Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad

Mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White thinks his life can't get much worse. His salary barely makes ends meet, a situation not likely to improve once his pregnant wife gives birth, and their teenage son is battling cerebral palsy. But Walter is dumbstruck when he learns he has terminal cancer. Realizing that his illness probably will ruin his family financially, Walter makes a desperate bid to earn as much money as he can in the time he has left by turning an old RV into a meth lab on wheels.

Genre: Drama
Year:
2008
19,370 Views

Walter White:
Let's break it down. Hydrogen. What does that give us?

Gretchen Schwartz:
We're looking at 63%.

Walter White:
Sixty-three, that is a big bite. My next step's gotta be oxygen.

Gretchen Schwartz:
Oxygen, 26%.

Walter White:
Twenty-six. There you have your water.

Gretchen Schwartz:
Carbon, 9%.

Walter White:
Carbon, 9.

Gretchen Schwartz:
For a total of 98%.

Walter White:
Right.

Gretchen Schwartz:
Nitrogen, 1.25%.

Walter White:
One-point-two-five.

Gretchen Schwartz:
That brings you to 99 and a quarter. Which only leaves you with the trace elements down where the magic happens.

Walter White:
Oh, wait a minute. What about calcium? Calcium's not a trace. Got a whole skeleton to account for.

Gretchen Schwartz:
You would think, right? Calcium's only 0.25%.

Walter White:
What? That low? Seriously? Damn, I never would've thought that. Okay, so where does iron fit in.

Gretchen Schwartz:
Iron. 0.00004%

Walter White:
What? You can't have hemoglobin without iron.

Gretchen Schwartz:
Apparently, it don't take take much. No doubt. Go figure.

Walter White:
Sodium.

Gretchen Schwartz:
Sodium, 0.04%. Phosphorus, 0.19%.

Walter White:
Point-one-nine. There we go. So the whole thing adds up to... 99.888042%. We are 0.111958%. Shy.

Gretchen Schwartz:
Supposedly that's everything.

Walter White:
Yeah? I don't know, it just... it seems like something's missing, doesn't it? There's got to be more to a human being than that.

Gretchen Schwartz:
What about the soul?

Walter White:
The soul? There's nothing but chemistry here.

Walter H. White:
Jesse. Jesse. Your body is running dangerously low on electrolytes. Sodium, potassium, calcium. And when they're gone, your brain ceases to communicate with your muscles. Your lungs stop breathing. Your heart stops pumping. You go marching out there and within an hour you will be dead.

Jesse Pinkman:
Okay. You need to cut out all your loser cry-baby crap RIGHT NOW and think of something SCIENTIFIC.

Walter H. White:
Something scientific? Right.

Jesse Pinkman:
What? Come on! Man, you're smart. You made poison out of beans, yo. Look, we got, we got an entire lab right here. Alright? How about you pick some of these chemicals and mix up some rocket fuel? That way you could just send up a signal flare. Or you make some kind of robot to get us help, or a homing device, or build a new battery, or... Wait. No. What if we just take some stuff off of the RV and build it into something completely different? You know, like a... Like a dune buggy. That way, we can just dune buggy or... What? Hey? What is it? What?

Walter H. White:
[starts to get up]

Jesse Pinkman:
What? Hey? What is it? What?

Walter H. White:
Do you, do you have any money? Change, I mean. Coins.

Jesse Pinkman:
Yeah, I got a bunch of them. From the...

Walter H. White:
Okay.

Jesse Pinkman:
YES!

Walter H. White:
Gather them, and, and, and the washers and nuts and bolts and screws and whatever little pieces of metal we can think of that is galvanized. It has to be galvanized, or solid zinc.

Jesse Pinkman:
Solid zinc, okay.

Walter H. White:
And, and bring me, bring me brake pads. The front wheels should have discs. Take them off and bring them to me.

Jesse Pinkman:
Alright, brake pads. Okay. What are we building?

Walter H. White:
You said it yourself.

Jesse Pinkman:
A robot?

Walter H. White:
A battery. MOVE!

Jesse Pinkman:
You know, I don't get it. Why would anyone paint a picture of a door, over and over again, like, dozens of times?

Jane Margolis:
But it wasn't the same.

