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. He is a middle-aged, dad character who is by no means an attractive or typical gang leader figure. Walter soon adopts the codename of Heisenberg to conceal his identity and becomes a different character altogether. Throughout the series, he continually attempts to excuse his actions by using his family and ill-health as an excuse. It is an example of how Walter recognises how he is a poor father and attempts to make this up by using his money for materialistic purposes to show his love. Walter White performed however the plot required him to perform and by perform, I mean literally. 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. The main difference between Tony and Walt: Walt eventually realises this about himself. Despite appearing as the stereotypical dad, as the series progresses, he shifts further from this image. 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. Throughout the series, Walter adopts several faces and identities, despite appearing first as an innocent, moral man. There is a shootout between Walt and Hanks DEA team.
If people are going to use this drug, he wants them to have access to the purest form possible. He becomes an addict to the lifestyle and wants to be involved in the business more and more. Im in the empire business., Personality a paradox. Living in a small house in suburban Albuquerque with his wife, Skyler, and teenage son, Walt Jr. His family often socializes with Skylers sister Marie Schrader and her husband Hank, who runs the Albuquerque branch of the Drug Enforcement Agency. Everything is calm whilst Skyler is unaware of Walters secret activities. Values The main character starts with a set of beliefs and values. 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. Its the constant, its the cycle. Hes not the most effectual husband but hes fine. Most of the time, we can see Walter White is a terrible actor. If a good, upstanding citizen who follows the rules cant do essential things, like support his family, can his breaking of the rules to achieve this really be looked down upon? He puts this before his family and their safety. He also demonstrates a vengeful side to his character. His dull, relatable appearance provides comic relief from the violence and darker side to the series. 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. Walt is making the best meth in the land. In Breaking Bad, there are various storylines and narrative threads occurring at once to keep audiences hooked in the series and its characters. For aScreenplay Readeror Development Executive an original character is an element of a script that shines through everything else. Walter White might not at first seem a stereotypical paradigm of masculinity. What is THE industry-standard screenplay font? A central aspect to Walter White as a character is his relatability.
What did you think of this article? Want to have a go at creating great characters like Walter from Breaking Bad? 
This is evident several times when he takes Jesses happiness away from him for his own gain. Walt juggles frustration at Jesses chronic ineptitude with fatherly love and sympathy. He generated five or six seasons.
As the story proceeds, the differing values and ways of living in the world represented by the hero and the opponent become clear through action and dialogue. Despite being offered several outs to his involvement in drug trafficking, he continually makes excuses as to why he should stay e.g. Jesses character function is to be the moral compass. For Walt, Jesse triples as friend, business partner, and surrogate son. These key players include Jesse, Skyler, Hank, Junior, Gus, Mike and Saul. See also: Protagonist Journey To Villain at TV Tropes. Its the reason he is one of the most-spoken about characters ever created. His invented pseudonym, Heisenberg, becomes an alter ego a fantasy for him to live out a love of power. Over the duration of the series, Walter undergoes a huge and significant character arc. 10 Classic Secondary Characters in THE BIG LEBOWSKI, Unheralded Scene: RUNNING ON EMPTY (1988), How to Write a True Crime Movie: The 12 Key Elements to a True Crime Story, 15 Inspiring Kasi Lemmons Quotes for Writers and Filmmakers, Writing Style 101: How to Discover YOUR Own Unique Voice, 5 VITAL Lessons Screenwriters Can Take from Aaron Sorkin Scripts, How to Write a Thrilling Heist Movie (or TV series): The 10 Perfect Steps, What is Magical Realism? Relationship Status married to Skyler. In high school, Walt proved bright enough to attend Cal Tech, but has ended up using his chemistry degree in ways his professors likely never expected. Whilst Jesse initially respects Walter but eventually grows to fear and distrust him as Walters thirst for power grows. He is an interesting contrast to Walter. 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. Whilst attending a drug bust with his brother-in-law Hank, he runs into Jesse, one of his past students. He doesnt make it to the party because he has been beaten up as a consequence of a meeting with drug dealers gone awry. Throughout the series, we quickly catch onto the fact that Walter is manipulative and an emotional abuser. Despite initially appearing as a loving, family man devoted to his family, we soon discover this is somewhat of a facade. A key moment that reflects Walters absence as a father is when he misses his sons 16th birthday. Every time he did things one way, and we would feel that that was who he was, he would just reverse himself and do things in an opposite way. What are A, B and C Plots in TV Screenwriting?
