El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

Fugitive Jesse Pinkman attempts to outrun his past in this spinoff movie written and directed by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, starring Aaron Paul. As a viewer, to fully understand this movie, you’ll have to endure the five seasons of its predecessor series, Breaking Bad. However, you could get by just watching the final few episodes, which reveal the misfortunes that befell Jesse after being captured by hitmen hired by his former partner, Walter White.

For peace of mind, Walter changed his decision to have Jesse killed—not out of mercy, but because Jesse was accompanied by his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank. However, the hitmen still wanted their end of the deal, and a shootout occurred between them and two DEA agents, despite Walter’s protests. With Walter on the run, the hitmen took two lives, barrels of money, and Jesse Pinkman to fulfill Walter’s original arrangement. After learning Jesse was an informant, the hitmen made his life a living hell—forcing him to live in a cage and cook meth, with heart-wrenching consequences if he refused. Walter eventually returned to confront the man who had enslaved Jesse and killed Hank. I’m unsure of the exact passage of time, but it was long enough for both men to grow full heads of hair. Walter slaughtered the hitmen, but I’m left wondering whether it was an act of vengeance for Hank or redemption for Jesse—since Walter’s choices led Jesse into captivity in the first place.

Either way, El Camino opens with Jesse fleeing the place where he had been held captive. In an attempt to avoid capture, he seeks help from friends and tracks down “the vacuum guy,” who can give him a new identity. However, Jesse had previously contacted this man—Ed—but ran off after realizing Walter had poisoned Brock, a child close to him, setting off the chain of events that led to his capture. Ed, a cautious man, forced Jesse to pay double for what he owed before. Unfortunately, Jesse was $1,800 short of the $250,000 total. Reluctantly, he agreed to get the rest.

Jesse approached men he knew would have what he needed, including a welder he’d encountered earlier that day while both were searching for cash left in the apartment of one of Jesse’s captors. Ironically, this same welder had built the gussets and fishplates that kept Jesse imprisoned. So when Jesse killed the man in an old-school cowboy gun draw, I doubt he mourned his loss. With more than enough money, Jesse finally escaped to Alaska, evaded the authorities, and sent his final goodbyes to Brock.

If I could pinpoint one thing I dislike most about Vince Gilligan, it’s how he wrote Jesse’s story. Unlike Walter, every horrible experience and action weighed on Jesse. He carried his guilt heavily and even tried to help the families who suffered because of him. In my previous review of Breaking Bad, I said the show had no heroes. I still believe that—but I also feel Jesse could have been that hero if he had known how to save himself. Whenever the guilt became too heavy, he turned back to drugs. When Jesse was first introduced, I wasn’t fond of him. But as I got to know his character, I realized he truly had a heart of gold. With the right guidance and people around him, he could have become the moral compass of this story.

Unfortunately, I believe partnering with Walter both destroyed and saved Jesse’s life. Without Walter, Jesse would have remained a user—likely overdosing on the very product he sold. On the other hand, joining Walter’s operation made him suffer tremendously, sending him down a long path of destruction. No matter how his story was written, Jesse seemed destined for a dark fate. Even though I hate how Gilligan wrote his ending, it was the only path that allowed him to finally heal and start anew.

What I loved about this film was how it used multiple flashbacks to deepen the story and give context to Jesse’s present situation. As an aspiring screenwriter, I can learn a lot from Vince Gilligan and his incredible ability to make every moment matter. Nothing in this film—or in the series—felt random. Everything had meaning and connected to something larger. His understanding of relationship dynamics and his ability to weave a maze of interconnected stories around one central character is a skill I hope to emulate in my own prose and screenwriting.

My final thoughts on El Camino are simple: I hope Jesse finds peace—peace that isn’t at the bottom of a pipe or tied to a woman. I applaud Gilligan for creating a character I cry for, root for, and genuinely feel exists somewhere out there, just needing the biggest hug.