Megan Fox and Bruce Willis in ‘Midnight in the Switchgrass’ (2021).Photo:© Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection
© Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection
The 2021 filmMidnight in the SwitchgrassstarsMegan FoxandBruce Willisas FBI agents working an operation to catch murderers who use highways and truck stops to find their victims.
Emile Hirsch, who plays Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agent Byron Crawford inMidnight in the Switchgrass, toldAMFM Magazinethat screenwriter Alan Horsnail purposely never named the real-life cases he based the movie on. But, they’re eerily similar to those associated with Texas’ truck stop killer, Robert Benjamin Rhoades.
The Houston-born truck driver has only ever been convicted for three murders since his arrest in 1990. But the FBI believes that at one point, Rhoades was kidnapping, torturing, raping and killing anywhere from one to three women every month, perGQ. When he was caught, the convicted killer reportedly told police that he had been “doing this” for 15 years.
Here’s everything to know about the inspiration behindMidnight in the Switchgrassand the real-life serial killer whose crimes match those depicted in the film.
Warning:Midnight in the Switchgrassspoilers ahead!
What isMidnight in the Switchgrassabout?
Megan Fox in ‘Midnight in the Switchgrass’ (2021).© Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection
Midnight in the Switchgrassis a crime thriller that follows FBI agents Rebecca Lombardo (Fox) and Karl Helter (Willis), who get pulled into an investigation involving a string of missing and murdered women from a small Florida town. Even though his bosses aren’t convinced, local cop Crawford (Hirsch) believes it to be the work of a serial killer.
While filming the movie, Fox met her future partnerMGK, who acted as a pimp named Calvin. The musician said onThe Drew Barrymore Showin 2021 that he only took the role to meet Fox.
How didMidnight in the Switchgrassend?
Emile Hirsch in ‘Midnight in the Switchgrass’ (2021).© Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection
Crawford finally pieces together the killer’s identity and, thanks to a helpful tip from Hillborough’s daughter who saw Lee running through their backyard, finds Lombardo in the shed. She later wakes up in the hospital where Helter praises her for her bravery.
IsMidnight in the Switchgrassbased on a true story?
Sistine Rose Stallone in ‘Midnight in the Switchgrass’ (2021).© Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection
Hirsch told AMFM Magazine that while the movie’s screenwriter, Horsnail, intentionally chose not to name a specific case as inspiration forMidnight in the Switchgrass, he did pull from “two or three real-lifeserial killers.”
“[Horsnail] never actually named the real-life cases that he based it off of,” Hirsch told the outlet. “He wanted to take from the real events but still make his own separate narrative. Which I think was smart because as soon as you do something that is totally a true story then there’s a certain pressure to get it right or to stay accurate.”
The film’s log-line, of being “based on the true story of Texas' most dangerous serial killer,” may point to the influence of Robert Benjamin Rhoades, though, who was known as Texas' truck stop killer.
Who is Robert Benjamin Rhoades?
View of Interstate 10 in Houston, Texas.Marie D. De Jesus/Houston Chronicle via Getty
Marie D. De Jesus/Houston Chronicle via Getty
Robert Benjamin Rhoades is a convicted murderer known as the truck stop killer. He was arrested in April 1990 after an Arizona state trooper noticed that his tractor-trailer had a blinking light. The officer found Rhoades inside the cab with a woman chained to a wall, and he was charged with aggravated assault, sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment, perThe Telegraph.
After his arrest, investigators linked Rhoades to three murders. In February 1990, he kidnapped 14-year-old Regina Walters in Illinois, who was hitchhiking to Mexico with her 18-year-old boyfriend, Ricky Lee Jones.
Her body was discovered after Rhoades was in custody, and he was sentenced to life in prison for her murder. It is unclear what happened to Jones but investigators said in 1992 that the remains of a man who had been shot in the head may have been Walters' boyfriend, perThe Marshall News Messenger.
In 2012, the killer pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder in Texas for the 1990 slayings of Douglas Scott Zyskowski and Patricia Walsh, who were hitchhiking from Seattle to Georgia, perABC News. Both of their bodies weren’t identified until years later.
How many people did Robert Benjamin Rhoades kill?
“He stopped responding to my questions,” Veselka wrote. “His bearing shifted. He grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into something both arrogant and blank.”
Veselka said that she never went to the police and didn’t tell anyone about her encounter with Rhoades for years.
What is the Highway Serial Killings Initiative?
Caitlin Carmichael in ‘Midnight in the Switchgrass’ (2021).© Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection
In 2021,Midnight in the Switchgrassactress Carmichael toldComingSoonthat the FBI’sHighway Serial Killings Initiativewas the “framework” for the movie. The government organization launched the initiative in 2009 after noticing a pattern of women being murdered and dumped along the Interstate 40 corridor in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.
In his 2024 bookLong Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers, former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi claimed that of the 850 murders that have happened on highways in the U.S. since 1980,around 200 of them are still unsolved.
source: people.com
