It’s been six years since Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman’s (Aaron Paul) venture into New Mexico’s criminal underworld concluded with hails of machine gun fire. In a final moment of partial redemption, Walt liberates his ex-partner-in-crime from hellish enslavement, forced to cook crystal meth for a Neo-Nazi gang. It’s a fitting ending for Walt, who after six seasons of skulduggery is killed by a stray bullet from the automated machine gun he uses to dispatch his white supremacist foe. In addition to the finale’s final shot of Jesse, driving deliriously away from his now-dead captors and towards an uncertain future, this seemed like the perfect wrap-up. For a character perennially confined to the passenger seat throughout the series, both literally and metaphorically, the parting image of Jesse finally behind the wheel and in control concluded his character arc impeccably.

However, following the commercial and critical success of the show’s spin-off series Better Call Saul, fans began to speculate about the potential of a Jesse Pinkman follow-up. Reportedly a year and a half ago, Vince Gilligan, the original show’s creator, approached Aaron Paul asking if he was interested. He was, and once Gilligan had the script complete, Netflix set about funding the movie’s production, discreetly flying out returning stars on private jets to avoid even the slightest whiff of a new Breaking Bad project.

Was it worth the six-year wait? Absolutely

With weeks of promotional material, trailers and interviews anticipating the film’s release, excitement is at fever pitch. We finally know what happened to Jesse Pinkman – but was it worth the six-year wait? If you’re a Breaking Bad fan looking for a two-hour glimpse into a post-Heisenberg Albuquerque, then absolutely.

We pick up right where the drama left off, as Jesse bursts through the gates of his Neo-Nazi prison in a Chevrolet El Camino, on the run and against the clock, as cop cars begin to converge on the scene of Walt’s massacre. With nowhere to go, Jesse turns to the two people in town he knows he can trust; long-time accomplices Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) and Badger (Matthew Lee Jones), the first of many familiar faces revisited. With one last act of selfless friendship, the two help to put Jesse on his way to freedom. Skinny Pete, giving Jesse his beanie for extra anonymity as he leaves, candidly admits ‘you’re my hero and shit, man’, the first of the film’s many, poignant farewells.

The movie deals in large part with the issue of Jesse’s personal agency in the wake of Walt’s death. Whilst insisting on his fundamental decency, El Camino also shows Jesse will stop at nothing to escape: as Walt’s and Gus’s pawn in Breaking Bad, he was almost destroyed, and he’s not about to let it happen again. Jesse has learnt his lessons, and must resort to one last dip into degeneracy before a new start; this time it’s on his terms. It’s the issue at the core of all the film’s key sequences, and it’s the theme El Camino chooses to end on.

Aaron Paul’s performance as Jesse, it should go without saying, is the film’s beating heart, at once burning with the feral desperation of an escapee on the run, yet also world-weary beyond anything we knew from Breaking Bad. Jesse feels different in El Camino, broken in a new way, and yet at times he is as familiar and funny as ever. Paul navigates the character’s new emotional and psychological territory effortlessly. Was it ever in doubt?

Aaron Paul is the film’s beating heart

To an extent, it feels strange seeing Paul take up the role of Pinkman again, for even six years on, Jesse is the role that defines him, and a character he feels deeply personally connected to. Whilst Pinkman gave Paul the career he now enjoys, he also confines him, and one feels El Camino is, in many respects, as much Paul’s attempt to bid a final farewell to his character as it is closure for the audience.

For a self-proclaimed ‘Breaking Bad Movie’, the film impeccably channels the spirit of its small screen predecessor, from the expansive time-lapse shots of a New Mexico sunrise to the familiarly nocturnal, percussive beats that soundtrack the dark Albuquerque alleyways. The wonderfully creative cinematography and note-perfect score lend a simple sense of fantasy to scenes that may otherwise slip into mundanity, from characters searching a ransacked flat to a drive down the freeway. The series’ macabre, understated black comedy similarly abounds, with moments of toe-curling grotesqueness imbued with an absurd humour. So far, so Bad.

The film is paranoid and patient in tone

However, those seeking the thrills of Breaking Bad’s most spectacular crescendos may be disappointed. The film is paranoid and patient in tone; Jesse can’t go out in a blaze of glory, but instead must squirm his way out of Albuquerque. The film’s title translates as ‘the way’ or ‘the journey’, and whilst the film does eventually deliver on action, Jesse’s meandering route to freedom feels more like a winding breadcrumb trail than an all-guns-blazing road to retribution, especially in the first few acts. It’s a structure at odds with the kind of movie hinted at in the trailer, and for those less invested in the Breaking Bad universe, the film’s pacing might make it a tedious watch.

But El Camino is evidently made for the fans, the vast majority of whom will undoubtedly relish the film’s pace, which – as per Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul – is primarily concerned with grounding its characters in a believable criminal underworld through meticulous, patient storytelling and impeccable, devilishly clever sequences. The film consistently turns to a series of flashbacks to contextualise its narrative, giving rise to a particularly standout scene in which present and past are interwoven expertly as events unfold.

If it wasn’t clear enough already: this one’s for the fans

Vince Gilligan’s typically razor-sharp writing also persists throughout. As Jesse’s circumstances threaten to slip into clichéd, familiar territory, Gilligan takes the plot off-road. If you’re at all familiar with Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, you know a twist is always around the corner, you just can’t see it yet. Similarly familiar to fans will be the film’s many returning characters, to whom Gilligan gives slight but expertly crafted characterisation. Visual references litter the screen, titbits of information to embellish a thousand Breaking Bad Wiki articles. The level of detail in the set design, costume and cinematography makes it clear, as if it wasn’t clear enough already, that this one’s for the fans.

Verdict:

Whilst those with more explosive expectations may be disappointed, for returning viewers with an investment in this world, El Camino serves as a pitch-perfect farewell, as Jesse Pinkman finally takes the wheel.

8/10

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie is now streaming on Netflix.