Road House is a 2024 American action film directed by Doug Liman from a screenplay by Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. It is a reimagining of the 1989 film of the same name. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Conor McGregor (in his feature film debut), J. D. Pardo, Arturo Castro and Billy Magnussen. Joel Silver produces the film, as he did the original.
Road House had its world premiere for March 8, 2024, at South by Southwest as the opening night film, and was released by Amazon MGM Studios via Prime Video on March 21, 2024.
Troubled former UFC middleweight fighter Elwood Dalton makes a living scamming fighters on the underground circuit. He is approached by Frankie, the owner of an unruly roadhouse in Florida Keys who wants to recruit him as head bouncer. Initially hesitant, he decides to take up the offer after a narrowly averted suicide attempt has a freight train destroy his vehicle. He takes a coach bus to the Florida Keys that has him employed at the roadhouse called simply; “The Road House”, and befriends Charlie, a teen girl who works at local book store Glass Books along with her father Stephen, who gives him a book of “Fred the Tree” that grows on the original span of the Seven Mile Bridge. He purchases a boat to live in.
After fending off the thugs of a local mafia boss, Ben Brandt, and personally driving them to the hospital where he meets Ellie, a doctor who tends to his injuries, and Dalton instantly becomes popular among the locals. After surviving an attempt on his life by thug leader Dell after finding him waiting at his boathouse with a shotgun, Dalton overpowers him and throws him overboard, where Dell is eaten by a crocodile.
Dalton is later apprehended by the cops, where he is threatened by the Sheriff ‘Big Dick’, who asks him to leave town. Dalton refuses and is ordered at gunpoint by his deputies out of his vehicle and repeatedly assaulted, when Ellie, who is the sheriff’s daughter, arrives and rescues him.
Recently released from prison mafia enforcer Knox is tasked by Gerald to hunt down Elwood, who engages him in an all-out bar fight. Frankie reveals to Elwood that Ben owns all the land around The Roadhouse and intends to raze it for a casino resort. Ben’s goons arrive at Glass Books and assault Charlie and Stephen, putting them in a hospital, along with torching the store. This motivates Elwood to stay in town. Elwood kills a goon at Gerald’s house and comes across a dirty cop transporting a box of cash. He attempts to frame the cop for the goon’s murder, but his knowledge of short-term memory loss from a concussion falters. Ellie’s father feigns her kidnapping to have Elwood hijack Ellie’s motorboat and meet Ben at his catamaran who is there with Ellie’s father. Elwood detonates Ellie’s boat, causing the catamaran to heavily take in water. He finds Ellie imprisoned in a room frantically trying to smash a window. When a goon arrives to shoot Elwood, the wall gives in, with Elwood and Ellie swimming up. Ben drives Ellie away in a boat with Elwood hijacking Knox’s boat after a fight. Ben’s boat bumps into Elwood’s whose person is flipped into Ben’s. After fighting, Elwood and Ellie jump off, sending Ben catapulting onto The Roadhouse. Knox hijacks a pickup truck on a causeway and crashes into The Roadhouse, then proceeding to fight and stab Elwood. Ben arrives and orders Knox to finish Elwood, only to have his neck snapped fatally and then Elwood stabs Knox repeatedly, finishing him off. Ellie’s father arrives and orders Elwood to leave. When Elwood is waiting for a coach bus, Charlie visits him with parting words with Stephen opening a box to discover a cash stash, unable to thank Elwood due to having already left. A post-credits scene shows Knox still alive in the hospital. He assaults the staff before leaving in his hospital gown.
