“Your .22, against my .45. Winner takes all.”
“Like the Wild West?”
“Yeah. Like the Wild West.”
‒ Neil Kandy and Jesse Pinkman in El Camino ‒ A Breaking Bad Movie
El Camino ‒ A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) is set immediately after the end of the last episode of the highly enjoyable series Breaking Bad. It features an interesting shootout which I examine here in GURPS terms, specifically using GURPS Tactical Shooting.
Watch just the scene here (the action starts at 01:01). Stop reading if you want to avoid SPOILERS.
Round per Round
Prelude: On 10-SEP-2010, Jesse Pinkman confronts Neil Kandy as well as his henchmen Casey, Colin, Kyle, and Sean in the grubby “lounge” of the Kandy Welding Company at 1959 Odella Road in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kandy challenges Pinkman to a pistol duel. Both are in Triggered mode (Tactical Shooting, p. 34) and about 3 m apart. Kandy is armed with a Kimber Ultra Raptor II semiautomatic pistol in .45 ACP, which he carries in a Yaqui-style outside-the-belt holster. The Kimber Ultra Raptor II is a fancy copy of the Colt Commander semiautomatic pistol (GURPS High-Tech, p. 102). Kandy carries it in Condition Two (Tactical Shooting, p. 8) but puts it in Condition Zero by cocking the hammer in preparation for the shootout (at 00:00). Pinkman is armed with his grandfather’s Colt Woodsman semiautomatic pistol in .22 LR (GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns 1, p. 19) which he has stuffed into the front of his trousers. Unbeknownst to the others, he also carries a Harrington & Richardson Bicycle Hammerless revolver in .32 S&W in the left pocket of his leather jacket. This is a snubnosed hammerless pocket revolver similar to the Iver Johnson Safety Automatic Hammerless revolver (High-Tech: Pulp Guns 1, p. 8). The other three men are unarmed, although Casey eyes his Glock 17 semiautomatic pistol in 9×19mm Parabellum (High-Tech, p. 100) in a holster hung from a coat hanger in the corner.
1st Second: Kandy prepares for a Quick Contest between Kandy’s and Pinkman’s Fast-Draw (Tactical Shooting, p. 10). However, Pinkman has no intention to draw ‒ he already has a Ready weapon, the concealed revolver in his pocket! Pinkman instead substitutes Guns (Pistol) for Fast-Draw (Pistol) in the Quick Contest. Kandy gets -10 to Fast-Draw (Pistol) in addition to -1 (Bulk), for a total of -11 to Fast-Draw (Pistol). Pinkman gets -4 (off hand) (p. B14) to Guns (Pistol). Pinkman wins the Quick Contest. Since the revolver has a double-action-only trigger (High-Tech, p. 82) and is in Condition Two, he doesn’t need to do anything else to ready it. Pinkman then takes an Attack manoeuvre and fires three one-handed (Tactical Shooting, p. 11) unsighted (Tactical Shooting, p. 13) hip-shots (Tactical Shooting, p. 11) at Kandy; -1 (range) -4 (off hand) = -5 to Guns (Pistol). He makes his attack roll. Kandy gets no Dodge roll since he is unaware of the attack. He is hit by all three shots in the torso; two hit nothing specific for two times 1d+1 pi- (average 7 damage points). One of the torso hits near his solar plexus goes to the vitals (High-Tech, p. 162), for three times 1d+1 pi- (average 13.5 damage points). That puts the total loss at 18 points, and Kandy is at 0 HP or less and needs to make an immediate HT roll to avoid knockdown and stun (p. B420) and a HT roll at the start of his next turn to avoid unconsciousness (p. B419). He makes the immediate HT roll and keeps standing. The liner of Pinkman’s pocket starts smouldering from the muzzle flashes. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
2nd Second: Kandy fails his HT roll and falls unconscious, dropping his pistol and starting to slide down the door. Pinkman takes an Attack manoeuvre and fires two more one-handed unsighted hip-shots at Kandy, emptying the five-shot revolver; -1 (range) -4 (off hand) = -5 to Guns (Pistol). He makes his attack roll. Kandy gets no Dodge roll since he is unconscious. He is hit by one shot in the torso near his right shoulder for 1d+1 pi- (average 2.25 damage points) and one shot in the neck for 1d+1 pi- (average average 2.25 damage points). Kandy is at -1×HP or less and needs to make an immediate HT roll or die (p. B419). He fails and is dead. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
