Thelma & Louise

Two friends, Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer, set out for a weekend vacation at a fishing cabin in the mountains to take a break from their dreary lives in Arkansas. Thelma, a housewife, is married to disrespectful and controlling carpet salesman Darryl, while sharp-tongued Louise works as a waitress in a diner and is dating easygoing musician Jimmy, who is on the road most of the time.

On the way, they stop at a roadhouse bar, where Thelma dances with a flirtatious stranger, Harlan Puckett. He takes her to the parking lot and tries to rape her until Louise intervenes and threatens to shoot him. As the women walk away, Harlan yells he should've continued the rape, causing Louise to fatally shoot him in a fit of rage.

At a motel they discuss how to handle the situation. Thelma wants to go to the police, but Louise fears that no one will believe a claim of attempted rape as Thelma was drinking and dancing with Harlan and also having no evidence of the rape, and they will be charged with murder. They decide to flee to Mexico, but Louise demands they travel there without going through Texas, as something happened to her there several years earlier which she refuses to reveal. Heading west, they come across an attractive young drifter, J.D., to whom Thelma takes a liking. Louise contacts Jimmy, asking him to wire her life savings to her. He surprises her by delivering the money in person, and they spend the night together. Jimmy proposes to Louise, but she refuses. Thelma invites J.D. to her room, and they sleep together. She learns he is a convicted armed-robber who has violated the terms of his parole.

The following morning, they discover J.D. has stolen Louise's savings and fled. Louise is distraught, so a guilty Thelma takes charge and later robs a nearby convenience store using tactics she learned from J.D. Meanwhile, the FBI closes in on them after witnesses at the bar identify Louise's 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible. Their whereabouts are also questioned by the owner of the fishing cabin after they fail to arrive.

Arkansas State Police Investigator Hal Slocumb, leading the investigation, questions both J.D. (who was caught) and Jimmy, and taps into the phone line at Darryl's house. He sympathizes with the pair's situation, and understands why they did not report Harlan's killing (partly due to Louise's own experience in Texas). During a few brief phone conversations with Louise, Hal expresses his sympathy but is unsuccessful in persuading her to surrender.

Thelma tells Louise she understands if she wants to go back home, knowing she has Jimmy waiting for her, but explains she cannot go back to Darryl. Louise promises they will keep going together. While back on the road, Thelma recalls the incident with Harlan and tries to ask Louise if what happened with Harlan was what happened to her in Texas. Louise responds angrily and tells Thelma to never bring it up again.

Later, they are pulled over by a New Mexico state trooper for speeding. Knowing he will soon discover they are wanted for murder and armed robbery, Thelma holds him at gunpoint and locks him in the trunk of his police car. Driving further west, they encounter a foul-mouthed truck driver who repeatedly makes obscene gestures at them. They pull over and demand an apology from him; when he refuses, they fire at his fuel tanker, causing it to explode. The women leave him stranded in the desert, furious, with the tanker's wreckage.

Thelma and Louise are finally cornered by the authorities only a hundred yards from the edge of the Grand Canyon. Hal arrives on the scene, but the women refuse his last attempt to talk them into surrendering. Rather than be captured, Thelma proposes that they "keep going". Louise asks Thelma if she is certain, and Thelma says yes. They kiss and then hold hands, Louise steps on the gas, and, as Hal desperately pursues them on foot, they accelerate over the cliff to their implied deaths.

• Susan Sarandon as Louise Sawyer
• Geena Davis as Thelma Dickinson
• Harvey Keitel as Arkansas State Police Detective Hal Slocumb
• Michael Madsen as Jimmy Lennox
• Christopher McDonald as Darryl Dickinson
• Stephen Tobolowsky as FBI Agent Max
• Brad Pitt as J.D.
• Timothy Carhart as Harlan Puckett
• Lucinda Jenney as The Waitress
• Jason Beghe as State Trooper
• Marco St. John as Truck Driver

Credits adapted from American Film Institute.[4]

Thelma & Louise was screened out of competition as the closing film at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.[15] Theatrical release was delayed due to financial turmoil at MGM-Pathé.[16] The film eventually opened in American theaters on May 24, 1991[4] and was a box-office success, grossing $45 million within the country.[17]

In February 2023, The Criterion Collection announced the film would be joining the collection in May that year.[18]

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis both received accolades for their performances, including nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

The film received critical acclaim. Janet Maslin of The New York Times had only praise for the film in her review:

Mr. Scott's Thelma and Louise, with a sparkling screenplay by the first-time writer Callie Khouri, is a surprise on this and many other scores. It reveals the previously untapped talent of Mr. Scott (best known for majestically moody action films like Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain) for exuberant comedy, and for vibrant American imagery, notwithstanding his English roots. It reimagines the buddy film with such freshness and vigor that the genre seems positively new. It discovers unexpected resources in both its stars, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, who are perfectly teamed as the spirited and original title characters.[19]

Roger Ebert also praised the film but withheld a perfect score on the basis of "the last shot before the titles begin. It's a freeze frame that fades to white, which is fine, except it does so with unseemly haste .... It's unsettling to get involved in a movie that takes 128 minutes to bring you to a payoff that the filmmakers seem to fear."[20]

After watching the film, singer-songwriter Tori Amos wrote "Me and a Gun", the story of her rape several years earlier.[21][22]

The final scene, where the two embrace before committing suicide by driving off a cliff, has become iconic.[23] Numerous homages and parodies of the scene have appeared, including alternate film endings, cartoon parodies,[24] video game "Easter eggs",[25] and as a tragic ending to television series, music videos,[26] and commercials.[27][28] Right after the film's release, there were even a few copy cats who committed suicide by driving off the edge of the Grand Canyon.[29]

The film also received harsh criticism from those who thought it was biased against men and that its depictions of men were unfairly negative.[30][31]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and peppered with action, Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise is a potent, well-acted road movie that transcends the feminist message at its core."[32] On Metacritic, the film received a score of 88 based on 12 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[33]

The film placed second to The Silence of the Lambs as the best film of 1991 in a poll of 81 critics.[34]

In early 2021, it was announced that Khouri was adapting the film as a stage musical alongside Halley Feiffer, with original songs by Neko Case, and Trip Cullman attached to direct.[58] In January 2023, a workshop reading was held starring Amanda Seyfried and Evan Rachel Wood.[59]

• Aikman, Becky (2017). Off the Cliff: How the Making of Thelma & Louise Drove Hollywood to the Edge. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1594206719.
• Cook, Bernie, ed. (2007). Thelma & Louise Live! The Cultural Afterlife of an American Film. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292794658. Archived from the original on July 7, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.

• Fournier, Gina (2007). Thelma & Louise and Women in Hollywood. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786423132. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2018.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Thelma & Louise.

• Official website
• Thelma & Louise at IMDb
• Thelma & Louise at AllMovie
• Thelma & Louise at the TCM Movie Database
• Thelma & Louise at Rotten Tomatoes
• Thelma & Louise at Box Office Mojo
• Thelma & Louise at The Numbers
• Original trailer for Thelma & Louise on YouTube