Thelma & Louise - wikipedia Thelma & Louise Thelma & Louise Theatrical release poster Directed by Ridley Scott Produced by Ridley Scott Mimi Polk Gitlin Written by Callie Khouri Starring Susan Sarandon Geena Davis Harvey Keitel Music by Hans Zimmer Cinematography Adrian Biddle Edited by Thom Noble Production company Pathé Percy Main Productions Star Partners III Ltd. Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer Distributed by Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer Release date May 24, 1991 ( 1991 - 05 - 24 ) Running time 129 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $16.5 million Box office $45.4 million ( North America ) Thelma & Louise is a 1991 American road film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. It stars Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise, two friends who embark on a road trip with unforeseen consequences. The supporting cast include Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, and Brad Pitt, whose career was launched by the film. The film became a critical and commercial success, receiving six Academy Award nominations and winning one for Best Original Screenplay for Khouri. Scott was nominated for Best Director, and both Sarandon and Davis were nominated for Best Actress. At its release the film stirred controversy. At the intersection of several genres, it is now considered a classic. 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 ''. Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 4.1 General 4.2 Feminism 4.3 Awards and honors 5 Soundtrack 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links 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 ditzy housewife, is married to a disrespectful and controlling man, Darryl, while sharp - tongued Louise works as a waitress in a diner, and is on - off dating a musician, Jimmy, who spends most of his time on the road. On the way they stop for a drink at a roadhouse bar where Thelma meets and dances with a flirtatious stranger, Harlan. When he takes her outside to the parking lot to get some fresh air, he starts kissing her and taking her clothes off without her consent. Thelma resists but Harlan hits her, and then starts raping her. Louise finds them and threatens to shoot Harlan with the gun that Thelma brought with her. Harlan stops but as the women walk away, he yells that he should have continued the rape and continually insults them. Enraged, Louise responds by shooting him dead, and the pair flee the scene. 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 Thelma 's claim of attempted rape and they will be subsequently charged for murder. They decide to go on the run, but Louise demands they travel from Oklahoma to Mexico without going through Texas. Something happened to Louise in Texas, and Thelma suspects it was something similar to what had happened with Harlan but Louise adamantly refuses to discuss it. Heading west, the women come across an attractive young drifter, J.D., who Thelma quickly falls for, and she convinces Louise to let him hitch a ride with them. Louise then contacts Jimmy and asks him to wire transfer her life savings to her. When she goes to pick up the money, she finds that Jimmy has come to see her to deliver the money in person, and the two spend the night together. Jimmy proposes to Louise but she refuses. Meanwhile, Thelma invites J.D. to her room, and they sleep together. She then learns he is a thief who has broken parole. The following morning, Thelma leaves J.D. in her motel room while she meets Louise downstairs for breakfast and, when they return, 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 the tactics she learned from listening to J.D. Meanwhile, the FBI are getting closer to catching the fugitives after witnesses at the bar saw Louise 's 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible speeding out of the parking lot the night of the shooting. Their whereabouts are also questioned by the owner of the fishing cabin after the women failed to arrive for the weekend. Arkansas State Police Investigator Hal Slocumb leads the investigation and questions both J.D. and Jimmy, and taps into the phone line at Darryl 's house. He discovers that Louise had been raped years earlier in Texas, so sympathizes with her