Jesse Pinkman:
Yeah, it was.

Jane Margolis:
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.

Jesse Pinkman:
And that's not psycho to you?

Jane Margolis:
Well, then why should we do anything more than once? Should I just smoke this one cigarette? Maybe we should only have sex once, if it's the same thing.

Jesse Pinkman:
...no.

Jane Margolis:
Should we just watch one sunset? Or live just one day? Because it's new every time. Each time is a different experience.

Jesse Pinkman:
Okay, fine. I guess the cow skull pictures were cool, but a door? I will say it again. A door.

Jane Margolis:
Why not a door? Sometimes you get fixated on something, and you might not even get why. You open yourself up and go with the flow, wherever the universe takes you.

Jesse Pinkman:
Okay, so the universe took her to a door. And she got all obesessed with it, and just had to paint it 20 times until it was perfect.

Jane Margolis:
No. I wouldn't say that. Nothing's perfect.

Jesse Pinkman:
Yeah? Well, I mean,

[looking to her]

Jesse Pinkman:
some things.

Jane Margolis:
Aww, that was so sweet, I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Jesse Pinkman:
You can't admit, just for once, that I'm right. Come on. That O'Keeffe lady kept trying over and over until that stupid door was perfect.

Jane Margolis:
No. That door was her home and she loved it. To me, that's about making that feeling last.

Hank Schrader:
It was you. All along it was you! You son of a b*tch! You drove into traffic to keep me from that laundry!

Walter White:
Calm down.

Hank Schrader:
That call I got telling me Marie was in the hospital... that wasn't Pinkman. You had my cell number. You killed ten witnesses to save your sorry ass. You bombed a nursing home! Heisenberg... Heisenberg! You lying two-faced sack of sh*t!

Walter White:
Hank... Look, I... I don't know where this is coming from, but just let...

Hank Schrader:
I swear to Christ... I will put you under the jail.

Walter White:
Just take a breath, okay? Just listen to yourself! These wild accusations, they could destroy our family - and for what?

Hank Schrader:
Like you give a sh*t about family!

Walter White:
Hank, my cancer is back.

Hank Schrader:
Good. Rot, you son of a b*tch.

Walter White:
I'm sorry you feel this way. I want to beat this thing, I do. I'm back on chemo and I'm fighting like hell. But the truth is... in six months you won't have someone to prosecute. Even, even if somehow you were able to convince anyone that I was capable of doing these things. You and I both know I would never see the inside of a jail cell. I'm a dying man who runs a car wash. My right hand to God, that's all that I am. What's the point?

Hank Schrader:
Have Skyler bring the kids here, and then we'll talk.

Walter White:
That is not going to happen.

Hank Schrader:
I don't know who you are... I don't even know who I'm talking to...

Walter White:
If that's true... If you don't know who I am, then... maybe your best course would be to tread lightly.

Walter White:
I've been to my oncologist, Jesse. Just last week. I'm still in remission. I'm healthy.

Jesse Pinkman:
That's good. Great.

Walter White:
No end in sight.

Jesse Pinkman:
That's great.

Walter White:
No. I missed it. There was some perfect moment that passed me right by, but I had to have enough to leave them. That was the whole point. None of this makes any sense if I didn't have enough. And it had to be before she found out. Skyler. It had to be before that.

Jesse Pinkman:
Perfect moment? For what? To drop dead? Are you saying you want to die?

Walter White:
I'm saying that I lived too long. You want them to actually miss you. You want their memories of you to be... but she just won't... she just won't understand. I mean, no matter how well I explain it, these days she just has this... this... I mean, I truly believe there exists some combination of words. There must exist certain words in a certain specific order that can explain all of this, but with her I just can't ever seem to find them.

Jesse Pinkman:
Mr. White, why don't you just sit down?

Walter White:
You know, I was thinking before the fugue state, but during the fugue state I didn't have enough money, so no, not then. And plus my daughter wasn't born yet. It had to be after Holly was born.

Jesse Pinkman:
Mr. White...

Walter White:
Definitely before the surgery. Ah Christ, that damn second cell phone. I mean, how could I possibly?... Oh, I know the moment. It was the night Jane died. I was at home and we needed diapers and so I said I'd go, but it was just an excuse. Actually that was the night I brought you your money, remember?

