Thelma & Louise is a 1991 American feminist female buddy road crime comedy drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. It stars Susan Sarandon as Louise and Geena Davis as Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforeseen circumstances. Filming took place in California and Utah from June to August 1990. The supporting cast include Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and Brad Pitt in one of his first major film roles.

The film was a critical and commercial success, receiving six Academy Award nominations and winning for Best Original Screenplay. Scott was nominated for Best Director, and both Sarandon and Davis were nominated for Best Actress. To date, this is the most recent film to have two actors nominated in the same category for either Best Actor or Best Actress. It influenced other films and artistic works and became a landmark of feminist film.

In 2016, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant .

Plot

Best 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. He takes her to the parking lot, trying to rape her until Louise intervenes and threatens to shoot him. As the women walk away, Harlan yells vulgarities at them, so Louise shoots him in a fit of rage.

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 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 that she refuses to reveal. Heading west, they come across 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. Meanwhile, Thelma invites J.D. to her room, and they sleep together. She learns he is a thief who has broken parole.

The following morning, they discover J.D. has stolen Louise s life 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 failed 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 Louise 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 their true identity, 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 with the tanker s wreckage.

Thelma and Louise are finally cornered by the authorities only one hundred yards from the edge of the Grand Canyon. Hal arrives on the scene, but he is refused the last chance to talk the women 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 presumed deaths.

Cast

• 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
• Jason Beghe as State Trooper
• Lucinda Jenney as Lena, the waitress
• Marco St. John as Truck Driver (uncredited)

Credits adapted from American Film Institute.

Production

Development

The idea for Thelma & Louise originated in the spring of 1988 when Callie Khouri, then a music video producer, was driving home from work to her apartment in Santa Monica. She spent the following six months working on her first screenplay, which was noted to have drawn inspiration from her own experience as well as her friendship with country music singer Pam Tillis. She had intended it to be a low-budget independent film, directed by herself and produced by fellow music video producer Amanda Temple (wife of English filmmaker Julien Temple). After shopping the project around and finding no takers, Temple showed the script to her friend Mimi Polk Gitlin, who ran Ridley Scott s Percy Main Productions (later Scott Free Productions). Gitlin in turn showed the script to Scott, who expressed great enthusiasm for the project. He agreed to produce the film and bought the film rights for $500,000. Pathé Entertainment, then led by Scott s friend and collaborator Alan Ladd Jr., came on board as a co-producer and financier.

Scott considered four people for the role of director, all of whom turned down the opportunity. Per Gitlin s recollection, three of the candidates were Bob Rafelson, Kevin Reynolds and Richard Donner. Scott was reluctant to direct the film himself but eventually took on the role, having been persuaded by Michelle Pfeiffer to do so.

Casting

Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster were originally chosen for the leads; both accepted their roles with enthusiasm. As pre-production of the film dragged on, the two eventually dropped out, with Pfeiffer going on to star in Love Field and Foster in The Silence of the Lambs. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn then offered to play the leads, but Streep later dropped out due to scheduling conflicts while Hawn was not considered right for the part. Geena Davis (who had been vigorously pursuing the lead role for nearly a year) and Susan Sarandon were ultimately chosen. The two took extensive driving and shooting lessons in preparation for their roles.

Scott personally convinced Harvey Keitel to take on the role of Hal, the sympathetic Arkansas detective. The two had previously collaborated in Scott s feature directorial debut, the 1977 film The Duellists. Davis recommended her ex-boyfriend Christopher McDonald for the role of Darryl, Thelma s controlling husband. Scott wanted Michael Madsen for Harlan, Thelma s would-be rapist, but Madsen was unwilling; he eventually won the role of Jimmy, Louise s boyfriend. Brad Pitt auditioned for the hustler J.D.; however, the part originally went to Billy Baldwin. Pitt eventually secured the role after both Baldwin and his replacement dropped out. George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Grant Show, John Mellencamp, Dylan McDermott, James LeGros and Dermot Mulroney were also considered for the role of J.D.

