Since its opening episode, Breaking Bad has always leaned into the clichés of classic Westerns and stood as one of the greatest neo-Western TV shows ever made. From the desert landscape of its New Mexico setting to the shady underworld of bandits and outlaws seen throughout, the story of Walter White’s transformation into the drug kingpin Heisenberg was packed with Western tropes. Whether it was through Spaghetti Western-style Mexican standoffs or literal train robberies, there’s no shortage of Western scenes throughout Breaking Bad’s five seasons.
Breaking Bad boasted some astounding performances from its talented ensemble cast, as the dark presence of Walt’s alter ego, Heisenberg, brought to mind classic Western antiheroes like The Man with No Name or cunning criminals like Gus Fring, who were as intimidating as any Wild West adversary. Breaking Bad may appear like a contemporary crime drama, but the show owes so much to the legacy of the Western genre. When all is said and done, it must be admitted that the infamy of Heisenberg amounts to a Wild West figure as iconic and fearsome as Jesse James.
10 The RV Getaway
Season 1, Episode 1: “Pilot”
Breaking Bad viewers were thrust straight into the deep end from the show’s opening as things kicked off with scenic shots of the New Mexico landscape as Walt and Jesse’s RV came racing through. With a gas mask on his face and his partner passed out, it was clear that these amateur criminals were in over their heads. This fast-paced intro showcased Walter as an unwitting Western outlaw who, in a state of panic, records a video message for his family before pointing his gun and taking aim at what he believes to be oncoming police cars.
At that moment, all the groundwork had been laid for a modern neo-Western classic, as Breaking Bad showcased haphazard outlaws on the run in a Wild West environment. This AMC classic hooked viewers in with a thrilling Western-style setup of a man on the run well before they knew anything about Walt’s meth-cooking endeavors or the family drama that would occur throughout the rest of the series. In its opening scene, Breaking Bad is just a mysterious man ready to face off against the law as he points his gun into the great unknown.
9 Walt’s Deal With Tuco
Season 1, Episode 6: “Crazy Handful of Nothin'”
One of the most engaging things about Breaking Bad was its incredible cast of formidable foes, whose intensity rivaled even the greatest Western villains, such as No Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’s Angel Eyes. Among all the iconic bad guys featured across the five seasons, the cartel drug dealer Tuco Salamanca was perhaps the most unhinged, as his psychotic, unpredictable personality, constant drug use, and violent outbursts made him both wildly entertaining and thoroughly terrifying.
While Tuco appeared to be the solution to Walter’s distribution problems, this plan ran into some trouble after Tuco beat Jesse with a bag of money and stole his meth out from under him. Rather than take this defeat lying down, Walter conjured his inner Western movie antihero to create the alter ego of Heisenberg and saunter back into Tuco’s office with all the cool confidence of Clint Eastwood’s The Man with No Name. While it took Walt blowing up Tuco’s office to seal the deal, at this moment, Walt proved himself an outlaw as unhinged as Tuco himself.
8 "Negro y Azul: The Ballad Of Heisenberg"
Season 2, Episode 7: “Negro y Azul”
Breaking Bad had some truly outstanding cold opens throughout its run, although the one that truly established this show as part of a Western tradition was “Negro y Azul.” This season two episode was named after the song that was performed by the narcocorrido band called Los Cuates de Sinaloa, in which they sang about the “gringo boss” Heisenberg. With this track, Breaking Bad hinted at how the legend of Heisenberg was spreading far beyond Albuquerque, as this mysterious drug manufacturer was becoming a cultural figure akin to Billy the Kid or Butch Cassidy.
Classic Westerns have long explored how the legends of the Wild West were formed, and this song highlighted the myth of Heisenberg in the same way films like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance explored the forging of legends. Through Walter’s alter ego, he created a myth for others to latch onto as rival meth manufacturers, the cartel, and law enforcement all sought to learn more about the elusive Heisenberg. It was through the legend heard in “Negro y Azul” that the mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walter White became an outlaw as notorious as Jesse James.
7 Tortuga
Season 2, Episode 7: “Negro y Azul”
The DEA agent Hank Schrader got more than he bargained for when he was promoted to the Tri-State Border Interdiction Task Force in El Paso in Breaking Bad. While this signaled Hank was doing well in his career, the border area police force dismissed his promotion as a political decision, and without speaking Spanish, he truly felt out of place among his new colleagues. This all came to a head through Hank’s encounter with the drug runner and informant Tortuga, who met a gruesome end at the hands of the cartel.
Related
10 Times Breaking Bad Was Basically A Horror Show
While Breaking Bad has plenty of comedy, crime, and drama, several moments felt they could have come straight out of a horror.
In a punishment even more brutal than what’s seen in the most violent Westerns ever made, Tortuga’s severed head was seen attached to a tortoise with the message “Hola DEA” before it detonated in an explosion that almost killed Agent Schrader. While this intense Breaking Bad moment felt straight out of a horror movie, it was also a glimpse into the Wild West impulses of cartel members, who were not afraid to use ruthless tactics to send a message.
6 Gus Fires Walt
Season 4, Episode 11: “Crawl Space”
Many of Breaking Bad’s most intense scenes took place in the desert, which gave them a powerful aesthetic that brought to mind iconic Western scenes, such as the Mexican standoff in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This was certainly the case for the moment that Gus Fring fired Walt as he lay beaten and handcuffed in the New Mexico desert. With this act, Gus was sending a firm message that if he set one more foot wrong move, it would be the last thing he ever did.
