I think this may be our best episode ever.

In any given episode, there's  like one scene that — okay,  

this is going to put everyone through the wringer.

And in Ozymandias,

every single scene was like that.

It was a very painful character to play,

and I cannot take that intensity.

So much stuff was coming through

because I knew it was my last close-up.

I knew it was my last scene.

It was saying goodbye to Bryan.

He's family.

He was saying goodbye to your show.

Near them on the sand,

half sunk, a shattered visage lies.

That colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

the lone and level sands stretch far away.

Oh, simmer down there, Sparky.

Ozymandias is one of the  greatest episodes of TV ever,

and for good reason.

The face-off between Walt and Hank

has been at the center of this story,

and this is where it ends.

Hank is so grounded in this black and white world,

and no matter what, he  wants to do the right thing,

and he wants to try to bring  the bad guys to justice.

Bet your ass the cavalry's coming.

I had known what my character's  fate was going to be

because Vince Gilligan had sat me down

and went through the whole thing with me.

Said, "I couldn't tell you a whole lot,

but I can tell you — you'll  die with your dignity."

My name is ASAC Schrader.

You can go [ __ ] yourself.

So, I thought he kind of did,

which was nice that they had — uh —  they had kind of written it that way.

So, how did we even get to the  point where Hank is about to die?

Quick refresher.

Jesse is working with Hank to put Walt away

out of vengeance for poisoning Brock.

You can't keep getting away with it.

Which leads to Hank sending Walt a fake  picture of his money barrel in the desert,

causing Walt to drive out there in a panic.

When he arrives and doesn't see Jesse,

he realizes it was a trap to track his cell phone

and lead Jesse there.

Walt calls Jack for backup

just before realizing Jesse  came with Hank, who arrests him.

Jack's crew arrives,

leading to one of the most agitating  cliffhangers ever put to screen.

And that's where Ozymandias picks back up.

Before I get to the scene itself,

it's worth noting that since Ozymandias  resumes in the middle of the action,

the producers didn't want anything  to interfere with the intensity,

including the opening credits.

So, they secured special permission  from the Hollywood Guilds

to delay the credits, which  we see here 19 minutes in.

Fun fact — Moira Walley-Beckett,  the episode's writer,

makes a cameo here when her name is credited.

Anyway, back to Hank.

Reading that final scene was surreal, man.

Moira Walley-Beckett did such a beautiful job

giving him such a strong and brave exit

where, you know, he is still full of pride.

He's true to his character.

He knows he's done.

He's — he's done for.

You're too stupid to see.

He made up his mind 10 minutes ago.

But he's not going to go down  without — without trying,

and he's not going to go down quietly.

It's weird to see a character that you  played for six years get shot and die.

So much stuff was coming through

because I knew it was my last close-up.

I knew it was my last scene of six years,

and it was saying goodbye to Bryan in real life,

and also was Hank to Walt.

It was saying goodbye to your show.

You contemplate your own death for a moment,

and then you say, "All right, you know, let's go.

Take me out."

Do what you're going to do.

Instead of saying cut, Rian goes,

"Now that's how you die."

But I tell you what —

Hank goes out like a goddamn man.

Walt is in great distress,

and he falls to the ground, falls to his knees,

and there's this — you know — the earth  cracks, literally cracks, underneath him,

which was part of the inspiration for Ozymandias —

this man in the sand and the dust of his life.

Rian wanted to capture that moment so specifically

that he had special effects  build a section of desert,

so that — on a trap — so that when Bryan hit,

they pulled the rig and it  broke apart like puzzle pieces,

and dust wafted up.

And this is why Rian's a brilliant director.

Rian Johnson, who went on to  direct films like Star Wars:  

Episode 8 and Knives Out after Breaking Bad,

had mapped out multiple scenes for the episode.

You don't make that [ __ ] up on the day.

You got — you got to plan that way in advance.

But so many scenes were born from the unexpected.

We had a big sandstorm out here  when we were shooting this.

It was a big, very, very windy day.

It was pretty brutal for everybody.

This is one of those days where there's just grit.

You see the breeze, and — uh — you're  just dealing with sand in your eyes,

and every orifice, actually.

The actors struggled much more than the crew.

I mean, we — at least we could put bandanas  over our faces and wear our shades.

These guys just muscled through it.

And who knows how much that  hardship affected the final result.

There's all this sand that  we had to [ __ ] eat all day.

And I actually die is on a [ __ ] goddamn rock.

Following Hank's death is one of the most  brutal moments for Jesse in the entire series.

