S T O R Y L A N E S Breaking Bad back Mr. Chips into Scarface.
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slugline
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EXT. COW PASTURE - DAY NEW ANGLE - AN RV INT. WINNEBAGO - DAY |
EXT. WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT INT. WHITE HOUSE - MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INT. WHITE HOUSE - SPARE BEDROOM - NIGHT INT. WHITE HOUSE - BATHROOM - NIGHT |
INT. WHITE HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING
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EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - MORNING
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INT. HIGH SCHOOL - CLASSROOM - DAY
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INT. HIGH SCHOOL - FACULTY WORKROOM - DAY
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EXT. VELVET-TOUCH CAR WASH - AFTERNOON INT. VELVET-TOUCH - OFFICE - AFTERNOON |
EXT. VELVET-TOUCH CAR WASH - AFTERNOON
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INT. NISSAN SENTRA - DRIVING - EVENING
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EXT. WHITE HOUSE - EVENING EXT. APPLEBEE'S - NIGHT INT. APPLEBEE'S - NIGHT |
EXT. WHITE HOUSE - NIGHT INT. WHITE HOUSE - MASTER BEDROOM/BATHROOM - NIGHT |
EXT. CALTECH CAMPUS - DAY INT. JPL - DAY CLOSER ANGLE - WALT EXT. CALTECH CAMPUS - COFFEE STAND - DAY |
INT. ER - EXAM ROOM - DAY
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INT. DR. BEKNAP'S OFFICE/EXAM AREA - DAY
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INT. VELVET-TOUCH CAR WASH - OFFICE - EVENING
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INT. NISSAN SENTRA - DRIVING - EVENING EXT. OVERPASS - CONTINUOUS |
INT. WHITE HOUSE - KITCHEN - EVENING
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INT. WHITE HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS
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INT. WHITE HOUSE - MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT INT. WHITE HOUSE - SPARE BEDROOM - NIGHT |
EXT. WHITE HOUSE - DAWN INT. WHITE HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAWN |
EXT. BLUE-COLLAR NEIGHBORHOOD - MORNING INT. FORD - MORNING - CONTINUOUS INT. TARGET HOUSE - KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS EXT. TARGET-HOUSE - MORNING |
EXT. BUNGALOW STREET - NIGHT EXT. BUNGALOW - BACK YARD - NIGHT |
INT. WHITE HOUSE - KITCHEN - AFTERNOON |
INT. HIGH SCHOOL - CLASSROOM - AFTERNOON
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EXT. BUNGALOW - AFTERNOON
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EXT. BUNGALOW - GARAGE/BACK YARD - AFTERNOON
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INT. CREDIT UNION - AFTERNOON
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EXT. PARKING LOT - AFTERNOON
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INT. DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT INT. DEPARTMENT STORE - NIGHT - MINUTES LATER |
EXT. COW PASTURE - AFTERNOON EXT. WOODS - AFTERNOON INT. WINNEBAGO - AFTERNOON |
INT. WINNEBAGO - AFTERNOON - MONTAGE EXT. WINNEBAGO - AFTERNOON |
INT. WINNEBAGO - EVENING
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INT. KRAZY-8'S HOUSE - MORNING
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EXT. WOODS - DAY
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EXT. WINNEBAGO - MINUTES LATER INT. WINNEBAGO - CONTINUOUS |
LOW ANGLE - DUPREE ANGLE - THE RV EXT. COW PASTURE - DAY INT. WINNEBAGO - DAY |
EXT. COW PASTURE - DAY - MINUTES LATER
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INT. WHITE HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT INT. WHITE HOUSE - GARAGE - NIGHT |
INT. WHITE HOUSE - MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT
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scene
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Walter White, wearing only underpants and a gas mask, drives a Winnebago at breakneck speed through farmland, his only passengers another guy in a gas mask and two corpses. He crashes the Winnebago, makes an exposition-laden video, and pulls a gun as sirens near.
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Walter White wakes up to an empty life. He exercises, then tries and fails to masturbate.
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Walt comes to a breakfast of eggs and fake bacon - he has to watch his cholesterol. We meet Skyler, who wears the pants in this family, and Walter Jr, who has cerebral palsy.
