Jesse Pinkman: From Drug Kingpin to Outlaw

El Camino: A Breaking Bad movie

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El Camino: A Breaking Bad movie

Disclaimer: spoilers ahead.

Jesse Pinkman — the secondary protagonist of the award-winning show “Breaking Bad” — escaped from captivity, but can he escape his past in “El Camino?”

“Breaking Bad” follows the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with stage three lung cancer. In order to fund his treatment and leave money behind for his family, he decided to use his extensive knowledge of chemistry to cook crystal methamphetamine. Knowing that he could not do this alone, Walt teamed up with Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), his former student who was also a drug dealer and manufacturer.

Following a tumultuous relationship with his former teacher that spanned five seasons, Jesse and Walt were at a standstill. Jesse’s guilt caught up with him, and he decided to team up with the Drug Enforcement Administration (Walt’s brother-in-law, Hank, was a DEA agent) to bring Walt down.

Jesse baited Walt to go out into the desert where he buried his money, and Walt fell for it and led the DEA straight to him. This ultimately ended with Hank’s death, Walter’s money being stolen by a gang of Neo-Nazis who he was once allied with, and Jesse being captured by said Neo-Nazis and being used as a slave to cook his and Walt’s trademark blue meth.

The last few episodes of “Breaking Bad’s” final season show Walt on the run from the police and Jesse being tortured by his savage captors.

Walt eventually returned and went to the compound that Jesse was being held at not only to get his revenge for Hank, but also to rescue his old friend.

Felina — “Breaking Bad’s” final episode — showed Walt using his brilliance one last time to kill the Neo-Nazis with an unmanned machine gun that sat in the trunk of his car. This gave Jesse the opportunity to escape, which he took hastily. One of the final scenes of Felina shows Jesse Pinkman escaping from the compound in a black El Camino (which is where the movie of the same name gets its title from).

“El Camino” picks back up where the show left off, showing Jesse escaping from the Neo-Nazis’ compound and screaming in excitement.

Aaron Paul didn’t skip a beat, and he continued to play the role of a traumatized criminal exceptionally well. Paul truly let Jesse’s human side come out and he showed just how much emotional trauma can affect someone.

Throughout the movie — which shows a series of flashbacks and current day scenes — Jesse is working on escaping not just the reach of the law, but also his troubled past and memories of Walt.

Although I did feel that “El Camino” was a little disappointing due to the lack of action, it was still a much-needed addition to the story of “Breaking Bad” and it wraps up Jesse’s story in a satisfying way. As a “Breaking Bad” fan myself, I also loved that they brought back some old characters in flashback scenes, which adds some elements of nostalgia to the movie. The film also brings back great cinematics that truly pulls the viewer into the environment.

I would suggest that all fans of “Breaking Bad” see this movie. But even if you have never seen “Breaking Bad,” I still believe that it is a movie that anyone can appreciate.

“El Camino” is available to watch on Netflix or in select movie theaters.