The idea of a feature film about the fate of Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) came to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan during the filming of the final season. In 2017, Gilligan shared this idea with Aaron Paul, who said he was ready to participate in this. Gilligan wrote the script for the picture himself, and he also acted as an executive producer and directed the picture with his own hand, although he had not filmed anything in a full-length format before.
The shooting of the film was carried out in the strictest confidence, the film crew signed papers on non-disclosure of information, and before the release of the film, very little was known about him: for all the time only once, Bryan Cranston posted on his Facebook a photo allegedly from the shooting, where he was captured together with Aaron Paul.
El Camino: Breaking Bad is about what happened to Jesse Pinkman after Walter White rescued him from slavery in a neo-Nazi drug lab. That is, in some way it is, as it were, a full-length finale that closes the series – about the same as the recently released film “Deadwood” closed the series of the same name, which at one time was literally cut off in mid-sentence.
Unlike the Deadwood series, Breaking Bad had a very impressive and powerful finale, but the audience was still very interested in the further fate of the brightest character Aaron Paul, which Gilligan decided to tell about.
Jesse escaped from the drug lab in a Chevrolet El Camino owned by gang member Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons). Actually, this car gave the name to the feature film.
The police are chasing Jesse, his parents appear on TV and urge their son to give up, but Pinkman is not going to give up. He has one hook from the past: in the show, Jesse discussed with Mike Ehrmantraut the possibility of making a new identity for himself and escaping abroad, and Mike then told Jesse about Ed (Robert Forster) – a man who works in a vacuum cleaner store, who can help to acquire a new identity in another country – it costs a lot of money, but Ed knows his stuff.
And then Jesse, who managed to see his old friends Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) and Badger (Matt Jones), who found out that there is a beacon in Jesse’s El Camino and decided to distract the police, sets off to find Ed in order to use his services and leave from the state. He has no other option. But Ed demands payment from Jesse for the last time Pinkman ordered his service and did not use it, plus for a new service – in general, Jesse does not have enough money and he must somehow get it.
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Great. Filmed very well. It was clear that there was no other way for Jesse but to try to get out of the state. It could have been filmed very primitively, but it could have been filmed cool – just like Gilligan did. You can see from the film that it was directed by the creator of Breaking Bad: powerful, dramatic, action-packed and exciting.
Aaron Paul is simply amazing. His character in the first season of “Breaking Bad” was a kind of stoner schoolboy who just fell into Walter’s arm, and he used him simply as a person who knows where to sell the drugs that Walter cooks.
It is known for certain that the creators of the series intended to kill Jesse Pinkman in the first season. But their most interesting tandem with Walter White, also, let’s be honest, the charisma of Aaron Paul as an actor led to the fact that Jesse Pinkman became one of the main characters of the series – in fact, at the level of Walter White.
In the feature film, Aaron just works wonders. His character on the show has gone from a douchebag high school drug addict to a man who is heavily involved in the criminal business: he sees showdowns and murders with his own eyes, he loses his girlfriend, he tries to jump off, but he doesn’t succeed, and in the end Jesse finds himself in the position of a slave cook for the Nazis.
When Jesse comes out of there, he is completely different. And Aaron Paul, a very sensitive and reflective actor (I’ve read interviews with him and with Bryan Cranston), shows a brand new Pinkman. Who is now no schoolboy, but a man who survived terrible tragedies and saw murders with his own eyes, who is aimed at raising money and getting out of this state to hell – at least to Alaska.
Great role, very powerful, making a big impression. Paul Aaron has clearly grown as an actor, the episode where he was forced to literally shoot himself in a duel was done very well and made me shudder. And he is the central character here, on which almost everything is concentrated.
Of the other roles, Robert Forster can be noted, who played the mysterious Ed – a man who helps people create a new personality. The character is very interesting.
Well, also in one of the flashbacks that help to understand what is happening in the film, Jesse Plemons appears as Todd, a member of the Nazi gang, who asks Pinkman, who is in slavery, to help him solve a problem. With Plemons, a very vivid episode turned out.
For Breaking Bad fans, this is a must see. It’s well filmed and well acted. Besides, we all wanted to find out what would happen to Jesse, we were shown that. (Yes, and we really would not refuse a multi-episode spin-off about the further adventures of Jesse Pinkman.)
For people who haven’t seen this series, well, everything is simple. First you need to watch this series – because nothing cooler has been filmed in recent years. Well, then watch this full-length finale, which in a certain sense closes the series.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie movie meaning
Director: Vince Gilligan Cast: Bryan Cranston, Jonathan Banks, Jesse Plemons, Aaron Paul, Matt Jones, Charles Baker, Todd Terry, Julie Pearl, Larry Hankin, Tom Bower, Robert Forster
Crime drama, USA, 2019, 122 min.