9. Hydrofluoric Acid Would Never Eat Through A Bathtub - "Cat's In The Bag..." (1.2)
Given that Breaking Bad - at least, according to the people who made the show - prides itself on presenting viewers with "real-world science," this is something of a doozy. Whilst lots of the chemistry moments inherent to this chemistry-themed TV show are accurate in their depiction, others are not: one such example can be viewed in season one episode "Cat's In The Bag...", which saw heroes Walter White and Jesse Pinkman attempting to "melt down" the corpse of a drug cartel member in a bathtub. To do this, they filled the tub with hydrofluoric acid and - as instructed by Walt - waited for the chemistry magic to kick in. This set-up eventually pays off unexpectedly when the acid melts through the tub - and indeed - the floor beneath it, culminating in a comical scene where blood and guts (to Walt and Jesse's shock) come falling through the ceiling in a comical fashion. In reality, though, hydrofluoric acid would never have been strong enough to eat through the kind of bathtub glimpsed in the scene. It's a minor mistake, but one that kind of makes the supposed Nobel prize-winning protagonist, Walter White, look a tad stupid.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