Filming

Principal photography for Thelma & Louise began on June 11, 1990, and concluded on August 31, 1990. Although the setting for the film is a fictional route between Arkansas and the Grand Canyon, it was filmed almost entirely in the states of California and Utah. The primary filming locations were rural areas around Bakersfield, California and Moab, Utah. The Grand Canyon scenes were filmed just south of Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. Parts of the film were also shot at Shafer Overlook, Monument Valley, La Sal Mountains, La Sal Junction, Cisco, Old Valley City Reservoir, Thompson Springs, Arches National Park, and Crescent Junction in Utah.

Soundtrack

Pete Haycock on slide guitar contributed to Thunderbird, the theme music for the film. In addition to Glenn Frey s Part of Me, Part of You , which became the film s primary theme song, the soundtrack included songs performed by Chris Whitley ( Kick The Stones ), Martha Reeves ( Wild Night written by Van Morrison), Toni Childs ( House Of Hope ), Marianne Faithfull ( Ballad of Lucy Jordan written by Shel Silverstein), Charlie Sexton ( Badlands ), Grayson Hugh ( I Can t Untie You From Me ), B.B. King ( Better Not Look Down written by Joe Sample & Will Jennings), Michael McDonald ( No Lookin Back ), The Temptations ( The Way You Do The Things You Do written by Smokey Robinson & Bobby Rogers), and Johnny Nash ( I Can See Clearly Now ).

Release

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

Reception

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.

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.

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

The final scene, where the two embrace before committing suicide by driving off a cliff, has become iconic. Numerous homages and parodies of the scene have appeared, including alternate film endings, cartoon parodies, video game Easter eggs , and as a tragic ending to television series, music videos, and commercials.

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

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. 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. On Metacritic, the film received a score of 88 based on 12 reviews, indicating universal acclaim .

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

Feminism

Numerous critics and writers have remarked on the strong feminist overtones of Thelma & Louise. Film critic B. Ruby Rich praises the film as an uncompromising validation of women s experiences, while Kenneth Turan calls it a neo-feminist road movie . In her essay The Daughters of Thelma and Louise , Jessica Enevold argues that the film constitutes an attack on conventional patterns of chauvinist male behavior toward females . In addition, it exposes the traditional stereotyping of male–female relationships while rescripting the typical gender roles of the road movie genre.

In her review for the Los Angeles Times, film critic Sheila Benson objects to the characterization of the film as feminist, arguing that it is more preoccupied with revenge and violence than feminist values.

In his review for the New York Post, film critic Kyle Smith describes the film as a misogynist tale about unbelievably ditzy women who lose what remains of their reason under pressure and suffer the ultimate punishment. Smith s review focused on the terrible decisions these female characters make throughout the entire film.

In an article commemorating the film s 20th anniversary in 2011, Raina Lipsitz called it the last great film about women and said that it heralded the achievements of women that caused 1992 to become the year of the woman . However, she also said that women-themed films have since been losing ground.