Wait.

I love the way Bryan — when you first say it,

it sounds like an apology,

and then it's, "Oh, no, it's not.

I watched Jane die."

And do you remember, Bryan — we, and Aaron —

we had 15 minutes to shoot this.

We were losing the light.

Yeah.

And — um — you just nailed it.

I could have saved her, but I didn't.

I'm so glad that he found  out — sort of the flight.

According to Walley-Beckett, this  scene was one of the hardest to write,

stating, "It was kind of great that I got to  dance to the edge of him saying it in Fly."

And he would have said it for  entirely different reasons back then.

I'm sorry about Jane.

He would have said it out of profound  guilt and shame and self-recrimination.

He would have said it out of love —

to come to it in Ozymandias and  have him say it out of vile hatred.

He basically murders him in that scene.

Hank dies, and Jesse dies to a certain degree.

It was interesting to have those two moments.

And while those moments were deliberate,

the next plot point was changed  out of something unexpected.

The original story never had  Walt roll his barrel of cash.

It was only meant to be driven in his car.

And, by the way, you know these barrels —

I cannot tell you how much  time we spent talking about,

"Will a barrel fit in the  back of this Chrysler 300?"

And they're like, "No, it won't."

But due to these concerns,

an alternate version of the story was drafted

where Walt unloads it and rolls  it through the wilderness instead.

And I wrote it a whole other way  because they said it wouldn't fit.

But when they actually tested  it, the barrel did in fact fit.

I would have never in a million years  thought it would fit in the back seat.

But we couldn't get it in the trunk.

So, we'd had a version where he unloads it,

and — but then we'd — like, you know —

if he unloads it, how's he going to  roll the barrel through the wilderness?

The script was rewritten to  have Walt run out of gas.

It makes sense why they wanted  to keep the barrel rolling in.

Not only is it the perfect  representation of his collapsed empire,

but I think it also mirrors  this scene from season one,

reminding us that every time  Walt takes one step forward,

he clumsily takes two steps back,

often harming the very family  he was trying to provide for.

You tell him, or I will.

There is no way around this.

Well, and this is one of the last moments  for Walter Jr. to enjoy his innocence.

Fear.

Yeah.

That literally is the last time  we ever see Walter Jr. happy.

Yeah.

No more happiness.

This is what Skyler's been trying  to avoid ever since she found out.

What Walt does is this moment  where Walter Jr. is going to know,

and the family's never going to be the same.

This is her biggest fear.

You're completely out of your mind.

This is still awkward to me.

I — even — I've been working on  the show for as long as I have,

it's still weird to me to see it,

and to see all of it come into play.

It's rough trying to bring  this type of emotion to life,

and going through all this —

how depressingly sad this is.

It's — it's still a joy,

and — and all the chaos of  filming these types of scenes —

it's still so much fun.

This scene sets up one of the most emotionally  intense moments in the entire series.

You killed Hank.

What?

No.

No, get out.

How much of this stuff came up  with a stunt man and a stunt woman?

Only — only the hit on the floor.

Only when they tumble to the floor.

Bryan and Anna did all this stuff in the hallway.

They choreographed it, had it all worked out.

It's just when they fall to the floor.

And this is another callback moment,

because what she is about to reach for

is the same knife that Walt  is holding in season two

when he's worried that the bad guys are coming.

It's this very knife.

Walt becomes the very danger to his family

that he was trying to protect them from all along.

In that moment, he realizes it.

And so do we, the viewers,

who — probably for the first time in the series —

can truly sympathize with Skyler.

Please, please —

and maybe even the actress who plays her.

There's a scene where Anna has to break down,

and it was also a very physically difficult scene,

because it was — it was  cold outside in the street.

She has to run out and,  like, fall down to her knees.

There are days when the residual  emotions — certainly it stays with you,

and having children has helped a lot,

because I really do have to go  home and be present for my kids.

Um — so I've learned to —  to change hats, as it were.

It was a very, very painful character to play,

and a very painful story to tell,

but also, as an actor, you wait  for a story like this to tell.

At the same time,

so there's a lot of mixed emotions with it.

On the day of shooting, snowfall  delayed the scene's production,

meaning Gunn had to hold in all of the negative  energy she had tapped into for her performance,

which only worsened her mental state.

Sometimes what happens as an actor

is you get to the moment when  it's time to give it over,

and your body says, "I don't want to.

I don't want to."

Because it's scary.

Rian came up to me after the  first few passes and said,

"Listen, Annie, you don't have to worry  about falling down to the street."

And I said, "I'm just scared."

And he said, "Yeah, okay. Okay."

I think he just knew that I needed somebody

to essentially take my hand — in  essence — to say, "You're safe."

And I came away with it just with so  much respect for Anna Gunn as an actor.

She's extraordinary.

Your job as a director is to give  the actors whatever they need

to go to the places that they need to go.

Wherever Anna took that character in that scene,

that's entirely Anna's work.

The episode is filled with  heavy emotion from the actors.

And amazingly, one of the best  examples was the baby who plays Holly.

I was changing this baby,

and the one word that Mo knew at the time — mama.

It just crushed me.

The baby's mother was on set  when this scene was shot,

standing just off screen.

They locked eyes for a moment,

and she said the word "mama."

And Bryan comes over, and he said to me,

"Is it okay if I don't cry here?

I don't think there's any more tears."

And Andy, our camera operator,

he's got this 35-pound Arriflex.

He's leaning over this baby,

and Andy starts crying into  — you know — his eyepiece,

and his tears are coming down his face.

The unplanned moment had crushing emotional weight

and was the perfect lead  into what would happen next.

What the hell is wrong with you?

Why can't you do one thing?

I say — there's been debate among  fans about whether Walt's call

was genuine hatred or a calculated  ploy to protect his family,

which is a testament to both  the writing and the acting.

And I think about the phone  call with Skyler in season five,

when he's like, "You never believed in me."

"Oh, no, Walt.

Walt, you have to stop.

You have to stop this.

It's immoral.

It's illegal" —

which he's doing partly as a show,

'cause he knows, like, the  FBI is listening, right?

It's part act, but it's part really, really true.

Like — he is a resentful — [ __ ] me alone.

Nobody else.

And then the third element of that

is to protect her —

to say, "You never believed in me.

You were never part of this."

You know, to say you will not be hounded for this.

But I also loved how much  truth there was in it, too.

That's how clever he was.

And the writing is so clever,

because lesser writing would have not  allowed both of those realities to be true.

So, I don't know how you do it,

'cause your mouth is saying one thing,

and your face is saying another thing.

Your mouth is — is sounding like  the most evil guy in the world,

and your face is — is looking  so regretful and sad and hurt.

On first watch, it's easy  to see it as pure cruelty,

but Walley-Beckett felt differently,

stating that she felt it wasn't  really open to interpretation.

I would hope that people got that it  was an absolute ploy on Walter's part.

It is the family man part of Walt

playing the part of Heisenberg  to exonerate Skyler.

Oh, and if you're one of the many fans  who hated on Skyler — well, congrats.

You, among the others, impacted  the writing of this scene.

In the words of Walley-Beckett,

"I think it would have been  impossible for me to separate it out,

because we've all been so surprised and  disappointed by the Skyler backlash.

The Skyler haters didn't hate her  with any kind of logic or empathy

or exploration of what she was really enduring

and what she was really saying to Walt."

While this scene is probably one  of the most memorable to fans,

the very first scene of the episode was  something the actors would never forget.

Ozymandias opens on a flashback of Walter  and Jesse's very first cook years earlier,

requiring both actors to look like  their season one selves again.

This scene was the very final scene  that we shot of the whole series.

They saved it for the final day.

I mean, because I had a serious beard,

I had to shave my goatee.

Aaron was just walking around  with a mantra of depression —

"This is horrible.

This is awful."

And he'd look like this.

I have such a personal  relationship with Jesse Pinkman,

and I love him dearly.

And it's sad to me that — that I  will never play Jesse Pinkman again.

When you're a part of  something special for so long,

it's never easy when it ends.

Ironically, the fact that nothing lasts forever

is central to the theme of the  episode and its titular inspiration.

"Ozymandias" is a poem that  I've loved since high school.

What I think it says

is that we human beings like to see ourselves

as being remembered long after our  deaths through our works and our deeds.

And Walter White, unfortunately, has chosen  bad works and misdeeds, on some level.

Does he want to be remembered for that?

And will he be remembered for that?

The one thing that will be remembered

is a show that transcended cinematic boundaries.

This is the greatest experience of our lives,

and the life-changing impression  it left on its creators.

You truly have made me become such a better actor,

and — uh — uh — I truly believe a better person.

So, thank you.

Oh, I just — I — I love you, man.

You know.

Oh, god damn it.

Um — I love you, man.

I'm Adam.

This is ScreenPuff.

If you enjoyed watching this  as much as I enjoyed making it,

check out this next video.

And, as always, thank you for watching.