El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Vince Gilligan, 2019) Review
Sometimes it's better to let the viewer's imagination do the talking.
WARNING
Breaking Bad and El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (hereafter referred to as El Camino) spoilers ahead.
If you want a self-contained story with a more polished and consistent plot than the superfluous drag that is El Camino, check out Good Time (2017, Safdie brothers) instead.
The finale of Breaking Bad (Vince Gilligan, 2008–2013), “Felina”, was, along with “Ozymandias”, one of the most intense and cathartic episodes of the entire series. It served as a fitting conclusion to the journey of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and every character who stuck around to the end, as each faced the consequences of their actions.
Jesse Pinkman’s (Aaron Paul) resolution was particularly satisfying, as for all the struggles he endured as the show’s puppet, he managed to break free and finally stand on his own. Though rather open-ended, it felt conclusive enough not to feel the urge for an explicit closure to his arc, as it was pretty much implied that he would start anew and find inner peace away from the criminal world. However, whether out of love for the character he created or money, Vince Gilligan decided to film an epilogue to Jesse’s arc six years after Breaking Bad, while Better Call Saul (Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould, 2015–2022) was still on the air.
El Camino depicts the aftermath of “Felina” interwoven with flashbacks that took place during the Breaking Bad timeline. The flashbacks in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have a fundamental purpose in the plot, and even if some of them make no sense at first, they are eventually tied to relevant parts of the story. However, some flashbacks in El Camino are pretty much irrelevant in the larger scheme of the narrative, as those featuring Jane Margolis (Krysten Ritter), Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), and Walter White (Bryan Cranston) feel more like superfluous fan service material. On top of that, most of the flashbacks that carry any meaning take place with a chubby version of Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons), who is not the most exciting character in the Breaking Bad universe due to his shallow psychopathic nature. If anything, El Camino intensifies his behavior to the point of resembling a Tarantino character due to the black humor embedded in his pathological conduct, such as when he shows Jesse the decomposing remains of the cleaning lady in his apartment.
Most of the flashbacks involving Todd merely serve as a vehicle to develop the movie’s plot, providing context for how Jesse gets his money to change his identity and the origin of the movie’s villain, Neil (Scott MacArthur)—the most poorly written antagonist in the Breaking Bad universe and a mere plot device to resolve Jesse’s conflict with Ed. There is, however, one particular scene whose outcome could have changed the course of Breaking Bad, which takes place right after Jesse buries the cleaning lady’s body in the desert.
Despite Jesse’s impulse to kill Todd, he exhibits symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome that prevent him from pulling the trigger. This makes the scene all the more poignant, as it accurately illustrates Jesse’s shattered state of mind at the time. Nonetheless, the rest of the movie is inconsistent with this scene and Jesse’s psychological profile established both throughout the series and at the beginning of the movie.
Immediately after escaping the Nazi compound where he was enslaved, Jesse seeks and receives tremendous help from Badger (Matt Jones) and Skinny Pete (Charles Baker)—imagine having such supportive friends. At first, he is portrayed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to his harrowing experience—even struggling to take a shower—, which comes across as authentic and well executed. Nevertheless, when he later goes to Todd’s apartment to look for Todd’s money, the signs of PTSD gradually disappear, to the point where he turns into a clichéd badass character typical of an action-packed Hollywood blockbuster. In fact, he blows up a building after killing Neil in a Wild West-style duel with a gun from his pocket without aiming, yet struggles to kill Casey (Scott Shepherd), requiring more than a full pistol magazine while aiming directly at him—artificial tension at its finest. Let’s not forget that all of this occurs within roughly 48 hours of his escape.
The icing on the cake comes when Jesse visits Ed Galbraith (Robert Forster) to buy a fake identity, but Ed refuses to help because Jesse is $1,800 (0.72% of the total, $250,000) short of the fee he needs to pay. I understand that Ed’s strict adherence to the rules also prevents him from ever revealing his client’s location or identity to anyone, just as I understand that this is fiction and that there must be hardship in order to create suspense and for the characters to overcome it. However, this, along with the aforementioned story details, makes El Camino to feel overly cartoonish and unrealistic given the grounded nature of Breaking Bad.
The rushed ending doesn’t do any favors either. After Jesse takes Neil’s cash, he abruptly arrives in Alaska with Ed, and then the movie closes with a flashback of Jane encouraging Jesse to take control of his life. So… That’s it? Out of two hours of footage, the most important part of the film is cut out? Are you seriously telling me that a movie meant to provide closure for Jesse Pinkman ends with yet another open ending?
The sum of the incongruous portrayal of Jesse Pinkman, plus the overly Hollywood-esque tone of the movie, plus all the off-putting details mentioned above, plus the pacing of the narrative, plus the different cinematographic style, plus the discordant music makes me wonder if this movie was actually directed by Vince Gilligan. It definitely feels more like an overproduced Hollywood version of a Breaking Bad action movie spin-off.
El Camino would have benefited greatly from avoiding the predictable resolution of Jesse’s storyline. While it’s not a blemish on the Breaking Bad universe, it’s a superfluous epilogue for a character whose arc felt well-rounded enough on Breaking Bad. I’ll always think of Jesse’s ending as it was protrayed on the show, because it beautifully captured the moment of relief and ecstasy that he experienced as a result of his release. It’s a shame that El Camino softens his powerful finale and over-explains details that are better left to the viewer’s interpretation.
Even if I try to separate it from the Breaking Bad universe and think of it as a movie in its own right, it’s still a bland action movie that doesn’t drive a particularly exciting narrative or do anything you haven’t seen before in another work.
Who knows if we’ll ever get another spin-off with Jesse in Alaska, but if it ever gets made, one thing’s for sure: I won’t be the one watching it.