Jesse Pinkman:
Yeah. I remember.

Walter White:
And afterward I stopped at a bar. It was odd, I never do that - go to a bar alone. I just walked in, sat down. I never told you.

Jesse Pinkman:
You went to a bar?

Walter White:
I sit down and this man, this stranger, he engages me in conversation. He's a complete stranger. But he turns out to be Jane's father, Donald Margolis.

Jesse Pinkman:
What are you talking about?

Walter White:
Of course I didn't know it at the time. I mean, he's just some guy in a bar. I just didn't put it together until after the crash when he was all over the news.

Jesse Pinkman:
Jane's dad?

Walter White:
Think of the odds. Once I tried to calculate them, but they're astronomical. I mean, think of the odds of me going in and sitting down that night, in that bar, next to that man.

Jesse Pinkman:
What'd you talk about?

Walter White:
Water on mars. Family.

Jesse Pinkman:
What about family?

Walter White:
I told him that I had a daughter and he told me he had one, too. And he said, "Never give up on family." And I didn't. I took his advice. My God, the universe is random, it's not inevitable, it's simple chaos. It's subatomic particles in endless, aimless collision. That's what science teaches us, but what does this say? What is it telling us that the very night that this man's daughter dies, it's me who is having a drink with him? I mean, how could that be random?

Jesse Pinkman:
Hey, sit down.

Walter White:
No, no, it's, uh... Oh, that was the moment. That night. I should never have left home. Never gone to your house. Maybe things would have... Oh, I was... I was at home watching TV. Some nature program about elephants... and Skyler and Holly were in another room. I can hear them on the baby monitor. She was singing a lullaby. Oh, if I had just lived right up to that moment... and not one second more. That would have been perfect.

Walter H. White:
[during a family meeting about Walt's cancer treatment, during a tense fight amongst the family] Alright, I've got the talking pillow now... Okay?

[sits down with tears in his eyes]

Walter H. White:
Look, we all in this room, we love each other. We want what's best for each other and I know that, I am very thankful for that. What I want... what I want, what I need... is a choice

Skyler White:
What does that mean?

Walter H. White:
[with tears in his eyes, very emotional]... sometimes I feel like I never actually make, any of my own... choices. I mean, my entire life it just seems I never... had a real say about any of it. This last one, cancer, all I have left is how I choose to approach this.

Skyler White:
[calmly] Well make the right choice, you are not the only one it affects. What about your son? Don't you want to see your daughter grow up? I just...

Walter H. White:
[with tears in his eyes, very emotional] Of course I do, Skyler. You've read the statistics sheet, these doctors talking about surviving, one year, two years, like it's the only thing that matters. But what good is it to survive if I'm too sick to work, to enjoy a meal, to make love. For what time I have left, I want to live in my own house, I want to sleep in my own bed. I don't want to choke down 40 or 50 pills every single day, and lose my hair, lie around, too tired to get up, and so nauseated that I can't even move my head. You cleaning up after me. Me... me some um... some dead man, some artifically alive, just marking time... No. And that's how you would remember me. That's the worst part. So... that is my thought process, Skyler... I'm sorry, it's just I choose not to do it.

Mike Ehrmantraut:
I used to be a beat cop, a long time ago. I'd get called on domestic disputes all the time. Hundreds, probably, over the years. But there was this one guy, this one piece of sh*t that I will never forget. Gordie. He looked like Bo Svenson. You remember him? Walking Tall? You don't remember?

Walter H. White:
No.

