8 Missing Original Characters Who Could Finally Get Replacements In Road House 2

If a sequel to 2024’s Road House remake ever comes to fruition, several characters from the original movie could finally get proper modern-day replacements. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Dalton, Road House (2024) took the premise of the original Patrick Swayze movie about a stoic career “cooler” at a roadside bar in Missouri and re-imagined it taking place in the Florida Keys with an ex-UFC fighter-turned-bouncer. As a result, there are a lot of things the 2024 Road House remake leaves out from the original 1989 movie, including certain characters.

There are replacements for many original characters in 2024’s Road House, but not all of them were properly re-created in the remake. Some were condensed into one or split into two characters in the 2024 Road House remake while others were omitted altogether. Road House 2 hasn’t been confirmed, but the post-credits scene in Road House (2024) set up the perfect opportunity for a sequel, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s interest in Road House 2 is promising. If there is a Road House 2, the original characters that were excluded from the remake can finally get proper replacements in the sequel.

8

Wade Garrett

Played By Sam Elliott

The most surprising character from the cast of the original Road House not to have a true counterpart in the 2024 remake is Sam Elliott’s Wade Garett. Widely known as the best cooler in the business inching past his prime, Wade plays a key role as Dalton’s spiritual guide in Road House. To some degree, Charlie acts as Wade Garrett’s replacement in 2024’s Road House since she’s Dalton’s moral compass and voice of reason outside the bar, but a teenage girl working at a bookstore is too different from the rough-around-the-edges dive bar bouncer to truly fulfill his role.

More than any other missing character, Wade Garrett needs a spiritual successor in Road House 2 to act as Dalton’s older, wiser mentor. Instead of an aging, seasoned cooler, Wade Garett’s replacement could be a long-retired MMA fighter to better match Dalton’s UFC fighting backstory in the 2024 Road House remake. Wade may not have made it out of the original Road House alive, but his modern-day counterpart could still embody his essence while receiving a better fate.

7

Brad Wesley

Played By Ben Gazzara

In the original Road House, the main villain is Ben Gazzara’s Brad Wesley, an older, wealthy business magnate and crime lord responsible for building most of Jasper who goes to extreme lengths to mark his territory. In the Road House remake, Wesley’s role is split between two generations of the same wealthy family: Gerald Brandt, a greedy, incarcerated real estate mogul, and his son, Ben Brandt, who takes care of business on the outside by sending his henchmen off to take down Dalton and the Road House bar.

As the elder Brandt calling the shots, Gerald is the truer successor of Wesley’s character, but he is never properly introduced in the Road House remake. Gerald is never shown onscreen and his voice is only ever heard when he’s yelling through the phone. Ben only occupies the principal villain role onscreen because Gerald is in prison, but the movie constantly reminds viewers that Ben is not the top dog of the operation.

While Ben’s death at the end of 2024’s Road House may mirror Wesley’s at the end of 1989’s Road House, he was only a mouthpiece for the true villain. If Gerald is released from prison in Road House 2, viewers can finally meet the missing Road House villain in the sequel and Wesley can finally get a proper modern-day replacement.

6

Cody

Played By Jeff Healey

One original character who was not even remotely given a replacement in the Road House remake is Jeff Healey’s Cody, the frontman of the Double Deuce house band and an old friend of Dalton’s who worked with him at a different bar in Dayton, Ohio. The Road House remake opted to cut the house band and feature a different live band performing onstage every night at the titular bar instead. While this was a great way to showcase more real-life musical acts on the 2024 Road House remake’s soundtrack, it also removed Cody’s character from the equation.

None of the band members are introduced as characters in the Road House remake, let alone old friends of Dalton’s. In fact, with the erasure of Wade Garrett and Cody, nobody from Dalton’s past shows up to Glass Key in the Road House remake at all (outside of Dalton’s feverish boat nightmares). In Road House 2, there needs to be a character from Dalton’s past who plays in the bar band, whether it’s at the new-and-improved titular Road House or a different joint entirely. Bonus points if the character is played by a real-life musician.

5

Emmet

Played By Sunshine Parker

Another original character whose role was written out of the Road House remake entirely is Dalton’s landlord, Emmet. In 1989’s Road House, Dalton rents a room in the barn on the farmer’s property across the lake from Wesley’s mansion. As yet another warning to Dalton and his allies, Wesley has his head henchman, Jimmy Reno, burn down Emmet’s house. Thankfully, he survives and joins the other locals Wesley targeted to get revenge by taking turns shooting the cold-hearted villain to death.

In the Road House remake, Dalton stays on his boss Frankie’s rickety houseboat that came with the bar, essentially fusing Emmet’s character with Frank Tilghman from the original. However, Emmet’s role in Road House wasn’t limited to just Dalton’s landlord: he was also a valued member of the community that Wesley was terrorizing. If Road House 2 follows a similar premise, introducing more of the locals from the original movie like Emmet would place more emphasis on the sheer scope of the antagonist’s reign of terror on the town as a whole.

