|
"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | The lesson is: if you're gonna be a criminal, do your homework. | „ |
| ~ Mike Ehrmantraut cautioning Daniel Wormald. |
| “ | Moral of the story is, I chose a half measure when I should have gone all the way. I’ll never make that mistake again. No more half measures, Walter. | „ |
| ~ Mike warning Walter White and encouraging him to take action against Jesse Pinkman. |
| “ | We had a good thing, you stupid son of a bitch! We had Fring, we had a lab, we had everything we needed, and it all ran like clockwork! You could have shut your mouth, cooked, and made as much money as you ever needed! It was perfect! But NO! You just had to BLOW IT UP! You! And your pride, and your ego! You just had to be the man! If you’d done your job, known your place, we’d all be fine right now! | „ |
| ~ Mike calling out Walt on how he's responsible for their current situation, just minutes before Walt kills him. |
Michael "Mike" Ehrmantraut is a major character in Breaking Bad, the deuteragonist of its prequel series Better Call Saul, and a minor character in the 2019 sequel film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
He was a former corrupt police officer who used his connections in the criminal underworld to eventually become Gus Fring's right-hand man and enforcer at Los Pollos Hermanos. He also carries out favors for his lawyer and old associate Saul Goodman, as a private investigator, cleaner and fixer.
He was portrayed by Jonathan Banks, who also voiced Filbrick Pines in Gravity Falls.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
In General[]
- While it's true that his preventions make him far from being Near Pure Evil, he never actually redeemed himself and committed many corrupt acts of villainy throughout the show.
- He has one of the highest kill counts in the franchise, with 18 confirmed kills (though he mostly targets criminals and less than nice people).
- Although he is more mature than Jesse and less violent and hostile than Walt, Mike has still proven time and time again that he's not above doing bad things to succeed in his goals.
- Despite the fact that he's obviously not as heinous as Walt, Gus, or Hector, he has lower resources since the three aforementioned villains are drug lords while he's a mere criminal.
Background[]
- Back in Philadelphia, he used to be a corrupt cop due to being influenced by his associates.
- After getting wind that his son Matt's colleagues want him to be corrupt and about Matt's reluctance, Mike persuaded Matt to take bribes, corrupting his son, although this went in vain due to the said associates, Hoffman and Fensky killing him anyway.
- While was a police officer, he threatened an abusive husband named Gordy and almost killed him because of his personality and because he was bothering him. Finally the husband gets his revenge by killing his wife, which you could argue is Mike's fault.
- Killed Hoffman and Fensky after confirming their crimes as Matt's murderers, and then fleeing Philadelphia so that he won't be suspected, although they both deserved it.
Better Call Saul[]
Season 1[]
- Infiltrated the Kettleman apartment to steal their money so that Jimmy McGill can use it to blackmail them into taking Kim's help.
- Ask Jimmy a good return by spilling cup of coffee on one of the investigators so he can pocket his notebook to avoid prosecution for the murder of the two policemen who killed his son.
- Hits a guy named Sobchak and thrown to trash his guns, although he teased him.
- Assisted Daniel Wormald while he smuggled the prescription pills to Nacho Varga. When originally the job was supposed to be for three, Mike manages to convince Daniel to give him the other guys' money.
Season 2[]
- Helped Daniel and Nacho avoid prison sentence (on purpose that he should not sweat on him) after Nacho stole Daniel's baseball cards and money. For this he threatens Nacho to report his activities to Tuco, who could kill the latter.
- Set up and goaded Tuco Salamanca by intentionally bumping his car to frame him. However, Tuco deserved it and also was true threat on Nacho life.
- Hits 2 cartel workers who tried to sneak into his house, although it was self defense.
- He was going to shoot Hector Salamanca if the latter didn't give him $50,000 in exchange for skewing his testimony in Tuco's favor.
- Attacks a cartel truck and steals $250,000 from its tires and then abandons the driver in the desert. The same driver, as well as a good Samaritan who saved him, are killed by the Salamanca men afterwards (as they suspected him to be a mole).
- Attempts to kill Hector, only to be stopped by Gustavo Fring and Tyrus Kitt. Although Hector would have completely deserved it.
