Breaking Bad - The Value of Human Life

you understood what i've just said to you yes lung cancer inoperable from the very first episode of amc's breaking bad walter white is faced with his own mortality there's no escape there's no hope it's just a death sentence but life is always terminal death is unavoidable yet it is only when given an official deadline that he begins to reassess the value of his own life in some ways walter realizes that death is nothing to fear if you were never really living to begin with just surviving his family are tight on money he feels disrespected in school undervalued in the public eye he has allowed himself to be caged by the limitations of his imagination and bound by his moral compass and now he has to ask himself what good did any of that do him if it led him to here breaking bad is one of the greatest television series ever made that goes without question but part of the reason it works so well thematically is the questions it poses about the value of human life the threat of death the fight for survival is present in every scene you are always right on the edge there are turning points in each season which highlight this theme consistently in season one after facing up to his own mortality walt makes the conscious decision to secretly cook meth to make money for his family showing that he will now do anything to survive he doesn't tell his family about his illness and goes out to the desert with jesse but due to jesse's past transgressions trouble arrives and walt is faced with the possibility of being killed and left in the desert for walt and jesse the decision to take another human life usually passes through two filters the first filter is pragmatic do i need to do this usually this will come down to self-preservation is it them or me can this person be negotiated with typically they are forced into a position that they borderline must do it or either go to jail or be killed in this case walt fears for his life so poisons crazy 8 and emilio but in breaking bad's worlds actions always have consequences taking a human life is not something that is done lightly nor is it a problem that simply goes away the original decision felt justified but now despite emilio dying crazy 8 is still clinging to life but now has damaged lungs mirroring walt's own lung disease jesse and walt are now faced with having to dispose of emilio's body which is far from easy always underlining how costly messy and difficult it is to take a human life but crazy eight is chained up in the basement and walt now has to pass through the second filter which centers around morality could i live with myself now that the immediate threat of being killed is gone the justification for taking a life becomes harder walt struggles to decide if he is capable of such an action looking for any way out i i sure as hell am looking for any reason not to i mean any good reason at all sell me tell me what it is in this same episode walt sees an ultrasound of his unborn baby reminding him of the value of human life making his decision even harder he begins to emotionally connect to him recognizing a common humanity in him as he learns that he doesn't eat the crusts on his sandwiches these little details increase the value of his life to walt as he feels more and more like a person than a threat walt is about to let him go as he has managed to convince himself that he does not need to do this and therefore he could not live with himself but then he discovers there is a missing shard from the smashed plate this means walt now has no choice but to kill him as it is either him or me and given crazyate's deception walt will be able to live with himself but taking a life is never easy there is always a pure fight for survival where you can feel how much the person wants to live in season 2 walt loses trust in jesse once he starts using heroin with his new girlfriend jane posing similar questions to walt's sleepwalking through his own life in breaking bad the consumption of drugs devalues a person's life as they are not demonstrating enough of a will to survive and as such if you do not value your own life why should anyone else we were on call you junkie on call for the biggest deal of our lives that your little junky girlfriend waltz tries to protect jesse by not giving him the 480 000 that he owes him but once jane gets wind of this she blackmails walt threatening to tell the police and his family yet again there is a thematic continuity as this is the same episode where walt's daughter holly is born so walt is reminded of the value and innocence of human life before going to jesse's home he unknowingly meets jane's father that night who was doing anything to try and save his daughter from drugs earlier in the same episode you have been clean for 18 months jane why why do you do it when walt sneaks into jesse's room that night and tries to wake him from his drug-induced coma he rolls jane over by accident and she chokes on her own vomit in her sleep walt is now solely responsible for saving jane's life and he could do it so easily jessie values jane more than anything her father values her life more than anything but for walt who now plays the ultimate decider he has to filter through the same questions do i need to do this he does not need to do it but in that moment walt weighs up the pros and cons in his head quickly just like he did on paper in season one their combined drug habit could kill jessie she could tell the police or his family she's nothing but a burden to him could i live with myself that answer is murky as he is not actively killing her the will to save her is just not there and her will to survive is not strong enough so he lets her slip away