Chemistry is the study of matter. However, Walter becomes a classic villain. A key theme running throughout the series is addiction. The first time Walt acts immorally is when he sees a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman, escape out of a window during a heist, which he attends as an interested voyeur with Hank, but doesnt tell Hank about it. Walter was capable of being very gentle, and he was for five seasons with certain charactersand violent and brutal with others! As discussed, Walter quickly becomes hooked on a life of crime. A central aspect to Walter White as a character is his relatability. This is from an Australian non-fiction book about the meth industry: When looking at the strength and purity of methamphetamine, it can be difficult to judge from one batch to the next the relative strength or purity of that batch.

What did you think of this article? Please enable Javascript and hit the button below! He doesnt earn enough money, so she is trying to sell crap on eBay and self-publish a book of short stories to make ends meet. Its solution, dissolution. In the last episode, Walter even admits that everything he did was for himself and his own pleasure, not for the familys benefit. Whilst attending a drug bust with his brother-in-law Hank, he runs into Jesse, one of his past students. We soon discover that he has cancer but cannot afford to pay for the healthcare to treat it. At one point Jesse asks Walt just how much money he needs to make, but by now Walts goal has expanded: he wants to be the king of an empire. Most importantly, in screenplay terms, an original character is a character that shines through in spite of any other weaknesses within that screenplay. See also: Protagonist Journey To Villain at TV Tropes. Relationship Status married to Skyler. Breaking Bad consists of several key players who appear throughout the duration of the series and have a significant impact on the narrative in varying degrees. He is, in fact, more of a father- figure for Jesse who he spends most of his time with. At the beginning of the series, they appear as a happy couple and are even expectant parents. His shortcomings are less obvious at the beginning but reveal themselves later. i.e. Characters need to be believable for audiences to like them. This plays into the idea of the man as the head of the household, the breadwinner, whose job it is to provide for the family. Like Tony Soprano, Walter White indulges in amoral familism both Tony and Walt wreak havoc on the general public while justifying their own terrible behaviour under the delusion that they are doing it all for their family. Jesse exists to emphasise to the audience just how immoral Walter White has become. This is what makes him such a compelling character to follow. Walters priorities are elsewhere. Therefore, at this point, his decision to cook meth is more understandable, particularly given his initial position of guilt and dislike at what hes doing. Walt's knowledge of chemistry allows him to cook astoundingly pure meth, leading to a rapidalbeit tumultuousrise in the criminal drug world. Men use family as an excuse for doing all sorts of heinous things when really their own ego is the driver. As he says to Jesse, You asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. He doesnt make it to the party because he has been beaten up as a consequence of a meeting with drug dealers gone awry.

The KEY Steps to Using it in Screenwriting, Writing Act One: The Setup An ESSENTIAL and SIMPLE Breakdown. I want to take Mr. Chips and turn him into Scarface over the life of the series. Walts obsessive tendencies are depicted especially strongly in The Fly, in which Walt drives himself (and Jesse) bonkers trying to get rid of a contaminant from the super lab. Each of the different types follows the next stage in the cooking or manufacturing process. By the end of the series, he finally and shockingly admits that all along he was doing everything for himself, and not his family, confirming his antiheroic nature. Walt could have come clean to Hank and given himself in. As discussed, we are first introduced to Walter White as a rather boring, ordinary man working two jobs to support his family. Success! Hes boring to Skylar, his attractive younger wife.

So he been spending a lot of time withJesse Pinkman, his former student at J. P. Wynne and current partner in the drug business.

The first four seasons effectively capture Walters descent into badness and the allure of the drug trafficking culture. If theyre not, audiences will lose interest and simply not follow the storylines. All rights reserved. Another vital aspect of Walters character is his motivation and reasons for becoming involved in cooking crystal meth.

Its a character that sticks with you even when theyre long gone from your screens. The old man in the wheelchair with the bell becomes a formidable (and creepy) opponent. But he might just as well be talkingabout the character arc he is about to undergo: You see, technically, chemistry is the study of matter, but I prefer to see it as the study of change: Electrons change their energy levels. Walters decision not to tell the truth to his brother-in-law Hank early on, foreshadows how Walter will become involved in gang culture and will never confess to Hank his identity as Heisenberg. Check out our Ultimate Guide toWriting CharactersThat Fascinate.

