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My name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Aroya Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87104. To all law enforcement entities, this is not an admission of guilt. I am speaking to my family now. Skyler, you are the love of my life. I hope you know that. Walter Jr., you're my big man. There are going to be some things that you'll come to learn about me in the next few days. But just know that no matter how it may look, I only had you in my heart. Goodbye.
„
~ Walter recording a farewell message for his family
“
Who are you talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? ...Do you know how much I make a year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly decided to stop going to work? A business big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ goes belly up; disappears, it ceases to exist without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're talking to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door and gets shot and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!
„
~ Walter telling Skyler who he is
“
I did it for me.
I liked it.
I was good at it.
And I was really...
I was alive.
„
~ Walter explaining why he became Heisenberg to Skyler
Walter Hartwell White Sr., also known by his clandestine pseudonym and business moniker Heisenberg, is a chemist and drug kingpin living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Walt is a former high school chemistry teacher at J. P. Wynne High School who, after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, starts manufacturing crystal methamphetamine with his former student, Jesse Pinkman, in order to pay for his treatments and secure the financial future of his family: his wife Skyler, son Walt Jr., and infant daughter Holly.
Due to Walt's skill with chemistry and dedication to perfection, the meth he cooks is astonishingly pure and potent - and due to an alternative chemical process he uses to create it, it has a distinct blue coloration. Walt's "Blue Sky" catches the attention of dealers who want a piece of such high-quality product, and also the DEA who want to find out where it's coming from. Walt adopts the moniker "Heisenberg" as an alias as he immerses himself in the drug trade and works his way up to the international level, becoming a famous and feared drug kingpin.
The following synopsis contains massive spoilers for Breaking Bad.
In the 1980s, Walt co-founded the company Gray Matter Technologies with his friend Elliott Schwartz and then-girlfriend Gretchen, but he left both Gray Matter and Gretchen soon after and sold his stake in the company for merely $5,000, while Gretchen and Elliott married and then went on to propel Gray Matter Technologies to becoming a multi-billion dollar business. Walt was never credited for his early work in the company, and resented them for it for years after. Walt eventually took up two jobs as both a high school chemistry teacher and a car wash employee in order to stay financially afloat. Eventually, though, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and, fearing the idea of dying without leaving any money to his family, Walt began to search for other means of making money.
After joining his brother-in-law and accomplished DEA agent Hank Schrader on a drug bust and hearing from Hank about the lucrative profits that drug manufacturing and dealing could produce, Walt decided to use his knowledge of chemistry to become involved in the drug trade as a chemist and manufacturer in order to settle his financial woes and leave money behind for his family. Knowing nothing about the drug trade, he enlisted the aid of Jesse Pinkman, to help manufacture and, more importantly, sell his meth. Walt, by means of a P2P cook utilizing methylamine, produced methamphetamine of unrivaled chemical purity and a distinctive blue color, which was christened "Blue Sky" by dealers and users alike and which instantly began to dominate the market thanks to its potency.
While initially heavily reluctant to use violence, Walt gradually came to see it as a necessity, and eventually developed into a ruthless drug lord motivated largely by vanity, ego, and greed. At the beginning of his new career, he and Jesse made mere thousands of dollars through street dealing, and were constantly met with failure. Following multiple tense, deadly partnerships with distributors Tuco Salamanca and Gustavo Fring that ended in their respective deaths, however, and with the help of Jesse, Gus's former enforcer Mike Ehrmantraut, and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, Walt eventually became the head of his own drug empire: the largest methamphetamine manufacturing operation in US history, branching as far as Eastern Europe, and enlisting Skyler to help him launder the profits.
After accumulating over $80 million USD from his involvement in the drug trade, and following a resurgence in his cancer, Walt retired from the drug business permanently. However, shortly after, Hank accidentally stumbled upon a vital clue that led him to the realization that his own brother-in-law, Walt White, was in fact the famed drug kingpin that he had been chasing for a year: Heisenberg. Though Walt attempted to blackmail Hank by threatening to paint Hank as Heisenberg and himself as a victim of Hank, Hank was able to corner Walt with help from Jesse, who finally betrayed Walt after a devastating revelation. Walt fell into a trap when Jesse falsely threatened to burn his accumulated fortune, and Hank and his longtime DEA partner Steve Gomez finally arrested him. At the last minute, though, Jack Welker and his gang appeared, Walt having just minutes before called them to come save him from Jesse, who Walt had thought was alone and about to kill him. Walt pleaded with Jack, but could not stop him, and, following a large shootout, Steve was killed and Hank was executed. Walt had his entire fortune stolen by the gang, save for one barrel of money that Jack left him. Seething, with the rewards of all his drug efforts stolen and his brother-in-law dead, Walt betrayed Jesse to Jack, who, at Todd Alquist's request, took Jesse as a slave to cook meth for him and his gang.