situation and understands why they did n't report Harlan 's murder to the authorities. During a couple of brief phone conversations with Louise, he expresses his sympathy, but is unsuccessful in his attempts to persuade 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 can not go back to Darryl. Louise promises they will keep going together. The pair are later 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, while Louise takes his gun and ammunition. They drive away from the scene and spend the next few nights heading further west. On the road, they encounter a foul - mouthed truck driver who repeatedly makes obscene gestures at them. They pull over and demand an apology from him, but when he refuses, they fire at the fuel tanker he is driving, causing it to explode. 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 chance to make one last attempt to talk the women into surrendering. Rather than be captured and spend the rest of their lives in jail, Thelma proposes that they `` keep going ''. Louise asks Thelma if she is certain, and Thelma says yes. They kiss, then Louise steps on the accelerator, and they ride the car over the cliff to their deaths. Cast Susan Sarandon as Louise Elizabeth Sawyer Geena Davis as Thelma Yvonne Dickinson Harvey Keitel as Detective Hal Slocumb Michael Madsen as Jimmy Lennox Christopher McDonald as Darryl Dickinson Stephen Tobolowsky as Max Brad Pitt as J.D. Timothy Carhart as Harlan Puckett Jason Beghe as State Trooper Marco St. John as Truck Driver Production Although the setting for the film is a fictional route between Arkansas and the Grand Canyon, the movie was filmed almost entirely in the states of California and Utah. The primary filming locations for the movie are rural areas around Bakersfield, California and Moab, Utah. The Grand Canyon scenes were actually 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. Reception General The film was an overwhelming critical success. Metacritic lists a composite critical score of 88 out of 100. Rotten Tomatoes rates Thelma & Louise 83 % `` Fresh ''. 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. '' The film was screened out of competition at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. After watching the film, singer - songwriter Tori Amos wrote `` Me and a Gun '', the story of her rape several years earlier. Argentinian singer and musician Fito Páez wrote a hit song called `` Dos días en la vida '' ( `` Two days in one lifetime '' ) after watching this movie. The lyrics tell the story of the main characters, with verses played by singers Fabiana Cantilo ( in the role of Thelma ) and Celeste Carballo ( Louise ). It was one of the most successful singles from his 1992 album El amor después del amor. The final scene, where the two embrace each other before driving off a cliff, has become iconic. Numerous homages and parodies of the scene have appeared, including alternate movie endings, cartoon parodies, video game `` Easter Eggs '', and as a tragic ending to television series, music videos and commercials. The film also received harsh and significant criticism from those who thought it was anti-male and that its depictions of men were unfairly negative. 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 movie 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 less on the fact that the film stars strong female characters and instead points out the terrible decisions these strong female characters make throughout the entire movie. 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. Awards and honors Khouri won an Academy Award for Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen ; Scott, Davis, Sarandon, cinematographer Adrian Biddle, and film editor Thom Noble were nominated for Oscars. Award Nominee Result Boston Society of Film Critics Best Actress Geena Davis Won British Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography Award Adrian Biddle Nominated Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Actress Geena Davis Nominated NBR Award Best Actress Susan Sarandon Won Geena Davis Top Ten Films Won Saint Jordi Award Best Foreign Actress Susan Sarandon Nominated Golden Spike Award Ridley Scott Won ( tied with The Adjuster ) Academy Award Best Original Screenplay Callie Khouri Won Best