I've added a poll and a spoilers tag to the thread title, so feel free to talk about the movie openly without any spoiler tags.
Even after the announcement that Jesse would get his own post-"Felina" movie, many of us weren't sure if he needed one, preferring Jesse's escape from Jack and his crew and from Walt and his machinations to be left open-ended and to the imagination. But after watching
El Camino, I can't imagine a world without it. The film tortured Jesse just a bit more as we all feared, but in the end, he finally found the peace he so richly deserved.
The story itself is pretty straight-forward: Jesse's desperate quest to find enough money to pay Ed to help him disappear from the authorities. It's a slowly torturous process for Jesse to achieve his goal, but the film itself never dragged because the film, just like the show before it, has always been primarily about the journey and experiences of the characters. The flashbacks served as reflections on his past and guided towards his future and they helped with the pacing of the film as Jesse kept hitting roadblocks (actually finding Todd's money, the welder crew trying to steal it, not having enough for Ed, etc.).
One of my favorite things about the film, just like the series, is how Vince Gilligan trusted his audience to figure things out on their instead of spoon-feeding them about what's going on. Jesse briefly takes back the El Camino keys from Skinny Pete, but we don't realize until later it was Todd's house key. Jesse rips out a yellow page, but we don't find out until later it was so he could track down Ed (I originally thought it was so he could call Old Joe, stupid me). The flashbacks slowly informed us Jesse went to Todd's place. Even though it didn't even need answering, the flashbacks even quietly showed the viewer how Jesse knew there was a gun in the glove compartment at the beginning of the movie.
Going in, I knew Gilligan said there would be more than ten characters from the show who would appear, so I wasn't surprised when Todd showed up in a flashback. At first, I thought it would be just a brief flashback and we would only see Jesse Plemons obscured behind the cage. What I didn't expect was such lengthy flashback sequences, Plemons' changed physical appearance be damned. I had forgotten just how dumb and ridiculous Todd was, the way he thought things through, shooting first and considering the repercussions second. He saw the world differently from the rest of us, for better or for worse, and the result was the strange interactions between Todd and his captive Jesse as they cleaned up another of Todd's thoughtless messes.
We all hoped and prayed that Bryan Cranston would make a "surprise" appearance in a flashback, so really it was no surprise that we got a lovely glimpse of the early days of the Walt and Jesse partnership (season two, not sure exactly where). Mike's appearance in the opening flashback was also no surprise thanks to Jonathan Banks letting the cat out of the bag a week or two ago. But I was genuinely surprised to see Krysten Ritter show up in a sweet reminiscence of how she saw the world and how that effected Jesse. I half expected another flashback with Andrea at the end but I'm glad we didn't get that, because there were plenty of callbacks to her between the photograph, Jesse mentioning her murder, and the letter to Brock.
Of those who returned, Mike, Skinny Pete, Badger, Old Joe, Todd, Mr. & Mrs. Pinkman, Ed, Kenny, Walt, and Jane all made notable appearances, but, according to Wikipedia, agent Ramey, ADA Julie Pearl, and Clarence "Man Mountain" also appeared. The first two only appeared on the television screen so they were easy to miss, although I did recognize Man Mountain, I just couldn't remember where I had see him from.
This was the perfect coda for
Breaking Bad. While I know we'll get just a little more of the "future" with the Gene flashforwards in
Better Call Saul, I'm content that we won't see more of any of these characters again.
Now give me season five of
Better Call Saul already!