Mike Ehrmantraut:
Anyway, big boy, 270, 280 but his wife or whatever she was, his lady was real small, like a bird. Wrists like little branches. Anyway, my partner and I'd get called out there every weekend and one of us would pull her aside and say: "Come on, tonight's the night we press charges." This wasn't one of those "deep down, he loves me" setups. We got a lot of those, but not this. This girl was scared. She wasn't gonna cross him, no way, no how. Nothing we could do but pass her to the EMT's, put him a car, drive him downtown, throw him in a drunk tank. He sleeps it off, next morning, out he goes. Back home. But one night my partner's out sick, and it's just me. The call comes in and it's the usual crap. Broke her nose in the shower kind of thing. So I cuff him, put him in the car and away we go. Only that night we're driving into town and this sideways a**hole is in my back seat humming "Danny Boy." And it just rubbed me wrong. So instead of left, I go right, out into nowhere. And I kneel him down and I put my revolver in his mouth and I told him, "This is it. This is how it ends." And he's crying, going to the bathroom all over himself. Swearing to God he's gonna leave her alone. Screaming, much as you can with a gun in your mouth. And I told him to be quiet. That I needed to think about what I was gonna do here. And, of course, he got quiet goes still and real quiet. Like a dog waiting for dinner scraps. Then we just stood there for a while, me, acting like I'm thinking things over and Prince Charming kneeling in the dirt with sh*t in his pants. And after a few minutes, I took the gun out of his mouth and I say, "So help me, if you ever touch her again I will such and such and such, and blah, blah, blah."

Walter H. White:
It was just a warning?

Mike Ehrmantraut:
Of course. Just trying to do the right thing. But two weeks later he killed her. Of course. Caved her head in with the base of a Waring blender. We got there, there was so much blood you could taste the metal. Moral of the story is I chose a half measure when I should have gone all the way. I'll never make that mistake again. No more half measures, Walter.

Group Leader:
Jesse, last time, you seemed down about your job at the Laundromat. Let me ask something, if you had the chance to do anything you wanted, what would you do?

Jesse Pinkman:
Make more green, man. A lot more.

Group Leader:
Forget about money. Assume you have all you want.

Jesse Pinkman:
I don't know. I guess I would make something.

Group Leader:
Like what?

Jesse Pinkman:
I don't know if it even matters, but... work with my hands, I guess.

Group Leader:
Building things, like carpentry or bricklaying or something?

Jesse Pinkman:
I took this vo-tech class in high school, woodworking. I took a lot of vo-tech classes, because it was just big jerk-off, but this one time I had this teacher by the name of... Mr... Mr. Pike. I guess he was like a Marine or something before he got old. He was hard hearing. My project for his class was to make this wooden box. You know, like a small, just like a... like a box, you know, to put stuff in. So I wanted to get the thing done as fast as possible. I figured I could cut classes for the rest of the semester and he couldn't flunk me as long as I, you know, made the thing. So I finished it in a couple days. And it looked pretty lame, but it worked. You know, for putting in or whatnot. So when I showed it to Mr. Pike for my grade, he looked at it and said: "Is that the best you can do?" At first I thought to myself "Hell yeah, b*tch. Now give me a D and shut up so I can go blaze one with my boys." I don't know. Maybe it was the way he said it, but... it was like he wasn't exactly saying it sucked. He was just asking me honestly, "Is that all you got?" And for some reason, I thought to myself: "Yeah, man, I can do better." So I started from scratch. I made another, then another. And by the end of the semester, by like box number five, I had built this thing. You should have seen it. It was insane. I mean, I built it out of Peruvian walnut with inlaid zebrawood. It was fitted with pegas, no screws. I sanded it for days, until it was smooth as glass. Then I rubbed all the wood with tung oil so it was rich and dark. It even smelled good. You know, you put nose in it and breathed in, it was... it was perfect.

Group Leader:
What happened to the box?

Jesse Pinkman:
I... I gave it to my mom.

Group Leader:
Nice. You know what I'm gonna say, don't you? It's never too late. They have art co-ops that offer classes, adult extension program at the University.

Jesse Pinkman:
You know, I didn't give the box to my mom. I traded it for an ounce of weed.

Walter White:
Listen, something's come up. I think it's a good opportunity. There's been a job opening. I need a new lab assistant.

Jesse Pinkman:
I already did my time. Why don't you just get yourself a monkey?

Walter White:
I don't want a monkey. I want you.

Jesse Pinkman:
Oh, gee, thanks. Well, not interested. I got my own thing going on. And nice try saving your ass-hat brother-in-law.

Walter White:
That's not why I'm here, Jesse. There's more. It's more than an assistant. Partners. We'd be partners again. Split everything, 50/50, just like before. 1.5 million dollars. Each.

Jesse Pinkman:
No.

Walter White:
I don't think you heard me.

Jesse Pinkman:
I heard you fine. I said no.