We can look back from series 5 at series 1 Walter and scarcely believe they are the same character. We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. 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. If theyre not, audiences will lose interest and simply not follow the storylines. 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. 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. Skylar knows something is going down but she isnt sure what, so she stonewalls him until he decides to come clean to her. Live like theres no tomorrow if you like, but be prepared to pay the greatest price. Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White, a teacher by day, drug kingpin by night. Yet the audience fully accepted this inconsistency. Another key father-son moment comes when Walter buys his son an expensive sports car. Its a Wolfman story; its a Jekyll and Hyde story, its a story about a guy who is a caterpillar and were turning him into a butterfly a meth-cooking butterfly. It took five seasons to turn a mild-mannered chemistry teacher into a drug-dealing psychopath a radical departure in TV series terms, yet in its rich journey of greed and moral consequence it is one with its roots firmly embedded in the bloody Scottish soil of Macbeth. As discussed, we are first introduced to Walter White as a rather boring, ordinary man working two jobs to support his family. This is the moment the audience sees Walt making his decision. A likeable everyday man turned criminal? Gus tells Walt that he is wrong to trust Jesse, who is nothing more than a street druggie, and is unreliable. Some of his actions, though, suggest that hes interested in a lot more than just the money or his familys well-being. Walts love of chemistry seems to reflect a basic interest in how things work in the building blocks of matter and change. Molecules change their bonds. This is also shown through Walters constant checking-up on him. 
Walter will soon get a taste for the money and the drug life.
As the series progresses Walter becomes more dominant, ruthless and violent. As you can see, the writers of Breaking Bad took a lot of liberties with the drug. As the story begins, Walters MO is to plod along, work hard, look after his family. Ultimately, Walter and Jesse have a complicated relationship, much like many a father and son relationship. account. Great characters are at the very heart of greatscreenwritingand original characters can help elevate great to superlative. Interests chemistry and its many uses. Do better. 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 is kind, caring and timid, but also demanding, calculating, and ruthless. But thats all of life, right? Beneath both sides of his dual personality, he views the world in the rarefied scientific terms of chemistry. 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. By the time that last episode was executed, we absolutely knew everything about Walter White and his Heisenberg doppelgnger.
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.
Jesse is the other central character in the show. I maintain that this is a sexist show not because of the one example of Skyler, but because of the treatment of female characters across the series the women arent afforded a single funny line, propelling them into annoying territory.). Grew Up in a stressed-out home. Walters Heisenberg persona calls into question his morals and ethics. By saying nothing to Hank, Walt sides with the baddies. His sense of morality and values slowly deteriorate as his power, and bank balance grows. However, it is not long before we see an aggressive and dominating side to Walter appearing. In the pilot episode Walter White explains chemistry to his class. Walts knowledge of chemistry allows him to cook astoundingly pure meth, leading to a rapid albeit tumultuous rise in the criminal drug world. Check out our Ultimate Guide toWriting CharactersThat Fascinate. Walter morphs into the threatening and power-hungry figure of Heisenberg when conducting his work. This article was written by Milly Perrin and edited by IS Staff. We soon discover that he has cancer but cannot afford to pay for the healthcare to treat it. They did have a drug chemist advising them. He was ready to die because he was completely expressed, up to the last scene. This showdown is preceded by a big struggle of words in Hanks garage. The series challenges us to muse on this question. At first, we empathise with him because he is working two very unfulfilling jobs and has cancer. Im 86. 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.
