‘Breaking Bad’: Where Do Walt’s Buried Treasure GPS Coordinates Really Lead?
By Empress Eve
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Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 at 10:00 am
In this week’s Breaking Bad, Skylar’s meeting with Hank at the diner and subsequent confrontation with her sister Marie were definitely the most intense moments of the episode, which aired on Sunday night (see our review). The next day, AMC uploaded Skylar and Marie’s moment to YouTube as a “Talked About Scene” (which you can watch here below), but it seems like the true “talked about” scene is actually the one with Walt out in the desert and those all-important GPS coordinates: +34° 59′ 20.00″, -106° 36′ 52″.
Here come spoilers for Season 5b of Breaking Bad…
As we learned in the previous episode, Walt has made so much cash selling large quantities of crystal meth, that his wife Skylar could no longer launder it through their car wash business, so she instead has just been piling it up at a storage facility. But now that DEA Agent (and brother-in-law) Hank is on to Walt, it’s time to move the money. So, off Walt goes to bury the money in a far off spot in the desert in his home state of New Mexico. After a laborious interring of the ridiculous amounts of cash, stored in barrels, Walt gets the GPS coordinates of the location, memorizes it, then smashes the device, and before passing out from the exertion, apparently stops somewhere to purchase a lottery ticket with those exact numbers.
But where do the coordinates really lead?
A search in Google Maps for +34° 59′ 20.00″, -106° 36′ 52″ reveals that it’s actually not out in the middle of nowhere, but rather at ABQ Studios in Albuquerque, NM, where Breaking Bad is filmed (it’s also where some of The Avengers and The Lone Ranger were shot).
Right away, people began to wonder if Breaking Bad‘s numbers were significant in the way those famous Lost numbers were. Wired did some checking and the verdict was, nope, they aren’t. According to producers, it just had to be a place where people wouldn’t actually go digging thinking there was buried treasure (the same thing for the coordinates on Lydia’s cell phone, which really lead to the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport).
After the episode, Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman posted to Twitter, “Part of me wishes I could see the smile on the face of @DamonLindelof after tonight’s #BreakingBad episode. The lure & lore of numbers,” referring to Damon Lindelof, who was the co-creator and showrunner of Lost. Here’s how Lindelof, an obvious fan of Breaking Bad, responded:
@BastardMachine My smile has nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with the brilliance of Breaking Bad.
True, but, if you enter those coordinates as a dot com URL you land at a mysteriously creepy picture that looks like Walt’s head looking over a shelf … or on a platter. :/
Comment by Balazs Balint — June 28, 2014 @ 4:56 pm
This was the part of Breaking Bad that didn’t make any sense. How did Hank trace Walt to the money? He didn’t follow him. He didn’t put a GPS on his car and he couldn’t get a warrant that quickly so Walt’s phone company wouldn’t have given him Walt’s cell phone coordinates.
Comment by Selassie Pickney — September 30, 2014 @ 11:55 am
Walt was on the phone talking to Jessie the whole time, the phone is VERY trackable, that is why Hank had Jessie on the phone the whole trip, remember he told Walt NOT to hang up……;)
Comment by nWo Wolfpac:THE Macho RAW GMâ„¢ — October 14, 2014 @ 4:10 pm
As a lawyer, I can tell you that only telephone companies can track your location when you use your cell phone and they will only turn that information over to law enforcement with a court order. There wasn’t enough time for Hank to get a court order AND Hank and his partner deliberately didn’t want anyone else to know about their investigation.
Comment by Selassie Pickney — October 15, 2014 @ 9:49 pm
Maybe, just maybe but at this point Walt did not give a crap about what is the right thing, he wanted Walt so badly he would do ANYTHING and pull any strings he could to get his prized position, Walt. DEA does things that we do not know about, so……..
Comment by nWo Wolfpac:THE Macho RAW GMâ„¢ — October 21, 2014 @ 6:05 pm
Any evidence Hank obtained in violation of the 4th Amendment would’ve been inadmissible “fruit of the poisonous tree” and Hank would’ve known that so I doubt he would have jeopardized his case against Walt in any way.
Comment by Selassie Pickney — October 21, 2014 @ 9:13 pm
Not necessarily, how many times does the DEA break the law to get what they want, we can not count that high. You and I know things would have been “looked over” if it meant a chance to get monster like Walter off the streets.
Comment by nWo Wolfpac:THE Macho RAW GMâ„¢ — October 22, 2014 @ 12:54 am
Interesting note about the lottery ticket…if you notice in a close-up shot of it on the refrigerator , the numbers all have “QP” to the right of them. Thus, indicating a ‘quick pick’ selection, not chosen by the player. What are the odds???
Comment by FrankvsMaximvs — December 5, 2015 @ 1:12 am
Sol?
Comment by eric mecca — February 7, 2018 @ 9:45 am
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True, but, if you enter those coordinates as a dot com URL you land at a mysteriously creepy picture that looks like Walt’s head looking over a shelf … or on a platter. :/
Comment by David Pinero — September 11, 2013 @ 11:49 pm
that’s the POV shot of a GPS, moments before Walt smashed it when buring barrels
Comment by owiec — April 16, 2014 @ 5:51 pm
35.101965,-107.137223 are the real cordinates
Comment by Balazs Balint — June 28, 2014 @ 4:56 pm
This was the part of Breaking Bad that didn’t make any sense. How did Hank trace Walt to the money? He didn’t follow him. He didn’t put a GPS on his car and he couldn’t get a warrant that quickly so Walt’s phone company wouldn’t have given him Walt’s cell phone coordinates.
Comment by Selassie Pickney — September 30, 2014 @ 11:55 am
Walt was on the phone talking to Jessie the whole time, the phone is VERY trackable, that is why Hank had Jessie on the phone the whole trip, remember he told Walt NOT to hang up……;)
Comment by nWo Wolfpac:THE Macho RAW GMâ„¢ — October 14, 2014 @ 4:10 pm
As a lawyer, I can tell you that only telephone companies can track your location when you use your cell phone and they will only turn that information over to law enforcement with a court order. There wasn’t enough time for Hank to get a court order AND Hank and his partner deliberately didn’t want anyone else to know about their investigation.
Comment by Selassie Pickney — October 15, 2014 @ 9:49 pm
Maybe, just maybe but at this point Walt did not give a crap about what is the right thing, he wanted Walt so badly he would do ANYTHING and pull any strings he could to get his prized position, Walt. DEA does things that we do not know about, so……..
Comment by nWo Wolfpac:THE Macho RAW GMâ„¢ — October 21, 2014 @ 6:05 pm
Any evidence Hank obtained in violation of the 4th Amendment would’ve been inadmissible “fruit of the poisonous tree” and Hank would’ve known that so I doubt he would have jeopardized his case against Walt in any way.
Comment by Selassie Pickney — October 21, 2014 @ 9:13 pm
Not necessarily, how many times does the DEA break the law to get what they want, we can not count that high. You and I know things would have been “looked over” if it meant a chance to get monster like Walter off the streets.
Comment by nWo Wolfpac:THE Macho RAW GMâ„¢ — October 22, 2014 @ 12:54 am
Interesting note about the lottery ticket…if you notice in a close-up shot of it on the refrigerator , the numbers all have “QP” to the right of them. Thus, indicating a ‘quick pick’ selection, not chosen by the player. What are the odds???
Comment by FrankvsMaximvs — December 5, 2015 @ 1:12 am
Sol?
Comment by eric mecca — February 7, 2018 @ 9:45 am