but the troubling moral ambiguity of walt's decision now introduces new elements to the show taking her life now demands a third filter how will this affect their loved ones jessie is emotionally destroyed by jane's death and her father is so distraught that he slips up at his job of air traffic controller resulting in 167 innocent passengers dying actions always have unintended consequences jane may have meant nothing to walt but she meant a lot to her loved ones and her death dramatically affects her community in season three gus begins to view walt and jesse's untrustworthiness as a needless risk and burden so he brings in gail to learn walt's cooking methods this will erase walt's life's value and allow gus to dispose of him as he no longer needs him walt doesn't hate gail there is a mutual respect there but it is now him or me so he passes through filter 1 easily for filter 2 walt implores jesse to take gail's life i saved your life jesse are you gonna save mine but jesse is not built like walt he doesn't have it in him to take a human life i can't do it miss dwight [Music] we're given a window into gail's home showing us some of his passions and habits increasing gail's value in the audience's mind as we begin to share a common humanity but walt is not given the chance to kill gail and as he balances on the razor's edge of death orders jesse to do it now in the urgency of the moment jesse's pragmatic side takes over but when he arrives at the door gail doesn't make it easy for someone like jesse he looks weak vulnerable he begs jesse betrays his second filter as he values walt more than he values his ability to live with himself in that moment in season 4 the theme of quality of life resurfaces after gus risks his own life to poison all of his rivals he reminds hector that the salamanca name will die with him as his entire family is now dead so as walt and jesse desperately try to figure out a way to kill gus to save their own lives hector becomes the solution at that time his life has no real purpose or meaning as he cannot speak or walk he can only sit and wait for death to come gus like always breezes through filter 1 and 2 but he did not value filter 3 enough and as a consequence of his actions hector now values taking gus's life away from him more than he values his own survival which negates all other considerations in season 5 hank discovers that walt is heisenberg and after a shootout his life hangs in the balance walt has spent the entire series valuing money and power but hank is family and family overrides everything although he does need hank gone he could not live with himself and the consequences of hank being killed would destroy everything for him so he offers all of his money to jack to save hank no no no listen i'm money i have money 80 million and all you've got to do [Music] is let him go just like jane's father valued her more than anything in sharp contrast to walt each life's value is in the eye of the beholder to walt he now values hank's life at 80 million dollars but walt doesn't realize that he's no longer dealing with businessmen who share the same code as him walt thinks everyone can be reasoned with that money's pragmatic value can be exchanged for life as that is always how it's worked for him so far a simple trade i'm willing to give this to you in exchange for that but now he's dealing with a different breed of person and without any filters at all they're willing to take both hank is killed and walt's world crumbles before his eyes everything he has worked for has been stolen except for one barrel of cash and he is directly responsible for hank's death the barrels of cash are dug up and hank and gomez's bodies are dumped in the same hole that location's coordinates now symbolizing where walt's deepest sins are buried the consequences of his career are no longer barrels of cash but the death and destruction of innocent lives hank's death is the undoing of everything as his loved ones are walt's loved ones so this affects everyone he values he loses his position as husband father and brother-in-law in an instant now a source of fear not love he is no longer walter white he is now viewed only as heisenberg [Music] in the show's final episode walt takes care of his affairs attempting to in some way right his wrongs at 52 his life on the run with no family no business and only money has no value the only good he can contribute is to take out his greatest enemies and to save someone's life that he values more than his own echoing hector's choice from season four walt is left to die surrounded by the only thing he loves that still values him his lab where he created his life's legacy which unlike him will live forever bad is about the will to survive in this zero-sum game the characters are morally tested every step of the way forced to decide what makes their life worth living what they can't live with and what they can't live without and the price they're willing to pay to maintain that order [Music] [Music] well you've made it this far so you might as well like comment and subscribe to help get this channel to the next level

Channel: Just an Observation

Views: 956,030

Keywords: breaking bad, breaking bad morality, breaking bad murder, breaking bad philosophy, bryan cranston breaking bad, breaking bad explained, breaking bad video essay, walter white, breaking bad good and evil, breaking bad death, Jesse pinkman, aaron paul 2021, breaking bad why does walt let jane die, just an observation, the morality of breaking bad, walter white morality, walter white character study, breaking bad meaning of life, Breaking bad value of human life

Id: V87lK_sUDDY

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021