4

Denise

Played By Julie Michaels

In the Road House remake, there isn’t so much as a trace of the character Denise, Wesley’s much younger girlfriend who comes onto Dalton repeatedly. In the original Road House, Denise’s flirtation with Dalton seems to fuel the fire of Wesley’s disdain for him even more. After Jimmy Reno witnesses Denise proposition Dalton, he drags her out of the Double Deuce against her will. In a later scene at Wesley’s mansion, Dalton sees Denise with a black eye, indicating that Wesley abuses her or, like everything else, has Jimmy do his dirty work for him.

For all intents and purposes, Ben Brandt serves as Wesley’s onscreen replacement in the Road House remake, but he does not have a girlfriend or any love interest, nor is he even shown with any female companions. Although she was free of Wesley’s abuse when he died, Denise was an intriguing character who was discarded and left underutilized. If Denise got a proper replacement in Road House 2 as the villain’s lover who has a thing for Dalton, the franchise could finally get the opportunity to do her character justice.

3

Stroudenmire

Played By Jon Paul Jones

Although he was more of a minor character, car salesman Stroudenmiredoes did not get any kind of replacement in the Road House remake. After Wesley burns down Red Webster’s auto shop in the original Road House, he goes after Stroudenmire’s business next for allying with Red and the Double Deuce. Wesley orders his henchman, Gary Ketchum, to drive a monster truck through Stroudenmire’s car dealership and over all the cars, destroying the place. Stroudenmire later appears alongside Red, Emmet, and Frank as one of the locals Wesley victimized who take turns shooting him dead.

Besides Frankie, the only other character whose business is targeted by the villain in the Road House remake is Charlie’s dad, Stephen. Because Stephen is more of a replacement for Red since his bookstore gets burnt down. Again, if Road House 2 still involves a rich developer terrorizing a local community as part of the premise, more businesses should be directly affected. This would require more business owners in the cast, providing the perfect opportunity to introduce a proper replacement for Stroudenmire’s character in Road House 2.

2

Pat McGurn

Played By John Doe

After his first official shift at the Double Deuce, Dalton fires the bartender, Pat McGurn, for stealing money from the bar. Dalton finds out that Pat is Wesley’s nephew when Wesley sends some of his goons to blackmail Frank and Dalton into giving Pat his job back by threatening to withhold their liquor supply. This confrontation results in a massive brawl inside the bar, after which Pat’s character becomes just another one of Wesley’s henchmen until Dalton kills him at the end of Road House.

When it comes to character replacements in the Road House remake, Pat is a trickier case. Since the bar staff from the original movie was condensed into three or four characters, the only bartenders in the Road House remake are Carrie Ann’s replacement, Laura, and Billy, who becomes a bouncer under Dalton’s mentorship, making him more of Hank, Jack, or Younger’s counterpart than Pat. Still, the argument could be made that Ben Brandt occupies Pat’s role to an extent as the incompetent family member of the evil head honcho.

However, Ben never works at the bar in the remake, let alone gets fired from it. If Gerald had an onscreen presence in the Road House remake, Ben would be closer to Pat’s character (or maybe not have existed at all), but as it stands, Ben aligns more with Wesley than his nephew. Regardless, Ben is dead now, and if Gerald fully steps into Wesley’s shoes as the main villain in Road House 2, it would be interesting if he had a nephew who tried to weaponize nepotism to keep his job at the bar.

1

Morgan

Played By Terry Funk

Real-life professional wrestler Terry Funk’s small but memorable role as Morgan, a short-tempered bouncer at the Double Deuce, in the original Road House was not re-created in the remake. Once Dalton starts officially working at the Double Deuce, his first order of business is firing Morgan on the spot for not having “the right temperament for the trade.” Morgan takes this personally and immediately joins Wesley’s gang, which leads to his ultimate demise at the hands of Dalton.

Just like with Pat, the bar staff in the Road House remake is so small that none of the bouncers are replacements for Morgan. Although Gyllenhaal’s Dalton teaches Billy and Reef how to be bouncers as Swayze’s Dalton did with Hank, Jack, and Younger, there aren’t any bouncers already working at the titular bar in the Road House remake when Dalton arrives, let alone any he can fire for having a bad attitude. If Dalton is working at a new bar in the hypothetical Road House sequel, he should fire a Morgan-like bouncer who later joins forces with the enemy.

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  Road House

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  With a story and screenplay by David Lee Henry and direction from Rowdy Herrington, Road House is a 1989 Action release starring Patrick Swayze in the lead role. Swayze steps into the shoes of James Dalton, a bouncer that is hired by a club owner to provide security for the establishment.

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  Road House (2024)

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  Road House is a remake of the original 1989 film, which followed protagonist Dalton, a Ph.D. educated bouncer at the roughest bar in the south known as the Double Deuce. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Dalton, with two major changes including Dalton being a retired UFC fighter and the bar locale being in the Florida Keys.