If you need something to watch during this Thanksgiving holiday, the smash sci-fi series Pluribus set a new record as Apple TV’s most-viewed show. Though it takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, it’s a complete departure from Vince Gilligan’s previous works, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Both had excellent car choices, and Pluribus is no exception. We’re only five episodes in, and one of the most-seen cars in the series is this classic E30 Toyota Corolla.
We aren’t going to spoil it but if you want to go in completely cold, maybe you should skip this paragraph. The premise of Pluribus is that an alien virus transforms almost all of humanity into ultra-efficient members of a global hive mind. Only a few people on Earth are immune, including the protagonist Carol, played by Rhea Seehorn.
Fans of Gilligan’s previous works will remember Seehorn as Kim, the lawyer in Better Call Saul, who drove a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse. Gilligan has a knack fo picking generally unloved cars for his characters, and the Eclipse was the perfect transport for a young attorney who was in it for helping people, not the money.
It was such a big part of the show that a fan has purchased one of the picture cars for cosplay purposes. For vehicles with a big role, showrunners typically acquire many identical cars and another example of the Eclipse is currently for sale in Albuquerque. It wasn’t the only Mitsu in Better Call Saul, though. Another character, Ernesto, was likely fresh out of law school with a fat paycheck at a big firm and drove a Lancer Evolution VIII.
Anyway, back to Pluribus. Episode 02 starts out in Tangier, where the alien takeover has caused all sorts of ruination. We see another E30, not a Corolla but a sixth-generation Mitsubishi Galant. The presumably base Moroccan-spec car doesn’t have any of the VR-4’s fancy four-wheel independent suspension. It’s just a simple torsion bar at the rear.
Gilligan is known for being incredibly meticulous in his production choices and has dropped easter eggs in the form of letters and numbers in previous shows. But we suspect that both the Galant and the Corolla having the chassis code E30 may be a bit too nerdy even for him. If we see an 80s-to-early-90s BMW 3-series in Pluribus we’ll know something’s up. In the meantime, another Morocco scene has a silver Datsun 240C or 260C being towed by a Land Rover Series III.
With the knowledge gleaned from humanity the aliens can operate and have access to any machine on Earth, from a Taiwanese 125cc scooter to a C-130 transport. Within minutes they can call in a helicopter to airdrop a Kubota K008-3 mini-excavator.
It’s never explained how one of them finds, of all the cars available at the Albuquerque airport, a bright blue E30 Corolla in mint condition. But, it’s a great visual addition that stands out sharply against the heavily brown New Mexico landscape. And despite the frequent presence of an early-80s Chevy C-10, the show takes place in modern day.
We’re always pleasantly surprised by Gilligan’s vehicular selections. His breakout hit Breaking Bad featured Hollywood’s most famous Toyota Tercel Wagon and single-handedly transformed the Pontiac Aztek from a punchline to a sort-of a cult classic. He ended the series with a Toyota Previa, which also began the spinoff movie. That movie was called El Camino and ended with an FJ62 Land Cruiser.
Both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul had more than sixty episodes each. We hope Pluribus does too. We’re looking forward to whatever automotive goodies come our way, and we hope to see a lot more of that beautiful blue Corolla.