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Walt and Walter Jr arrive at the high school where Walt teaches and Walter Jr is a student.
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Walt lectures to his chemistry class. He's actually a pretty good teacher. And he clearly loves chemistry.
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Walt is alone in the faculty workroom until Margaret comes in. There's a possible fling there, but it doesn't quite come to anything.
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Walt is working the register at the carwash, his soul-sucking part-time job. His boss sends him out to clean tires on the cars. Walt objects, is overridden.
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Walt cleans the tires of his student's car. The student humiliates him.
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Walt drives home. He's clearly thinking of running away from his life.
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Walt gets home, has to go out for a birthday dinner (his 40th) with his family, including brother-in-law Hank. Walt is told by DEA-agent Hank about how much money there is in meth. |
Walt goes to bed. Skyler gives him an incredibly dispiriting birthday handjob all the while tracking an Ebay auction.
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Walt goes to Caltech to look at a sign of his former glory. Then he collapses.
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Walt goes to the ER after collapsing, there's some bad signs. He needs to go to a doctor's.
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Walt is told that he has lung cancer and 1-2 years to live. It doesn't entirely sink in.
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Walt walks off of his carwash job.
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Walt drives home, considers running away, doesn't.
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Walt comes home, has another soul-destroying moment with Skyler. He's in a daze.
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Walter Jr. is watching SCARFACE.
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Walt wakes up, goes on his stair-stepper, breaks it. Realizes that he's gong to die in two years.
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Walt calls Hank, asks to ride along on a meth bust.
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Walt goes with Hank to the meth bust. The bust goes down. Walt sees Jesse Dupree, a former student, run away from another, nearby house.
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Walt visits Jesse, demands that they become meth partners.
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Skyler and her sister Marie talk about Walt.
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Walt steals chem equipment from his school lab.
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Walt delivers the equipment to Jesse's house. The two argue over cooking. Walt is clearly a pro scientist, Jesse not so much.
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They finish bringing in the lab equipment. Jesse won't allow cooking at his house. The ideal would be to get a Winnebago.
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Walt empties out his retirement account to get money for the Winnebago.
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Walt brings the money to Jesse, tells him to go get the Winnebago.
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The Whites are out buying new jeans for Walter Jr. Some young bullies make fun of him. Walt violently takes down one of them. This shocks Skyler, but Walter Jr is both surprised and impressed.
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Walt and Jesse start to cook meth. Walt strips down to this underwear to do so. Jesse makes fun of him. More clash-clash.
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A meth-cooking montage.
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The cooking is done. Jesse is incredibly impressed by the quality of the product produced.
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Jesse goes to make a deal to sell the meth to a drug-dealer. The dealer's cousin Emilio is there, Jesse's partner from the drug bust, just out on bail. and he's not happy with Jesse.
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Walt is cooking when Jesse and the drug-dealers arrive. Emilio recognizes Walt from the bust and thinks he's a DEA agent. They dealers are about to kill Walt and Jesse when Walt offers to show how he cooks meth.
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Walt cooks meth. But he knows the dealers will kill him shortly, so he does some chemistry magic, creates phosphene gas, runs out of the Winnebago, and kills the dealers.
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But a fire has started nearby, and it's smoking. Walt grabs Jesse and drives off with the Winnebago. And now we're back in the action from the teaser. |
We're at the end of the teaser. Walt tries to kill himself with the gun, fails. Throws the gun away. But the sirens are firetrucks going to put out the fire. So no police - he's okay. Jesse wakes up. All is okay. For now. |
Walt cleans the money that the drug dealers brought. It's a good sum of cash.
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Walt comes to bed. Skyler wakes, asks him where he was. He has rough sex with her and she likes it. Walt has his mojo back. |
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acts
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Teaser
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Act One - the before-picture of Walter White, a man whose life is terrible.
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End of act cliiffhanger: Walt collapses.
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Act Two: Walt gets his diagnosis, takes the first steps to cooking meth.
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Act end: Walt is getting into the Meth business.
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Act Three: Walt starts gathering what he needs to make meth.
