Movies - Road House

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Road House (1989 film)

	Movies - Road House

Road House is a 1989 film directed by Rowdy Herrington and starring Patrick Swayze as a top bouncer at a seedy roadside bar (it is not related whatsoever to the 1948 movie).

Many considered the film a disappointment after the phenomenal success of Swayze's Dirty Dancing
. However, after its initial box office failure, it moved to television, where it quickly developed a cult following due to its roiling action, over-the-top clichés, and so-bad-that-it's-good writing style.

Plot summary

Swayze plays Dalton, a professional "cooler" with a mysterious past, who specializes in cleaning up rough establishments. Lured away from New York to work at the Double Deuce in Jasper, Missouri, Dalton quickly makes enemies with local kingpin Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara), who has made his fortune extorting the townsfolk.

After dismissing Wesley's cronies from the Double Deuce, Dalton begins to clean up the bar, drawing upon the Zen Buddhist philosophy he learned at New York University to teach the other bouncers valuable lessons. Meanwhile, Wesley recruits his favored thug Jimmy (Marshall R. Teague), a murderous ex-con, to smash monster trucks into buildings and terrorize the citizenry. The people now begin to look to Dalton to liberate them from Wesley's clutches. When Dalton begins dating the local physician (Kelly Lynch), Wesley's ex, this proves to be the final straw, and Wesley blows up the auto parts store as a signal to those who would betray him.

Dalton's mentor Wade Garrett (Sam Elliott) comes to town. Wade is an aging cooler who taught Dalton everything he knows, although his glory days are now long behind him. Wesley's goons fight Dalton and Wade to a draw, but then Wesley dispatches Jimmy to blow up the farmhouse where Dalton is staying. Dalton rips Jimmy's throat out in the ensuing fight, mirroring an incident years before. In revenge, Wesley declares that he will kidnap and murder either Wade or the Doc if Dalton doesn't leave town. He flips a coin to decide who will be murdered. When Dalton finds Wade dead (it was tails) he rushes to confront Wesley in a final showdown.

Rigging his car to crash into Wesley's house as a distraction, Dalton sneaks into Wesley's compound and proceeds to take out each of his thugs one at a time. Wesley finds Dalton hiding in the trophy room, and the two fight until Dalton pins Wesley and threatens to rip his throat out. But Dalton has pity on him and sees the violence of his own ways, subsequently turning his back, giving Wesley the opportunity to attack again. Doc shows up just in time to watch as the townsfolk Wesley has bullied over the years come to Dalton's defense, repeatedly shooting Wesley with their shotguns before hiding the evidence. The police arrive but make little effort to investigate the matter, and the town is free from Wesley's iron grip.

Box office

Road House's total domestic gross was U.S. $30,050,028.

Cultural impact

The movie was referenced in episode 321 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, when Crow T. Robot composes the song, "Let's Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas".

In 2003 an off-Broadway musical production of Road House was staged as a campy comedy, 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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Road House (1989 film) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Road House (1989 film); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay