"It takes a lot to get me angry, but when I am... I just can't let go."
— Dalton
Road House is a 2024 action drama film and a remake of the 1989 film of the same name. It is directed by Doug Liman and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Jessica Williams, Darren Barnet, Arturo Castro, Billy Magnussen, and Conor McGregor.
Gyllenhaal plays a former Ultimate Fighting Championship contender who travels to the Florida Keys for a job as a road house bouncer, only to become entangled in a plot that threatens the business. The film released on Prime Video March 21, 2024.
Previews: Trailer 1
Road House contains examples of the following:
- Actor Allusion:
- Knox calls Dalton "the world's most notorious fighter." Conor McGregor's ring name was "The Notorious."
- JD Pardo plays the leader of a biker gang.
- Advertising by Association: The trailer doesn’t take long to remind viewers that director Doug Liman also did The Bourne Identity.
- Affably Evil: Moe, one of Brandt's thugs, is a cheerful and friendly guy, even when he's helping wreck the Road House. In their first encounter, Dalton breaks his arm; he still notes to his boss how friendly Dalton was, and next time they run into one another in a fight, he seems genuinely happy to see Dalton.
- The Alleged Car: Frankie, while offering Dalton the job, assumes he needs it because of his shoddy car. Dalton quickly points out that he likes the car.
- Asshole Victim: Dell gets eaten by a crocodile after attempting to kill Dalton twice, even though Dalton tried to save his life. Frankie later tells him not to feel bad about that, because Dell was a "piece of shit".
- Axe-Crazy: Knox wanders Italian streets naked, burns down a shop to steal clothing, drinks a half-dozen tropical cocktails while behind the wheel of a student driver car, and kills people for annoying him.
- Beware the Nice Ones: One of the henchmen invokes this trope, saying that Dalton can act nice “like Mr. Rogers, but then he’ll haul off”.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Becomes important in the third act. After Dalton takes a briefcase of money meant for Brandt, Brandt holds Ellie for ransom. Dalton ultimately leaves it in the bookstore
- But Now I Must Go: Dalton leaves the town at the end, despite Charlie trying to get him to stay.
- Card-Carrying Villain: After their fight in the Road House, Knox says "there's something wrong with (Dalton)", also acknowledging there's something wrong with him as well.
- Casualty in the Ring: Dalton is haunted by his last UFC fight where he killed his downed opponent, continuing to throw punches in a blind rage even after the ref waved him off.
- Celebrity Paradox: The UFC exists in this universe, but Knox is played by its biggest star, Conor McGregor.
- Combat Pragmatist: Dalton is a very efficient fighter but he also knows how to put on a good show when the opposition is lackluster and he is trying to send a message. He is deliberately flashy with Dell and his gang because he needs to establish that he is not to be trifled with and that the Road House is off-limits to troublemakers. When he gets serious, he disables opponents in quick painful ways that remove them as a threat immediately.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Knox tauntingly notes the raft they are about to fight is their own little octagon, Dalton questions who taught him shapes.
- Creative Closing Credits: A Credits Montage of various hits, with closeups of debris and other objects flying in the background.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Dalton vs Dell's gang. He mostly just slaps them down and then drives them to the hospital.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Dalton isn't really prepared to face Knox the first time, and while the fight is far from one-sided, he visibly takes more than he gives. This, in turn, scares Knox that Dalton can still stand up on his own after.
- Damsel in Distress: Big Dick announces that Brandt has kidnapped Ellie. When Dalton comes to rescue her, he doesn't seem surprised to discover that it was just a ruse cooked up by Big Dick and Ellie together, but then it turns out that Brandt really did kidnap Ellie.
- Darker and Edgier: In this version, Dalton isn't The Ace nor a legendary bouncer with a sweet ride and a head full of Eastern wisdom. Instead, he's a broke loser who killed a man in the ring and has been haunted ever since.
- Death Seeker: Dalton doesn't react in fear when he's stabbed in the beginning of the film. In the next scene, he almost commits suicide but changes his mind at the last second.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Brandt's minions burn down Glass Books in an attempt to scare him off. Dalton only finds out about it right as he's about to leave anyway, and it convinces him to stay.
- Drives Like Crazy: Knox constantly speeds and sometimes crashes into things and even crashes into the eponymous Road House. Dalton lampshades his driving at one point.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Dalton is introduced as next in line to fight someone who's in a big winning streak on an underground fighting ring. The dude sees Dalton, recognizes him, and then just leaves.
- Knox is introduced jumping out of a married woman's balcony somewhere in Italy buck naked and proceeds to take a call while casually strolling in his birthday suit to a nearby fair, where he headbutts a man for his suit jacket and proceeds to light the stand on fire after. Then he just leaves.