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End of Act Three. The act-ending is the sign that Walt is changing - he's not the meek teacher he used to be, now he's standing up for his people.
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Act Four - the climax.
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Act End. Walt survived his first caper, starts to feel like a man again.
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sequences
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Now that's an opening sequence!
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Walt's dismal life.
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Walt's work life.
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Walt's birthday party.
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Walt gets sick.
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Walt's initial reaction to the news.
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Walt investigates meth.
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Walt takes the first steps on his meth adventure.
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Walt's first signs of breaking out.
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Walt cooks some meth. He's good at it.
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The meth dealing starts to go bad.
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Walt is at home after his meth adventure.
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Character: Walt
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Walt is the only character with a significant arc in the pilot.
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We are introduced to Walt under bizarre circumstances, circumstances that can't help but grab our attention.
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These scenes all establish Walt as a broken man. And that's before he finds out he has a terminal disease.
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Walt talking about chemistry is the first time we ever see him enthusiastic. He's good at it too!
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Some basic signs of life in Walt, though these were cut from the show.
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Now Walt is a seriously beta dude here.
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And even more - Walt lives a life of serious humiliation.
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Walt plays second fiddle to his brother-in-law, even in the regard of his own son. Note that Walt in the show is 50, not 40. Probably a result of the casting. |
Wow - now this has to be one of the most humiliating sex scenes ever filmed.
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Walt clearly had better days. Though this does not end up in the actual show. Too bad - I like establishing this early that Walt once had promise.
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Walt can't even work up the passion to care about his oncoming death.
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Walt shows the first signs of life, ironically when he gets his cancer diagnosis.
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Walt's wake-up moment: he makes a decision to change his life. The rest of the series springs from this moment.
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Note Walt's casual understanding of chemistry and the difference between mustard gas and phosphene gas.
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Walt is taking steps here.
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Walt is crossing a big line here - stealing from his school.
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Walk knows his science - but he's naive about the risks of the business, underestimating the risks he takes in buying meth supplies and the lengths he has to go to in order to hide his purchases.
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Walt is definitely showing leadership here, giving Jesse assignments.
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The first signs of Heisenberg emerging. Walt is getting tough and mean when his people are threatened.
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Walt is professional about this, though in a goofy way. There's a method to his madness. But he's anything about cool
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Walt is a pro! We see just how good he is at what he does. And he seems to take his skill for granted. Note that he doesn't let Jesse sample the product. |
Walt thinks fast in coming up with a reason these guys shouldn't kill him.
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Note how Walt insists Emilio not smoke while he cooks. Again, the consummate professional chemist. Note also how quickly he kills these two guys. He doesn't for a moment show either doubt or remorse - his only concern is avoiding retribution. In other words, he may be breaking bad, but in a lot of ways, he's already pretty bad. |
Walt is utterly incompetent in areas outside of chemistry. He knows little of guns. It makes for a great character - absolutely terrific at one thing, not so much at others. And it gives him a lot of room to grow. Also, at this point he's not willing to fire on those sirens. So maybe he's not totally bad. Not yet, anyway. |
Walt has earned his manhood through the travails of this episode.
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Character: Skyler
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Skyler clearly is in charge in this family. She nags at Walt constantly.
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Skyler clearly has little sexual interest in her beta husband. She doesn't even care enough to have negative feelings at how she services him. On the other hand, she's enthusiastic about her Ebay auctions. |
Note that Skyler is lying to a bill-collector in this scene. She's well practiced at it - this is a family on the brink of financial collapse.
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Boy, Skyler has a bug up her butt about Marie! But we also learn that Skyler has written and published short stories. The Ebay thing is not who she is.
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Skyler seems to enjoy this newly masculinized Walt.
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Character: Walter, Jr
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A fairly normal teenager whose character becomes much more interesting because of his cerebral palsy.
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Note how Walter, Jr, doesn't want any special treatment. He is determined to make it on his own.
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Junior does love his Uncle Hank - he's utterly taken by his uncle's glamor.
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Not in the show, but you can see how he is drawn to the glamor of gangsters.
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Character: Jesse
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We first met Jesse. At this point, he's just a goofball, introduced with a moment of low comedy, falling out a window with no pants on.
