Due to the numerous twists and turns, all spoilers are unmarked.
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Flynn
Dock O'Kelly a.k.a. Father Daniel Flynn
Portrayed By: Jeff Bridges
An aging criminal masquerading as a priest.
- Complexity Addiction: His plan to masquerade as a priest to avoid drawing attention is needlessly complicated and ends up causing the exact opposite effect than intended.
- Cool Old Guy: According to his flashback, he frequently got into fights with gangs while in prison, and gave better than he got. When given the chance, he does the same to the much younger Billy Lee.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a career criminal, but he was incensed when it looked like his associates might've killed the armored car crew and in the present day he is thoroughly disgusted by Billy Lee.
- He also tries to drug Darlene specifically so he doesn't have to hurt her to get access to her room.
- Laser-Guided Karma: His attempt to drug Darlene and get access to her room ends with a bottle getting smashed against his head. While talking to her later,he even admits he had it coming.
- Let Them Die Happy: Despite being outed as a fake priest, he plays the part to take Miles' dying confession.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Is suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's, which caused him to forget which room his brother buried the money from their last big score in.
- Siblings in Crime: Robbed banks with his bother (the one who hid the money before being killed).
- Sinister Minister: Subverted, when he drugs Darlene it seems like he'll turn out to be a creep, but he's actually neither truly sinister nor truly a minister.
- Would Hit a Girl: Would shoot a girl, when Rose stabs Miles.
- Played straight however in his attempt to drug Darlene so he doesn't have to hurt her to gain access to her room.
- Your Days Are Numbered: He's old and suffering from advanced dementia, so it won't be long before his time is up. His main goal is to retrieve the buried money, and live out the rest of his days in peace.
Darlene
Darlene Sweet
Portrayed By: Cynthia Erivo
A struggling singer.
- Action Survivor: The only person at the hotel who is exactly who she claims to be and has no ulterior motives for being there; she nonetheless manages to survive and even fight back.
- The Cynic: Her past with the music industry has left her jaded and cynical.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After getting dragged into three simultaneous conflicts in which she otherwise has no involvement, she makes it out with a bag of money and still arrives in Reno for her performance.
- Excellent Judge of Character: She has an excellent sense of when someone is just completely full of it.
- Meaningful Name: Her last name is Sweet, and she is the kindest character in the film. (See below)
- Nice Girl: Though not a pushover by any means, Darlene is compassionate and polite even in the tensest of situations. She forms a quick bond with Father Flynn, taking the time to listen to him talk about his past and later staying by his side even after discovering his true identity. She also reassures Miles through his PTSD episode in the middle of the climax and urges Flynn to absolve him when he’s on his deathbed.
- Odd Friendship: Develops one with Flynn after he's honest with her.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Attempts to flee after Flynn's failed attempt to drug her, but is forced to stay because the cars are all sabotaged.
- Seen It All: Being a black woman, she has spent her entire life being underestimated and being used as an object to bolster the egos of white men, so Billy has a harder time pushing her buttons than expected.
- Sole Survivor: A weird example. She's not this at the end of the film, as Flynn also made it out alive, but it's been made clear that he doesn't have that much time left, meaning she presumably becomes this shortly after the ending.
- Token Good Teammate: She is the only character in the film without a Dark and Troubled Past, Jerkass moments, ulterior motives or is guilty of any big crime. She really is just a singer on her way to Reno and stopped at the El Royale on the way there.
Emily
Emily Summerspring
Portrayed By: Dakota Johnson | Hannah Zirke (young)
A Southern hippie and criminal.
- Abusive Parents: Apparently took the brunt of her father's physical abuse to protect Rose.
- Big Sister Instinct: Everything Emily does in the movie is to protect Rose. She took most of the abuse from their drunken father for her and tries to save her from the manipulations of Billy.
- Cop Killer: She blasts a FBI agent with a shotgun (although she didn't know who he was).
- Cult Defector: Emily took her sister Rose ran away form Billy Lee's cult (who are in hot pursuit of them throughout the film) because Billy Lee was molesting Rose and turning her into a killer.
- Cute Bruiser: A somewhat sinister version (and more of a gun wielder), but she still counts, rarely looking threatening even as she's holding Flynn and the others at gunpoint or going against Billy Lee.
- Jerkass: Her first scene has her bluntly asking for a room, ignoring everyone around her, and signing the register with "FUCK YOU".
