*this article contains spoilers*
In 2013 the hit TV show “Breaking Bad” ended on a dismal note. Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) is trapped by the Neo-Nazi Meth Gang and forced to live in a hole until Walter White (Bryan Cranston) comes to help free him by creating a machine gun that goes off at the push of a button. Walter uses his body to protect Jesse from the bullets, and as
Jesse tries to escape he ends up strangling Todd (Jesse Plemmons), one of the villains. The last scene of the show is Jesse driving off in Todd’s 1978 Chevrolet El Camino. Now, six years later, Netflix released “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” that picks up where the show left off.
“El Camino” begins with Jesse driving away, and he is trying to stay hidden from the police heading towards the Nazis compound. Then a flashback provides a drive for the movie, as Jesse remembers Todd saying he has hidden all of his money somewhere in his apartment which spurs Jesse to go there and find it. Once Jesse finds und the money, two men posing as police officers, Neil (Scott MacArthur) and Casey (Scott Shepherd) argue and then decide to split all of the money. Jesse tries to use the money to get out his sticky situation, but he ends up $1,800 short. He decides to break into his parents’ house to grab the money that he needs, but instead he takes two pistols from his father’s safe. Jesse heads out to Kandy Mobile Welding where Neil and Casey are hiding out. While Jesse is waiting for the call girls to leave, we are brought to another flashback of Todd and Neil mistreating Jesse by making his test the durability of a rig that keeps him chained while he cooks meth. After the flashback, Jesse walks in and asks for $1,800, but Neil thinks that having a wild west-style showdown would be better. Both of them get ready, but before Neil has a chance to draw his gun, Jesse shoots him with the second gun in his pocket. Jesse then shoots Casey, grabs their money and leaves.
We are then shown the two final flashbacks to set up the ending. The first flashback is with Walter, and it shows a caring side of him. Walter suggested to Jesse that he should go back to school and get a degree in business, and he is glad that Jesse didn’t wait for his entire life to do something special. The second flashback is with Jesse’s old girlfriend, Jane (Krysten Ritter). She tells him that it is better to make your decisions by yourself, and not go where the universe takes you. After the flashbacks end, Jesse is seen in Alaska, and he gives that guy that smuggled him out of New Mexico a note for his dead girlfriend’s son. We last see Jesse driving away like he did at the end of “Breaking Bad.”
There are a lot of different opinions on “El Camino.” A top critic from “Rotten Tomatoes” said that “El Camino, which Gilligan wrote and directed, is a powerful and unshowy epilogue to an expertly told saga. It’s slow, yes, and not overburdened with action, but
pace and spills are not what turn Gilligan on.” But a critic from the “Los Angeles Times” wrote that “El Camino isn’t horrible, but it’s not commendable either, and given the legacy of “Breaking Bad,” mildly entertaining isn’t good enough.” The creator of “Breaking Bad” and the director of “El Camino” said that he wondered “How exactly did he get away? Because that’s no easy feat!” I personally enjoyed the movie, and I felt that it gave me the closure I needed about what happened to Jesse Pinkman. I would not consider this movie a must watch for “Breaking Bad” fans, but if anyone is curious to find out what happened to Jesse Pinkman after the show ended, this movie holds the answer to that question.
