Quizzes › Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad Trivia Quiz
Breaking Bad follows Walter White, a struggling high-school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque who, after a terminal lung cancer diagnosis, starts cooking crystal meth with his former student Jesse Pinkman to secure his family's future. Over five seasons he hardens into the ruthless drug kingpin known as Heisenberg, while his DEA brother-in-law Hank unknowingly hunts him.
Q1. Breaking Bad is set and filmed in which city?
Answer: Albuquerque. The early scripts were set in Riverside, California. Sony suggested shooting in Albuquerque because New Mexico offered better financial terms, and Vince Gilligan then moved the story there too, because otherwise every eastward shot would have had to avoid the Sandia Mountains. Filming was based at Albuquerque Studios.
Q2. Which network finally picked up Breaking Bad?
Answer: AMC. Showtime passed because it already had Weeds, HBO and TNT passed too, and FX chose another drama, Dirt, instead. AMC was looking for original shows to sit alongside its upcoming Mad Men, and its programming team was keen from the first meeting. It still took about a year to get production started.
Q3. What business does Skyler buy to launder Walt's drug money?
Answer: A car wash. In season four Skyler accepts Walt's meth cooking and works with Saul to launder the earnings by buying the car wash where Walt used to work. It is a neat bit of symmetry: the series opens with Walt being diagnosed with cancer after collapsing at that same car wash.
Q4. Which lawyer connects Walt and Jesse to Gus Fring?
Answer: Saul Goodman. Walt hires the corrupt lawyer in season two after Badger is arrested. Bob Odenkirk was offered the part when Saul was planned for only the last four episodes of that season; he came up with the comb-over himself, and the character later got his own series, Better Call Saul.
Q5. What colour is Walt's famous product?
Answer: Blue. The blue tint is a recurring plot point, even though truly pure crystal meth would be colourless or white. The prop used in the first two seasons was made by Debbie Ball of The Candy Lady in Albuquerque, who said her first version was clear before the production chose blue.
Q6. Vince Gilligan cast Bryan Cranston because they had worked together on which series?
Answer: The X-Files. Gilligan wrote for The X-Files and remembered Cranston from the episode "Drive", where he played a hostage-taker with a terminal illness who was both loathsome and sympathetic. AMC only knew Cranston as Hal from Malcolm in the Middle and was convinced after watching that episode.
Q7. Hank finds the initials "W.W." in Gale's notes. Who does Walt claim they refer to?
Answer: Walt Whitman. Walt brushes it off in "Bullet Points". In the season five mid-season finale, "Gliding Over All", Hank finds Walt's copy of Leaves of Grass with Gale's inscription "To my other favorite W.W." in the bathroom, and that is the moment he realises Walt is Heisenberg.
Q8. Where does Walt bury the roughly $80 million he makes in season five?
Answer: On the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation. The money comes from Lydia's European distribution of Walt's product. Jesse later helps Hank track the money to the reservation, which leads to Walt's arrest and the shootout in which Jack's gang kills Hank and takes most of the cash.
Q9. What does Walt use to poison Brock in season four?
Answer: Lily of the valley. Walt poisons Brock with the plant to make Jesse believe Gus is responsible, turning Jesse against him. Walt then persuades Hector Salamanca to set off a bomb during a meeting with Gus at the nursing home, killing them both and ending season four.
Q10. Why was the first season only seven episodes long?
Answer: The 2007–08 Writers Guild strike. AMC had ordered nine episodes. Gould later said the strike "saved the show": the original arc moved too fast and would have killed off Jesse or Hank, and he believes that path would have led to cancellation by the third season.
Q11. What did Gilligan originally plan for Jesse Pinkman?
Answer: To kill him off at the end of season one. Jesse was meant to die in a botched drug deal so his death could haunt Walt with guilt. By the second episode Gilligan was so impressed with Aaron Paul that killing him off looked like "a huge, colossal mistake". Paul went on to win three Emmys for the role.
Q12. Put in order, the titles of four season two episodes form which sentence?
Answer: Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ. Those episodes open with black-and-white flash-forwards in which only a pink teddy bear is in colour, a nod to Schindler's List. The finale reveals the mid-air collision caused by Jane's grieving father, an air traffic controller, and the bear falls into the Whites' pool.
Q13. Which song plays over the final scene of the series?
Answer: "Baby Blue" by Badfinger. Gilligan picked the song himself after thinking of it while writing the finale, "Felina". The New Yorker read it as Walt's love song to his blue product. Music supervisor Thomas Golubić said budget limits often pushed the show towards less obvious song choices like this.
Q14. Before AMC agreed to Bryan Cranston, which actors did it approach for Walter White?
Answer: John Cusack and Matthew Broderick. AMC was nervous about Cranston because it knew him only as Hal from Malcolm in the Middle. Both Cusack and Broderick turned the role down. Cranston then built much of Walt himself, gaining ten pounds, dyeing out his red hair and designing what he called a "dead caterpillar" moustache.
Q15. Which network almost made Breaking Bad but chose the drama Dirt instead?
Answer: FX. FX began talks on a pilot but already had three male-led dramas and went with Dirt, a female-centred crime series. Ironically, FX came back around 2010 offering two more seasons when AMC was thinking of ending the show after season three, which helped change AMC's mind.
Q16. Which chemistry professor checked the show's scripts and drew its chemical structures?
Answer: Donna Nelson. Nelson, an organic chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma, offered to help after watching the show. She reviewed scripts, helped with dialogue and wrote equations used as props. The production also consulted a DEA chemist in Dallas, but there was never a full-time science adviser on set.
Q17. Why did the pilot attract only about 1.4 million viewers?
Answer: An NFL playoff game ran over and cut into its slot. AMC scheduled the premiere on NFL conference championship night hoping to catch male viewers after the game, but the game overran into Breaking Bad's slot across most of America. Viewing grew every season, especially after Netflix added the show, and the finale drew more than 10.3 million.
Q18. MythBusters tested several Breaking Bad scenes. Which one did it find plausible?
Answer: The car-mounted machine gun in the finale. The 2013 special found that hydrofluoric acid would not dissolve metal, flesh and ceramic as shown, and that the fulminated mercury blast would need far more compound. A later episode found the automated machine gun from "Felina" plausible, while MythBusters Jr. rejected the electromagnet scene.
Q19. Dave Porter's score avoids a Western orchestra. Which instrument in the main title theme is the exception?
Answer: A resonator guitar. Porter built the score from ethnic instruments, found sounds, field recordings, synthesisers and electric guitar, processed digitally into new textures. He said the resonator guitar in the theme was the one conventionally Western sound, though the sparse style was inspired by films like Once Upon a Time in the West.
Q20. After the finale, fans held a mock funeral for Walter White in Albuquerque. What did the tickets raise money for?
Answer: A local homeless healthcare charity. In October 2013 a procession with a hearse and a replica of the RV went to Sunset Memorial Park, where a headstone with Cranston's photo was placed. Tickets raised nearly $17,000 for Healthcare for the Homeless. In 2022 Gilligan and Sony also gave the city a bronze statue of Walt and Jesse.
Breaking Bad quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
-
Breaking Bad is set and filmed in which city?
Answer: Albuquerque. The early scripts were set in Riverside, California. Sony suggested shooting in Albuquerque because New Mexico offered better financial terms, and Vince Gilligan then moved the story there too, because otherwise every eastward shot would have had to avoid the Sandia Mountains. Filming was based at Albuquerque Studios.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Which network finally picked up Breaking Bad?
Answer: AMC. Showtime passed because it already had Weeds, HBO and TNT passed too, and FX chose another drama, Dirt, instead. AMC was looking for original shows to sit alongside its upcoming Mad Men, and its programming team was keen from the first meeting. It still took about a year to get production started.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
What business does Skyler buy to launder Walt's drug money?
