Trivia / Road House (1989)

• Actor-Inspired Element: It was Sam Elliott's idea for Wade to call Dalton "mijo", which is Spanish for "my son".
• California Doubling: The film takes place in Missouri (At least, it's implied. They don't say whether "outside Kansas City" meant Kansas City, Missouri, or Kansas City, Kansas). However, during the scene where the car dealership gets smashed up, there are signs for Los Angeles and Bakersfield in the background.
• The Cast Showoff: Not only did Patrick Swayze do most of his own stunts, he also wrote one song, "Cliff's Edge", and sang two for the movie's soundtrack, that one and "Raising Heaven (in Hell) Tonight".
• Deleted Scene: Originally Keith David had a lot more scenes between he and Patrick Swayze, but most were deleted when it was determined that the final print ran too long, almost 2-1/2 hours. Some other deleted scenes include Dalton making the other bouncers wear ballet outfits and dance as part of their training. There is also a still picture showing Dalton fighting with Ketchum (the guy with the knife-boot) inside the Double Deuce in a different fight than the one in the film, and the theatrical trailer shows quite a few deleted and extended scenes.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Blind Musician Cody is played by real-life blind musician Jeff Healey.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer shows some deleted scenes; Dalton grabbing some guy for mouth and telling him "Don't be rude!", Wade sitting on a couch drinking a beer and saying "So says the fighting philosopher", Carrie Ann sitting in car with Dalton asking him "What's the matter, Dalton? Don't you like women?" and Dalton says "Best I ever had was wonderful", Dalton saying "I'm not afraid of him" in the scene where he talks with Doc before Emmet's house explodes, Wesley in the bar after Red's shop has exploded and before fight scene telling Dalton, Red and others; "I guess you'll be having that fire sale now, huh Red?"
• No Stunt Double:
  • According to Sam Elliott, all of the actors did their own stunts. They were all trained by Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, a holder of nine black belts in nine different disciplines. Urquidez believed so much in Patrick Swayze's abilities, that he suggested to him that he should become a competitive kickboxer.
  • In his autobiography, Swayze said that the filming had to be stopped to cover up the real life bruises he sustained in Dalton's fight with Jimmy. He also sustained injury when Jimmy threw what was assumed to be a prop log at Dalton. It was not a prop...
• On-Set Injury: While filming their fight scene, Marshall R. Teague threw a real log at Patrick Swayze, thinking it was a breakway prop. By the end, Swayze was covered in bruises and had two broken ribs and a busted knee.
• Orphaned Reference: When Dalton finds Wade's body, there's a closeup on a tattoo that says "Rose". In a deleted scene, Wade told Dalton and Clay that Rose was his one true love who "[he] blew it with", and was worried they'd have the same thing happen to them.
• The Other Marty: Annette Bening was originally cast as Doc. She was replaced by Kelly Lynch, who was under contract to United Artists. Lynch claims that Bening was fired due to a lack of chemistry with Patrick Swayze.
• Referenced by...: It inspired the Mystery Science Theater 3000 song, "Let's Have A Patrick Swayze Christmas".
• Release Date Change: The film was delayed to May from a March 1989 release.
• Running Gag: A Real Life version: Comedy legend Bill Murray is good friends with producer Mitch Glazer, who is the husband of Kelly Lynch, who plays Doc. When Road House was experiencing its cable-tv renaissance, Murray would make a point to watch it, and when the sex scene between Dalton and Doc was shown, he'd call Glazer up to tell him "Patrick Swayze is banging your wife." Every time.
• Vindicated by Cable: When it was first released, it got slammed hard by critics, who saw it as a Follow-Up Failure for Patrick Swayze after the success of Dirty Dancing. But in The '90s, the number of cable channels exploded, all of which needed 24-hour programming. So the rights to lots of cheesy action movies were scooped up, and those movies put into heavy rotation. In particular, Turner (who owned TBS, the so-called "superstation") bought up MGM's pre-1986 library, but not United Artists. And it wasn't long before TBS discovered the movie was drawing phenomenal ratings; Perhaps Road House is the very reason TBS is a "superstation".

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