Vince Gilligan’s Sharpest Breaking Bad Twist Was Inspired by a Quentin Tarantino Deep Cut on Apple TV

Breaking Bad isn’t a Tarantino movie in disguise, but you can absolutely feel a little Pulp Fiction in its DNA. The show borrows a few stylistic moves, bends tone in similar ways, and sometimes winks at the same crime-movie playbook. None of this is a knock; it’s part of why Breaking Bad feels so cinematic.

So did Pulp Fiction actually rub off on Breaking Bad?

Short answer: yeah, in the way any savvy filmmaker absorbs the coolest tricks they’ve seen and makes them their own. Quentin Tarantino popularized the low, inside-the-car 'trunk shot,' and Vince Gilligan deploys that exact angle in Breaking Bad when Walt pops his trunk to grab a stashed gun. The framing isn’t a copy-and-paste; it’s a nod with a purpose.

The parallels keep popping up once you notice them. Jane’s overdose echoes Mia Wallace’s OD: both scenes are shot with a chilling mix of calm and panic, but Gilligan pushes his version into tragedy. Hank’s big bathroom discovery has the same dramatic setup as Vincent Vega’s quiet, on-the-toilet reading session before everything explodes. Even the diner vibe aligns: that jarringly ordinary space right after chaos hits. If you like connecting dots, a fan account highlighted some of these visual rhymes in a post on November 7, 2025 — here’s the tweet.

This isn’t evidence of copying; it’s style cross-pollination. And Tarantino’s always been open about where he gets his ideas:

'I steal from every single movie ever made.'

Gilligan does the same thing great storytellers do: he studies what works and retools it for his world.

Characters and names that feel like deliberate winks

Tell me 'White' and 'Pinkman' doesn’t ping your memory of Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. White and Mr. Pink. It’s not proof of anything, just a suspiciously tidy echo that fits Gilligan’s habit of planting subtle nods for anyone paying attention.

There’s also a vibe overlap in the odd-couple partnerships. Walt and Jesse aren’t clones of Jules and Vincent, but the dynamic is familiar: a calculating pro paired with a chaotic counterpart, bickering mid-crime, casually talking about normal stuff between life-or-death decisions. It’s that collision of banter and danger that both projects play so well.

The shared secret sauce: tone

What really links the two is tone. Pulp Fiction toggles between violence, gallows humor, and casual conversation without losing momentum. Breaking Bad does a calmer, more grounded version of that. It doesn’t hopscotch through time the way Pulp Fiction does, but it’s fearless about mood: brutal one minute, awkwardly funny the next, then suddenly quiet and menacing. That tonal agility is a big reason Breaking Bad still feels like event cinema, even as a TV show.

• Quick stats: Breaking Bad — created by Vince Gilligan; produced by High Bridge Entertainment, Gran Via Productions, and Sony Pictures Television; IMDb 9.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes 96%. Pulp Fiction — written and directed by Quentin Tarantino; produced by A Band Apart and Jersey Films; IMDb 8.8/10; Rotten Tomatoes 92%.

Vince Gilligan’s back with Pluribus

After a quiet stretch, Gilligan has a new Apple TV+ series called Pluribus, and it’s him playing in a different sandbox. The first two episodes dropped November 7, 2025, kicking off a nine-episode season that rolls out every Friday through December 26. He created it and directs it himself, and he set it (naturally) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Rhea Seehorn leads as Carol Sturka, a woman who stays stubbornly miserable while a mysterious force turns everyone else unnaturally happy. She might be the only person left who can actually feel normal, which also makes her the one person who can fix the problem. The supporting cast includes Karolina Wydra and Carlos Manuel Vesga. Next episode lands November 14, 2025.

Where to watch

Pulp Fiction and Breaking Bad are both available to rent on Apple TV+. Pluribus is streaming now on Apple TV+. If you’ve started Pluribus, I want to hear if the Gilligan fingerprints pop for you the same way.