Switchback is a 1997 American crime thriller film written and directed by Jeb Stuart in his directorial debut.

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.

Both he and his opponent, police chief Jack McGinnis, strive 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.

The FBI agent's tactics initially concern Olmstead, particularly after discovering LaCrosse's personal conflict.

He suspects Goodall, but his suspicions are allayed when newly-elected sheriff McGinnis puts out an erroneous radio announcement that the killer has been arrested.

Goodall drops off the train laughing, tumbling backwards down a snowy slope until he is fatally impaled by a tree branch.

Dixon realizes Goodall gave him a clue to the boy's whereabouts and writes it on the floor with a felt tip pen.

The critics consensus reads, "Burdened by its heavy load of digressive plot turns and uneven performances, Switchback never gains any sense of narrative momentum.

Ebert found the setting and the minor characters, like Ermey's sheriff, the most charming parts of the film, concluding, "What we have here is a potentially good movie swamped by the weight of Hollywood formulas it is forced to carry".