Road House (1989 film)

James Dalton is a professional bouncer working security for a club in New York City. Although stoic and cool-headed, Dalton is tormented by memories of a man he killed in self-defense by ripping out his throat. Frank Tilghman, a businessman, recruits Dalton to take over security at his club "Double Deuce" in Jasper, Missouri. Tilghman plans to invest substantial funds into the dilapidated club and needs Dalton's highly regarded skills to tackle the endemic violence and rough customers. Dalton agrees in exchange for full authority over the club's operations and immediately fires several employees for poor behavior, theft, and drug dealing. For privacy, Dalton stays in a sparse barn owned by a farmer named Emmett, unaware that the mansion on the adjacent lake belongs to Brad Wesley, a crime lord who controls the town through bribery, intimidation, and violence.

Wesley's nephew Pat McGurn, who is one of the fired employees, attempts to intimidate Tilghman into giving him his job back, but fails. Pat later attacks Dalton, who, with the help of his new bouncers, badly injures Pat and his accomplices. Receiving a knife wound in the process, Dalton visits a hospital, befriending Dr. Elizabeth Clay, to whom Wesley is also attracted. After sending his henchmen to unsuccessfully try to disrupt business at the Double Deuce, Wesley offers to hire Dalton himself. Dalton refuses, and Wesley uses his connections to prevent the Double Deuce from purchasing alcohol from any suppliers. Dalton uses his own connections to secure some supplies and reunites with his mentor Wade Garrett, an aging bouncer who arrives in town after a disconcerting phone call from Dalton. Wesley sends his men to destroy the Double Deuce's supplies, but Dalton and Garrett defeat them.

One evening, the auto shop adjacent to the Double Deuce — owned by Elizabeth's uncle Red Webster — is destroyed by arson. After Dalton and the crowd return inside the Double Deuce, they find Wesley awaiting them, who deploys his henchman, Jimmy Reno, to instigate a massive brawl with the Double Deuce bouncers. When Dalton intervenes, Wesley calls an end to the fight and leaves the bar. Wesley continues tightening his grip on Jasper by sabotaging other businesses while the local owners discuss their futile efforts to stop him. Garrett and Elizabeth both attempt to calm Dalton, trying to assuage his guilt about killing in self-defense and his frustration at being unable to end Wesley's campaign. Tensions peak when Reno blows up Emmett's home. Although Emmett is saved, the enraged Dalton fights Reno, killing him in self-defense by ripping out his throat when Reno draws a gun, much to Elizabeth's shock and disgust.

Later, Wesley contacts Dalton, threatening to kill either Elizabeth or Garrett by coin toss: Heads for Elizabeth, Tails for Garrett. A badly beaten Garrett arrives at the Double Deuce, while Dalton leaves to check on Elizabeth, who is safe but unwilling to leave with him. Dalton returns to the bar to find Garrett slumped on the bar. Assuming he's drunk, Dalton attempts to wake him before turning him over and discovering he's been stabbed to death, with a note pinned to the knife reading "It was Tails". Distraught, Dalton storms Wesley's estate, kills most of his henchmen, and defeats Wesley, but refrains from killing Wesley himself. Elizabeth arrives and reconciles with Dalton, but Wesley recovers and attempts to shoot him before being shot dead by the locals, including Emmett and Red. The police arrive, but all who are present claim they saw nothing.

Sometime later, the modernized and refined Double Deuce bustles with customers while Dalton and Elizabeth swim together in a lake.

The soundtrack for Road House features Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey, whose band is featured in the film as the house band for the Double Deuce. Cruzados are the band in the opening credits, contributing three songs to the film that never made the soundtrack. Patrick Swayze also wrote one song and sang two for the soundtrack. The film's score was composed by Michael Kamen.^[9][10] A limited edition 14-track score album was issued by Intrada Records in 2012.^[11] An expanded limited 31-track score was reissued for the film's 30th anniversary by La-La Land Records in 2019.^[12][13]

A sequel, Road House 2, was released directly to DVD in July 2006. Set many years later and telling the story of Dalton's adult son Shane Tanner (Johnathon Schaech), it featured no characters from the original cast and only a few references to Dalton (who was reportedly shot dead before the film took place). The sequel confirmed that Dalton's first name was James, which could be seen momentarily on the medical chart in the original film's hospital scene, but which had been otherwise left unsaid. At the same time Road House 2 was released, the original film was reissued in a deluxe edition featuring, among other features, separate audio commentary tracks by director Herrington, Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, which the duo had expressed an interest in doing during the introduction of the tenth anniversary Clerks DVD.^[34]

In 2003, an off-Broadway musical production of Road House was staged as a campy comedy by Timothy Haskell, as seen by its full title of Road House: The Stage Version Of The Cinema Classic That Starred Patrick Swayze, Except This One Stars Taimak From The 80's Cult Classic "The Last Dragon" Wearing A Blonde Mullet Wig.^[35]

Road House proved to be enough of an obsession for Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu) from Mystery Science Theater 3000 in episode 321 to inspire a special board game based on the movie as his misfit toy for the new Island of Misfit Toys in the Invention Exchange and later a new Christmas carol, "Let's have a Patrick Swayze Christmas", as well as countless comparisons of the movie to the movie he, Joel Robinson (Joel Hodgson) and Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) were riffing (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians), all the way to changing some lyrics of the theme song in its closing reprise: "S-A-N-T-A C-L-A-U-S/Hooray for Patrick Swayze".

In the Family Guy season 8 episode "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag", Peter Griffin (Seth MacFarlane) purchases a DVD copy of Road House for a dollar at a closing video store. After watching the film, he decides that the only way to solve every problem is by roundhouse kicking everything in sight including his family. The episode was dedicated in memory of Swayze, who died of pancreatic cancer on September 14, 2009.^[36]

Following the death of Eric Garner, the New York City Police Department began using a scene from Road House as part of a mandatory, three-day retraining course for 22,000 officers expected to "be nice" under pressure.^[37]

In Young Sheldon season 4, episode 2, "A Docent, A Little Lady And A Bouncer Named Dalton" from November 2020, it is discovered that Mary Cooper (Zoe Perry)'s secret pleasure is watching action movies like Road House, which creates an unexpected bond with her teenager son Georgie (Montana Jordan).