“I own a road house, out in the Florida Keys,” Jessica Williams’ character Frankie tells Jake Gyllenhaal’s Dalton in the new “Road House” remake, now streaming on Amazon Prime. “Hemingway used to drink there.”
Which, granted, doesn’t narrow the location down much, if Hemingway’s legends are to be believed. But where is Glass Key, the location of the notorious bar that this generation’s Dalton will need to clean up?
Sorry, no such place.
There’s a ‘Road House’ remake?
Yes! The cult classic 1989 movie “Road House” got a sunnier, boat-filled remake, moving the roaming warrior Dalton — formerly a legendary incorruptible “cooler” played by Patrick Swayze, now a former UFC middleweight fighter played by Gyllenhaal (“Brokeback Mountain,” “Donnie Darko,” “Spider-Man: Far From Home”) — down to the Florida Keys where an open-air rowdy bar just called “Road House” needs some serious, ultraviolent assistance. (There is a tribute to the “Double Deuce” name from the original early in the movie, though.)
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There’s been a remake in the works since 2013. UFC fighter Ronda Rousey was cast as the gender-flipped lead in 2015 with Nick Cassavetes (“The Notebook”) writing and directing but the movie was put on hold for six years and then brought back with Liman directing, a script by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry, and Gyllenhaal as the star. The new “Road House” was produced by Joel Silver, the same guy who produced the first one.
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Where is Glass Key, Florida?
The movie is set on a “nondescript Key, south of Marathon,” according to the promotional material.
Sadly, of the 800 keys in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, none of them are named Glass Key, the definitely-Florida-looking chunk of land where Dalton hops off the bus.
The Road House bar is said to be “just up the highway, past mile marker 77,” according to local bookstore co-owner Stephen, played by Kevin Carroll. That puts it just south of the Lignumvitae Bridge in Islamorada, home of restaurants, art galleries, the Windley Key State Fossil Reef Geological Site, the History of Diving Museum, and the laid-back beachside entertainment complex known as Robbie’s Marina.
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Was the ‘Road House’ movie with Jake Gyllenhaal filmed in Florida?
Barely. “Ninety-nine percent of the movie is filmed in the Dominican Republic,” Florida Keys Film Commissioner Chad Newman told keysnews.com.
IMDB lists Punta Cana and Santo Domingo as the main shooting locations and a scene where Dalton weighs in for a fight with UFC fighter Jay Heiron was shot at the UFC 285 ceremonial weigh-in in Las Vegas last March.
Filming in Florida has dwindled since state lawmakers ended the tax incentives for film production in 2016, although Brad Pitt has been spotted filming a Formula 1 racing movie in Daytona Beach.
But one scene was definitely shot in Florida, featuring a local celebrity.
Is Fred the Tree in the new ‘Road House’ movie?
Prominently!
When Dalton arrives in the Keys the first thing anyone asks him is if he saw beloved local landmark Fred the Tree on the Old Seven-Mile Bridge.
“You know, that whole bridge is closed,” Charlie, the other co-owner of Glass Books, says. “You can’t get to it. But big old tree just kinda pops out of nowhere? Well, that’s Fred the Tree.” And then she hands him a book on it.
Fred is an Australian pine tree, or Casuarina, apparently sprouted from the droppings of a passing bird according to a 2013 story in “Keys Weekly.” And despite the lack of rich soil, Fred has grown tall and proud and survived countless hurricanes amidst the salty spray and crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Locals wave as they go and treat Fred as a symbol of the endurance of the Keys. Every Christmas he gets decorated with lights to delight motorists on the nearby, modern Seven Mile Bridge.
Fred also has a social media presence.
“Don’t fret my friends,” “Fred” posted on his Facebook page in 2022. “I will be decorated this year for the holidays – the elves’ plans are bigger and better than ever! Buttttttt, it will be a little later in December than normal because I heard Jake Gyllenhaal wants me in his new movie and I gotta be naked.” Hashtags included #moviestarlife and #themostfamoustree.
What are keys? What’s the difference between a key and an island?
The Florida Keys are a string of exposed areas from an ancient coral reef. A “key,” from the Spanish word “cayo,” meaning small island, is just that: a small, low-elevation coral island.
There are 800 keys in the Florida Keys mostly connected by the 42 bridges in the 110-mile Overseas Highway.
The Keys are broken up into three sections, north, central and south or upper, middle and lower, but are generally referred to by the largest bits:
- Key Largo: The first and longest island in the Keys, just south of Miami.
- Islamorada: A group of smaller keys including Windley Key, Upper Matecumbe Key and Lower Matecumbe Key. Key Largo and Islamorada are the Upper Keys.
- Marathon: In the center area is Marathon, an incorporation of Boot, Knights, Hog, Vaca, Stirrup, Crawl and Little Crawl keys, East and West Sister’s Island, Deer and Fat Deer keys, Long Pine and Grassy keys. When people say the Middle Keys they usually mean the Marathon area.
- Big Pine Key & the Lower Keys: Located from the west end of the Seven Mile Bridge, above Key West. Anything south of the Seven Mile Bridge down to Key West is the Lower Keys.
- Key West: A single island and the southernmost tip of the country. There’s also the Dry Tortugas Keys, a group of keys about 70 miles west of Key West reachable only by boat.
It’s surprising the screenwriters found a name that wasn’t being used. The Keys’ names reflect the whimsical attitude of the locals, with Man Key and Woman Key, three separate ones called Pumpkin Key and four Rattlesnake keys, two each of Duck Key, Money Key, Cotton Key and at least four different Deer Keys (there are many, many other examples). Farther west in the Atlantic outside the archipelago you can find Dildo Key, named, of course, for the native species of cactus.
Where was the original ‘Road House’ filmed?
When Patrick Swayze took on the evil developer in Jasper, Missouri in the original 1989 movie, he was actually spin-kicking in Southern California.
The film was largely shot in Anaheim, Santa Clarita, Valencia, and Sanger with exterior shots filmed in Santa Clarita Valley and at the Harris Ranch in Reedly, California, according to the AFI Catalog.
An actual country and western bar in Anaheim near Disneyland called “Cowboy Boogie” filled in for the interior of the Double Deuce honky tonk bar Dalton cleans up, but it could’ve used a professional cooler itself.
Later renamed The Bandstand, the club opened in the 70s as the Crescendo disco, went through several more format changes and was a hip hop bar called The Boogie when it finally closed up in 2006 after repeated investigations, the most police calls of any place in Anaheim, and the loss of its liquor license. It was demolished in 2015.