He becomes less of a typical family man and more of a typical drug kingpin. (Note the outdated sexism embedded in that. He has been dealing with massive regret. He effectively reflects and emphasises Walters descent into badness and his growing lack of morals. Skylar knows something is going down but she isnt sure what, so she stonewalls him until he decides to come clean to her. Masculinity is an interesting aspect of Walters characterisation. We see the direct impact of Walters involvement in crime on Skylers mental health and the breakdown of their family. Despite Walters poor treatment of Jesse throughout the show, there is a strong sense that Walter loves Jesse and cares for him. Im in the empire business., Personality a paradox. Despite the focus on Walter White, his home life and his involvement in the drug business, the writers carefully and skilfully develop the other characters storylines to ensure interest in them is maintained throughout. Most commonly, dark inversions are used to tell the tale of good turned to evil, but as the film Like Crazy illustrates, with its story of how a young girls idealistic love grows stale, the shape has a wider application. It is growth, then decay, then transformation.

He becomes an addict to the lifestyle and wants to be involved in the business more and more. He is not a criminal but an artist and a chef. These key players include Jesse, Skyler, Hank, Junior, Gus, Mike and Saul. Beneath both sides of his dual personality, he views the world in the rarefied scientific terms of chemistry. Apart from the nuisance of his smart, vigilant wife, Jesse is Walts first opponent, sometimes his ally disguised as an opponent, sometimes his ally. Get entertainment recommendations for your unique personality and find out which of 5,500+ This dynamic continues across all seasons. Some story gurus would call this moment the Inciting Incident. A dimension is a consistent contradiction in the nature of the character. It is fascinating, really.. In the last series, Skyler is at her lowest and attempts suicide. Despite Walter committing these criminal, violent acts, the audience is still challenged to have empathy and understanding for him.

By telling Skyler about his illegal activities, he has drawn her and their family into it as well. Walter soon adopts the codename of Heisenberg to conceal his identity and becomes a different character altogether. Its a character that serves as a reference point in casual conversation or a character that sums up a behaviour or generation. He becomes addicted to maintaining the violent practices of drug trafficking, seemingly at times even relishing in it. Walt and Jesse Decide To Buy an RV | Pilot | Breaking Bad, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman | COMPILATION | Breaking Bad, Does Anyone Have A Plan? This blue meth is part methamphetamine, part Kryptonite. His work with Jesse as a drug dealer soon becomes his means of paying for his treatment as well as ensuring his family have enough money to cope when he is no longer around. Walts knowledge of chemistry allows him to cook astoundingly pure meth, leading to a rapid albeit tumultuous rise in the criminal drug world. After being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, the J.P. Wynne High School chemistry teacher turned to the production and sale of methamphetamine to ensure his familys future financial security. At some point mid-series the audience was supposed to realise that Walt no longer cared about his family, only about power. But in probing Walters motivations, the series reveals hes a man chasing an ideal and an expectation of what it is to be a man. Thanks. His priorities quickly shift from protecting his family, to fulfilling his own needs. The goal was to turn him from Mr Chips into Scarface, said creator Vince Gilligan of Walter White, the hero of AMCs Breaking Bad. They did have a drug chemist advising them. This article was written by Milly Perrin and edited by IS Staff. The point is, they took as much of reality as they needed in order to create realism (essentially different from realness), and then added their own twist, borrowed from the world of our favourite super heroes. The series challenges us to muse on this question. Welcome to Original Characters, an ongoing series of Industrial Scripts articles examining the mostoriginal charactersto appear in bothTVand film. From Line of Duty to Moby Dick, Dr Faustus to Lolita (good is a relative concept), theres a clearly chartable pathway the characters follow as, in pursuit of their goal, their moral centre collapses. This intention is compounded when we learn that Walter has cancer and needs money to pay for his medical treatment. But when the plot required it, when making that video to bribe Hank in season five, suddenly Walt could pull an Academy Award winning performance. Walter White is an interesting case study from this point of view alone: In reality, people are multifaceted. In fact, I didnt even notice this was happening until after Id watched the series three times. He is an interesting contrast to Walter. His dull, relatable appearance provides comic relief from the violence and darker side to the series. Walt juggles frustration at Jesses chronic ineptitude with fatherly love and sympathy. Gus tells Walt that he is wrong to trust Jesse, who is nothing more than a street druggie, and is unreliable.

Heres another reason why Walter White is so engaging: A good check on the degree of individuality your character shows in your opening is the question, Would nine out of ten people behave and think like this? If the answer is yes, you may not have conveyed enough of who your character actually is. As discussed, a central aspect to ensuring a television series is successful is the need for complex characters. Walt knows that hes going to have to kill himself, because he has tied up loose ends with his family and is living a life of lung cancer in hiding, with no true friends. Values The main character starts with a set of beliefs and values. There are four places at the end of a story where the theme explodes in the mid of the audience: the big struggle, anagnorisis, moral decision, and a structure step called the thematic revelation. Just over and over and over. Walter White is the protagonist in Breaking Bad, the American neo-western crime drama television series. He generated five or six seasons. Jesse and Walt work together to buy the RV, assemble the equipment and drive out into the savannahs of Albuquerque to cook meth, then sell it on the streets. This aspect of Walters character is interesting. Aaron Sorkin style of writing is unique. This is also shown through Walters constant checking-up on him. Once Skyler learns of Walters involvement in the drug business, she is initially horrified and throws him out of the house.