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Jesse is still kind of goofy. And he holds a grudge against Walt.
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But Jesse knows the business. There is friction between Walt and Jesse dating from the time that Jesse was Walt's student. |
Again, Jesse knows the business. And Walt is tending to underestimate him.
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We see some limits to Jesse's professionalism when he films Walt cooking meth. A bit out of character, though it does establish the presence of the videocamera that Walt uses in the teaser.
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For the first time, Jesse is impressed by Walt. Note that Jesse wants to sample the product, but Walt won't let him. |
Krazy-8 expects Jesse wants to buy meth. A sign that Jesse was once a meth-head? Perhaps, but the show doesn't go there. It may be a seed that they didn't decide to sprout. Also, Jesse tries to act tough, but nobody takes him seriously. |
Note how goofy Jesse looks when he tries to run away and instead falls down and knocks himself out.
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Character: Hank
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We see Hank and his casual macho piggishness, even using racial slurs to his latino partner. (But they are friends - this is clearly joshing, but still racist-style joshing.)
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Character: Marie
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The only scene where Marie really registers in the pilot. Though she does leave a strong impression as the more successful and happy sister who likes to interfere.
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From script to screen
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The setting was changed to the New Mexico desert.
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The masturbation did not make it into the show.
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This scene and the character Margaret are not in the show.
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This is not in the show.
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These scenes are changed to a birthday party in Walt's house. The key plot points are the same, but we get a whole lot more characters, including introducing Gomez. Walt turns 50 in the show, not 40. |
There is no scene at Caltech in the show. The collapse happens at the carwash.
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This occurs in an ambulance in the show. The basic story beats are the same, but the dialogue is a lot different.
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There's dialogue added to this scene in the show. In the script, there's no dialogue.
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This is not in the show.
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This is not in the show.
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Jesse's name is Marion in the script, but I'll stick with Jesse here, since that's the character we all know and love.
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This isn't in the show.
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In the show, this is moved to the desert.
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Save the Cat Beats
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Save the Cat isn't too far off here. The beats come in different order than prescribed by Snyder, which is interesting, but most are here. Some are not. There's no real debate: Walt never doubts that he should break bad. He just does it. There's also no B story here, which is unusual for a TV series. |
Opening Image (p1). We're in media res, so this doesn't really establish where Walt starts his journey. It's more a teaser of where the journey is going to be a little later.
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Opening Image (p1). The opening image setting the stage of Walt's initial life is his lying awake in bed, a broken man. This also serves as the beginning of the setup. |
Theme stated: "Chemistry is the study of change..."
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End Set-Up (p10)
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Catalyst (p12). There's two catalysts. The first is Walt hearing about all that money in meth.
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And this is the second catalyst: Walt collapsing and later being diagnosed with terminal cancer. This also functions as the break into two. |
Dark Night of the Soul (p75-85)
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Midpoint (p55)
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Fun and Games (p30-55). In this case, the fun and games come after the midpoint.
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Break into Three (85).
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Bad Guys Close In (p55-75). This is when Krazy-8 and Emilio start after Walt.
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All is Lost (p75)
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Finale (p85-110)
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Final Image (p110)
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Hero's Journey
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Walt's arc in this episode tracks the Hero's Journey fairy closely. However, there is not a double-ordeal: he faces one major challenge, not an Ordeal and a later challenge on the Road Back.
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The ordinary world. Establishment of the hero's status quo. The Departure begins. |
The call to adventure. The hero is called on to do something. |
Refusal of the call. The hero doesn't want adventure. Which kind of is present here, but not much. |
Crossing the First Threshold. The Hero goes on the adventure. Start the Adventure. |
Meeting the Mentor. The Hero needs help from someone. Jesse is Walt's mentor in crime. But Walt ends up becoming Jesse's mentor. |
Tests, Allies, Enemies. The Hero faces challenges, meets allies. |
Approach to the Inmost Cave. The Hero gets closer to his goal. |
Ordeal. The Hero faces his biggest test of all. |
The Road Back. The challenge to get back is harder than it seems. |
Resurrection. The Hero meets the final test. |
The Return. The Hero returns with the prize. |