"Breaking Bad" Filming Locations - Wish List of Undetermined Locations

This post is the eighth of eight posts regarding "Breaking Bad" filming locations (last updated January 28, 2024).

The Blog Sidebar contains links to Filming Location posts.  These include:

• Eight "Breaking Bad" filming location posts;
• Four additional posts regarding "Breaking Bad" related subjects;
• Eight "Better Call Saul" filming location posts;
• Two additional posts regarding "Better Call Saul" related subjects;
• One additional post regarding Surrealist artistic influences in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul";
• One post regarding "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie";
• Three links to OldeSaultie's Google maps of "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" filming location sites. These are the best filming location maps on the Web! The KML files available at these addresses are particularly useful for importing locations into GPS-equipped devices.

Let me know if you have any problems or questions (E-Mail address: valdezmarc56@gmail.com).

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To avoid unnecessary friction, I have redacted the addresses of all single-family homes in these books. (These addresses are still available at Marc Valdez Weblog, however.)  The pictures in the print editions are black-and-white, in order to keep costs down. 

"A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Including 'Better Call Saul' - Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character" (Sixth Edition)

Purchase book at the link.                                                                                                                   This book outlines thirty-three circuits that the avid fan can travel in order to visit up to 679 different filming locations for "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" in the Albuquerque area.  Some background is provided for each site, including other movies that might have also used the site for filming.

"‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations” (Second Edition)

Purchase book at the link.                                                                                                        “‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols,” aims to understand some of the symbolism embedded in the backgrounds of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” in order to decode messages and stories Vince Gilligan and crew have hidden there.                                                                                                    A series of tables are used to isolate how certain (particularly architectural) features are used: Gentle Arches, Tin Ceilings, Five-Pointed Stars, Octagons, etc. Daylighting innovations that were either pioneered or promoted in Chicago are examined: Glass Block Windows, Luxfer Prismatic Tile Windows, and Plate Glass Windows.

Certain symbols advance the plot: foreshadowing symbols like Pueblo Deco Arches, or danger symbols like bell shapes and stagger symbols. Other features, like Glass Block Windows or Parallel Beams in the Ceiling, tell stories about the legacies and corruptions of modernity, particularly those best-displayed at Chicago’s “Century of Progress” (1933-34). 

In addition, a number of scenes in the show are modeled after Early Surrealist artworks. The traces of various artists can be tracked in both shows, including: Comte de Lautréamont, Giorgio De Chirico, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte, Toyen, Yves Tanguy, Remedios Varo, Paul Klee, and in particular, Salvador Dalí.

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Seahorse Sea Hell

Student-made anti-drug poster, currently on the wall at Tucson Regional Ballet.

Unfinished Business - Public Appeal

"OldeSaultie" and myself have had considerable success determining filming locations by using Google Earth and other tools, but there is a hard nugget of sites that seem to resist quick determination, often because they are interior spaces that many people don't see very often, or exterior places that have changed character lately. Even experienced, lifelong Albuquerque natives may have trouble with them. None of these sites are really secret, however. There are plenty of people - thousands, assuredly - who can instantly recognize some of these places, or at least offer reasonable guesses. So, if you have a guess, please drop a line, either in comments or by E-Mail, and help us out. We would be very grateful for any assistance you can provide! (E-Mail address: valdezmarc56@gmail.com)

Wish List

Breaking Bad Pilot, Walter White home (Season 1, episode 1, 'Pilot'). Vince Gilligan mentions in Season 1 DVD commentary ("Better Call Saul", Season 1, episode 10, 'Marco') that portions of the Pilot episode were filmed in a warehouse near Hamlin's Office. Is that I-25 Studios, 1.5 miles from the Hamlin offices? Or some other facility?


Opening sequence (Season 3, episode 2, "Caballo sin Nombre"). Time lapse & montage scenes at start. Out near "Q" Studios?

