Breaking Bad's Twelve Greatest Scenes: Number 3

Number 3:  Hank versus the Cousins.

Season 3, Episode 7 “One Minute”

Dean Norris as Hank Schrader.

Unless the movie stars Keanu Reeves or Paul Walker, I’m generally not a huge fan of action films. However, I will still commend an expertly executed action scene when I see one. Throughout Season 3 we see two twin assassins from the Cartel make their way to Albuquerque to avenge the death of their cousin Tuco. Initially their after Walt. However, Gus redirects them, asserting that Walt works for him and that Hank Schrader was Tuco’s actual killer. Meanwhile, Hank is temporarily suspended by the DEA, without pay, for assaulting Jesse and therefore  is forced to hand in his gun.

The scene opens with Hank sitting in his parked SUV in a shopping center parking lot. Hank’s phone rings and the voice on the other line says” Two men are coming to kill you. You have one minute.”  Hank immediately calls Gomez thinking it was a joke, but gets no answer.  Realizing he just turned in his gun, Hank has a sudden moment of panick and starts repeatedly checking his rearview mirrors to see if anyone is coming. Hank sees the Cousins in the distance, but then they disappear behind other cars. Then Hank sees one of the Cousins, Leonel, directly behind his SUV with a gun. Hank reverses his SUV into Leonel, who shoots a bullet into Hank’s arm. Hank escapes the car with Leonel’s gun in hand, while the other Cousin Marco shoots at Hank in the leg several times. Marco goes to Leonel’s aid, who simply tells Marco to finish Hank. Attempting to find Hank, Marco ends up shooting bystander that he initially thought was Hank. Then Hank, sitting in between two cars shoots Marco several times in the chest. However, Marco is wearing a bullet proof vest, and allows him to recover quickly and shoot Hank three more times. Hank falls to the ground and Marco points his gun at Hank, but declares it “too easy.” Marco goes to retrieve an axe from his car, allowing Hank the time to grab a bullet with his bloodied hand and place it in Leonel’s gun. Alas, when Marco returns and raises the axe above Hank, Hank shoots him square in the head. Marco falls immediately to the ground and the scene ends with a overhead shot of the parking lot, with all three bloodied men laying on the ground.

Definitely the most exciting scene in the history of Breaking Bad. Although Hank is a great character and his DEA storylines add a nice dimension to the show, he’s not Walt or Jesse. Therefore, it was entirely possible that the writers would have killed off Hank in this scene while still allowing the story to continue on. This makes the stakes for this scene that much higher. The Cousins are certainly a formidable foe here and had Hank not received that phone call, he would have likely died.  The standoff between Hank and the Cousins was great, but the best part of that scene was the one minute after the phone call where Hank remains in his SUV looking both lost and terrified as he checks his rearview mirrors to see if someone if coming. The quiet before the storm moment here was something truly memorable.