Season 3[]
- On Gus' orders, attack another Salamanca truck so that the truck is caught at the border and Gus will gain more power in the cartel.
- Causes the arrest of 2 cartel employees after loading drugs.
- Employs Saul to spy for him in Los Pollos Hermanos.
- At Jimmy's request, broke into Chuck's house and collected evidence so that Jimmy could use it to discredit Chuck at a hearing in his office.
- Decides to work for Gus, who then places him at Madrigal security consultant to launder money.
- He leaves Nacho the option to switch the pills to Hector, indirectly causing Hector to have a stroke.
- Helps Jimmy destroy Chuck's name in the trial against Jimmy, through an acquaintance with Caldera who brings him together with Huell Babineaux (who became part of his team).
Season 4[]
- Steals a Madrigal employee's ID card and breaks into Madrigal to iron out its flaws, although it's not completely heinous since his intention was to help and he returned the badge to the guy.
- Recruits Werner Ziegler and his team so that they can construct the superlab at Gus's newly purchased laundromat.
- Bribes a cop in a strip mall so that Kai's mistakes go unnoticed.
- He prevents Werner from seeing his wife nearly a year and hunts him down when he escapes, indirectly causing threats to his wife's life.
- Puts a driver in the parking lot as a human shield between him and Lalo Salamanca, which indirectly causes Lalo to damage his car.
- He reports to Gus about Werner talking to Lalo, leaving Gus to decide to kill him (and possibly threaten his wife as well), which Mike carries out himself. However, he explained to Werner that he had no choice and regretted it anyway.
Season 5[]
- Yells at Kaylee just for talking about his late son Matt, though he felt some remorse for it and only did it due to Gus forcing him to kill Werner against his will.
- He punches Kai in the face after the latter gloats that he killed Werner, though it was Kai who deserved it.
- Broke a thug's arm when he fought him. Even if it was self-defence, Mike ultimately provoked him and wanted it to happen.
- Killed 6 hitmen hired by Juan Bolsa when they tried to steal back Lalo's bail money. However they were trying to kill Jimmy so it was justified.
- Helped Jimmy, now practising as Saul Goodman, get Lalo released with Gus's help, although his main purpose seems to have been to keep Jimmy safe from the Cartel.
- Orchestrated the attack on Lalo Salamanca's compound to kill him, which causes the deaths of many of his men, including his cook, gardener and a 17 year old boy. Although to be fair he couldn't have foreseen some of these things happening.
Season 6[]
- He removes the protection of Saul's home from Lalo, which ends in Howard's death and Saul's tying up.
- When Kim arrives at Gus's house he captures her and puts her in a room where she is next to Gus's guard.
- After Howard and Lalo's deaths, Mike cleaned up the crime scenes and fabricated the evidence of Howard committing suicide. He then buries both bodies in the superlab, ensuring nobody will know what actually happened to Howard.
- Due to coming up with the idea, he is responsible for firing HHM employees and reducing the size of the company.
- After the events, he remains in a working relationship with Saul and helps bring him together with various criminals using the formula: "a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy".
Breaking Bad[]
Season 2[]
- Cleaned up the crime scene of Jane Margolis' death, coaching Jesse Pinkman how to avoid getting suspected by the police. Although this could also be seen as a good thing in a way.
- Advises Walt not to take the tormented Jesse out of The Shooting Gallery for rehabilitation.
Season 3[]
- At Saul's request, he planted bugs to spy on Walt's house, although he claims he was trying to keep a good eye on the latter, adding that he takes it down later.
- He may have made sure to warn Hank about the cousins, though he did it much like Gus to set up a shootout between them.
- After Leonel survived Hank, Mike finished him off by poisoning him while entering the operating room, although he deserved it.
- When Jesse swore vengeance on the Rival Dealers, Mike attempted to convince Walt to not save Jesse and let him get killed.
- Killed four Cartel hitmen that captured Duane Chow inside and then shot him in the hand for not informing Gus of the situation.
- Assaulted Saul and threatened to break his legs if Saul didn't give him Jesse's location. Apparently, this matter caused the friendship between the two to break as Saul was shocked by this and sought out to escape Gus' wrath and anger.
