Breaking Bad: Gustavo Fring's Backstory Explained

thank you of all the antagonists in television history Gustavo Frank from Breaking Bad might be the best on the surface he's the mild-mannered owner of the fried chicken restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos have her underneath his unassuming appearance Gus is actually a ruthless and calculating drug kingpin responsible for the distribution of meth throughout the entire Southwest Gus has been a fan favorite character since his Inception and one of the most intriguing things about him is his mysterious background throughout the show we only get hints at his backstory and his motivations for why he built his drug Empire well in this video I'm going to be breaking down everything we know about Gustavo Frank I mean what do we know about Gustavo Frank special thanks to one of my subscribers for reminding me that I owe you all a gus video and special thanks to all my patrons who make this video as possible I give them a shout out at the end of all of my videos and if you'd like to have your name in the credits along with early access to my videos check out my patreon LinkedIn description now this information comes from both Breaking Bad and the prequel show Better Call Saul so just know that I'll be including spoilers from both shows in case you haven't seen them Gustavo Frank was born in Chile though it's highly probable that the name Gus Fring is just an alias when Hank looks into his background he can find no records of him in Chile now Gus claims that this is due to poor record-keeping by the Chilean government but we see in a flashback that Don Eladio says that he also knows who Gus really is implying that the name is a cover either way though I'll continue to refer to him as Gus for now Gus was born to a very poor family including two older brothers when he was a child he cultivated a fruit tree to feed himself and his family when the fruit was eaten by a kawati he waited patiently and captured the animal and kept it alive to prolong its suffering and revenge we get hints at Gus's methodical and Psychopathic need for Revenge even this early on now we don't know much about gustavo's time in Chile however we get hints that he was somewhat important the reason Eladio lets Gus live is because he knows who he really is but warned him that he was not in Chile anymore implying that he was an important figure there is hinted that Gus may have been involved with the government of Augusto Pinochet the dictator of Chile during this time Hector Salamanca also refers to him as the big heneralisimo meaning General implying that he may have been with the military pinochet's government was also involved with death squads and other human rights abuses which Gus may have been a part of it might be why he was a known figure in the Underworld and why he would later cover up his true identity he himself brings up these events on the show General pinochet's government was guilty of a great many sins first and foremost where his human rights abuses but it was also notoriously unreliable to keeping records during this time Gus met a number of people who would be important to him later on first was maximino arseniega a gifted chemistry student whose education gots paid for another was Peter Schuler an international businessman Peter and Gus were involved in a situation that had their backs to the wall though again we don't know many details about what happened Lalo Salamanca also describes a situation that happened in Santiago again it's described in vague terms but it's implied that it may have been something traumatic this may have been what made gustly chilly as in 1986 he fled the country and moved to Mexico with Max at his side together the two opened their first restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos the name which means the chicken Brothers in English refers not only to their food but also the close relationship the two had though the restaurant was considered a success in reality it was a front for their meth operation at the time meth was considered a poor man's drug and the cartels were more interested in cocaine however Gus realized the synthetic nature of meth meant that it could be produced anywhere and with a talented chemist like Max they could make a drug far more potent than cocaine all they needed was the backing of the Mexican cartel to scale their operations together Gus and Max met with Donald audio the leader of the cartel along with his subordinates Hector Salamanca and Juan Bolsa they pitched their idea but feeling insulted that Gus went behind his back Eladio ordered Max killed though they let Gus live because of his reputation from that day on he would swear revenge on the cartel and begin a decades-long process of avenging Max this is what comes of Blood for Blood Hector Sangre person it's heavily implied that Gus and Max were lovers Hector Salamanca taunts the two saying they like what they see when he pees in the pool he also calls them the butt brothers again referring to them being gay Lalo also calls Max Gus's boyfriend but in referring to the incident though it's never outright confirmed Vince Gilligan Peter Gould and Giancarlo Esposito have all said that this was their interpretation of the character as well yo Gus is holding on to his rage his you know his desire for for um revenge and maybe he's holding on to this uh romance that he had uh you know with his his uh with his his boyfriend Max after Max died Gus did several things to honor his memory he set up a fountain dedicated to Max in a small village that Gus owned he also established a chemistry scholarship at the University of New Mexico in Max's name however this scholarship had an ulterior motive as well it was a way for him to identify new and talented chemists which he would need to continue his plans for a meth Empire after emigrating to the United States Gus moved to Albuquerque New Mexico and began setting up a chain of restaurants throughout the American southwest he did this with the backing of magical electromotive where his old friend Peter Schuler was an executive he financed his logistical network with the plan of using it as a cover for a large-scale drug operation in order to conceal his involvement Gus became a prominent member of the Albuquerque Society he became a philanthropist and a big supporter of the DEA in order to throw off suspicion to the average person Gus was a mild-mannered business owner and no one would ever think that he was involved with anything shady I'm supporting my community I hide in plain sight same as you eventually the cartel decided to get into math after all and wanting to remain close to them Gus became one of their Distributors North of the Border this caused friction between him and Hector Salamanca who had his own operation in the area this rivalry was encouraged by Donna ladio who thought that it was a good way to keep any party from going strong enough to challenge him eventually Hector suffered a stroke due to nacho Vargas switching his medication however Gus refused to allow him to die as he's waiting for his chance to get revenge for Max Gus ended up saving Hector's life but stops treatment so that Hector will be confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak this is exactly like the karate from when he was a child prolonging his enemies suffering for his own amusement with Hector out of the way Gus became the main distributor for the cartel though the drugs were synthesized in Mexico Gus had plans to eventually build his own Super lab in secret and cut the cartel out of the operation to this end he recruited Gale bedeker to become his new chemist Gail was a recipient of a scholarship and Gus identified that he would be able to trust him to be a part of the operation Gail set up the super lab ordering all the chemistry equipment that they would need it was also Gale to suggested that they work with Walter White whose meth exceeded even his own this would lead into the events of Breaking Bad which I already covered in my Breaking Bad logs if you haven't seen them now there's an open question of whether or not Gus has a family and Breaking Bad when Walt goes over to Gus's house for dinner we see children's toys around the room he also says that his children won't eat his favorite Chilean dish however when Jesse later goes over to his house the toys are all gone and there are no other references to Gus having a family we also see in Better Call Saul that his house is really a cover with an underground tunnel leading to a neighbor's house that acts as the base of operations again a family is nowhere to be seen in all of this it's likely that Gus was just manipulating Walt with his references to being a father after all he says that his kids don't respect the food he likes something Walt can relate to he also plays up the role of a father when convincing Wald to cook meth again so the whole thing was probably just a lie to further his objective a family just wouldn't have any place in Gus's deep and long-term plans for revenge on the cartel overall though I hope I've helped unravel Gustavo Frank's character Gus is one of the most fascinating characters in all of Television but his backstory is only given to us in small pieces and across multiple shows so it can be hard to piece together hopefully this video has helped with that and you can expect more Breaking Bad analysis coming soon [Music] last chance to subscribe to me Hector Ops gracing media Daz J kids Sam cedarland Celery Man Jenna Marie Johnson Brad Smith Studios Uncle Mike Matt Joyce Countess Von zarevic and Luke p [Music] thank you

Channel: Pure Kino

Views: 35,148

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Id: REcKa4H5ST0

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 28 2023