This Overlooked '90s Dark Fantasy Movie From The Creator Of Pluribus Is Worth Your Time

Since its debut in 2025, "Pluribus" has taken the world of streaming by storm, earning a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes and breaking records as the most-watched original series in Apple TV's history. The show stars Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka, a prickly Albuquerque romantasy author. Carol is one of the few people on Earth immune to an alien virus that "joins" humanity into a single (and relentlessly chipper) hivemind –- and she's determined to reverse the effects of the virus at all costs.

"Pluribus" is the brainchild of Vince Gilligan, best known as the creator of the acclaimed series "Breaking Bad" and its hit prequel/spin-off "Better Call Saul." As a post-apocalyptic science fiction series about an alien virus, "Pluribus" might seem like a strange departure for Gilligan, but he's actually dabbled in genre projects before. Gilligan wrote several episodes of "The X-Files" between the late '90s and early '00s (including Season 3's "Pusher," one of the best-ever episodes of "The X-Files"), and his first screenplay was for the obscure 1993 dark fantasy feature film "Wilder Napalm."

"Wilder Napalm" stars Arliss Howard and Dennis Quaid as pyrokinetic brothers Wilder and Wallace. After a childhood prank accidentally incinerates a homeless man, Wilder retreats into the anonymous life of a volunteer firefighter, though, ironically, he is married to the free-spirited arsonist Vida (Debra Winger). Meanwhile, Wallace works as a clown and dreams of using his fire-starting powers as "Dr. Napalm" on "The David Letterman Show." When Wallace's carnival rolls into town, he sets his sights on seducing Vida, bringing new meaning to the term "burning love."

Vince Gilligan has written the only movie ever made about a love triangle between a woman and two pyrokinetic brothers, one of whom just happens to be a clown, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. One thing's for sure: "Wilder Napalm" doesn't lack originality. The film is full of whimsical touches like Vida's green wardrobe (she even smokes green cigarettes) and the quartet of firefighters (the a capella group The Mighty Echoes) who routinely burst into fire-related songs. The fact that "Wilder Napalm" didn't earn cult classic status is a little baffling given its quirky premise and quoteability. It's long overdue for rediscovery, having languished for decades as a forgotten oddity. It's not on the same level as the likes of "The Big Lebowski" and "Napoleon Dynamite," but fans of those films will find a lot to enjoy here.

"Wilder Napalm" flopped hard at the time (the movie earned less than $1 million and was deemed a "studio disaster" by Film Comment magazine), but it's a comedy box office bomb that's actually worth watching. The majority of critics disliked the movie, though some of those who gave it a negative review admitted that it contains some flashes of brilliance. Writing for The New York Times, critic Janet Maslin described the film as existing "somewhere on the cusp between the inspired and the flat-out unreleasable," praising the dedicated performances. Despite the reception, "Wilder Napalm" was at least a personal success for lead actors Arliss Howard and the rarely heard from Debra Winger – they began dating after meeting on set and have been married since 1996.

"Wilder Napalm" has some notable and surprising connections to what is arguably Vince Gilligan's best show, the nail-biting AMC drama "Breaking Bad." After graduating from NYU, Gilligan won a screenwriting contest with "Home Fries," which eventually became a 1998 film starring Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson. Producer Mark Johnson was one of the contest judges and subsequently became a mentor for Gilligan. "He asked me if I had any other scripts, and I sent him 'Wilder Napalm,'" Gilligan told Vulture in 2011. "Even to this day, Mark's my fellow executive producer on 'Breaking Bad.'"

That's not the only connection between "Wilder Napalm" and "Breaking Bad." In 2019, Dean Norris — who memorably played DEA agent Hank Schrader in all five seasons of "Breaking Bad" — revealed on X that he was cast as a police officer in "Wilder Napalm," but his scenes were deleted from the final film. "Got a jacket and t-shirt for crew gift," he said. "I wore the t-shirt to the first table read of 'Breaking Bad' with Vince Gilligan."

What's more, while his role as Wallace (aka Biff the Clown, aka Dr. Napalm) wasn't enough to score "Wilder Napalm" a spot on the list of Dennis Quaid's best movies, you could argue his depiction of an amoral antihero willing to incinerate his family for success serves as a prototype for later Gilligan protagonists Walter White and Saul Goodman. Flawed but fascinating, "Wilder Napalm" is ultimately an imaginative and uninhibited movie from one of television's greatest creative minds.