Despite the extraordinary intellect Walter White displays throughout Breaking Bad, Heisenberg's ego leads him to have no less than 15 close calls with the authorities. Walter White's unremarkable lifestyle is the spark that lights his obsession with cooking meth, as well as his most useful tool when it comes to escaping suspicion. With a quick mind that comes up with clever escape plans in a matter of seconds, Walt gets countless opportunities to keep his money and retire peacefully, but his relentless ambition never allows it.
Apart from his intelligence and ego, Walter White counts with an incredible amount of luck. Regardless of how deep Walt digs his own grave, there's always an unlikely possibility that presents itself to him, which he promptly takes and transforms into an advantage. However, it never takes long for Walt's achievements to turn into even bigger problems. Throughout his career as a drug kingpin, Bryan Cranston's Walter White almost gets caught in at least 15 different occasions.
15 Walter White Awaits The Authorities Outside His RV
Walter White's first taste of fear comes after locking a pair of drug dealers his own RV and suffocating them with phosphine gas. As is usual with this RV, the engine breaks down, forcing Walt to steps into the road, where he records a farewell video for his family and tries to shoot himself before the authorities arrive. This is one of the Walter White's earliest displays of luck, as the gun he uses happens to have the safety lock on and the sirens he hears in the distance are nothing but a convoy of emergency services that just happen to drive past the RV.
14 Hank Investigates Walt's Missing Gear
Walter White's odyssey in the RV is a success, but he still commits a major mistake by leaving behind a gas mask. This leads his brother-in-law and accidental archenemy, DEA agent Hank Schrader, to investigate. Hank finds out that another gas mask and other tools have been stolen from the school Walt works at as a chemistry teacher. While Hank doesn't have any solid reason to suspect anything about Walt by this point, this is the first hint that Heisenberg is closer to the White family than anybody expects.
13 Hank Checks The Warehouse Surveillance Footage
After blowing up Tuco's headquarters, Walter White's next big plan is to improve his meth formula by replacing pseudoephedrine with methylamine, which he can only get from a chemical warehouse. With Jesse Pinkman's help, Walt successfully retrieves a methylamine barrel and escapes without a trace. Hank Schrader ends up scouring the security footage, but Walt is careful enough to use a mask and is lucky enough that the cameras don't pick up on any clue that could have tipped Hank off.
12 Tuco Kidnaps Walt And Jesse
Tuco Salamanca kidnaps Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, and they fail to poison Tuco with ricin. Out of options and with Hector Salamanca's eyes on them, Walter and Jesse wrestle with Tuco until Jesse finally lands a gunshot on the unstable drug kingpin. This time, luck is also on Jesse's side as Hank arrives and shoots Tuco dead, allowing both Walt and Jesse to escape without leaving any clue about their presence. Any mistake from Walt, Jesse, or Hank, and Hank could have realized that Walt was involved in Tuco's business. That, or he could have ended up dead a few seasons before his time.
11 Hank Asks Walt What's In The Bag
As Hank helps Walt move out of his house after the heavily distressed Skyler White asks for a divorce, he asks Walt about the contents he carries in an especially heavy duffel bag. Dead serious, Walt answers "half a million in cash". Hank doesn't catch the hint and laughs it off as he believes Walt is joking, and he misses the chance to look inside and see exactly what Walt just described. Leaving the bag out in the open is not entirely a mistake from Walt — he seems excited when Hank reaches for it, as if admitting the truth in front of Hank's face is a game for him.
10 Hank Finds Walt's RV With Heisenberg Inside
The White family's suspicions that Jesse sells marijuana to Walt leads Hank to track down Walt's RV in search of Jesse, oblivious to the fact that it belongs to his brother-in-law. To make matters worse, Walt and Jesse are inside the RV when Hank arrives to inspect it, and Walter's worsening cancer raises the likelihood of an ill-timed coughing fit. In what is perhaps Walt's biggest close call with Hank up until season 3, Hank gets ready to enter the bullet-hole-ridden vehicle when the junkyard owner confronts him. With only one wall separating Hank from Walt and Jesse, the junkyard owner convinces Hank to leave just in time.
9 Leonel Salamanca Spots Walter White In Front Of The DEA
After the Salamanca twins attack Hank, many DEA agents join efforts to donate blood at the same hospital one of the twins is being treated. Agent Gomez invites Walt upstairs to see the surviving twin, Leonel Salamanca. Before Walt gets a chance to react, Leonel starts crawling towards him, leaving a streak of blood from his amputated legs. Not only is Leonel's behavior terrifying, but it also leaves Walt's secret on the criminal's hands. Leonel could have told the stunned DEA agents that Walter White is a villainous drug kingpin, or he could have simply yelled "Heisenberg" at him. Luckily, the twins' code of silence is Walt's salvation.