But before he is gunned down he makes sure to visit Skyler and tell her that she was right: He hasnt been doing all this for family, but for himself, because being a drug king made him feel alive. We are first introduced to Walter White as a family man, and nice guy. Despite being introduced as a bad character (we first meet him on the bad end of a drug bust), he eventually becomes more likeable and relatable than Walter. Yes, its complicated. Jesse exists to emphasise to the audience just how immoral Walter White has become. When Jesse sees the finished product of the first batch of meth, he says, Youre [an] artist. Find out how you match to him and 5500+ other characters. He is, in fact, more of a father- figure for Jesse who he spends most of his time with. This is the first time we see past Walters mask of being a boring, nice-guy. He becomes less of a typical family man and more of a typical drug kingpin. 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. Characters need to be believable for audiences to like them. Please enable Javascript and hit the button below! In order to lead a better life within the patriarchal culture he understands best, Walt must be more of a man: a better provider, who no one will make fun of (including his brother-in-law Hank and his students, who see him under a car at the car wash). This secret, will slowly destroy their relationship and family. He calculates that he needs roughly $737,000 to care for his family money he decides to make through the meth business. One-dimensional, uninteresting characters fall flat. As the seasons progress we learn theres always been more complexity to Walt. But his life changes when he becomes involved with a past student, Jesse. Get entertainment recommendations for your unique personality and find out which of 5,500+ A key theme running throughout the series is addiction. This intention is compounded when we learn that Walter has cancer and needs money to pay for his medical treatment. When I analysed Tony Soprano, I found him to be a 12-dimensional character. As discussed, a central aspect to ensuring a television series is successful is the need for complex characters. (Note the outdated sexism embedded in that. 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. He is, when we first meet him, a Chemistry teacher. But failing that, making sure his family is provided for after he dies. Using a light gray typeface makes it very hard to read. Jesse referring to Walter as Mr White emphasises this, Walter is seen as respectable enough to be referred to as Mr. As the series progresses, we witness how Jesse is a negative influence on Walter. Walter cares for Jesse, whilst also seeking to assert control over him. Aaron Sorkin style of writing is unique. Industrial Scripts 2010 - 2022. He has been dealing with massive regret. Despite Walters poor treatment of Jesse throughout the show, there is a strong sense that Walter loves Jesse and cares for him. Tackle the trickiest areas of screenwriting with our exclusive eBooks. His shortcomings are less obvious at the beginning but reveal themselves later. The third in our original characters will look at a beloved character who has graced our screens in recent years-WalterWhitefromBreaking Bad. On the home front, Hank confronts Walt about his decision to let Junior get drunk next to the pool. This is what makes him such a compelling character to follow.
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Ultimately, Walter White isnt really a likeable character. The dimensionality fascinates the audience. Walter frequently manipulates and takes advantage of Jesse as his addiction to the business grows. Chemistry is the study of matter. Throughout the series, Walters addiction to power is developed and is conveyed through the Heisenberg identity and codename. His family see right through him, for instance. 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. He is becoming perhaps the dominant, proud male figure he wishes he was, arguably conforming to stereotypes of male ideals. Thanks for signing up, now please check all your email folders incl junk mail! Its a trajectory thats largely been avoided by television, certainly in drama series; nevertheless its rich and fertile ground. Jesse keeps stuffing things up for Walt through sheer ineptitude. We know that, roughly speaking, powder is approximately six to twelve per cent pure, base is thirty to forty per cent pure and crystal meth is seventy-five toeighty per cent pure. not the same as anything or anyone else and therefore special and interesting. Its a character that sticks with you even when theyre long gone from your screens. Started writing at 67. Walter justifies his involvement with drugs as a means of providing for his family, particularly his childrens future. What are Walters? At some point mid-series the audience was supposed to realise that Walt no longer cared about his family, only about power. 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. Walter was born in 1959 and was still just a boy when his father developed Huntingtons disease; Walt is still burdened by the memory of his dads deteriorated state. | Fifty-One | Breaking Bad.
To take advantage of all of CharacTours features, you need your own personal All rights reserved. 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. Walters priorities are elsewhere. So he been spending a lot of time withJesse Pinkman, his former student at J. P. Wynne and current partner in the drug business. Most importantly, in screenplay terms, an original character is a character that shines through in spite of any other weaknesses within that screenplay. His violence and involvement in drug trafficking get worse and his actions become harder to justify. Heisenberg is a part of Walter. There is a clear sense of patriarchy with Walter wanting to be the provider of the family (although his wife also works and contributes to their finances).
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. We see the direct impact of Walters involvement in crime on Skylers mental health and the breakdown of their family. An Anti-hero? However, as the show develops we witness Walter become less moral and Jesse, ironically, becoming the good character.
Some story gurus would call this moment the Inciting Incident. The first four seasons effectively capture Walters descent into badness and the allure of the drug trafficking culture. 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. 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. In fact, I didnt even notice this was happening until after Id watched the series three times. Tony does not. 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.
In this, Walter White, and Breaking Bad, in general, becomes a comment on the failure of the American Dream. This highlights how he is not being paternal but is trying to buy his sons affection to show how he is a good father and is the man of the house. Thanks. The goal was to turn him from Mr Chips into Scarface, said creator Vince Gilligan of Walter White, the hero of AMCs Breaking Bad. Sarah-Louise Dean what a fun, educational read. Its a character that serves as a reference point in casual conversation or a character that sums up a behaviour or generation.
Breaking Bad illustrates just how the archetype works a flaw at the beginning of a story produces its opposite at the end: bad will become good; good will become bad. 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. 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. He is finally not only doing something that he is really good at but he is being rewarded both financially and in terms of the power it gives him. He emotionally manipulates those closest to him to fulfil his own desires, usually power and control. Conclusion of the heist movie being the perfect metaphor, Happy to hear Im not alone. However, he becomes more and more removed from their lives. 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.
