Switchback

Switchback (originally titled "Going West in America") is a 1997 American thriller film written and directed by Jeb Stuart. It stars Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover, Jared Leto, Ted Levine, William Fichtner and R. Lee Ermey. An FBI agent tracks his son's kidnapper to Amarillo, Texas, where two lawmen are seeking to use the case in their election bid. Plot Late one night, a woman is killed while babysitting a young boy; the killer takes him when he leaves the house. A few months later a man and cleaning woman are killed at a motel in Amarillo, Texas. Amarillo's sheriff, Buck Olmstead, is up for reelection. Both he and his opponent, police chief Jack McGinnis, desire to solve a big murder case before election day. Meanwhile, hitchhiker Lane Dixon is picked up by Bob Goodall, an affable drifter driving a white Cadillac Eldorado. FBI special agent Frank LaCrosse arrives in Amarillo and tells Olmstead an elusive serial killer is responsible for the murders. Olmstead discovers that LaCrosse has been taken off the case because the kidnapped boy is his son Andy. LaCrosse has a cryptic note from the killer saying that to find his son, he will have to kill him first. The note includes other clues which are later revealed. LaCrosse teams up with the reluctant Amarillo sheriff's department to continue his investigation. The tactics of the FBI agent concern Olmstead at first, particularly after finding out LaCrosse's personal conflict. He also worries that cooperating with the suspended FBI agent might cost his own job. Dixon is suggested as a prime suspect in the murders. But, with LaCrosse on his trail, Goodall reveals himself as the killer. At a mechanics' shop where his car has been repaired, he draws a knife on the mechanic, actually an old friend and former co-worker, because he observes a state trooper checking out the white Cadillac. Unseen by Dixon, he kills his friend to silence the potential witness who could link him to the car. As Goodall and Dixon ride on, building a friendly rapport, Goodall tells the hitchhiker about his son. He asks Dixon to look after the boy if anything happens to him. Dixon agrees, and Goodall gives him the boy's address. The authorities discover the driver of the white Cadillac at the last murder scene fits Dixon's description. No one mentions Goodall. Police roadblocks neglect the mountain roads which are nearly impassable after a blizzard.