The unnerving act of pure intimidation saw Gus reveal his ruthless nature as more depraved than audiences had even imagined. When Walt pushes back against Gus, he tells him in no uncertain terms if he continues to interfere, “I will kill your wife, I will kill your son, I will kill your infant daughter,” a message that solidified Fring’s status among the most depraved Western villains of all time.
5 The Train Heist
Season 5, Episode 5: “Dead Freight”
While Breaking Bad’s Western influences were often subtle moments that could go over viewers' heads, it’s hard to view the season 5 episode “Dead Freight” as anything but a straight-up Western story. This was the episode where Walt, Jesse, Mike, and Todd endeavored to steal 1,000 gallons of methylamine from a train passing through New Mexico, a plot point that has far more in common with Western films like The Great Train Robbery and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid than anything seen in comparable crime dramas, such as The Sopranos.
“Dead Freight” was where Breaking Bad revealed itself to be a genuine neo-Western series as Heisenberg and his crew pulled off the biggest train robbery in history without anyone even knowing it had happened. Through its meticulously planned heist, thrilling build-up, and heart-racing conclusion, this carefully plotted plan deserves to stand alongside the greatest train robberies ever seen in the Western genre.
4 “Say My Name”
Season 5, Episode 7: “Say My Name"
Vast and barren desert landscapes have been the setting for countless Western-style confrontations, as the eerie implication is that when things kick off and guns start blazing, nobody will be around to alert the authorities. This tradition continued in the “Say my name” scene in Breaking Bad when Walter meets with Declan and his crew to negotiate a deal that would allow him to keep cooking and reap the benefits of his stolen methylamine.
With Walter presenting himself as a kind of feared gunslinger archetype, he played into his reputation as Heisenberg to force Declan to utter the name of his secret alter ego before confidently asserting, “You’re goddamn right.” The way that Walter utilized his notoriety acted as a classic Western calling card, where Wild West outlaws like Billy the Kid recognize that just their name carries great weight. At this moment, Walter shed every ounce of his once meek persona and embraced the myth of Heisenberg fully.
3 Hank’s Last Stand
Season 5, Episode 14: “Ozymandias”
Two Western-inspired threads ran through Breaking Bad’s narrative; the first involved Walter White’s transformation into a notorious outlaw, while the other leaned into Hank Schrader’s status as a type of sheriff trying to bring a cunning bandit to justice. The culmination of Hank’s arc as a Western hero came in the all-time great episode “Ozymandias,” when he at last put handcuffs on Heisenberg. This moment of heroism came to a swift end with the arrival of Jack Welker’s gang of Nazi criminals, and Hank found himself in the midst of a classic Western showdown.
While Hank was outnumbered by a gang of ruthless criminals, he never lost sight of the bravery that made him such a powerful force throughout Breaking Bad, and he refused to submit even as Jack held a gun to his head. It was these circumstances that led to the brutal execution of Hank Schrader, and Jack and his crew looted Walt’s earnings, took Jesse as a prisoner, and left Walt to fend for himself. Hank’s death added to the long list of Westerns where the bad guy won, and the sheriff paid the ultimate price.
2 Walt Returns to Albuquerque
Season 5, Episode 16: “Felina”
While the final episodes of Breaking Bad saw Walter White going on the run and living as a fugitive in the snowy mountains of New Hampshire, it was in the finale that he returned to Albuquerque to wrap up loose ends in one of the greatest TV conclusions of all time. In line with classic Western tropes of a lone outlaw rolling back into town for one last job, Heisenberg reemerged in New Mexico as a wanted man with a machine gun in his trunk, determined to go out on his own terms.
As a gaunt, unshaven, and almost ghost-like presence, Walt seamlessly blended into the shadows before having his farewell with Skyler and sealing a deal with Gretchen and Elliott. These final acts played into Western clichés of a gunslinger settling old scores before facing off against his final foes in a deadly duel. With nothing left to lose, Walt truly embodied a classic Western antihero with these last acts.
1 The Final Shootout
Season 5, Episode 16: “Felina”
The climax of Breaking Bad truly felt like something straight out of an Old West standoff as Walt rolls into Jack Welker’s compound under the guise of making a deal. With a remote-controlled machine gun in the trunk of his car, Walt carefully calculates the positioning of the car as he plots to set it off in a suicide mission that would wipe out the gang for good. As a modern equivalent to the classic Western sleeve gun, Walt used the element of surprise to give Jack’s gang an ending reminiscent of the bloodiest Western massacres of all time.
While Walt’s ruthless plan saw these men killed in cold blood, there were still elements of an outlaw’s code as he shot Jack midsentence to avenge Hank before putting his life in the hands of his former partner Jesse. As a wounded Walt struggles through a meth lab, he takes time to honor his infamous legacy and dies not quite a hero but still on his own terms. This uncompromising final act saw the outlaw Heisenberg breathe his last just before police arrived and positioned Breaking Bad alongside the greatest Western stories of modern times.
Success!
Your Rating
Rate Now 0/10
Leave a Review
Your comment has not been saved
Breaking Bad
10/10
110 9.2/10
- Release Date
- 2008 - 2012
- Network
- AMC
- Showrunner
- Vince Gilligan
Cast
-
Bryan Cranston
Walter White
-
Aaron Paul
Jesse Pinkman
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
- Directors
- Vince Gilligan, Michelle Maclaren
- Writers
- Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison, Vince Gilligan, George Mastras, Moira Walley-Beckett, Sam Catlin, Thomas Schnauz
- Franchise(s)
- Breaking Bad