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
20/20 Awards	Best Picture		Nominated
	Best Director	Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Actress	Susan Sarandon	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Geena Davis	Won
	Best Original Screenplay	Callie Khouri	Won
Academy Awards	Best Director	Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Actress	Geena Davis	Nominated
		Susan Sarandon	Nominated
	Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen	Callie Khouri	Won
	Best Cinematography	Adrian Biddle	Nominated
	Best Film Editing	Thom Noble	Nominated
Australian Film Institute Awards	Best Foreign Film	Mimi Polk Gitlin and Ridley Scott	Nominated
Awards Circuit Community Awards	Best Motion Picture		Nominated
	Best Director	Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Actress in a Leading Role	Geena Davis	Nominated
		Susan Sarandon	Nominated
	Best Original Screenplay	Callie Khouri	Won
	Best Cinematography	Adrian Biddle	Nominated
	Best Film Editing	Thom Noble	Nominated
	Best Cast Ensemble		Nominated
	Best Stunt Ensemble		Nominated
Bodil Awards	Best Non-European Film	Ridley Scott	Won
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Actress	Geena Davis	Won
British Academy Film Awards	Best Film	Mimi Polk Gitlin and Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Direction	Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Actress in a Leading Role	Geena Davis	Nominated
		Susan Sarandon	Nominated
	Best Screenplay – Original	Callie Khouri	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Adrian Biddle	Nominated
	Best Editing	Thom Noble	Nominated
	Best Original Film Score	Hans Zimmer	Nominated
British Society of Cinematographers	Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature Film	Adrian Biddle	Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Best Film		Nominated
	Best Director	Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Actress	Geena Davis	Nominated
		Susan Sarandon	Nominated
	Best Screenplay	Callie Khouri	Nominated
	Most Promising Actor	Brad Pitt	Nominated
César Awards	Best Foreign Film	Ridley Scott	Nominated
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards	Best Film		Nominated
	Best Actress	Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon	Nominated
	Best Screenplay	Callie Khouri	Won
David di Donatello Awards	Best Foreign Film	Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Foreign Actress	Geena Davis	Won
		Susan Sarandon	Won
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	Ridley Scott	Nominated
Faro Island Film Festival	Best Film (Golden Train Award)		Nominated
	Best Actor (Audience Award)	Brad Pitt	Won
Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Drama		Nominated
	Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama	Geena Davis	Nominated
		Susan Sarandon	Nominated
	Best Screenplay – Motion Picture	Callie Khouri	Won
London Film Critics Circle Awards	Film of the Year		Won
	Director of the Year	Ridley Scott	Won
	Actress of the Year	Susan Sarandon (also for White Palace)	Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards	Best Actress	Geena Davis	Nominated
MTV Movie Awards	Best Female Performance		Nominated
	Best On-Screen Duo	Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon	Nominated
Nastro d Argento	Best Foreign Director	Ridley Scott	Nominated
	Best Female Dubbing	Rossella Izzo (for dubbing Susan Sarandon)	Won
National Board of Review Awards	Top Ten Films		4th Place
	Best Actress	Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon	Won
National Film Preservation Board	National Film Registry		Inducted
National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Actress	Susan Sarandon	3rd Place
	Best Supporting Actor	Harvey Keitel (also for Bugsy and Mortal Thoughts)	Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Actress	Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon	Runner-up
	Best Screenplay	Callie Khouri	Nominated
Online Film & Television Association Awards	Hall of Fame – Motion Picture		Won
PEN Center USA West Literary Awards	Screenplay	Callie Khouri	Won
Sant Jordi Awards	Best Foreign Actress	Susan Sarandon	Nominated
Turkish Film Critics Association Awards	Best Foreign Film		3rd Place
Valladolid International Film Festival	Golden Spike	Ridley Scott	Won
	Best Film (Audience Award)		Won
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen	Callie Khouri	Won

The British Film Institute published a book about the film in 2000 as part of a Modern Classics series. On the Writers Guild of America Award s list of 101 best screenplays, it made No. 72.