Opening sequence (Season 3, episode 2, 'Caballo sin Nombre'). Time lapse & montage scenes at start. Volcano cliffs. Petroglyphs National Monument, Unser Blvd. and St. Josephs Ave. NW. Rocks with thunderhead. At first, I guessed (35.128684, -106.723808), but there are so many rocks there, it's difficult to state with any certainty. Other possiblities are Atrisco Vista Rd. near Double Eagle Airport, and I-25 north of Belen.

'Are We Safe?' parking lot, (Season 3, episode 9, 'Kafkaesque'). Near Gibson Hospital.


First of the three houses Marie visits on her kleptomaniac journey, and where she meets “Michael Killmore” (Season 4, Episode 3, 'Open House').

Assistant Locations Manager Alex Gianopoulos said that this location is near, or adjacent, to House 3 on Marie's journey (8503 La Sala Grande NE). I've walked around the neighborhood twice trying to identify likely candidates, but still am not satisfied.

On November 6, 2014, I got a tip that the large house at about 5133 Sunningdale Ave. NE in Albuquerque (with pillars in front) was this location. Need to verify the tip.

Walt gets gambling addiction therapy (Season 4, episode 4, 'Bullet Points').

Looks like the University of New Mexico.

[UPDATE: 07/15/22: Recently, James Gelet noticed that there is a problem with the second half of the Affordable Auto Sales scene (Season 4, episode 6, 'Cornered'). The billboard in the scene doesn't exist at this location. They filmed this part of the scene somewhere else, but we don't know where. James asks: "Do you know anything about this shot? Looking in that direction from the car lot is completely different? Was there an actual change at that location? Did they use a different location for that one shot? (That seems very unlikely.) Or was some digital trickery added?" If anyone has any ideas, let us know! (valdezmarc56@gmail.com).

Church basement (Season 4, episode 7, 'Problem Dog'). Jesse's self-help group.

Nighttime Drive (Season 5, episode 1, 'Live Free Or Die'). Perhaps on Coors Blvd. NW?

Nighttime on Paseo del Norte Overpass over Coors Rd. NW.

Mike's Interrogation (Season 5, episode 6, 'Buyout').

This may be a studio location, but I don't know.

Tented houses (Various, such as red, white, and blue fireplug)
Interiors
(Season 5, episode 7, 'Say My Name')
(Season 5, episode 8, 'Gliding Over All') 'Crystal Blue Persuasion' (1,7,10,12,20,26)


Razor wire fence (Season 5, episode 8, 'Gliding Over All'). Part of montage at sunset.

Airports (Season 5, episode 8, 'Gliding Over All'). Jumbo jet takeoff is likely LAX ('Crystal Blue Persuasion', segments 6 & 17). The rest are currently unknown.

Suburb (Season 5, episode 8, 'Gliding Over All'). Aerial shot. 'Crystal Blue Persuasion'.

This aerial shot should be a slam-dunk, but because Google Earth's and Bing.com's images are slightly out-dated, or for some other reason, this place remains elusive. It is always possible this cgi-generated film segment is entirely-artificial, but it seems logical they would start from a real aerial shot: whether from Albuquerque, California's Inland Empire, or somewhere else. Where that other place might be, I don't know.

Jesse's Woodworking Shop (Season 5b, episode 16, 'Felina'). The studio?

More Interiors

Gretchen and Elliott's kitchen, (Season 1, episode 5, 'Gray Matter'). Gretchen calls Walt.

Andrea's bedroom, (Season 3, episode 11, 'Abiquiú').

Gale's Apt. interior (Season 3, episode 13, 'Full Measure'; Season 4, episode 1, 'Boxcutter'). I'm beginning to suspect, because of the Pueblo Deco arches, that this place may be Jesse and Jane's duplex, elaborately disguised (323 & 325 Terrace St. SE).

Mike's Interrogation, (Season 5, episode 6, 'Buyout'). Studio?

Marie's Counselor Dave's place, (Season 5, episode 12, 'Rabid Dog'). Resembles Huning Highlands house.