Nearly 11 years ago Breaking Bad debuted. Starting out with a smaller following, it didn’t take long for word of mouth to bring millions of fans to New Mexico to follow the evolution of an average chemistry teacher who transforms into a ruthless drug lord.
Many say it was one of the greatest television shows of all time. Rolling Stone rated it third on its list of the 100 best shows of all time. The good news is, for fans, the story isn’t over. On October 11th Netflix is releasing a follow-up movie entitled El Camino, starring Aaron Paul to focus on what happened following the 2013 finale of Breaking Bad. Filming last autumn lasted for 60 days and the highly anticipated movie has fans everywhere itching to find out what’s next.
Before moving on to watching the film this weekend or binging the show, let’s look at 20 things Die-Hard Fans missed the first time they watched Breaking Bad. For those who haven’t watched the series yet, stop reading now! This article is filled with juicy spoilers and behind the scenes info on everything Breaking Bad.
20 Gale Is Everwhere
Our guilt may settle into our unconscious. For Walt and Jesse some of that guilt is caused by the demise of Gale. Throughout the series we see hints that Gale is still there, whether it’s displayed in backwards graffiti, or later in the placement of the letters of the logo for the corporation called, "MadriGAL Electromotive GmbH”. Gale’s still there, even if he’s long gone.
19 The Final Death Count
Since a handful of the deaths in Breaking Bad really stand out in terms of cinematography, symbolism, and storyline, viewers tend to forget some of the less iconic ones. 270 people were killed off during the entire Breaking Bad series. I thought it was more like 100 or 150.
Want your mind blown? Jesse only utters his trademark “yeah, b#$&h” or a variation of it 54 times over the course of the entire show.
18 A Beautifully Unscripted Moment
Sometimes things just come together. When Walt has an intense run in with his family, he grabs Holly and is on the run. When he goes to a gas station washroom with his young daughter, trying to assure himself that he’s doing the right thing Holly calls for her mother. Walt realizes he must return Holly. This moment wasn’t scripted. The child actor portraying Holly called out for her mom during filming and the producers of Breaking Bad knew they needed to leave it in.
17 That Pink Teddy Bear
The Pink Teddy Bear first appears in season two, and it takes a while for its significance to become apparent. If you link the titles of the episodes it appears in together you get the message: Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ, which is a coded hint leading you towards the 737 plane that exploded over Albuquerque. We eventually learn of Walt’s involvement in its demise.
16 Mirroring Gus
This brings us back to the Teddy Bear and one of the most notorious villains Walter White faces off against. The bear is in rough shape, it’s missing an eye and has a burn on one entire half of its face. This bear acts as foreshadowing to Gus and his final state, one of the most haunting images of the entire show, following Walt’s bomb attack.
15 Predicting Jane's Fate
The writers of Breaking Bad love some good foreshadowing. Even as far back as Jane’s death, a re-watch of season two can provide some cringeworthy moments surrounding Jane. One of Jane’s more awkward in retrospect pieces of dialogue is when she says, “That was so sweet, I think I threw up in my mouth a bit.” Jane references her own death a lot, it’s almost as if she knows it’s coming.
14 Orange Is The New Symbol
Oranges, whether they’re in bowls, dropping to the ground, or rolling around signify death and drama in the Breaking Bad world. It’s no wonder you automatically think ‘oh no’ when you see oranges in a frame. Memorable use of oranges includes the ones that fall out of the bowl when Ted Beneke hits his head on the counter and ends up in a coma and when Walt’s neighbour Carol is taken aback by a worse-for-wear Walt returning to his home and they roll along the driveway.
13 The Reservoir Dogs Homage
First off, infamous characters in Reservoir Dogs are Mr. Pink and Mr. White, Breaking Bad fans I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Jesse Pinkman and Mr. Walter White. The similarities don’t stop there – near the end of Breaking Bad Jesse holds Walt to the ground using a gun, this exact scene takes place in Reservoir Dogs, only it’s Mr. White holding Mr. Pink to the ground.
12 Walt's Pants - Full Circle The First Episode To The Very End
In the very first episode when Walter and Jesse head out to the middle of the dessert to cook their infamous meth (which is blue rock candy, FYI) Walt ditches his pants because it is so hot. Years later in season five, episode 14 when Walter rolls a barrel of money across the desert, we pass the same pair of abandoned khakis he wore in the very first episode.
11 The Breaking Bad Logo On The Hospital Floor
The creators of Breaking Bad say that their choice of hospital shooting locations was a complete coincidence to the tile pattern on the floor. Most obvious in hospital shots when Jesse’s surrogate son Brock has been poisoned in season four and the tiles on the floor make out the Breaking Bad logo we’ve all become so familiar with.