Year	1991
ReleaseDate	1991-05-24
RuntimeMins	130
RuntimeStr	2h 10min
Plot	Two best friends set out on an adventure, but it soon turns around to a terrifying escape from being hunted by the police, as these two girls escape for the crimes they committed.
Awards	Won 1 Oscar, 25 wins & 52 nominations total
Directors	Ridley Scott
Writers	Callie Khouri
Stars	Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel
Produced by	Mimi Polk Gitlin,Callie Khouri,Dean O’Brien,Ridley Scott
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Cinematography by	Adrian Biddle
Film Editing by	Thom Noble
Casting By	Louis DiGiaimo
Production Design by	Norris Spencer
Art Direction by	Lisa Dean
Set Decoration by	Anne H. Ahrens
Costume Design by	Elizabeth McBride
Makeup Department	Leslie Ann Anderson,Richard Arrington,Anthony Cortino,Bonita DeHaven,Karl Wesson,Steve LaPorte
Production Management	Mel Dellar,Dean O’Brien,Garth Thomas
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	J. Tom Archuleta,Bobby Bass,Steve Danton,Martin Jedlicka,Wendy Peterson,B. Scott Senechal
Art Department	Richard J. Bayard,Walter Berner,Gary Clark,Addie Flores,Frank Galvan III,Ross Harpold,Paul Arthur Hartman,Michael W. Hirabayashi,Roger M. Janson,Alan S. Kaye,Sherman Labby,Jim Olson,Victor Petrotta III,Vic Petrotta Jr.,Richard R. Powell,Tom Randol,Chuck Roseberry,Lazar Samarzich,Robert Butch Samarzich,Monti Santilli Rainbolt,Scott Snyder,Kenneth Turek,Mark Vitale,Larry R. Wehner,Jeff O’Bannon
Sound Department	Michael A. Carter,Norman A. Cole,Gordon Davie,Jeffrey J. Haboush,Graham V. Hartstone,Les Healey,Nicolas Le Messurier,John Poyner,Bob Risk,Timothy P. Salmon,Jim Shields,Keith A. Wester,Sandy Buchanan,Tommy Goodwin,Preston Oliver,Dean St. John
Special Effects by	Martin J. Gibbons,Todd Jensen,Tim Moran,Stan Parks,Kevin Quibell,Paul Stewart
Stunts	Gregory J. Barnett,Bobby Bass,Steve Boyum,David Burton,Terry Collis,Bob Dewitt,Kenny Endoso,Tony Epper,Glory Fioramonti,Diane Kay Grant,Marguerite Happy,Billy Hank Hooker,Buddy Joe Hooker,Norman Howell,Billy D. Lucas,John Meier,Anne Melville,Bennie Moore,Mary Peters,Ronnie Rondell Jr.,Mike Ryan,David Webster,Dick Ziker,Tommy J. Huff,Henry Kingi
Camera and Electrical Department	Steve Adcock,Andrew Aguilar,Paul Amorelli,Audie Aragon,David Canestro,John Connell,Edward J. Cox,James M. Cox,Tom Cox,Dennis Dodd,Kenji Inouye,R. Scott Judge,Aaron Katz,J. Steven Matzinger,Dan Mindel,Bob Miyamoto,Roland Neveu,Kevin Newett,Stephen Patrick Norman,David B. Nowell,Darrin Pulford,Brad Rea,Calmar Roberts,Bob Rose,Erich O. Rose,Joe Rowan,Michael Scott,John Smock,Alexander Witt,Stephen Sfetku
Casting Department	Ira Belgrade,Dan Parada
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Nisa Kellner,Taneia Lednicky,Janet Powell
Editorial Department	Audrey Evans,Craig Galloway,Bob Hart,Alexandra Leviloff,David Orr,Julie Payne,Chris Peppe,David Richards,Antonia Van Drimmelen,Frederick Wardell
Location Management	Larry D. Campbell,Ken Haber,James Kelly,Patrick Mignano,Michael Neale
Music Department	Joachim H. Hansch,Peter Haycock,Luis Jardim,Blake Lewin,Kathy Nelson,Laura Perlman,Jay Rifkin,Nico Golfar,Charlie Morgan,Brad Segal,John Van Tongeren,Hans Zimmer
Script and Continuity Department	Luca Kouimelis
Transportation Department	Lynn Collis,Terry Collis,Jerry Sidwell,David Trevino
Additional Crew	Robin Allen-Paris,Christine Baer,Paul J. Bellman,Scotty Bergstein,Sam Bernstein,Gerald Bowne,Cary Burns,Diana Campbell-Rice,Stephanie Claxton,Tracy DeFreitas,Joe Everett,Guiliano Gallo,Anthony Goldschmidt,Tim Gonzales,Pauline Granby,Lisa Hackler,Elaine Hastings Edell,Don Hildebrand,Michelle Michael,Steve Michelson,Tim Monich,Cee Ozenne,David Paris,Patrick Spezialy,Deborah Stenard,Rob Stevens,Julie Strain,Arthur Tarry,Phillip L. Tomalin Jr.,Kami Turrou,Cynthia Zajonc,Robert ‘Bobby Z’ Zajonc,Francie Brown,Alex Daniels,Kristi Frankenheimer,Jim Jaffe,Alan Ladd Jr.,Jon Sperry,Larry Stelling,Joe Straw,Terrance Ottis Williams
Thanks	Brett Palmer,Bette Stanton,Dale Stapley,Amanda Temple
Genres	Adventure, Crime, Drama
Companies	Pathé Entertainment, Percy Main, Star Partners III Ltd.
Countries	USA, UK, France
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	7.5
ImDbRatingVotes	154545
MetacriticRating	88
Keywords	female friendship,female bonding,road movie,waitress,friendship