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Everything she does is to get herself and her sister Rose away from Billy Lee and his cult. Not only does she fail, she's killed and her sister dies shortly after.
Sullivan
Agent Dwight Broadbeck a.k.a. Seymour "Laramie" Sullivan
Portrayed By: Jon Hamm
An FBI agent masquerading as a vacuum cleaner salesman.
- Alliterative Name: Seymour Sullivan.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: A well-dressed FBI agent on a sensitive operation who goes to stop a kidnapping despite heavy potential consequences.
- Decoy Protagonist: Followed closely at the start of the film, but doesn't get much attention after he's killed by Emily.
- Destroy the Evidence: He's been sent to the El Royale to get rid of the FBI's surveillance equipment.
- Good All Along: Initially he comes across as a sleazy salesman with a racist streak snooping around in a funny fashion, but privately he's revealed to be a dedicated family man with a strong sense of justice.
- Jerkass: He initially appeared to be sleazy and racist salesman but it is subverted. It was just a front when in reality he is an upstanding FBI agent.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Emily cuts him down with a shotgun blast as he tries to explain his actions.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He disobeys direct orders to save a young girl who appears to have been kidnapped, but is mercilessly killed as a result.
- Not Quite the Right Thing:
- While waiting for the bellhop, he makes coffee and insists that Darlene have a cup, though she doesn't really want to. Remember, he's white (and ostensibly from the south), she's black, and racially segregating restaurants and hotels had just been banned in 1964 (which some Southerners were still pretty pissed about). Taking that into consideration, him making coffee for everyone and serving her out of the same pot and set of cups is a clear way of saying "I'm not one of those segregationist southerners that would be angry you could stay in the same hotel as me, and you don't have anything to worry about from me (especially as a woman alone)." However, when the bellhop comes up, she's told she has to pay for the coffee - coffee she didn't want, when she's clearly trying to pinch pennies - and Sullivan doesn't notice. So. Good intentions, nice gesture, bad execution.
- The kidnapping he tried to interfere with turns to have been an attempt by a young woman and her brainwashed sister to escape from a dangerous cult. Not only does he get killed for his trouble, but the girl he was trying to rescue phones the leader of the cult in question and brings him to the hotel, which leads to the deaths of a whole bunch of other people, herself and her sister included. Broadbeck really should've listened to Hoover and stayed out of it.
- Stealth Pun: His cover job, considering the movie is set in the sixties ("Hoover" being both a popular vacuum cleaner brand and the FBI chief's surname).
- Traveling Salesman: Broadbeck's cover as Seymour Sullivan.
- Would Hit a Girl: He knocks Emily down when he's trying to rescue Rose from her "kidnapping." He pulls his punch though, and she gets right back up and shoots him without having a mark on her.
Rose
Rose Summerspring
Portrayed By: Cailee Spaeny | Charlotte Mosby (young)
Emily's impressionable younger sister, a cult member.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unknown if she was deep down Evil All Along even before joining the cult or irreversibly Brainwashed and Crazy courtesy of Billy Lee.
- Berserk Button: Don't get between her and Billy Lee. She will punch your lights out or stab you to death if you do.
- Big "NO!": When Miles kills Billy Lee.
- Cain and Abel: The Cain to Emily's Abel.
- Cute and Psycho: She is an adorable, waif-like young woman with a child-like demeanor. She will also beat you to a pulp or gut you like a fish at Billy Lee's slightest indication.
- Defiant to the End: Stabs Miles just before Flynn guns her down.
- Emotionless Girl: Rose doesn't appear to react much to the things that happen to her, showing little struggle against her kidnapping by Emily and treating Emily's murder of Sullivan as a slight curiosity. She even shows no emotion to Emily getting murdered by Billy. The only time she does show emotion is when Billy is killed by Miles and she fatally stabs him in revenge.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted with Emily as she largely ignores her help and barely reacts when Billy kills her, but played straight with Billy who she'll do anything for.
- Tragic Villain: Rose, while obviously very screwed in the head, was forced down the criminal path by Billy and was pretty much brainwashed by him into becoming who she became.
- Yandere: Shows some of this towards Billy, fighting wildly and angrily when he announces the winner of the fight will spend the night with him.
Miles
Miles Miller
Portrayed By: Lewis Pullman | Austin Abell (young)
A young concierge at the hotel.
- Alliterative Name: Miles Miller.
- Almighty Janitor: Turns out the meek, nervous receptionist is a veritable killing machine once he gets his hands on a gun.