Heroes who go from good to bad are less common than you might think, but another example is Wicked by Gregory Maguire. 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. characters are most like you. By the end of season 5, our first perspective of Walter has completely altered. Once Skyler learns of Walters involvement in the drug business, she is initially horrified and throws him out of the house.
Apart from the nuisance of his smart, vigilant wife, Jesse is Walts first opponent, sometimes his ally disguised as an opponent, sometimes his ally. This is most evident through his relationship with his wife, Skyler. But he chose to die before doing that. 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. The two soon start to make batches of meth for a meth lab. As the series progresses Walters numerous layers unfold and we see his character develop. This aspect of Walters character is interesting. The old man in the wheelchair with the bell becomes a formidable (and creepy) opponent. Gus Fring is a much more powerful criminal to begin with, and the audience knows how dangerous he is, but in some ways he becomes Walts closest ally because of how much he has invested in Walt. Therefore, they need to be relatable. It is fascinating, really.. These are the Only Screenwriting Tips Worth Keeping, How to Write a Screenplay: Your 30-Step Guide, The Ultimate Guide to Paid and Free Screenwriting Software, Effective Script Reading Course for Film & TV. 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). Whether plucked from real life, an amalgamation of real people in real life or just simply a genius stroke of creativity, these are original characters. In the last episode, for example, Walter blackmails old friends into laundering his drug money to provide for his family. Walter White has almost 16 or 18 dimensions. His involvement in drug trafficking brings out this repressed side of Walter. In my mind, the best television series to date is Breaking Bad. Walt makes the decision that theyll have to go bigger, so he approaches Tuco, his much more dangerous opponent. This causes a huge rift in their relationship, and Skyler, like the viewer, starts to see Walter in a different light.
No matter how busy they are or no matter how much work other elements of the script need, the original characters stand out. However, Walter becomes a classic villain. Men use family as an excuse for doing all sorts of heinous things when really their own ego is the driver. In contrast, Walter was serious about education and his career, is married and has a family. He becomes addicted to maintaining the violent practices of drug trafficking, seemingly at times even relishing in it. The two characters are seemingly polar opposites. As discussed, Walter quickly becomes hooked on a life of crime. This blue meth is part methamphetamine, part Kryptonite. 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. letting his girlfriend die or attempting to kill his second girlfriends son. The KEY Steps to Using it in Screenwriting, Writing Act One: The Setup An ESSENTIAL and SIMPLE Breakdown. Did some acting in my younger years, but. i.e. Walter White is an interesting case study from this point of view alone: In reality, people are multifaceted. Walter was capable of being very gentle, and he was for five seasons with certain charactersand violent and brutal with others! Just over and over and over. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Founded in 2010, Industrial Scripts is now one of the worlds leading screenwriting companies.
He amasses an amazing amount of ill-gotten cash, enough to make a double-sized-bed out of it. 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. However, later on in the series, Skyler becomes more involved in Walters drug business and starts to work at their car wash in order to launder the money. He ruins his professional career for the sake of getting a kick out of cooking meth. It is growth, then decay, then transformation. Walter wants to provide financial stability for his family and their future. He effectively reflects and emphasises Walters descent into badness and his growing lack of morals. He is not a criminal but an artist and a chef. Another vital aspect of Walters character is his motivation and reasons for becoming involved in cooking crystal meth. This is art, Mr. White. Answers Walt, Actually, its just basic chemistry. Likewise, Walter White is part Everyman, part Superhero. He is maybe the most complex character ever written by anyone, for any medium. An essential element to crafting interesting, engaging and unique characters in modern television is the need for them to be complex. At the beginning of the series, they appear as a happy couple and are even expectant parents. He has believed life has dealt him great injustice. We provide outstanding support and opportunities to driven filmmakers. 
It may be a small, passing moment but it is very revealing of Walters character and cleverly foreshadows his violent nature and what is to come in terms of his character development. Criticism: Other characters criticize the hero for the means he is taking. Sometimes we perform well; other times very badly. Its solution, dissolution. Now I understand how to write, Loved the article very solid examples of writing a great heist. A dimension is a consistent contradiction in the nature of the character. But I prefer to see it as the study of change Walter White. 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. Neither. Bryan Cranston is expert at playing a guy who cant act very well. Walt could have come clean to Hank and given himself in. 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. She is drawn into the crime because of Walter, but once she realises people are being killed she doesnt want to be involved anymore. 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. She shouldnt be nine out of ten people; she should be herself. Masculinity is an interesting aspect of Walters characterisation. An interesting aspect of the relationship between Walter and Jesse is the age difference and Walter as a father figure.