Walter White:
You understand this: you are turning down one and a half million dollars...

Jesse Pinkman:
I am not turning down the money! I am turning down you! You get it? I want NOTHING to do with you! Ever since I met you, everything I ever cared about is gone! Ruined, turned to sh*t, dead, ever since I hooked up with the great Heisenberg! I have never been more alone! I HAVE NOTHING! NO ONE! ALRIGHT, IT'S ALL GONE, GET IT? No, no, no, why... why would you get it? What do you even care, as long as you get what you want, right? You don't give a sh*t about me! You said I was no good. I'm nothing! Why would you want me, huh? You said my meth is inferior, right? Right? Hey! You said my cook was GARBAGE! Hey, screw you, man! Screw you!

[long pause]

Walter White:
Your meth is good, Jesse. As good as mine. [Walt leaves]

Donald Margolis:
Well played. They found water on Mars.

Walter White:
They have indeed.

Donald Margolis:
Don't exactly know what to with that information, but, hey, God bless them, they found it.

Walter White:
Oh, well, actually, they theoretically can separate the hydrogen from the oxygen and process that into providing fuel for man's space flights. Ostensibly, turning Mars into a giant gas station. So it's a... Yeah. We live in an amazing time.

Donald Margolis:
To water on Mars.

Walter White:
To water on Mars.

Donald Margolis:
So, what did you have? Girl or boy?

Walter White:
Oh. Little girl.

Donald Margolis:
That's nice. Congratulations.

Walter White:
Thank you.

Donald Margolis:
I have a daughter.

Walter White:
Yeah. How old?

Donald Margolis:
Old enough to know better. Twenty-seven next month.

Walter White:
Oh. You have other kids?

Donald Margolis:
Just the one.

Walter White:
I've got a 16 year old boy. Well, he's almost 16. Jeez. There's a spread, huh? But he helps out, though. He's even changing some diapers now, so. It's more than I managed to do when I was his age.

Donald Margolis:
Kids today grow up faster. I think.

Walter White:
Yeah, maybe so. So any advice? Having a daughter. Any advice?

Donald Margolis:
Oh. No, not really. Just love them. Just... I mean, they... they are who they are.

Walter White:
Yeah. I've got this... nephew. This nephew who is, I mean, he's an adult. But you can't infantilize them, you can't live their life for them. But still, I mean, there is that frustration. You know, that... God, that frustration that goes along with, you know: "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know what is best for you, so listen." But of course, they don't. I mean, what do you do with someone like that?

Donald Margolis:
Family.

Walter White:
Yeah. Family...

Donald Margolis:
You can't give up on them. Never. I mean, what else is there?

Declan:
Looks like you're about 1000 gallons light here, Mike. Where's the juice?

Walter White:
The methylamine isn't coming.

Declan:
Why is that? And who the hell are you?

Walter White:
I'm the man who's keeping it.

Declan:
[points at Walt and asks Mike] What the hell is this? We had an agreement, right? We got our deal. So, where's the tank, Mike?

Walter White:
Mike doesn't know where it is. Only I do. And you're dealing with me now, not him.

Declan:
Why don't you just cut to what it is you want, or what you think is gonna happen. 'Cause were gonna get what we came for.

Walter White:
That 1000 gallons of methylamine is worth more in my hands than it is in yours or anyone else's for that matter. But I need distribution.

Declan:
[chuckles] Distribution.

Walter White:
That's right. So if you agree to give up your cook and sell my product instead, I'll give you 35% of the take.

Declan:
35%? Are you kidding me? 35... Mike, please tell me this is a joke. Do you know how far we had to stick our necks out to get our hands on this cash? And why the hell would we want you? You realize we have our own operation, right?

Walter White:
I know all about your operation. My partners here tell me that you produce a meth that's 70% pure, if you're lucky. What I produce is 99.1% pure.

Declan:
So?

Walter White:
So... it's grade school tee-ball vs. The New York Yankees. Yours is just some tepid... off-brand, generic cola. What I'm making is classic Coke.

Declan:
All right. Okay. So, um... [clears throat] If we just waste you right here, right now, and leave you in the desert then there is no more coke on the market, right? See how that works? There's only us.

Walter White:
Do you really wanna live in a world without Coca-Cola?


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