#El camino cast movie
#El camino cast series

Two such scenes serve as the film’s bookends: in the first, Jesse’s doomed mentor Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) gives him the idea to move to Alaska, while warning him that he’ll never be able to truly start fresh. Rather than simply apologize, Jesse takes responsibility for his actions, thereby lessening the moral burden of his loved ones (though he also manipulates them one final time).Īside from one other surviving character who plays a large part and a couple of brief cameos (a pair of government officials from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul), the remainder of the reunions are given over to deceased characters by way of flashbacks.

#El camino cast movie

The movie does, however, give Jesse the chance to say a proper goodbye to his own long-suffering parents (Tess Harper and Michael Bofshever) in a moving scene that mirrors Walt’s final goodbye to Skylar from the season finale. Of the surviving characters, it seemed unlikely any of the extended White family would pop up, given they rarely, if ever, interacted with Jesse.

The irascible Badger and Old Joe make the most of their short time on screen, but it’s Skinny Pete who leaves the biggest impression, his unwavering loyalty to his friend, who he movingly calls his hero (and shit) transforming him into the heart of the film and garnering the biggest reaction on social media.īeyond those three lovable scoundrels, it was an open question as to who else might make an appearance. We knew from the trailers and teasers that a few recurring characters from Breaking Bad would be returning alongside Jesse – namely, his ne’er-do-well homeboys Badger (Matt L Jones) and Skinny Pete (Charles Baker), as well as fan favorite Old Joe (Larry Hankin), the wily salvage yard owner who’d helped Jesse and Walt out of several a tight spot in the past. I predict the film’s esteem will only rise in coming years, once it’s further removed from preconceived notions and expectations that immediately preceded it. That it succeeds at all without engaging in any annoying story retconning or cheap fan service (the closest it comes is allowing Jesse one utterance of “Bitch!”, although even that is entirely justified by the context) is a further testament to its quality. While it’s far too intense a thriller to be considered a classic hangout movie, it nonetheless operates on a similar level.

#El camino cast series

While El Camino has received strong reviews, one talking point that keeps popping up is the notion that since it doesn’t throw any big twists our way, or even really expand on what we probably surmised at the end of the original series re Jesse’s fate, the film is somehow unnecessary.Įven without diving into a larger discussion about the necessity of any individual film, such criticism still reads as bogus: El Camino gives us the opportunity to re-enter a world we’ve come to love and to catch up with characters we’ve missed.

Meanwhile, some Breaking Bad fans might be disappointed by El Camino’s relatively low-key stakes, at least compared to the epic scale of Breaking Bad’s latter seasons, though they are probably in the minority: all of the major set pieces retain the tight, intelligent plotting and nigh-unbearable tension we’ve come to expect from writer-director Vince Gilligan, while the unbroken focus on Jesse provides an emotional catharsis that greatly adds to the larger Breaking Bad canon.

This isn’t necessarily negative – if these had been episodes of the series they’d rank among the very best – but it does give the film a slightly off-kilter rhythm. This structure, combined with numerous lengthy flashbacks (all of which, it should be noted, are new scenes), makes El Camino feel less like a standalone film than three slightly truncated episodes of Breaking Bad stacked back-to-back.