10 Jesse Pinkman's Life Was Saved By A Writer Strike
So much of Breaking Bad was about the highly complicated relationship between Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, but Jesse wasn’t supposed to be a main character. In fact, he was supposed to die in episode nine. Thankfully the Writers Guild of America ultimately created a pause which is said to make them reconsider. Creator Vince Gilligan say he knew Jesse was integral to Breaking Bad much earlier, “Everybody knew just how good [Aaron Paul is], and a pleasure to work with, and it became pretty clear early on that that would be a huge, colossal mistake to kill off Jesse.”
9 Walking Dead Effects Used On Gus In The End
One of the most troubling moments in Breaking Bad is the demise of Gus Fring. To make things particularly real the series called in a team of experts, the best at creating bone chilling gore. Vince Gilligan boasts, “Indeed we did have great help from the prosthetic effects folks at The Walking Dead, and I want to give a shout-out to Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, and KNB EFX, those two gentlemen and their company, because their shop did that effect. And then that was augmented by the visual effects work of a guy named Bill Powloski and his crew, who digitally married a three-dimensional sculpture that KNB EFX created with the reality of the film scene. So, you can actually see into and through Gus’s head in that final reveal. It’s a combination of great makeup and great visual effects. And it took months to do."
8 Heisenberg Was A Real Physicist
When Walter White makes up his scary drug boss persona his choice of name isn’t pulled out of thin air. Werner Heisenberg was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. What was he known for? Developing the principle of uncertainty, something that everyone Walter White and ‘Heisenberg’ cross paths with throughout the entire run of the series.
7 The Story Behind Walter's Hat
Walter’s hat that many saw as showcasing his darker ‘Heisenberg’ side wasn’t really a conscious costume choice, it was because of practicality and the persistence of a cold Bryan Cranston. Costume Designer Kathleen Detoro says, “Bryan kept asking me, after he shaved his head, ‘Can I have a hat?’ because his head was cold, So I would ask Vince and he kept saying no; Jesse wore the hats. Finally, Vince said, ‘I think there’s a place …’ It was Bryan asking for a hat, me asking Vince, and then Vince figuring out where in the story it makes sense: It’s when he really becomes Heisenberg.”
6 What 62 Means
There are 62 episodes in Breaking Bad, which seems like a normal amount of episodes for the five seasons of a show. Sixty-two on the periodic table is the chemical element Samarium. This element is a huge ingredient in of some of the drugs used to fight cancer cells in the treatment of cancers including lung, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and osteosarcoma. Coincidence? We don’t think so!
5 Walter Taking On The Quirks Of Those He Kills
Walter’s descent into 'Full Heisenberg' is filled with a weird idiosyncrasies– like the way he takes on characteristics of those he kills. After he kills Crazy 8, he cuts the crusts off his sandwiches, just like him. After he’s gotten rid of Gus, he starts driving a Volvo, just like Gus. He also picks up Gus’ habit of kneeling on a towel when he needs to throw-up in the bathroom – something he never saw Gus do. Earlier in the series we see that Walt takes his whiskey straight up, after he kills Mike, he starts drinking it with ice.
4 Real Regrets On Jesse
Small details sometimes bug people on a show. For Vince Gilligan it’s just how good Aaron Paul/Jesse looks despite being a drug addict. Gilligan says, "One thing that sort of troubled me, looking back over the entirety of the show: Jesse's teeth were a little too perfect. There were all the beatings he took, and, of course, he was using meth, which is brutal on your teeth. He'd probably have terrible teeth in real life."
3 Scenes That Channel The Godfather
Earlier we mentioned the oranges, a theme that takes place in both Breaking Bad and The Godfather, but there is another scene that really shows the influence of The Godfather. When Hank realized who Heisenberg is, he confronts Walt in a way that seems familiar to viewers. This is because it’s very similar to Michael Corleone and his confrontation of his brother Fredo. Whether blood is thicker than water, we all know that Walt broke Hank’s heart.
2 The Clothing Colours Match Their Descent Into...
Throughout the series costume plays a bigger part than we may realize. Both Walter and Skyler start out the series wearing light coloured neutrals. We see a lot of light beiges, khakis, and greens. As the series goes on and they both get sucked further into the world of crime their clothes darken, along with their fate.
1 The Passing Of Time On Walt's Birthday
Walter celebrates three birthdays over the course of the five-season series. Each birthday episode shows Walter entering the front door of his house – something we may not realize because the episodes are spaced out over five years. Seeing the difference in Walter over these three years is quite jarring. Go back and watch all three back to back to see. Next add in a conversation Jesse and Jane had in season two about a woman painting the same scene repeatedly where Jesse says, “You know. I don’t get it. Why would anyone paint a picture of a door, over and over again, like, dozens of times?” and Jane replies, “But it wasn’t the same. It was the same subject, but it was different every time. The light was different, her mood was different. She saw something new every time she painted it.”
Sources: Buzzfeed, The Richest, Mental Floss, Screen Rant, What Culture, Ladible, Dorkly