Corrected entry: The story goes back 16 years. Walt and Skyler are visiting the house they would later buy and the realtor decides to leave them to go to the car and "make some phone calls." But there would be no cellphones back then.
Phaneron
26th Nov 2021
Breaking Bad (2008)
Correction: Breaking Bad takes place between 2008 and 2010, so if we go back 16 years, that would place the flashback around 1992. Aside from the other correction mentioning car phones, cell phones did indeed exist in 1992.
14th Jul 2018
Breaking Bad (2008)
Dead Freight - S5-E5
Plot hole: Preparing to steal methylamine from the train, Walt, Jesse and Mike measure off a predetermined distance from the railroad crossing, which happens to coincide with a handy arroyo, where they bury their tanks. Problem is that they couldn't have known that distance (calculated by knowing the position of the methylamine tanker car in the train) until Lydia told them. But she didn't call that info in until the night after they'd already buried the tanks.
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Suggested correction: They were counting on the tankers being at the back of the train, far enough away and at a curved angle so that the conductors wouldn't see them, and the hoses they were using would have been long enough to reach the tankers on either side of the one they stole from. Their heist hinged on a lot of educated guesses and luck, especially because they would have had to abort if the tanker was at the front of the train, but being lucky doesn't make it a plot hole.
I'd have to respectfully disagree. When they paced off the distance to the trestle over the arroyo, they had a particular number in mind (814). It's not explained whether this number represented knowledge of how far back the tank car would be if the engine stopped at the crossing. But if it did, how could they have known that? Not even Lydia knew until much later. And why would they assume the tank car would be toward the back of the train? Lydia doesn't mention that. When she calls Walt, all she says is, "I've got it." And even if she were to tell him, at that point everything's in place for the heist to happen at the location where the tank are buried.
IIRC the crew contacted an expert on hazardous materials shipping for advice on the scene. Rail guidelines require tankers containing hazardous materials are at a minimum "six-deep", that is, six cars away from the engine. Lydia probably told them in advance how long the train would be in terms of cars, so they had a rough guideline for which three or four tankers could possibly contain the methylamine. From there, it seems like their hoses were long enough to get to any of the other cars.
The 814 feet was to ensure that the spot they chose would be far enough away from the conductors so as to not be seen. And they weren't assuming the tankers would be at the back, they were just hoping they would be. As I mentioned, if the tankers were at the front, they wouldn't have been able to move forward with the mission. Lydia told them they would only have 6 hours to prepare for the heist after she told them where the tanker would be. That wouldn't have been enough time for them to get an excavator out there and dig the holes for their own tanks to transfer the methylamine into, so they had to guess the best spot to do it ahead of time and hope that's where it would end up being.
9th Apr 2015
Breaking Bad (2008)
Corrected entry: The ricin poison that was originally intended to kill Gus, and which was 'apparently' intended for use on Brock, doesn't make sense. Brock was fine in the morning, but fell ill at night, seems legit. However, Jesse exclaims to Walt that he had the cigarette containing the poison the same morning. Earlier in the series, Walt had explained that after indigestion, it would take 36 hours for any effects to have taken place, so, in this instance, Brock could not be hospitalized within 12 hours.
31st Jul 2013
Breaking Bad (2008)
Corrected entry: In the opening teaser scene they show a man in a hazmat suit bagging evidence from the later revealed plane crash. One of the bags contain the eyeball from the pink bear. However in a future episode Hank discovers it in the pool filter, after the hazmat team would have bagged it. (00:00:55)
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Correction: Carphones have existed for many years, certainly around the time period referenced here. They were prevalent by the 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_phone.