Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) on Netflix
R20182h 21mCrimeDramaMysteryThriller
In 1969, Father Daniel Flynn, singer Darlene Sweet and two other guests check into the El Royale, a hotel on the California-Nevada border. One guest holds a young woman captive.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.1/10180,795 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes74%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1959, Felix O'Kelly hides a bag of money beneath the floorboards of a room at the El Royale, a hotel built across the California-Nevada border that once drew the wealthy before it lost its gambling license. An accomplice arrives and shoots him. Ten years later, four guests check in on the same night: Father Daniel Flynn, a priest whose memory is failing; Darlene Sweet, a singer traveling to a performance in Reno; Laramie Seymour Sullivan, a vacuum salesman who makes patronizing remarks about Darlene's race; and Emily Summerspring, a hippie who arrives with a young woman she keeps tied up in her room. Miles Miller, the hotel's only employee, comes out of the maintenance closet to register them, and they take separate rooms.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- It took eight months to plan the tracking shot in which Hamm's character discovers the El Royale's secret corridor of one-way mirrors; with Erivo singing live for the five-minute continuous shot, it took an entire day and twenty-seven takes.
- After Russell Crowe dropped out shortly before filming began, Jon Hamm was contacted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and given two days to decide, then had less than a week to learn fourteen pages of dialogue.
- Drew Goddard compiled a list of songs into his spec screenplay and told major studios to avoid buying the script if they could not buy the licenses for each piece of music; 20th Century Fox bought it in March 2017.
- Cynthia Erivo helped Drew Goddard write her character's climactic monologue directed at Hemsworth's character, Billy Lee, explaining that as the only lead character who is a woman of color, without a moment to speak "it will seem as though we don't want her to".
- Beyonce and Tom Holland were among the actors considered for lead roles, and newcomer Cailee Spaeny was officially cast on August 24.
- The film was shot under the working title Purple Harvest and filmed in chronological order to improve continuity, around Vancouver, British Columbia, where an incentive was given in the form of a 28% refundable tax credit.