- Brought Walt to the superlab with the purpose of killing him, and forced him to lure Jesse to his location, which ultimately led to Gale's death. While he couldn't have known Gale's death would happen, he was still more than ready to kill Walt and showed no hesitation, even yelling at him to shut up as he was begging for his life.
Season 4[]
- He is responsible for Victor's death as he sent him to see Gale's body, causing Gus to slit Victor's throat to cover up the evidence of his guilt. He also helped destroy the evidence of his body.
- Beats up Walt when he suggests betraying Gus after seeing what Gus did to Victor, showing how far Mike has gone for Los Pollos Hermanos.
- Threatened to kill Walt if he came near Gus's house and tried to prevent the two of them from meeting together (although this was to prevent Walt from murdering his boss).
- Probably warning Gus of Hank's active investigation with Walt.
- After Walt warned Gus about Hank's investigation, Mike was one of the workers who helped clean up the lab, what also one of the workers killed by a cartel sniper while in the process and then dissolved in acid with his help.
- Killed several cartel members who tried to intimidate Gus, although many of them probably deserved it.
- After a junkie stays at Jesse's place and steals his money Mike captures and ties him up and then gave him with the money to Jesse to take care him, though Jesse is unimpressed. Due to his reaction Mike also informs Gus that Jesse is unstable.
- He was complicit in Gus' attempt to separate Jesse from Walt, which could have resulted in the latter being killed by Gus.
- Threatens Walt after he tries to inform the police about Tyrus' surveillance of his house (which was done by his order).
- Even though they deserved it, he orchestrates the deaths of most of the Cartel members (include choking Gaff to prevent him from saving Eladio), along with Gus, and also put Jesse at risk when the three could easily be killed.
Season 5[]
- Tries to kill Walt after hearing about Gus' death, only stopping due to Jesse saying he would have to kill him too.
- Works with Walt and Jesse to get more money and cover up their tracks.
- When Walt and Jesse try to break into the police computers, Mike does not help them, but admits that he has participated in such missions in the past that ended in failure.
- Shot Chris Mara, albeit in self-defense when he sended to kill him.
- Silences Gus men from reporting their actions to the DEA, while offering a monetary bribe. however it was for good reason to they will kept alive.
- He threatened on Lydia's life because she ruined his deal and brought her to help Walt prove his point.
- He takes part of rob a train filled with methylamine.
- He agrees to keep Todd after murdering a boy, though he later threatens him over the incident. he also helps destroy the evidence of the boy's body.
- Trying to sell the contents the methylamine to Delcan for selling crystal meth.
- He tries to organize the sale even when Walt, a partner in his company with Jesse, opposes it and after he is caught tries to hide the container Mike ties him up to a radiator so he can't interrupt the deal.
- He runs away from the DEA when he realizes he's about to be turned in, even abandoning his granddaughter in the park.
- He is indifferent to the possibility of Walt being arrested by a report from Gus' men and taunts him, causing the latter to explode in anger and shoot him.
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- Although he has one of the highest confirmed kill counts in the franchise, most of Mike's victims were criminals or bad people who deserved it, and some of his murders were in self-defense with the only innocent person he killed being Werner Ziegler, but he only killed him under Gus' orders and with genuine reluctance, downplaying the severity of his kill count immensely.
- He fails the heinous standards to Todd Alquist who murdered a child in cold blood, Jack Welker who killed Hank in front of Walt and enslaved and tortured Jesse for 6 months while giving him PTSD, Lalo Salamanca who killed Howard in front of Saul and Kim to traumatize both of them for years, and the Cousins who amassed a huge kill count of 43 and massacred an entire truck full of immigrants all because one of them knew about their cartel status.
- He also fails the individual capability as he had military training, was a police officer for 30 years and played a part in forming two large drug empires, but he never does anything unique in Breaking Bad nor Better Call Saul. In contrast, Todd is an enforcer, Jack is the leader of a small gang with only 8 members under his command, Lalo doesn't even use his biggest cartel resources and later ditches them completely, and the Cousins are normal hitmen with a few weapons at their disposal, yet all of the aforementioned villains have done far worse than Mike. Even when he was given the opportunity to stay in Walt's drug empire and enable the rest of his crimes alongside Saul, he rejects it and chooses to leave the drug trade, showing he holds back on his resources to an extent.
