Breaking Bad was a hugely popular show, and while many fans would have wanted to see many more seasons, most agree the finale wrapped up the story in a satisfying way. However, it seems there are more stories to tell with the release of Netflix's El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
The film picks up right where the series ended, with Jesse Pinkman escaping his torturous captivity and making his way to freedom. As it turns out, that road to freedom wasn't an easy one. While the film maintains the same feel of the series, El Camino shares a lot in common with several great movies you might not have considered. Here are some movies to watch if you liked El Camino.
Deadwood: The Movie
Deadwood is another beloved television show that fans thought they'd seen the last of until HBO brought the team back for a film earlier this year. Deadwood: The Movie picks up more than a decade after the events of the show's final episode. All of the main characters return to give the story a proper and satisfying end.
Bringing the show back for one movie after so long could have felt a bit pointless. But the movie gave fans enough time to reconnect with their favorite characters before saying goodbye for good this time. Like El Camino, it proved these sequel movies from television shows are worthwhile.
Logan
Breaking Bad often had the feel of a modern Western film and that aesthetic is brought over into El Camino. It is an effective way of establishing a certain tone and feel for the film which is also used in the finale Wolverine adventure, Logan.
Hugh Jackman returned once again to the role that made him famous in this gritty and brutal R-rated conclusion. The film is set in a near future in which Logan and Professor Xavier struggle with old age and mortality as they try and protect a young mutant from the deadly forces hunting her.
Reservoir Dogs
There is a certain desperation to El Camino that makes it an incredibly tense ride from start to finish. Seeing Jesse on the run in the aftermath of the massive shootout from the show's finale feels quite similar to Quentin Tarantino's debut film.
Reservoir Dogs is a wild crime film about a group of criminals who must decide who they can trust after a heist goes wrong and the cops are on their trail. There is that same intensity in the aftermath of chaos while the movie uses similar flashbacks throughout the film to escape the current tension.
Thelma And Louis
Despite the famous ending, Thelma and Louis is actually quite a fun movie for much of its runtime. It is the story of two female friends who kill a man in self-defense and are forced to go on the run from the law.
El Camino is a much grittier look at the fugitive story ,but the two films do seem to have similar energy. Though the main characters of both films are technically outlaws, we never stop rooting for them to get away. Their run from the law makes for thrilling, albeit quite different, adventures.
The Town
Ben Affleck made his second feature film as a director with this solidly entertaining crime film set in Boston. Affleck plays the leader of a skilled group of bank robbers who falls for a woman he met during one of their heists.
The Town plays out as an intense and energetic heist movie filled with great characters and great sequences. However, the last act is where the film begins to feel like El Camino, as a massive heist goes sideways and Affleck attempts to get out of town while seeing to some unfinished business.
Drive
There is an eerie and nightmarish quality to Jesse's journey in El Camino. Due to being an outlaw, he is isolated and alone for much of the story, with large portions relying on the television of the situations rather than dialogue. This has a similar feel to the surreal crime drama Drive.
Ryan Gosling stars as a reclusive getaway driver whose simple and protected life is put in danger when he falls in love with a young woman who lives in his building. Drive is a quiet and slowly simmering movie that unleashes its fury in the last act to devastating effectiveness.
The Getaway
There is something so engaging about seeing people on the run. The desperation of being hunted by police and making a break for freedom is the kind of story that has audiences on the edge of their seats the entire time. Despite the small scale of El Camino, it achieves its fast-paced thrills through that simple idea of Jesse trying to get out of town.
The Getaway is a classic crime film from 1972 starring Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, who pull off a daring robbery only for their perfect getaway plan to slowly come apart. While losing trust in each other, the two try to make a run for freedom.
Unforgiven
The idea of redemption is central in El Camino. Despite his criminal life, Jesse was always a character on the show who had the potential to be a better person if given the chance. After escaping his captivity, all he wants is to get away and hopefully get a fresh start at a new life.
That idea of redemption is explored in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven in a similar way. Eastwood stars in the Western as a former outlaw who is lured back into that lifestyle for what he sees as a noble cause.
The Killing
Stanley Kubrick is one of the all-time great filmmakers and The Killing is one of his early masterpieces. The film is a simple crime story about a meticulously planned heist of a horse racing track. However, the perfect plan soon falls apart as the crew gets sloppy.
You can see the influence this film has had on a number of great crime movies that followed. The gripping third act feels very similar to the suspense and frustration of Jesse's attempts to escape.
No Country For Old Men
No Country for Old Men is another fantastic neo-Western film from the brilliant Coen Brothers. The movie stars Josh Brolin as a man who stumbles on a drug deal gone wrong and finds a suitcase filled with money. As he attempts to get away with the stolen money, he is pursued by an old lawman (Tommy Lee Jones) and a relentless cold-blooded killer (Javier Bardem).
The film has the same gripping tension throughout that makes El Camino such a compelling movie. We are pulling for Brolin to escape with the money and terrified by the situation he has put himself into.