title of the film was "Greenbrier".
- The first version of the film was three hours long.
- Flashbacks were filmed with a handheld camera, while the action unfolding in the present was filmed with cameras mounted on tripods.
- Filming took 50 days.
- Bryan Cranston wore a prosthetic bald cap during filming. Previously, while filming the series, he shaved his head, but now, while shooting, he was simultaneously working on other projects that required him to have hair.
- The spider in Todd's apartment is the same one he picked up after the child's murder in the "Dead Freight" episode of the series "Breaking Bad" (2008-2013).
- When Ed gives a description of Jesse to police officers in a vacuum cleaner store, he is actually describing Spider Jerusalem – a character from Warren Ellis' comic book series "Transmetropolitan" (1997-2002).
- Aaron Paul spoke about an alternate ending in one interview. The initial script envisioned this: Jesse is shown driving through Alaska, and the viewer hears a voiceover revealing the contents of the letter. It contains an apology to Brock for everything that happened and expresses hope that, perhaps, someday they will be able to talk about it openly.
- Jesse's farewell letter is addressed to Brock.
- The common belief was that Walter died in the finale of the series "Breaking Bad" (2008-2013), but this was only officially confirmed in this film, where representatives of various law enforcement agencies repeatedly state that, having received confirmation of Walter's death, they are now continuing the investigation.
- Initially, Vince Gilligan planned to end everything with Jesse's arrest at the Canadian border. A friend of the director convinced him that the audience would not accept this as a happy ending – considering everything Jesse had been through.
- While reconstructing the drug lab props from surviving elements, a bloody palm print of Walter's was discovered on one of the items. It was decided to include it in the film as an "Easter egg".
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