Walt returned home and attempted to escape with his family, but Skyler and Walt Jr. resisted him, and, desperate, Walt left them, kidnapping Holly (though he later had her returned) and berating Skyler in a DEA-tapped phone call in an attempt to paint her as a victim and absolve her of any criminal guilt or suspicions. With his whole family and most law enforcement now against him, though, Walt went into hiding in New Hampshire with the help of a disappearer and remained in hiding for almost a year. Eventually, he returned to Albuquerque to both say farewell to Skyler and to give her the coordinates to Hank and Steve's undiscovered bodies so that she could strike a deal in court and get their family's life back, to settle an old dispute, and to ensure his family's financial security once and for all.
Walt went on to confront and then massacre Jack's entire gang, executing Jack in the same way that Jack did Hank and getting revenge for the murders of both Hank and Steve. In doing so, Walt set Jesse free from his slavery, and quietly succumbed to a ricocheted bullet wound he sustained in the massacre on the floor of a meth lab, having finally resolved many of the problems he had caused.
Statistics
Tier:10-B, 9-C to 9-B with various weapons, 9-B to 9-A with explosives
Classification: Human, Chemist, High School Teacher, Meth Cook, Drug Kingpin
Alignment:Neutral Good in Season 1 (While Walter is willing to enter the meth business in order to make money, he mainly does so in order to provide money for his family so that they'll be able to live comfortably even after he dies. While he killed Emilio in the pilot episode, he only did so out of self defense, as he and Krazy-8 had threatened both his and Jesse's lives[1]. Even after Krazy-8 escaped from Walter's red phosphorous attack and was subsequently captured, Walter was unwilling to kill him due to his own moral standards, despite killing him being the most logical decision to make due to the threat Krazy-8 posed to Walter, Jesse, and both their respective families had he been let go, and was only able to bring himself to kill him after he figured out that Krazy-8 stole a large plate shard and was going to kill him with it after he had been released, even apologizing to him after strangling him to death[2]. Near the end of Season 1, after witnessing Tuco brutally beat and kill No-Doze, he made a vow to Jesse that there would be no more bloodshed involved in their work[3]), Chaotic Neutral in Seasons 2 and 3 (Despite showing himself as a good natured man throughout the first season, Walter would begin to further descend into villainy from there on out. While he and Jesse were justified in killing Tuco to free themselves and save their own lives, Walter would become increasingly more complacent with violence, to the point where he forced Jesse to kill Gale Boetticher, an otherwise completely innocent man, in order to save both of their lives, as Gus would no longer have a cook capable of producing Blue Sky meth if he killed Walter or Jesse at that point[4]. When he accidentally flipped over Jane while trying to wake up Jesse, she began choking on her own vomit due to a heroin overdose, though Walter let her die, presumably so that he would have greater control over Jesse with her out of the picture, though he is still visibly shaken by his decision[5]. Letting Jane die indirectly caused the Wayfarer 515 disaster, as her death inflicted her father with PTSD and caused him to seize up during his job as a plane coordinator[6], and while Walter did not knowingly or willingly do cause this, he tried to downplay the tragedy of the event during a school assembly when he was given the mic to state his thoughts, which would ultimately end up having the mic taken away from him due to the insensitive nature of his comments[7]), Neutral Evil in Seasons 4 and 5 (At some point in Season 4, Walter's motivation began to drift away from the desire to provide for his family and towards obtaining money and power. This is best exemplified by him poisoning Brock, an innocent 7 year old child, in order to manipulate Jesse into helping him kill Gus[8]. Walter had also constructed a bomb with which to kill Gus with, which he was justified in doing to protect his family, though he had no qualms with blowing up part of a nursing home just to carry out the plan when he was unable to kill Gus out in the openCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag. He shot and killed Mike after he insulted his ego and called him out on his pride getting in the way of his work, doing so both out of retaliation and to make sure that Mike would no longer be a problem for his operation[9]. He did not hesitate to place hits on and kill off all nine of Gus's former associates in order to prevent his operation from being potentially compromised by having them spill information to the DEA[10]. After Jesse had refused to talk with him and threatened him further after learning