A running joke in Road House 2024 that foreshadowed the remake’s most absurd death raises the question of whether crocodiles are actually native to the action movie’s Florida setting. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Dalton, Road House 2024 is a remake of Patrick Swayze’s 1989 movie about a tough bouncer hired to tame a rowdy bar called The Double Deuce. Although the basic premise is the same, some details like the bar name and Dalton’s backstory in Road House 2024 are different from the original movie.
In addition to making Gyllenhaal’s Dalton different from Swayze’s in the 1989 Road House movie and naming the bar after the movie title, the remake is also set in an entirely different location. Instead of revisiting the original movie’s Jasper, Missouri setting, the Road House remake takes place in the fictional town of Glass Key in the Florida Keys, a string of islands off the southern tip of the Sunshine State. Because of its South Florida setting, the repeated emphasis on the crocodile-infested waters in Road House calls into question whether these reptiles are really native to this particular region.
The first mention of crocodiles in Road House is by the titular bar’s owner, Frankie, after she lets Dalton crash on her houseboat. Frankie warns Dalton to “watch out for the crocodile” that ate the dockmaster’s pomeranian, Shantsie, the year before. In the next scene, Dalton is warned about the crocodile again by the dockmaster himself. These crocodile warnings set up one of the most ridiculous deaths in the Road House remake, in which Brandt’s henchman Dell gets eaten by a crocodile after Dalton pushes him into the ocean and fails to help him back up onto the dock.
The cops search the area the next morning, but the dockmaster tells Dalton they won’t find the body since “crocs hide their food,” which is why nobody believed him when Shantsie got snatched. Ellie later echoes this tidbit about crocs hiding their food, prompting Dalton to ask if “they teach that in kindergarten around here.” The fact that the common behaviors of crocodiles appear to be common knowledge among locals suggests that these reptiles are a well-known part of the region’s wildlife.
Though it raised speculation, the implication in Road House that crocodiles inhabit South Floridian waters is accurate. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,American crocodiles do reside along the coast of South Florida, which serves as the northern end of the species’ range. So, geographically speaking, Dell becoming crocodile food in Road House checks out, even if it is a wild way to go.
In Road House, Dell’s death-by-crocodile casted doubts, but not just because of the absurdity of these particular circumstances. The involvement of crocodiles in Dell’s demise struck some viewers as potentially inaccurate, as did the frequent mention of crocodiles in general due to the film’s setting. Florida and the whole U.S. Gulf Coast are more often associated with alligators as opposed to crocodiles, which are often mistaken for one another, causing confusion about Road House‘s crocodile claims. Despite the skepticism, Road House was ultimately correct in portraying crocodiles as part of Florida’s aquatic wildlife.
Although the movie is set in the Florida Keys, 2024’s Road House remake was filmed almost entirely in the Dominican Republic. Of course, the incorporation of crocodiles into Road House only needed to be accurate to the film’s Florida setting, but crocodiles do live in coastal areas throughout the Caribbean as well, including the Dominican Republic. In fact, one of the largest known populations of American crocodiles inhabits Lago Enriquillo, a landlocked, saltwater lake in the D.R. (via National Geographic).
Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, National Geographic