Dalton’s arrival in town becomes a problem for Ben Brandt, the antagonist in Road House. Billy Magnussen plays Ben Brandt.
Ben Brandt is a wealthy man with considerable influence. He is well-known in town, as his father, Gerald, invested a significant amount of money in Glass Key.
Gerald built and grew the town, but he did it for personal motives. He was also involved in drug dealing, eventually leading to his imprisonment.
Apart from leaving Ben all his properties and assets, Gerald also burdened him with his debts and obligations.
Now, Ben wishes to open a resort for the wealthy, and he has the land for it. The only thing standing in his way is Frankie’s roadhouse, which she refuses to sell.
To realize his dream, Ben is willing to resort to extreme measures to force Frankie into giving up her roadhouse.
Ben’s increasing problems
Ben keeps sending his thugs to terrorize Frankie and her customers, hoping that he will scare her into selling her roadhouse.
As Ben has the Sheriff working for him, Frankie has no means to protect her roadhouse from Ben’s thugs.
The bouncers she hires all end up quitting sooner or later, bringing Ben closer to making his dream come true.
However, that changes when Frankie hires Dalton, who can easily take on Ben’s thugs and is not intimidated, no matter what Ben does.
Dalton then is a thorn in Ben’s side. If Ben does not build the resort, he will be in trouble, as he is out of money and has had to resort to borrowing it from dangerous people.
Having Gerald breathing down his neck from prison does not help his situation. Ben now has to deal with Knox, an enforcer his father has sent.
Even the threat of the police fails to scare Dalton away, and Ben is now on the verge of losing his dream resort due to a man whom he thinks does not even belong in this town.
Ben then decides to let Knox handle Dalton in his own way. He also gets his thugs to burn down Charlie and Stephen’s bookstore to send Dalton a message.
Ben’s death
Burning down the bookstore ultimately works to Ben’s disadvantage, as Dalton, who was planning to leave town, decides to stay when he learns about the incident.
In fact, Dalton retaliates by stealing from Ben, leaving him angrier than ever. A desperate Ben then kidnaps Ellie and threatens to harm her, even if it means betraying the Sheriff.
He succeeds in bringing Dalton to his boat but fails to kill him as Dalton comes prepared and blows up Ben’s boat.
Ben plans to continue using Ellie to threaten Dalton. The ensuing chase results in Ben crashing another boat into The Road House.
An injured Ben then orders Knox to kill Dalton, but Knox does not take kindly to being ordered and ends up killing Ben instead.
With Ben dead, his thugs will no longer be terrorizing Frankie, leading to Dalton leaving town now that his job is done.
Also Read: Knox: Road House character explained