Bad Times at the El Royale

**Bad Times at the El Royale** is a 2018 film starring Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman and Chris Hemsworth, directed and written by Drew Goddard and produced by Goddard and Jeremy Latcham.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $48 million.

## Plot

The El Royale, once popular with the wealthy until losing its gambling license, is a hotel that straddles the California–Nevada border. In 1959, Felix O'Kelly hides a money bag under the floorboards of his room. A man he recognizes arrives and shoots him dead. Ten years later, Catholic priest Daniel Flynn, singer Darlene Sweet, salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan, and hippie Emily Summerspring arrive at the hotel, now run solely by heroin addict Miles Miller, and book separate rooms.

Upon checking into the honeymoon suite, Laramie begins removing wiretaps but unexpectedly finds a second set as well. After stealing the hotel's master key, he discovers a secret corridor where every room can be observed through one-way mirrors and filmed with a camera. Laramie sees Darlene singing, Daniel removing the floorboards of his room, and Emily holding a young woman captive. In the parking lot, Laramie calls into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), revealing himself to be Special Agent Dwight Broadbeck. He is instructed by J. Edgar Hoover to focus on his mission of collecting the surveillance materials the FBI had planted and ignore the kidnapping. Believing the mission has been compromised, Dwight is also told to prevent the guests from leaving. To do so, Dwight disables all their cars.

Daniel invites Darlene to join him for dinner in the hotel lounge. There, Darlene says she is practicing for a performance in Reno and Daniel reveals his memory is deteriorating. While Daniel is getting drinks, Darlene sees him spiking her beverage and she knocks him unconscious with a bottle. Miles later finds and revives Daniel, telling him that he wants to undertake a confession but Daniel refuses. Miles, looking for the missing master key, leads Daniel to the secret corridor, explaining that he used to regularly film intimate encounters that he had to send to his superiors. Miles also admits to having withheld one incriminating film of a deceased public figure who had been kind to him. When Daniel leaves to evaluate said film, Miles witnesses through the one-way mirror Dwight attempting to rescue Emily's hostage, who is revealed to be her younger sister, Rose. Emily kills Dwight with a shotgun, which also shoots out the mirror, revealing the corridor and injuring Miles.

Before these events, Emily had forcibly removed her sister from a dangerous cult, led by Billy Lee. In the present, Rose secretly calls Billy to tell him where she is. A witness to Dwight's murder, Darlene tries to escape but fails due to his tampering with her vehicle. Daniel arrives and reveals to her that he is Dock O'Kelly, imprisoned since a bank robbery in 1959. Recently paroled, he arrived in disguise to retrieve the money hidden by his brother Felix. Due to Dock's failing memory, he picked the wrong room and tried to drug Darlene to gain access to hers. To gain her trust, Dock offers to split the cash with Darlene. After retrieving the money, Billy and his cult arrive and take the pair, Emily, and Miles hostage.

In a flashback, Billy tells his cult how people are forced to choose sides and, as an allegory, gets Rose to fight another girl for the chance to sleep with him as Emily watches nearby. In the present, a compliant Rose watches Billy as he interrogates the group and finds the film, which he realizes is more valuable than the money. He forces Emily to choose a color in a game of roulette between her and Miles, and kills her when she loses. Before Billy completes another round of roulette, Dock attacks him, a melee ensues, and a fire begins to spread. When Darlene implores Miles to pick up a gun and help, it is revealed that he served in the Vietnam War as a sniper and killed 123 people. A defiant Miles kills Billy and his followers, but a distraught Rose stabs Miles in the stomach before being shot by Dock. Darlene convinces "Father Flynn" to absolve Miles of the guilt over his wartime actions before he dies. They then toss the film into the fire and leave with the money. Sometime later in Reno, Dock attends Darlene's soul performance at a nightclub.