Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul explains the contents of the letter addressed to his sole goodbye in the closing minutes of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Spoilers follow. Freed from captivity as a meth-making slave but hunted by law enforcement, Jesse scrapes up the six-digit payment needed to be disappeared by Ed (Robert Forster), who smuggles the former drug dealer to Alaska. There Jesse hands over a letter in a green envelope addressed to Brock Cantillo (Ian Posada), whose mother Andrea (Emily Rios) — Jesse’s once girlfriend — was murdered by Todd (Jesse Plemons), Jesse’s keeper during his six-month stint in captivity.
In an alternate ending, Jesse drives into the last frontier as we hear the letter read in voiceover. Paul told EW that unused ending was one he was “really crushed to see made the cutting room floor before we started shooting.”
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“That letter to Brock was the very first thing that [writer-director Vince Gilligan] wrote when writing this script,” Paul revealed. “Once he completed that letter, he started the script. Originally the voiceover of that letter was how the movie ended — just driving through Alaska and you could hear what was inside of that letter…. It’s heartbreaking, it’s beautiful, just honest. But Vince just thought, ‘You know what? Maybe it’s best left unknown.’ And we don’t need it. He was right. But I love knowing what was in the letter.”
Asked to reveal specifics behind Jesse’s goodbye-slash-apology letter, Paul admitted he’s sworn to secrecy.
“I swore to Vince that I would never share what was in that letter,” he said. “But… [Jesse] just could not be more open and honest. It’s just really him saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ and that’s it.”
And what happens when Brock receives the letter sent from Mexico City? “When, if he’s ever even able to read it,” Paul said. “I’m sure his grandmother is the one that’s going to open it up and probably take it to the police and… who knows?”
Jesse reading the letter in voiceover is just one of two alternate endings considered for El Camino. As Gilligan revealed to EW, when pondering how Jesse’s story played out after the events of the Breaking Bad series finale, he played with the idea of concluding that story with Jesse in police custody.
The Netflix Television Event El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie reunites fans with Jesse Pinkman (Emmy-winner Aaron Paul). In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future. This gripping thriller is written and directed by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad. The movie is produced by Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Charles Newirth, Diane Mercer and Aaron Paul, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and all episodes of Breaking Bad are now streaming on Netflix.
