Jake Gyllenhaal says the fights in Road House are unlike anything seen on screen before

Road House
(Image credit: Prime Video)

Road House, the reimagining of the riotous '80s cult classic, isn't going to pull its punches, with star Jake Gyllenhaal even going as far as saying the action scenes are filmed "in a way that has never been done before."

"[Director Doug Liman] always does action in a different way, and he came to me and said, 'I want to do fights in a way that has never been done before,'" Gyllenhaal tells Total Film in our new issue out this Friday, which features Road House on the cover. 

"He became pretty much obsessed with how the punches would land, and the kicks would land. He didn’t want them to be performed in the way that we have for audiences in the past with that kind of fighting."

It's not just a one-off, either. Stunt coordinator Garrett Warren recalls that he thought "we'll do this magic trick once or twice, maybe three times." 

"But no, not with Doug. Doug wanted to do it the whole time. The shots were never cut. When you see this movie, the fights are way beyond any fight that has ever been filmed in cinema history. This is something that is groundbreaking."

Gyllenhaal plays Dalton in Road House, an ex-UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a roadhouse in the Florida Keys. However, he soon discovers more than he bargained for in the form of a violent gang causing trouble. Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior, Lukas Gage, and former UFC champion Conor McGregor all also star.

Road House is released on Prime Video on March 21. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Friday, March 1. This is one day later than usual, due to how the Leap Year falls. 

Check out the covers below:

Total Film's Road House covers

(Image credit: Prime Video/Amazon MGM Studios/Total Film)

Pre-order the issue here to bag your copy, or click here to subscribe to Total Film and never miss another exclusive. You’ll get every issue before it's in stores, and you’ll get subscriber-exclusive covers. 

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(Image credit: Universal/Warner Bros./Prime Video/Amazon MGM Studios/Focus Features)
Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at 12DOVE, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.

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