Answer: A car wash. In season four Skyler accepts Walt's meth cooking and works with Saul to launder the earnings by buying the car wash where Walt used to work. It is a neat bit of symmetry: the series opens with Walt being diagnosed with cancer after collapsing at that same car wash.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Which lawyer connects Walt and Jesse to Gus Fring?
Answer: Saul Goodman. Walt hires the corrupt lawyer in season two after Badger is arrested. Bob Odenkirk was offered the part when Saul was planned for only the last four episodes of that season; he came up with the comb-over himself, and the character later got his own series, Better Call Saul.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
What colour is Walt's famous product?
Answer: Blue. The blue tint is a recurring plot point, even though truly pure crystal meth would be colourless or white. The prop used in the first two seasons was made by Debbie Ball of The Candy Lady in Albuquerque, who said her first version was clear before the production chose blue.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Vince Gilligan cast Bryan Cranston because they had worked together on which series?
Answer: The X-Files. Gilligan wrote for The X-Files and remembered Cranston from the episode "Drive", where he played a hostage-taker with a terminal illness who was both loathsome and sympathetic. AMC only knew Cranston as Hal from Malcolm in the Middle and was convinced after watching that episode.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Hank finds the initials "W.W." in Gale's notes. Who does Walt claim they refer to?
Answer: Walt Whitman. Walt brushes it off in "Bullet Points". In the season five mid-season finale, "Gliding Over All", Hank finds Walt's copy of Leaves of Grass with Gale's inscription "To my other favorite W.W." in the bathroom, and that is the moment he realises Walt is Heisenberg.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Where does Walt bury the roughly $80 million he makes in season five?
Answer: On the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation. The money comes from Lydia's European distribution of Walt's product. Jesse later helps Hank track the money to the reservation, which leads to Walt's arrest and the shootout in which Jack's gang kills Hank and takes most of the cash.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
What does Walt use to poison Brock in season four?
Answer: Lily of the valley. Walt poisons Brock with the plant to make Jesse believe Gus is responsible, turning Jesse against him. Walt then persuades Hector Salamanca to set off a bomb during a meeting with Gus at the nursing home, killing them both and ending season four.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Why was the first season only seven episodes long?
Answer: The 2007–08 Writers Guild strike. AMC had ordered nine episodes. Gould later said the strike "saved the show": the original arc moved too fast and would have killed off Jesse or Hank, and he believes that path would have led to cancellation by the third season.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
What did Gilligan originally plan for Jesse Pinkman?
Answer: To kill him off at the end of season one. Jesse was meant to die in a botched drug deal so his death could haunt Walt with guilt. By the second episode Gilligan was so impressed with Aaron Paul that killing him off looked like "a huge, colossal mistake". Paul went on to win three Emmys for the role.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Put in order, the titles of four season two episodes form which sentence?
Answer: Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ. Those episodes open with black-and-white flash-forwards in which only a pink teddy bear is in colour, a nod to Schindler's List. The finale reveals the mid-air collision caused by Jane's grieving father, an air traffic controller, and the bear falls into the Whites' pool.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Which song plays over the final scene of the series?
Answer: "Baby Blue" by Badfinger. Gilligan picked the song himself after thinking of it while writing the finale, "Felina". The New Yorker read it as Walt's love song to his blue product. Music supervisor Thomas Golubić said budget limits often pushed the show towards less obvious song choices like this.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Before AMC agreed to Bryan Cranston, which actors did it approach for Walter White?
Answer: John Cusack and Matthew Broderick. AMC was nervous about Cranston because it knew him only as Hal from Malcolm in the Middle. Both Cusack and Broderick turned the role down. Cranston then built much of Walt himself, gaining ten pounds, dyeing out his red hair and designing what he called a "dead caterpillar" moustache.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Which network almost made Breaking Bad but chose the drama Dirt instead?
