Image via AMC
Published Apr 8, 2026, 11:52 AM EDT
Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.
As we've reached the 11th anniversary of its premiere, it's become fashionable to claim that Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad despite its lack of Emmy Awards and the fact that it never had the cultural grip of its predecessor. Initially, spinning off Breaking Bad with a series about the show's comic relief, Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), seemed like a fraught proposition, but the show by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould proved to be even more three-dimensional in its characterization and probing in its study of morality. Breaking Bad's humble beginnings evolved into a rich, expanded universe decades later. With these two powerhouse dramas, it's easy to overlook Gillian's sojourn into film. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie may not ascend to the peaks of its source material, but it reminds everyone of Gilligan's artistic craft and provides a satisfying conclusion to a beloved character.
'El Camino' Proved Vince Gilligan's Filmmaking Chops
Breaking Bad concluded on such a clean note, perhaps too cleanly for its own good in retrospect, that no one was demanding any successor to expand Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) universe in Albuquerque. Better Call Saul, following the titular criminal lawyer before meeting the high school chemistry teacher-turned-meth cook, showed that its protagonist had just as tragic a downfall as Walt, one that would pave the way for more crime and bloodshed. In conjunction with Saul finding its groove and putting out incredible work that rivaled its predecessor, Vince Gilligan returned to his original show to tighten one loose strand. While Walt meets his fatal demise in the Breaking Bad finale, "Felina," Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), who is freed from Jack's (Michael Bowen) enslavement, drives off from the meth lab in sheer exhilaration. However, Jesse's story, which saw harrowing trauma, is far from over.
El Camino, written and directed by Gilligan and released by Netflix, picks up where Jesse's arc immediately left off. After a brief moment of escape, Jesse is now on the run from the law and his captors. It's not a matter of survival for Jesse, but rather an escape to Alaska, as he hopes to obtain the services of Saul's "Disappearer," Ed (Robert Forster), whom he previously abandoned on the show to settle a score with Walt. With such a simple point-A-to-point-B narrative, Gilligan flashes back to Jesse's interactions with Walt, Todd (Jesse Plemons), and Mike (Jonathan Banks) while also providing the obligatory Breaking Bad fan service.
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With its striking vistas and various stand-offs between a one-man army and cartel enforcers, Breaking Bad has been celebrated as a contemporary Western. With the resources of a feature-length film, Gilligan proved himself as a bona fide genre filmmaker, particularly when evoking the Westerns of Sergio Leone. El Camino, like your typical episode on AMC, is meticulously shot and staged, and the film uses the backdrop of the open New Mexico field to make Jesse feel minimal and overpowered, as all the odds are seemingly stacked against him. Jesse, now grizzled and having witnessed multiple lifetimes' worth of pain and anguish, becomes the ultimate Western outlaw just looking for a clean exit.
Upon release, El Camino faced criticism for being deemed inessential, serving as more of a filler episode or unnecessary coda rather than an insightful expansion of Breaking Bad lore like Better Call Saul. The film's lukewarm reception is perhaps indicative of a media culture too obsessed with world-building and expanded universes, as, removed from the apparatus of the Breaking Bad narrative, El Camino is the kind of rock-solid, handsomely crafted crime thriller that we wish to receive regularly. Ideally, Gilligan, who teased a new upcoming Apple TV series with Saul alum Rhea Seehorn, would make a no-frills thriller or Western with artful character sensibilities every two years.
Jesse Pinkman's Arc Was Completed in 'El Camino'
The final two episodes of Breaking Bad forced a clean denouement for Walter White, which is a problem considering that he had reached a point of no return when it came to reformation or making things right for his family that he tore apart. Jesse may not have been wholly innocent, but he still possessed enough purity for proper resolution with his parents and friends, Badger (Matt Jones) and Skinny Pete (Charles Baker). Even if nothing in El Camino drastically alters the fabric of Breaking Bad, Gilligan was justified in crafting an epilogue for Jesse, who was quite literally chained to the sidelines as the show reached its finale. Now away from Walt's purview, Gilligan wanted to show Jesse "transforming from a boy to a man." Whether it's outwitting mercenaries or scoring enough cash to flee to Alaska, Jesse gets to connive his way through ordeals like his former meth partner.
El Camino might seem insulting to one's intelligence, as most fans would've presumed Jesse's fate would find him in Alaska as a new man without a film spelling it out for them. However, Gilligan's extended epilogue highlights the trauma that lingered with Jesse upon his escape and will continue to haunt him, even after calling the services of Albuquerque's best vacuum repair shop.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.
Release Date October 11, 2019
Runtime 122 minutes
Director Vince Gilligan
Writers Vince Gilligan
Franchise(s) Breaking Bad
English (US) ·