That Googie-style exterior and the parking lot with the state line running through it is a dead ringer for the old Cal Neva Resort & Casino in North Lake Tahoe, fabled hangout/hideout for Frank Sinatra and his pallies. Other characters are sure to drop in, some quite heavily.Īn alert viewer will notice right away that producer-writer-director Drew Goddard's violent, sketchy thingamabob looks eerily familiar. And the hotelkeeper-the only person on staff at the lavishly decorated yet utterly customer-free place-is a nervous drug addict named Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman). Emily's little sister Ruth (Cailee Spaeny) is there against her will. Bad attitude champ Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson) has a mean temper and wants to be left alone. Cocktail lounge singer Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo) needs a place to stay because her car broke down on the way to Reno. Father Flynn (Jeff Bridges, doing Rooster Cogburn lite), a forgetful Catholic priest, comes in and makes straight for the bar. Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm) is a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman (so he claims) with a corny, motor-mouthed Southern accent.
One by one the guests arrive at the empty lodge in Bad Times at the El Royale.