Actress in a Leading Role Geena Davis Nominated Susan Sarandon Best Cinematography Adrian Biddle Nominated Best Director Ridley Scott Nominated Best Film Editing Thom Noble Nominated BAFTA Award Best Actress Geena Davis Nominated Susan Sarandon Best Cinematography Adrian Bibble Nominated Best Direction Ridley Scott Nominated Best Editing Thom Noble Nominated Best Film Ridley Scott Mimi Polk Gitlin Nominated Best Original Film Score Hans Zimmer Nominated Best Screenplay -- Original Callie Khouri Nominated Bodil Award Best Non-European Film Ridley Scott Won Chicago Film Critics Association Best Actress Geena Davis Nominated Susan Sarandon Best Director Ridley Scott Nominated Best Picture Nominated Best Screenplay Callie Khouri Nominated César Award Best Foreign Film Ridley Scott Nominated David di Donatello Award Best Foreign Actress Geena Davis Won Susan Sarandon Best Foreign Film Ridley Scott Nominated DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Ridley Scott Nominated Golden Globe Award Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture Callie Khouri Won Best Motion Picture -- Drama Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Drama Geena Davis Nominated Susan Sarandon Silver Ribbon Best Female Dubbing Rossella Izzo ( voice of Louise ) Won Best Foreign Director Ridley Scott Nominated Critics ' Circle Film Awards Actress of the Year Susan Sarandon ( also for White Palace ) Won Director of the Year Ridley Scott Won Film of the Year Won MTV Movie Award Best Female Performance Geena Davis Nominated Best On - Screen Duo Geena Davis Susan Sarandon Nominated NSFC Award Best Supporting Actor Harvey Keitel ( also for Bugsy and Mortal Thoughts ) Won Best Actress Susan Sarandon Nominated Literary Award Screenplay Callie Khouri Won Writers Guild of America Award Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen 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 101 Best Screenplays List it made No. 72. The film was ranked on the Australian program 20 to 1, in the episode Magnificent Movie Moments. American Film Institute lists AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Thrills -- No. 76 AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains : Thelma Dickinson & Louise Sawyer -- No. 24 Heroes AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Cheers -- No. 78 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 by Chris Whitley, Martha Reeves, Toni Childs, Marianne Faithfull, Charlie Sexton, Grayson Hugh, B.B. King, and Michael McDonald. References Jump up ^ `` Thelma and Louise ( 1991 ) ''. Box Office Mojo. 1991 - 08 - 06. Retrieved 2012 - 06 - 15. Jump up ^ `` Movies filmed in the Moab area ''. Moab Area Travel Council. Retrieved 2008 - 07 - 29. Jump up ^ D'Arc, James V. ( 2010 ). When Hollywood came to town : a history of moviemaking in Utah ( 1st ed. ). Layton, Utah : Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423605874. Jump up ^ `` Thelma & Louise Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More ''. Metacritic. Retrieved 2012 - 06 - 15. Jump up ^ `` Thelma & Louise ( 1991 ) '' The New York Times. May 24, 1991. Jump up ^ Roger Ebert. `` Thelma & Louise ''. Chicago Sun - Times. Jump up ^ `` Festival de Cannes : Thelma & Louise ''. festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009 - 08 - 12. Jump up ^ `` Chasing Away the Demons ''. 20 / 20. February 15, 1999. Archived from the original on June 25, 2001. Jump up ^ `` Tori Amos on her new album and the `` muses '' that inspire her songs ``. CBS This Morning. November 11, 2017. Jump up ^ `` Is This What Feminism Is All About ? '' Time, June 24, 1991. Jump up ^ `` Callie Khouri Answers Critics Of ' Thelma And Louise ' '' Chicago Tribune. July 7, 1991. Jump up ^ Rich, B. Ruby ( February 18, 2003 ). `` Two for the Road ''. The Advocate : 48 -- 49. Jump up ^ Dunne, Michael ( 2001 ). Intertextual Encounters in American Fiction, Film, and Popular Culture. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 89. ISBN 0 - 87972 - 848 - 5. Jump up ^ Enevold, Jessica ( 2004 ). `` The Daughters of Thelma and Louise ''. Gender, Genre & Identity in Women 's Travel Writing. New York. pp. 73 -- 95. ISBN 0 - 8204 - 4905 - 9. ^ Jump up to : Sturken, Marita ( 2000 ). Thelma and Louise. London : British Film Institute. p. 11. ISBN 0 - 85170 - 809 - 9. Jump up ^ `` As a feminist film, ' Thelma & Louise ' fails miserably '' New York Post, April 07, 2016. Jump up ^ `` ' Thelma & Louise ' : The Last Great Film About Women '' The Atlantic, August 31, 2011. Jump up ^ Writers Guild of America, West : 101 list Jump up ^ Pierre Perrone ( November 22, 2013 ). `` Pete Haycock : Guitarist with the Climax Blues Band who went on to write film music for John Badham and Franc Roddam ''. The Independent. Retrieved 27 March 2015. Further reading Fournier, Gina. Thelma & Louise and Women in Hollywood. McFarland & Co., Inc. Publishers, 2007 Cook, Bernie, editor. Thelma & Louise Live ! The Cultural Afterlife of an American Film, The University of Texas Press, 2007 External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : Thelma & Louise Official website Thelma & Louise on 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 Thelma and Louise -- Original Trailer on YouTube Films directed by Ridley Scott Feature films The Duellists ( 1977 ) Alien ( 1979 ) Blade Runner ( 1982 ) Legend ( 1985 ) Someone to Watch Over Me ( 1987 ) Black Rain ( 1989 ) Thelma & Louise ( 1991 ) 1492 : Conquest of Paradise ( 1992 ) White Squall ( 1996 ) G.I. Jane ( 1997 ) Gladiator ( 2000 ) Hannibal ( 2001 ) Black Hawk Down ( 2001 ) Matchstick Men ( 2003 ) Kingdom of Heaven ( 2005 ) A Good Year ( 2006 ) American Gangster ( 2007 ) Body of Lies ( 2008 ) Robin Hood ( 2010 ) Prometheus ( 2012 ) The Counselor ( 2013 ) Exodus : Gods and Kings ( 2014 ) The Martian ( 2015 ) Alien : Covenant ( 2017 ) All the Money in the World ( 2017 ) Other work Boy and Bicycle ( short film, 1965 ) 1984 ( advertisement, 1984 ) Unrealized projects London Film Critics ' Circle Award for Film of the Year Apocalypse Now ( 1980 ) Chariots of Fire ( 1981 ) Missing ( 1982 ) The King of Comedy ( 1983 ) Paris, Texas ( 1984 ) The Purple Rose of Cairo ( 1985 ) A Room with a View ( 1986 ) Hope and Glory ( 1987 ) House of Games ( 1988 ) Distant Voices, Still Lives ( 1989 ) Crimes and Misdemeanors ( 1990 ) Thelma & Louise ( 1991 ) Unforgiven ( 1992 ) The Piano ( 1993 ) Schindler 's List ( 1994 ) Babe ( 1995 ) Fargo ( 1996 ) L.A. Confidential ( 1997 ) Saving Private Ryan ( 1998 ) American Beauty ( 1999 ) Being John Malkovich ( 2000 ) Moulin Rouge ! ( 2001 ) About Schmidt ( 2002 ) Master and Commander : The Far Side of the World ( 2003 ) Sideways ( 2004 ) Brokeback Mountain ( 2005 ) United 93 ( 2006 ) No Country for Old Men ( 2007 ) The Wrestler ( 2008 ) A Prophet ( 2009 ) The Social Network ( 2010 ) The Artist ( 2011 ) Amour ( 2012 ) 12 Years a Slave ( 2013 ) Boyhood ( 2014 ) Mad Max : Fury Road ( 2015 ) La La Land ( 2016 ) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ( 2017 ) BNF : cb16169587v ( data ) GND : 4618758 - 3 SUDOC : 123287553 VIAF : 209897234 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thelma_%26_Louise&oldid=843500811 '' Categories : 1991 films English - language films 1990s adventure films 1990s buddy films 1990s crime drama films 1990s road movies American adventure films American chase films American crime drama films American female buddy films American films American road movies Buddy drama films Feminist films Films directed by Ridley Scott Films scored by Hans Zimmer Films set in Arizona Films set in Arkansas Films set in New Mexico Films set in Oklahoma Films shot in California Films shot in Utah Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award Girls with guns films Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer films Midlife crisis films Murder in films Rape in film Suicide in films United States National Film Registry films Hidden categories : Pages using div col without cols and colwidth parameters Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2014 Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Aragonés Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Emiliàn e rumagnòl Español Euskara فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Magyar Македонски Bahasa Melayu Монгол Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 粵語 中文 28 more Edit links This page was last edited on 29 May 2018, at 15 : 14. 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Question: who was driving the car when thelma and louise drove off the cliff
Answer: Louise