8 Hank And Walt Discuss Gale's Journal
When Hank examines Gale Boetticher's journal and wonders the identity of the "W W" it's dedicated to, Walt has to play along with Hank's playful suggestion that it means "Walter White". Proud, Walt teases the unsuspecting Hank with a half-joking "You got me", but quickly resorts to Gale's transcription of Walt Whitman's poem "Leaves of Grass" to shift Hank's attention, which stops Hank from considering all the possibilities. This marks the second time Walt openly admits his crimes directly to Hank. And once again, Walt is incredibly lucky, considering Hank's deduction abilities and Gale's written clues to the real Heisenberg were completely out of his control.
7 Drunk Walt Reawakens Hank's Interest
By season 4, Walter White is already too drunk with power to think straight, and he enjoys being lauded for his criminal feats, even if it puts him in danger. Walt had already convinced Hank that Gale was Heisenberg, and yet, when Hank praises Gale's achievements as the drug kingpin, Walt can't contain his desire for approval. Intoxicated, Walt suggests that Gale must have copied the real Heisenberg, who could still be somewhere out there. This reinvigorates Hank's curiosity and leads him to realize that if Gale was a vegan, it was odd for him to have a Los Pollos Hermanos napkin lying around.
6 Walt Crashes His Car On The Way To The Laundry
Walt's intoxicated suggestion puts him back in trouble after having secured everything. Now, with Hank eager to know more, Walt has no choice but to play along. Regret sets in when Hank asks Walt to drive him to the laundry that doubles as Gus Fring's meth lab, and the only way Walt can avoid revealing the truth is by deliberately crashing the car. This decision is a shot in the dark that only delays the inevitable, but it does buy Walt more time to follow his plans while Hank attempts other approaches.
5 Walt And Jesse Destroy Gus' Laptop
Once Walter White kills Gus Fring and burns his lab, he remembers that Gus had installed surveillance cameras. The footage, which lies on a laptop confiscated by the police, is about to incriminate Walt and Jesse. But with the help of the junkyard owner who already saved Walt once, Walt, Jesse, and the deadly Mike Ehrmantraut place a giant magnet on a truck and use it to wreck the police station's evidence room without setting foot inside. They don't have enough time to flip over the truck, which fell on its side due to the force of the magnet, but they manage to escape just in time.
4 Walt Kills Mike Over Gus Fring's Henchmen
Walter White's mistakes don't stop coming back to haunt him, and his increasing desperation guides him toward more and more clumsy decisions. As money stops flowing toward nine of Gus Fring's convicted men, everybody involved runs the risk of being outed. Walt loses his patience when Mike refuses to give him the names of these men, which infuriates Walt so much that he shoots Mike, killing him. Gus' henchmen could have exposed Walt, but Walt could have dealt with them after asking Lydia for their names instead of murdering Mike Ehrmantraut for not revealing them — an option he realizes too late.
3 Hank Learns The Truth But Gets Murdered
The moment Hank finally puts the pieces together comes in season 5 when Hank finds Walt's copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass on the toilet with an inscription that links Walt to Gale Boetticher. While this means that Hank has finally caught Heisenberg, Walter White is still safe, as Hank still needs to prove Heisenberg's true identity to the DEA. Walt outsmarts Hank with a fake confession, but it only takes one piece of solid evidence to take him down. However, Hank Schrader's death eliminates that possibility in the most painful way for Walt. Walt loses a loved one, but gets another chance to run free.
2 Walt Jr Calls The Police On Heisenberg
After Jack Welker steals most of Walt and Jesse's money and kills Hank, Walt tries to go back home and escape with his family. However, Skyler figures out that Hank is dead and confronts Walt, resulting in a struggle where Walt ends up threatening Skyler and Walt Jr. with a knife. To defend his mother, Walt Jr. calls the police on his dad, which sends Walt on the run. This moment marks the point where Walt truly becomes a one-man-army with a death wish, and things never look bright for Heisenberg again.
1 Walt Turns Himself In To The DEA And Drops His Cover
Long after escaping, Walt contacts the DEA in order to turn himself in, but he sees Gray Matter owners Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz being interviewed on television, which motivates him to avoid the authorities right before they arrive and manipulate the couple into funneling his money into Walt Jr.'s possession. Still, Walt isn't as careful as he once was, and he doesn't mind getting spotted by his former neighbors while he goes back home to retrieve the ricin he'll use to kill Lydia before his final grand sacrifice. When the moment comes in the Breaking Bad finale, Walter White dies on his own terms — and the authorities never caught him.