3rd Second: Pinkman takes a Do Nothing manoeuvre and removes his left hand from the pocket. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
4th Second: Pinkman takes a Ready manoeuvre and draws the pistol from his belt. Casey takes a Move manoeuvre and takes two steps to the coat hanger. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
5th Second: Pinkman takes a Ready manoeuvre to put off the safety of the pistol to put it from Condition One into Condition Zero, taking a Step to turn towards Casey. Casey takes a Ready manoeuvre and draws the pistol from its holster, taking a Step to turn towards Pinkman. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
6th Second: Pinkman takes an Attack manoeuvre to fire three one-handed unsighted shots with his pistol, taking a Step backwards; -1 (range) = -1 to Guns (Pistol). He fails his attack roll and the shots miss, blowing out the glass pane behind Casey instead. Casey takes an Attack manoeuvre to fire three one-handed unsighted shots with his pistol, taking a Step to the right; -1 (range) = -1 to Guns (Pistol). He fails his attack roll and the shots miss. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
7th Second: Pinkman takes a Ready manoeuvre to pick up Kandy’s dropped pistol, taking a Step backwards and bending down (p. B383). He drops his pistol as a free action. Casey takes an Attack manoeuvre to fire three one-handed unsighted shots with his pistol, taking a Step to the right; -1 (range) = -1 to Guns (Pistol). He fails his attack roll and the shots miss. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
8th Second: Pinkman takes a Ready manoeuvre to continue readying Kandy’s dropped pistol, assuming a two-handed grip and taking a Step to his right. Casey takes an Attack manoeuvre to fire three one-handed unsighted shots with his pistol, taking a Step to the right; -1 (range) = -1 to Guns (Pistol). He fails his attack roll and the shots miss. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
9th Second: Pinkman takes an All-Out Attack (Determined) manoeuvre to fire three two-handed (Tactical Shooting, pp. 11-12) sighted (Tactical Shooting, p. 13) shots with Kandy’s pistol; -1 (range) +1 (All-Out Attack) = +0 to Guns (Pistol). He fails his attack roll and the shots miss, blowing out two glass panes behind Casey instead. Casey takes a Move and Attack manoeuvre to fire three one-handed unsighted shots with his pistol, moving further to the right to put more distance between them; -2 (range) -2 (Bulk) = -4 to Guns (Pistol). He fails his attack roll and the shots miss. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres.
10th Second: Pinkman takes an All-Out Attack (Determined) manoeuvre to fire three two-handed sighted shots with Kandy’s pistol; -2 (range) +1 (All-Out Attack) = -1 to Guns (Pistol). He makes his attack roll and one shot hits Casey in the skull (p. B399), for four times 2d pi+ (average 20 damage points). Casey is at -1×HP or less and needs to make an immediate HT roll or die. He fails the roll and drops dead, head-first into a vending machine. The others take Do Nothing manoeuvres. A couple of seconds later, Pinkman’s smouldering jacket liner flares up into flames.
In the film, the scene is 20 seconds long, as it cuts between showing the different characters, although much of the action evolves simultaneously.
Results
“Dude, you’re on fire!”
‒ Kyle in El Camino ‒ A Breaking Bad Movie
Pinkman took a calculated risk by firing from his pocket, hoping the surprise would outweigh the disadvantage of not being able to fire sighted shots. Of course, the hammerless pocket revolver is ideal for this kind of shooting, although it is chambered for a weak round. Remarkably, he made all five shots count.
In facing Casey, Pinkman again took a considerable risk to change weapons like he did. Against a better shot, this could have ended badly for him. He probably did not trust his own shooting enough to finish Casey off with the .22-calibre weapon. He did not shoot too well with Kandy’s pistol either, five misses and the sixth shot probably sheer Luck. He had only one (or two, if Kandy carried +1) shots left when the fight was over.
The burning jacket was a nice touch; this kind of thing is known to happen when shots are fired from inside a pocket.
Shooting Dice 