- In general, he is an affable villain: he tries to prevent Daniel Wormald from committing a crime due to his lack of awareness, treats several people generously without having any profit from them (for example, at Stacey's church) and even takes from his personal money for ten of Mike's employees, while refusing to kill them in prison. This also makes him a distinct anti-villain.
- He is On & Off, as while he never redeemed himself, he has many pet the dog and outright heroic moments such as avenging his son's killers and protecting his bride from the Salamancas, trying to prevent the killing of Gus's men by Lydia and Walt, putting his life at risk to save Saul from a team of mercenaries hired by Bolsa and protecting his family, Gus, Jesse, Kim, Saul and Nacho's father.
- He feels remorse for simply being a criminal in general, as when Saul asked him for his biggest regret, he said he would've gone to the day he took his first bribe. He's heartbroken at the fact his actions indirectly lead to his own son's death, and felt remorseful for having to kill Werner.
- At one point he starts working for Gus but does so as a villain by proxy, since his family is well provided for and genuinely having many redeeming and honorable qualities, although he committed many, many crimes even before and after, so this is a minor prevention.
- He cares for many people:
- His family, going to all lengths to avenge his son and taking care of his daughter-in-law and granddaughter.
- Befriended Werner Ziegler and tried his best to avoid killing him, only doing so to spare him and his wife from torture and execution Gus would have gave them.
- He was affable to Nacho Varga, sympathizing with his situation, and tried to frame Tuco Salamanca so that Nacho won't be killed by him, and helped him paralyze Hector after hearing how he threatened his father into complying. Mike also advocated for Nacho to go free from both Gus and the Salamancas when Nacho had fulfilled his job, and was ready to go against Gus to ensure his and his father's safety when Gus decided to get him killed instead, and promised Nacho he would ensure his father's safety. When Nacho killed himself to avoid getting tortured by the Cartel and the Salamancas, Mike was regretful for forcing him into working for Gus, and informed his father of his demise.
- He was a father-figure to Jesse Pinkman after being impressed by him, wanting him to move away from Gus and Walt, a suggestion Jesse took to heart after Walt saved him from Jack Welker.
- He may very well have had cared for Gus. He beats Walt up for offering to kill him and after Walt orchestrates his death, he almost kills him himself, though he relents when Jesse intervenes. Additionally, before his death at the hands of Walt, he brings up Gus while calling Walt out on how he is responsible for their dilemma, showing that he was still angry at him for causing Gus' death and never recovered from his loss.
- He shows firm standards and a code of honor, only killing people who are criminals and being enraged whenever innocents are caught in the crossfire, or always keeping his word even if he could gain something from not doing so, as shown when he didn't keep all of the money he stole from the Kettlemans for himself, and when Mike was furious at Jimmy and Kim for being responsible for Howard's death.
- Has a sympathetic death, as he is fatally shot in the stomach by Walt and then sits on a log near a river where he quietly accepts his fate, dying because he insulted Walt and all his attempts to provide to his family being for nothing, departing with the simple words "Shut the f*ck up, and let me die in peace." Even Walt felt remorse for murdering him.
Trivia[]
- When the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul ended, Mike was approved as Inconsistently Heinous thanks to his high kill count, but upon reevaluation and reexamination, it was found out that most of his murders were in self-defense or aimed at criminals or bad people who deserved it, and thus, he was removed.
External Links[]
- Mike Ehrmantraut on the Villains Wiki
- Mike Ehrmantraut on the Breaking Bad Wiki
- Mike Ehrmantraut on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- Mike Ehrmantraut on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
[]
 /  Villainous Benchmarks
| ||
|
Canon The Cartel Los Pollos Hermanos Neo-Nazis Jimmy McGill's Contacts Other Fanon | ||
 Villainous Benchmarks
| ||
|
Animated Features Live-Action Features Live-Action Television Fanon See Also | ||