Netflix always has highly anticipated projects on the way, but things are reaching a fever pitch this weekend with the release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. The feature-length project will finally offer up more information about what happened to Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman in the aftermath of Breaking Bad's series finale. Fans have been going berserk re-playing catch-up with the AMC drama, but not everybody needed a complete refresher course.
In fact, Aaron Paul himself admitted that he had a very specific and limited form of cramming ahead of El Camino's production. In his words:
I know the story so well, I only had to rewatch one episode to try and understand where [Jesse] was at. And it was actually the episode that happens around the first scene of this film, so I had to rewatch this episode to understand his mindset, but that was it. Everything else was in my head.
Of course, he didn't mention the actual episode when talking with TV Guide, but it's not too impossible to try and discern which installment he was speaking of. Aaron Paul himself had previously shared a particular Breaking Bad scene to help fans prepare for the upcoming El Camino movie.
Taken from the Season 3 installment titled "I've Never Been More Alone," the explosive scene Aaron Paul shared featured the hospital-bound Jesse Pinkman talking to the dispassionate Walter White about money. It was one of the first times that Jesse had clearly figured out how full of shit Walt really was, even though he'd inevitably keep working with him.
It's possible that scene, and the title of that episode in general, will tether closely to the headspace that Jesse is in when El Camino kicks off, though I'm not sure how it'd tie into the actual physical happenings. Well, beyond the fact that Jesse is also suffering from some injuries after escaping his tortured existence as the Nazi's meth cook.
The movie starts up in the aftermath of the Breaking Bad finale, as authorities investigate the neo-Nazi group's murders, as well as Walt and Jesse's involvement in that incident and others. Considering Walt is dead now, Jesse is one of the only living people who can put everything into context, but he'd only just regained his freedom, so I can't imagine he's super-eager to sit down with the Albuquerque police.
Check out Aaron Paul's post below.
Of course, it's possible that the actor had a completely different episode in mind whenever he made that comment. Perhaps Aaron Paul only needed to watch the bottle episode "Fly" again in order to tap into Jesse's frazzled mindset. Or maybe it was the finale itself, "Felina," in which viewers watched as Jesse drove away in the titular El Camino. Maybe Paul had to watch Jesse murdering Jesse Plemons' Todd again in order to find his rage-filled emotional core.
While we're not quite sure yet just what will happen with Jesse in El Camino, we do know that he'll be in contact with his old friends Badger and Skinny Pete, with actors Matt Jones and Charles Baker returning to reprise their more comedic roles. It's also been revealed that Jonathan Banks will somehow be returning as the now-deceased Mike Ehrmantraut, and that Larry Hankin will be reprising the role of Old Joe, the helpful owner of the junkyard Rocker Salvage.
With El Camino coming out this week, one might have thought more than just a single official trailer would have been released, but a project this secretive obviously isn't going to overload fans with footage ahead of time. Vince Gilligan worked way too hard to produce this thing on the down low to give away the farm with trailers. Just don't expect to see Bill Burr's Kuby anywhere.
In order to find out the truth about everything, fans will need to tune into El Camino when it goes live on Netflix on Friday, October 11, at 12:01 a.m. PT. The film will also screen in select theaters on Friday, so be sure to check your local listings to see if it's available in your area.
