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.
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.
Corrected entry: In the famous mugshot of Walter against a height chart, the chart goes up in nice 2 inch increments until 5'8." It then jumps to 6'0", completely skipping 5'10". Did they forget there are 12 inches in a foot, not 10?
Correction: This picture was never used in the show. This looks to be fan-made. Regardless, this picture was never seen in any episode of Breaking Bad, so it is not a valid mistake.
If the picture was used as a promo shot by the production team then it could be considered a mistake. If it's fan-made then the correction seems to be valid. Does anyone know the source of the image?
I can't find a source, but I don't recall ever seeing it in the show or in any ads, and in all honesty, it's pretty low-quality, so I seriously doubt it's a real production or promotional image. (The masking around his ears is quite bad, the "bruises" are digitally painted on - and poorly so at that, etc.) I would be willing to bet money on it being fan-made.
Corrected entry: Just as the camera shows Jessie lighting his crack pipe, there is a TV playing and the screen shows a man with a razor to his hairline. Camera does an instant cut and now said razor is by his cheek. (00:37:20)
Correction: This isn't a mistake for "Breaking Bad." That's how the scene cuts in The Three Stooges short film "Hokus Pokus" (1949). What we see in "Breaking Bad" is a continuous showing of the actual shaving scene.
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.
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.
Stupidity: Why do they always have to go through that washing machine setup in the laundromat when they have a great functioning elevator to the lab?
Suggested correction: Why would Gus go through the process of hiding the lab entrance stairs behind a washing machine but leave access to a freight elevator wide open? The elevator would be just as hidden and probably locked up. Not to mention it would be slower to take than simply walking downstairs.
Crawl Space - S4-E11
Factual error: When the doctor is reciting Jesse's medical information, he states that he is 1.87 meters, which would make Jesse 6ft 3 in. Aaron Paul is only 5ft 8 in. (00:07:42)
Suggested correction: First, the doctors says 180 centimeters, not 1.87 meters. 180 cm is 5'10." But it's not a mistake if characters are a couple inches taller or shorter than the actors that play them. Just like often characters can be older or young than actors that play them.
One Minute - S3-E7
Factual error: As demonstrated in the earlier scene where Leonel shot the truck driver/arms dealer, bulletproof vests do not make the wearer immune to bullets. Bulletproof vests are only designed to stop penetrating injury- they do not counteract the high energy of an impacting round, which can easily break ribs and cause internal injury. When Hank empties Leonel's dropped gun into Marco, Marco is barely staggered despite the fact that he just took five rapidly fired bullets in quick succession to his upper chest. That many hits at such close range in such a small zone would have, at minimum, shattered several of Marco's ribs and potentially punctured one or both of his lungs - both critical and incapacitating injuries on their own. As a result, Marco should have been unable to lift his gun to shoot Hank twice in the chest, much less swing an axe. Additionally, at least one bullet appears to strike Marco's clavicle and upper shoulder- both areas that are not protected by the vest. (00:44:00 - 00:45:00)
Suggested correction: Bullet proof vests disperse the energy of projectile impacts. Bad bruising can result but certainly not broken bones or punctured lungs.
They are not bulletproof vests. The correct name is bullet-resistant vest. Smaller rounds, like a .22 or .25 caliber, can penetrate a vest by going between the protecting fibers because of their smaller size. Also, they are not designed to resist high-powered rifle rounds.
Audio problem: When Jesse rings Jane's phone when it's cut off, Jesse is still pressing buttons but there is no sound, despite there being sound when he pressed buttons before.
Suggested correction: He only presses 2 buttons. Anything else is just something like his thumb twitching, like he's anxious or nervous. You see him call Jane's phone multiple times by only pushing 2 buttons.
Continuity mistake: Throughout this entire season, the blue tape holding the new windscreen in place on Walt's car is constantly disappearing and reappearing. This happens throughout several episodes.
Suggested correction: The tape is only there while the adhesive sets in his continually new windshields, as he only just replaced the windshield and probably took off the tape off camera because it wouldn't add to the plot.
4 Days Out - S2-E9
Corrected entry: When Walt is building the battery and explains how it works to Jesse, he says that the cathode is the positive terminal. The cathode is always the negative electrode and the anode is always the positive electrode. Walt is a chemistry teacher who would know the difference. (00:37:15 - 00:38:30)
Correction: "Cathode" can be negative or positive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode).
Correction: Cathode polarity with respect to the anode can be positive or negative depending on how the device is being operated. The battery is operated as a provider, so + = anode / - = cathode.
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.