- Fanservice: Dalton and Knox provide plenty of beefcake.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Neither Brandt nor his goons are fond of Knox arriving to take over the situation.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Gerald, Brandt's unseen father, who hires Knox.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Dalton sports this look when arriving to town, and keeps it for most of the film, highlighting his outsider status.
- Hospital Hottie: Ellie is played by the beautiful Daniela Melchior.
- Made of Iron: Dalton no-sells a stab wound and gets into several fights with it in the subsequent days. He takes numerous injuries throughout his few weeks bouncing at the Road House, and nothing seems to slow him down much. In the final fight, he again fights through a stab wound to defeat Knox.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Moe only fights Dalton because it is expected of him as part of Dell's gang. Afterwards it is pretty clear that he would rather hang out with Dalton than fight him. He even lampshades the fact that he only joined the gang because he likes to ride motorcycles and has no interest in the violence and other criminal activities.
- Mood Whiplash: In one scene, Dalton murders a man in cold blood and says that he's scared by his capacity for violence. This is immediately followed by a comedic scene with Moe the doofy goon.
- Mythology Gag: A restaurant next to the bookstore is named The Double Deuce, the name of the bar in the original film.
- Neck Snap: How Knox kills Brandt in the climax.
- New Old West: Lampshaded in-universe, Charlie comments that Dalton coming from far away to save the Road House sounds like the plot to a western.
- Nice Guy: Dalton, to the point where someone compares him to Mr. Rogers. Just don't push him too far.
- Moe, despite being a mook, is also a cheery and friendly guy who never directly harms anyone.
- No-Sell: Dalton is stabbed on the side by a disgruntled losing gambler, and calmly asks if the man has really thought it through. The man leaves and Dalton nonchalantly removes the knife and patches himself up.
- Non-Actor Vehicle: MMA star Conor McGregor is the heavy of the film.
- Oh, Crap!: Knox has a few in succession during their first fight at the Road House, when he repeatedly punches a restrained Dalton in the face but Dalton barely flinches and just glares at him furiously.
- Old Shame: Dalton is haunted by the fact that he killed a man in an MMA fight.
- Police Are Useless: Franky hires Dalton because the local cops are unable to police the unusual level of violence plaguing the Road House. They are being paid to look the other way.
- Pet the Dog: When Dalton arrives at Glass Key in the beginning of the film, he's friendly to Charlie and addresses her father by name when he bids them farewell.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The idea of a legendary bouncer who spouts Eastern philosophy is a real relic of the 1980s, so this film updates the protagonist to a mixed martial artist with a more grounded background.
- Product Placement: Dalton is an ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter. There is plenty of UFC branding throughout the footage we see of his career. This is particularly strange considering that we see Dalton kill someone in the Octagon, something the UFC touts itself for having never let occur.
- Psycho for Hire: Knox is an unhinged psychopath who takes a job from Brandt's father to kill Dalton.
- Running Gag:
- The hospital is just 25 minutes away.
- Knox keeps stealing cars to drive and crashing them instead of parking them.
- Sequel Hook: The Stinger shows Knox appearing to have survived his fight with Dalton, storming his way out of a hospital.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- At the first underground fight, we're introduced to Carter (played by Post Malone), the reigning champion who has knocked out multiple opponents in quick succession. The moment Dalton steps up, Carter immediately recognizes him and hurries out out of the ring.
- Moe the friendly mook decides to skip town once Dalton really starts murdering people.
- Shout-Out: The opening scene introducing Dalton plays as an homage to Wolverine's introduction in X-Men, but zigs every time X-Men zagged — Dalton is the challenger, not the guy with the string of wins; the "challenge" fight never happens; the guy who gets angry afterwards and comes at Dalton with a knife does actually stab him, but Dalton talks him down instead of terrorising him the way Wolverine did; and after Dalton rejects Frankie's overtures, she leaves instead of sticking around like Rogue did.
- Shown Their Work: Frankie says that her bar on Glass Key was once a favorite of Ernest Hemingway. Later, Dalton says he's learned about Glass Key's population of six-toed cats. In real life, Hemingway's house on Key West is home to a large population of polydactyl cats.
- The Starscream: Knox kills Brandt, who until that point he was taking orders from, and goes on to fight Dalton as the Final Boss.
- Technician vs. Performer: Downplayed but this is the dynamic between Dalton and Knox, as the former uses precise critical strikes and grapples (sometimes even commenting on the result) and the latter is a bit more showy although both are extremely skilled martial artists.
- Tranquil Fury: Dalton goes to have a talk with the henchman who burned Charlie's bookstore and is eerily calm throughout even when he murders him.
