The Midnight in the Switchgrass movie's seemingly 'based on a true story' plot has fans questioning what is real and what is fake.
The 2021 crime drama starring Megan Fox and Bruce Willis (along with Outer Range star Olive Abercrombie) follows the tale of two police officers who happen upon a serial killer plot led by a local long-haul trucker while investigating a local crime cabal in Central Florida.
The movie opened in theaters more than three years ago and recently gained a new audience, thanks to its arrival on Netflix in the U.S.
Is Midnight in The Switchgrass a True Story?
While Midnight in the Switchgrass feels like it is based on a true story, that does not mean everything within it is accurate or fake.
The 2021 crime drama is loosely based on the story of Robert Benjamin Rhoades, aka the Truck Stop Killer, a serial criminal who operated mainly in Texas in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Rhoades' story was significantly altered for the movie, but the crux of his crimes remains. Just like the real-life criminal, the culprit at the heart of the Megan Fox-led blockbuster was a trucker who preyed on victims in the back of his 16-wheeler along his routes across the U.S.
However, the movie picks up Rhoades' crimes from the American South and Midwest and sets them in Florida instead. It also pushes the real-life timeline of Rhoades' story forward from the late 1980s to 2004.
The names of everyone and specific details of his case were also changed. The movie uses the conceit of Rhoades' case and the investigation into his crimes as its central narrative drive but does not include the real point-for-point investigation that ultimately brought him in.
Like the killer in the movie, Rhoades was eventually apprehended by law enforcement and forced to serve a life in prison starting in 1994 (via ABC). He remains behind bars in 2025, admitting to over 50 murders from before he was ultimately brought to justice.
Rhoades' story is not the only thing that inspired the movie, though. Other details of Midnight in the Switchgrass came from a more general criminal trend that has plagued American highways for decades.
Speaking with Pop Culturist at the time of the film's release, star Caitlin Carmichael noted that much of the movie was based on the real-life "story of the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative:"
"'Midnight in the Switchgrass' came out on July 23rd. I’m so excited that the world is finally able to see it. It’s based on the true story of the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative that started in 2009."
"The initiative was in response to a series of abductions between 2004 and 2009," she explained, alluding to the fact that Rhoades and his crimes are not the only examples of people going missing along American longhual truck routes:
"The initiative was in response to a series of abductions between 2004 and 2009. Women in so-called high-risk lifestyles involving substance abuse and prostitution were being abducted by long-haul truck drivers. Our film is giving a voice to the stories we’ve never heard from the thousands of missing girls. The film is about female solidarity. The lead characters come together to form a sisterhood to save both themselves and each other in overcoming the obstacles they face."
Since the Initiative's conception, the FBI has arrested over 25 serial criminals (all long-haul truckers), which the Beareau estimates account for over 850 total unsolved murders (per Fox).
So, just like the recently released Apple Cider Vinegar, Midnight in the Switchgrass takes its inspiration from real life—at least from a thematic perspective—but that is essentially where its 'based on a true story' premise stops.
Instead of depicting a specific set of real-world events, it changes all its names and locations, only harkening back to the general sense of the real-world crimes. It is a fictitious story at its core but grounds itself in things that have happened (and continue to happen).
Midnight in the Switchgrass is streaming on Netflix.