- Butt-Monkey: Played for Drama. He's tormented by PTSD, forced to work in a degrading position, and repeatedly slapped around and held at gunpoint throughout the night.
- Cold Sniper: Used to be one, though by the time of the film, his trauma has caught up with him, leaving him a nervous wreck. The film's climax sees him slip back into this mold, with devastating results.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Miles is first depicted as an incompetent junkie, then as a nervous pawn in "management's" blackmail scheme. It isn't until the final act that his past as a natural-born sniper who killed 123 men in Vietnam is revealed, and he uses those skills to take out Billy Lee's gang.
- Deathbed Confession: Even though he knows Flynn is a fake priest by that point, he confesses his sins before passing away.
- Death Seeker: Certainly has shades of this, given his past. Notably whenever he's held hostage by another character, Miles seems less concerned for his life than for his soul.
- One-Man Army: Put a gun in his hands and he will kill anyone in his way, as proven when he guns down half a dozen members of Billy's cult in under a minute.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Is wracked with guilt over the many people he killed as a soldier, as well as the fact that he apparently enjoyed the killing, and that he was the only survivor of his unit in one engagement.
- Two-Faced: When Emily shoots Sullivan, the shot goes through the window Miles is behind and several pieces embed themselves in the left side of his face.
- Would Hit a Girl: Played straight when he shoots one of Billy's female cultists but subverted when he spares Rose, who he even attempts to apologize to as she sobs over Billy's corpse. This turns out to be a mistake as she promptly turns around and stabs him.
Billy Lee
Billy Lee
Portrayed By: Chris Hemsworth
A charismatic cult leader.
- Affectionate Nickname: Subverted. He tends to refer to Rose as "Boots" due her footwear, but it isn't sincerely affecionate. It's just another method of control and brainwashing.
- Beard of Evil: It goes along with his Charles Manson vibe.
- Big Bad: He's a violent killer who swoops in and forces the remaining characters to join forces against him.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Miles takes him out.
- Conflict Killer: All the tension and conflict in the El Royale between the numerous guests has to be put on hold when Billy Lee turns up.
- Ephebophile: It's heavily implied just short of outright stating it that he's in a sexual relationship with the underage Rose, and probably has a similar arrangement with the other young girls in his cult.
- Faux Affably Evil: As befitting a cult leader, he's a charismatic speaker who quickly gains the confidence of others. In truth, he's a psychotic egotist who sadistically pits his followers against one another.
- Hate Sink: While all other characters have at least some redeeming qualities, Billy Lee is utterly devoid of them.
- Hunk: He's muscular and physically very attractive, a fact he uses to lure young women into his cult. Being played by Chris Hemsworth makes this a given.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Miles blows his brains out just as he's somewhat nervously trying to talk him down.
- Knight of Cerebus: While the film wasn't exactly Family Friendly to begin with, the lighter-hearted tone and intrigue stops to a grinding halt when he shows up, the various Plot Threads tied together as the remaining characters are held at gun-point by him and his cult.
- Large Ham: He loves, loves, loves to hear himself talk.
- Mr. Fanservice: Hello, it's Chris Hemsworth. Helps that he barely wears a shirt throughout the movie.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: He's heavily, heavily based on Charles Manson, being a radical Horror Hippie with a penchant for brainwashing a murder.
- Paper Tiger: While he's big and muscular, and loves to play up his image as an invincible cult-leader, he's not much in a fight, as Flynn overpowers him despite being smaller and several decades older, and of course, he's no match for Miles simply shooting him in the face.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gets one from Darlene, who calls him out as just another petty little man who takes advantage of those weaker than him.
- Smug Snake: Darlene, who's seen his type before, correctly identifies him as just a smarmy douche who's only interested in power and having sex with his female followers. Her assessment actually manages to shut him up for a few minutes.
- The Sociopath: He's very charismatic and charming when he needs to be.
- Southern-Fried Genius: He likes to play up his Southern roots, and whatever moral failings he may have, he is extremely cunning and smart enough to have an entire cult worth of people wrapped around his little finger.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: He's shot quickly in the climax, without any opportunity to bargain or fight back.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Constantly struts around with his shirt open, when he wears one at all.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: When he finds out about Flynn's money and its origins, he's convinced that he's in the middle of a story with lots of factions after a treasure and roughly interrogates Flynn about who else is out there after the money. Flynn is the only one though, something that Billy Lee is suspicious to hear, but then pleased by once Flynn convinces him.