the truth about Brock, he had given up on protecting Jesse and was willing to have him killed to ensure his own safety, placing a hit on him through Jack Welker's gang[11]. After the shootout in the desert, he gave away Jesse's position to Jack's gang with the hopes that they would kill him, and gave his approval to do so after he had been caught. Even though Jack's gang ultimately did not kill Jesse so that they could use him as a slave to cook meth, Walter was fine with it and even told him that he watched Jane die to destroy his spirit and prevent him from resisting while he was being carried away[12]. He was also willing to break into Elliot and Gretchen's house so that he could force them to launder his money to his family, tricking them into believing they were being targeted by hitmen to ensure that they would do it[13]. Despite all of this however, there is still some good left in Walter, as he still went out of his way to protect his family from any possible danger, refused to let Jack kill Hank even though he was a major obstacle for him at the time[14], and ultimately was able to make amends with Jesse and saved him from being a slave for Jack and his gang[15])
Attack Potency:Average Human level, Peak Human level to Wall level with various weapons (Has wielded various guns across the series. Constructed a turret using an M60 machine gun, which was capable of firing rounds through the walls of a building in Jack Welker's hideout and killing all of the gang members inside[16]), Wall level to Room level with explosives (A single piece of fulminated mercury had enough explosive power to heavily damage Tuco's office when thrown at the ground, damaging furniture and destroying the windows. Threatened to destroy Tuco's office altogether with the full bag if he was not given his money, which would have killed everyone present in the process[17]. Constructed a pipe bomb in order to kill Gus, which ended up destroying the nursing home room that Hector had been staying in)
Range:Standard Melee physically, Hundreds of Meters with guns
Intelligence:Genius (Despite only being a high school chemistry teacher, Walter is an extremely skilled chemist, being the self-proclaimed best meth cook in all of America, and possibly the entire world. After switching to a p2p cook, the purity of his meth reached as high as 99.1%, making it by far the most valuable meth on the market, even catching the attention of Gustavo Fring, who at that point was the single most powerful drug kingpin north of the Mexican border. Trained Jesse Pinkman to be almost as good of a meth cook as himself, despite Jesse having no formal background in chemistry and even having flunked his chemistry class in high school, with his meth reaching purity levels of up to 96.2% unassisted, outclassing even the likes of Gale Boetticher, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and learned Walter's formula. Co-founded Gray Matter Technologies with Elliot Schwartz and Gretchen Schwartz, which would go on to be worth $2.16 billion. Constructed a turret from scratch and used it to wipe out Jack Welker's gang, despite having no formal background in engineering. Constructed a pipe bomb from scratch and was able to lure Gus into a trap so he could kill him with it. Managed to hide his underground meth operation from his relatives, including Hank Shrader, who was a DEA agent and one of the best investigators on his team, for over a year, with Skyler and Hank only finding out through specific moments of carelessness from Walter, and even put together a fake confession painting Hank as the one running his meth operation so that Hank would be unable to expose him after he found out the truth. Came up with a plan with the help of Jesse to rob a train completely undetected, taking 1,000 pounds of methylamine from one of the train cars and replacing its weight with about 920 pounds of water. Figured out that Krazy-8 was planning to kill him after he collected the shards of the plate he accidentally broke and placed them together to deduce that a large chunk of it was missing, taken by Krazy-8 so he would have a weapon to kill him with once freed[18]. Outsmarted both Mike and Victor even when he was backed into a corner by them, creating an opportunity for Jesse to kill Gale so that Gus would still need both of them. Convinced Declan to become his distributor, despite the fact that he originally wanted to get the Blue Sky meth off the streets and was unwilling to compromise on the methylamine sale[19])