Answer: FX. FX began talks on a pilot but already had three male-led dramas and went with Dirt, a female-centred crime series. Ironically, FX came back around 2010 offering two more seasons when AMC was thinking of ending the show after season three, which helped change AMC's mind.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Which chemistry professor checked the show's scripts and drew its chemical structures?
Answer: Donna Nelson. Nelson, an organic chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma, offered to help after watching the show. She reviewed scripts, helped with dialogue and wrote equations used as props. The production also consulted a DEA chemist in Dallas, but there was never a full-time science adviser on set.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Why did the pilot attract only about 1.4 million viewers?
Answer: An NFL playoff game ran over and cut into its slot. AMC scheduled the premiere on NFL conference championship night hoping to catch male viewers after the game, but the game overran into Breaking Bad's slot across most of America. Viewing grew every season, especially after Netflix added the show, and the finale drew more than 10.3 million.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
MythBusters tested several Breaking Bad scenes. Which one did it find plausible?
Answer: The car-mounted machine gun in the finale. The 2013 special found that hydrofluoric acid would not dissolve metal, flesh and ceramic as shown, and that the fulminated mercury blast would need far more compound. A later episode found the automated machine gun from "Felina" plausible, while MythBusters Jr. rejected the electromagnet scene.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
Dave Porter's score avoids a Western orchestra. Which instrument in the main title theme is the exception?
Answer: A resonator guitar. Porter built the score from ethnic instruments, found sounds, field recordings, synthesisers and electric guitar, processed digitally into new textures. He said the resonator guitar in the theme was the one conventionally Western sound, though the sparse style was inspired by films like Once Upon a Time in the West.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
-
After the finale, fans held a mock funeral for Walter White in Albuquerque. What did the tickets raise money for?
Answer: A local homeless healthcare charity. In October 2013 a procession with a hearse and a replica of the RV went to Sunset Memorial Park, where a headstone with Cranston's photo was placed. Tickets raised nearly $17,000 for Healthcare for the Homeless. In 2022 Gilligan and Sony also gave the city a bronze statue of Walt and Jesse.
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad by the numbers
- Seasons
- 5
- Episodes
- 62
- First aired
- 20 January 2008
- Last aired
- 29 September 2013
- Primetime Emmys
- 16 wins (58 nominations)
- Pilot viewers (US)
- about 1.4 million
- Finale viewers (US)
- over 10.3 million
- Cost per episode
- about $3m early on, over $6m by season 5
Source: Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
About the Breaking Bad quiz
Breaking Bad was planned tightly enough that small details matter, but its production story is just as dramatic. Several networks passed on it, AMC wanted different actors for Walter White, a writers' strike cut the first season short, and a chemistry professor checked the science. A good Breaking Bad quiz can test both: how well you followed Walt's descent, and how well you know the people who almost didn't let it happen.
Questions span all five seasons — Walt and Jesse's partnership, the rise of Heisenberg, Hank's DEA investigation, Gus Fring and the cartel, Saul Goodman, and the memorable lines and deaths along the way.
What this Breaking Bad quiz covers
The quiz follows Walt's whole arc across all five seasons, from the car wash diagnosis to the Tohajiilee money and "Felina", but it skips the questions every Breaking Bad quiz asks. Later rounds turn to how the show was made: why it moved to Albuquerque, the networks that passed on it, the casting fights, the chemistry adviser, the music and what MythBusters made of its most famous scenes. Each answer below tells the story behind it and links to the source.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
Breaking Bad quiz — frequently asked questions
Does this include Better Call Saul or El Camino?
No. Every question is about the original five seasons and how they were made, so you do not need to have seen the prequel or the film.
Will it spoil the ending?
It assumes you have finished the series. A few answers mention late-season events, including the final scene, so stop before the answer key if you are still watching.
Is it mostly plot or behind-the-scenes?
Roughly half and half. The easy and medium rounds lean on the story; the hard and expert rounds cover casting, networks, music, MythBusters and the fan reaction to the finale.