Walt goes from cooking a few batches of meth to blowing up a building to causing a plane crash to killing the kingpins in the New Mexico drug empires and beyond.

Story analysis is what we do, all day, every day check out our range ofscript coverageservices for writers & filmmakers. All his adult life, ever since he left Grey Matter, he has been checking the stock market to see how much money he couldve had, had he not taken the $2000 payout. As weve covered, a central aspect to Walters character is his excuse that making drugs is a means of having enough money to provide for his family and to cover his health bills. This is the moment the audience sees Walt making his decision. At first, we empathise with him because he is working two very unfulfilling jobs and has cancer. Walt is making the best meth in the land. In this, Walter White, and Breaking Bad, in general, becomes a comment on the failure of the American Dream. Walt wants to cook a batch of meth, enough to pay his medical bills and take care of his family (the mortgage, education, basic living expenses for Skyler). An interesting aspect of the relationship between Walter and Jesse is the age difference and Walter as a father figure. In the first episode, there is a hint at his violent, bad side when he aggressively beats up a student in a clothes shop for making fun of his son. However, as his character arc develops, he arguably morphs into a dislikable, villain. He was ready to die because he was completely expressed, up to the last scene. The theme of family is central in the series. This is the first time we see past Walters mask of being a boring, nice-guy. Neither. I have already taken a close look at how the pilot of Breaking Bad engenders empathy in the audience. Yes, its complicated. By the end of season 5, our first perspective of Walter has completely altered. But failing that, making sure his family is provided for after he dies. Home Industrial Scripts, Script Coverage Experts, 10 Great Sites to Download Movie Scripts From, Scriptwriting 101: The Ultimate Guide to Writing a TV or Movie Script, Character Driven The Official Blog of Industrial Scripts, How to Write A Script: The Definitive Guide, Read 1,000+ Industrial Scripts Reviews by Clients, Screenplay Definition: The Ultimate Guide, Screenwriting 101 Your Ultimate 10-Minute Guide, 11 Ways to Spot a Shady Script Consultant, Script Editor: A Clear Definition for Film & TV, 20 Must Know Hollywood Literary Management Companies. The two begin to make crystal meth for a drug ring.

He first appears as a normal family man, his priority in his life looking after his family and living a low-key and healthy existence. Despite appearing as the stereotypical dad, as the series progresses, he shifts further from this image. What is THE industry-standard screenplay font? As the seasons progress we learn theres always been more complexity to Walt. But Walt is currently keeping both his cancer diagnosis and his meth business a secret from her, which is causing serious turmoil in the relationship. Walter justifies his involvement with drugs as a means of providing for his family, particularly his childrens future. His violence and involvement in drug trafficking get worse and his actions become harder to justify. Walter is someone who in life has been left behind, unrecognised for his intelligence and achievements, unable to financially provide for him and his family in a time of need, despite working hard all his life. He uses the wrong bank account to pay for some stationery supplies not a big thing (especially compared to whats coming) but something like this can lead to extra bank fees which make the weekly bills that much harder to pay. Started writing at 67. Walter is kind, caring and timid, but also demanding, calculating, and ruthless. characters are most like you. He is a middle-aged, dad character who is by no means an attractive or typical gang leader figure. A key moment that reflects Walters absence as a father is when he misses his sons 16th birthday. Breaking Bad makes such a good show to discuss because it has divided the audience in two: Those who continued to root for Walt without seeming to realise that he is a truly nasty individual, and those who hated Walt, and perhaps wanted Hank (or less commonly, Skylar), to win out. In the pilot episode Walter White explains chemistry to his class. Its the constant, its the cycle. After being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, the J.P. Wynne High School chemistry teacher turned to the production and sale of methamphetamine to ensure his family's future financial security. Criticism: Other characters criticize the hero for the means he is taking. Sarah-Louise Dean what a fun, educational read. Interests chemistry and its many uses. He also demonstrates a vengeful side to his character. This is evident several times when he takes Jesses happiness away from him for his own gain. The main difference between Tony and Walt: Walt eventually realises this about himself.

Walt makes the decision that theyll have to go bigger, so he approaches Tuco, his much more dangerous opponent. Jesse is an example of an individual who has strayed from a traditional path, going into a life of crime as a drug dealer instead of choosing a moral life and normal career. On the home front, Hank confronts Walt about his decision to let Junior get drunk next to the pool. If people are going to use this drug, he wants them to have access to the purest form possible.