Genius Intelligence, Social Influencing (Walter is an extremely skilled manipulator, constantly pulling strings to get what he wants from other people and to hide his drug empire from those close to him. Constantly manipulates Jesse into doing what he needs, the biggest example being when he poisoned Brock in order to convince Jesse that Gus did it so he would be willing to help kill him, which succeeded even though Jesse was almost certain that it was Walter and was ready to kill him for it. Manipulated Hank by throwing him off trails that would lead him back to his operation, which he had successfully done for over a year despite Hank being an experienced DEA agent and one of the best investigators on his team, and had even made a fake confession tape that he had planned to use to frame Hank for his drug empire so he could prevent Hank from exposing him to the DEA. Convinced Gus to work with him to sell his meth, despite the fact that Gus is extremely cautious about who he deals business with and was initially unwilling to work with Walter since he saw him as too careless and thought that his loyalty to Jesse made him a hindrance. Convinced Declan to become his distributor, despite the fact that he originally wanted to get the Blue Sky meth off the streets and was unwilling to compromise on the methylamine sale[20]), Preparation (With preparation, Walter is capable of producing various tools to harm others with, being able to construct an automated turret[21], a pipe bomb[22], synthesize fulminated mercury[23], and produce ricin[24]), Explosion Manipulation via various explosives (Used a piece of fulminated mercury to damage Tuco's office[25] and constructed a pipe bomb to kill Gus with[26]), Poison Manipulation via red phosphorous, ricin and Lily of the Valley (Mixed chemicals together on the fly to create red phosphorous, which he used to incapacitate Emilio and Krazy-8[27]. Shown to be capable of producing ricin[28], and had seamlessly slipped it into Lydia's tea to kill her[29]. Poisoned Brock with a berry from a poisonous plant that he had potted in his backyard called "Lily of the Valley"[30]), Fragrance Manipulation (Capable of producing red phosphorous by mixing chemicals[31]), Magnetism Manipulation (Used a powerful magnet hooked up to 42 car batteries in order to destroy the evidence that was present on Gus's old laptop, which had been seized by the DEA and taken to a special facility for storage), Acid Manipulation (Usually disposes of bodies by dissolving them in hydrofluoric acid), Weapon Usage (Has wielded various guns across the series)
Weaknesses: While Walter is a very intelligent man, he is greatly hindered by his overwhelming sense of pride. This is reflected in many occurrences across the series, the most egregious of which being his refusal to join back Gray Matter Technologies and have Elliot and Gretchen pay for his treatment, despite the fact that accepting this deal would have allowed him to fully live out his life and provide for his family without having to resort to illicit means of income. Walter was diagnosed with lung cancer relatively early in the series, which can sometimes hinder him by causing him to cough uncontrollably, temporarily making him defenseless and giving away his position.
Trivia
Walter is one of the only two characters who appear in every episode of Breaking Bad, the other being Jesse Pinkman.
Walter is the only character to have spoken dialogue in every episode, with Jesse having no dialogue in the episode "Buried".
Walter sold his share of Gray Matter to Elliot for $5,000, towards the end of the show, his share would be worth upwards of $720 million. This was inspired by the real-life story of Apple co-founder Ron Wayne selling his interest in Apple to Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs for $2,300 missing out on billions of dollars.
In 2016, Vince Gilligan finally revealed the true reason for why Walter left Gray Matter. He revealed that Walter left Gretchen and Gray Matter because he felt inferior to her and her wealthy family, thus confirming that his ego and pride were the reasons why.
Walter was born in 1958, because Jane Margolis' father mentions she was "twenty seven next month" and that her date of birth was April 1982, so the year is 2009. So "Pilot" takes place in 2008, since the most recent occurrence of Walt's birthday, in September, must have happened in the year before, and Walt turns 50. So then, "Fifty-One" takes place in 2009, and "Felina" in 2010. This is further confirmed by Vince Gilligan in an interview that Better Call Saul takes place "in 2002" and "6 years before Saul meets Walt White".
Bryan Cranston developed most of Walter's backstory, and also partially chose his attire. When he developed Walt's mustache, he said he wanted it to look like a dead mouse.
Walter's doctor told him he may live two years in the best scenario: He lived almost two years after his diagnosis, missing the 2-year mark by a single day.
Walter's gunshot wound in the finale is at his right side of his lung and is also on the opposite side of the same spot where he shot Mike.
Walter has killed (inadvertently or otherwise) 201 people (including himself).
Walter has the last on-screen death of the show.
Walter is 5'11" (180 cm) and 165-170 lbs (75–77 kg).
According to Aaron Paul's audition tape, Walter was originally supposed to be 41 years old.
