Bad Times at the El Royale

Lake Tahoe, 1969, a tranquil backdrop to a tumultuous story. The El Royale, a historic motel with a dubious reputation, stands as a testament to its own dark history. Seven strangers, each carrying secrets that threaten to consume them, have converged on this fateful night. For some, salvation may be within reach; for others, it might be their last chance at redemption. On the outside, the El Royale exudes an air of seedy grandeur. Its imposing façade appears frozen in a bygone era, while the neon lights beckon passersby, enticing them with promises of excitement and anonymity. Inside, however, it's a different story. Behind closed doors and dimly lit corridors, the hotel's shroud of mystery hangs heavy, a foreboding presence that seems to suffocate its guests. Yet, to these seven strangers, it's the only sanctuary available to them, each gravitating here for one reason or another – a reason born out of desperation, perhaps, or a faint glimmer of hope. As the evening unfolds, their paths begin to cross in the El Royale's lobby, each occupied with their own solitary pursuits. The bartender, Emily, an enigmatic figure with an air of quiet confidence, seems perfectly at home behind the counter, tending to the clientele with a mix of warmth and aloofness. She's one of the few souls aware of the El Royale's infamous history, whispers of which travel quickly among its more curious guests. Nearby, Daniel Flynn, a young priest on a mission to return a stolen $20,000, sits nervously, his conscience constantly grappling with the weight of his assigned task. In a nearby room, a struggling singer named Laramie, a.k.a. Lani, occupies herself with packing up her things, weighing her options for the future amidst the uncertain atmosphere of the El Royale. Her quiet contemplation is momentarily interrupted by the sound of knocking at the door – the first tentative steps into the fateful convergence of the protagonists. Enter Miles, a Vietnam War veteran struggling to escape his own demons; and Father Daniel Flynn's partner in crime, Rose, an insurance salesman who must mend the financial hole they've dug themselves into, this $20,000 now representing the crucial element of their undoing. There too is the enigmatic and poised Father Malone, driven by an unrelenting thirst for revenge against the perpetrator responsible for the loss of his order at war; and last but not least, the smooth-talking and sinister crime figure, Hot Rod, and his man Wednesday, the hotel's floor manager. On this night, a collision of personalities, motivations, and values promises to forever alter the fate of these seven strangers. An intricate weave of their interconnected lives threatens to spill into the open, one last chance at redemption beckoning to them. They are trapped within a web of corruption and moral compromises that engulf the atmospheric depth of the El Royale, a prison within a crumbling façade that holds the broken remnants of society. Acting on his innate curiosity, Father Daniel, in an attempt to shake off his lingering emotions and questions about the El Royale, goes into searching of an exit that gets him exploring hotel corridors where, by chance, he encounters the once-respectable but now financially doomed hoteler and its only hope. Daniel has to now find a way to convince himself that some secrets, despite their weight, still need at least one voice and one chance at their voice to be heard or let it disappear forever beneath its weight. Though their individual storylines evolve alongside one another, there exists a deep interconnection between them, a tangled root system of shared motivations and crossed paths bound to release them from their existential quagmire. While their secrets, both great and small, are just on the cusp of being unearthed, redemption's thread promises almost too tantalizingly close to snatching an elusive resolve to define their unbreakable stories. For some, on this night, redemption might take shape in a peculiar, almost sad form. Redemption within themselves comes at the expense of the terrible choices and brutal realities others are caught in, all due to the circumstances that befell each one. When their night at the El Royale finally reaches its agonizing end, will these individuals not only claim a fleeting respite from their otherwise crumbling realities, but simultaneously seal a hidden future, in which broken fragments of their past somehow come into a long-sought redemption, however fragmented and unfulfilled it may be?