Women in Cinema: Why Thelma and Louise, a film about two real women who dared to live, is still empowering

As far as iconic cinema ending goes, Thelma and Louise running a 1966 Ford Thunderbird over a cliff with massive smiles on their faces, is as memorable as it gets. Two women who have incurred the wrath of the “man’s world” for way too long, finally playing the game by their rules. Two women who set out for a nice trip, but went on a rollercoaster ride of self discovery. Two women, who even today, are as real as it gets. Thelma and Louise are two female leads that are still very much alive in the minds of people, empowering women across the world. 

Thelma and Louise, which is written by Callie Khouri and directed by Ridley Scott, follows Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon), two women who decide to leave their lives away for a few days and take a trip to the mountains. Thelma, a self-kept woman, is married to disrespectful and controlling carpet salesman, Darryl (Christopher McDonald). Louise is a street smart, fast talking waitress at a diner and is dating an easygoing musician Jimmy (Michael Madsen). After Thelma ditches her husband, the two friends set out to the mountains on a Ford Thunderbird. 

After they stop at a bar, Thelma gets drunk and a flirtatious stranger starts sexually abusing her in the empty parking lot. Louise comes to the aid of her friend and threatens the man with a gun. While Louise does try to give the man a chance to leave, his total lack of remorse pushes Louise over the line, and kills the would-be rapist. The two friends are now fugitives and are on the run. 

While Thelma thinks about surrendering and trying to make sense of what happened to the authorities, Louise tells her, “We Don't Live in that Kind of World, Thelma". Perhaps over 25 years since the film’s release, the world we live in hasn’t changed much. While Khouri saw the world then as a place where a woman’s words are not given enough thought, even today, we see the same happening. Even today, when brave women call out men, a section of the public find it apt to blame the victim or call them a ‘liar’. 

However, Thelma and Louise decided to do something different. They decided to run with Mexico in mind. But where they were really headed, was into a place of freedom, power, empowerment and self-discovery, things that we seek even today. And for this reason, this buddy road trip action-comedy drama still has an important role in pop culture. The two lead characters soon learn to take control over the “man’s world” and hold men accountable for their every action and word. They realise that they were never at fault, but it was the man who thought he owned it all, and they are at fault. 

The film then follows the two characters on a journey of self reflection and change, with the self-kept, well-mannered Thelma breaking her shackles and living life to her fullest. A steamy night, with a young hitchhiker played by a then new face Brad Pitt, helped her cause. She ends up being a woman who has finally found herself. “You be sweet to them. Especially your wife”, she says, as she throws a State Trooper into his car hood at gunpoint. This is something she never would have told her own husband three days ago. 

While on the run, the two friends also run into a trucker who symbolises the toxic masculinity and patriarchy that even catches up to two women who are driving at 50 miles an hour. But the two newly reformed women ensure that they teach him a lesson by blowing up his cargo. While Thelma and Louise learned that it would be better to teach them a lesson while they could, this is something that resonates with the viewer. 

Thelma and Louise close in to its grand ending with a handful of memorable scenes. Louise’s goodbye with her boyfriend Jimmy, she opens up about an incident that happened in Texas, and Louise getting robbed are all part of this. But with every passing scene, the film has one thing or the other to say. And while this was questioned in large numbers during its release, the film becomes ever more memorable each passing year, still paving the way to women who are looking for a chance to live their lives. 

Telling the story of two girl friends, written by a woman and with Ridley Scott casting two women who were 35 and 45, well past their prime by Hollywood's physical standards, the film and its central characters became even more real. Having run from a world, playing and living by their rules, when the two find themselves outmatched and surrounded by the law, they decide to end it all by their own rules as well. But the ending of the film is as inspiring and empowering as the rest of it. While we get to see the two women run their car off the cliff in an iconic shot, their demise is never confirmed. 

“To me, the ending was symbolic, not literal ... We did everything possible to make sure you didn't see a literal death. You were left with the image of them flying. They flew away, out of this world and into the mass unconscious,” told the film’s Academy Award-winning writer to The Atlantic about the ending. 

She also told Time that as a female movie-goer, she was fed up with the passive role of women and that they were never driving the story because they were never driving the car. To her credit, the film was driven all the way by two women who find their voice and power in the world, and even to this day, the film inspires each one of its viewers to find their own power. Thirty years later, Thelma and Louise is still a piece of cinema that inspires and empowers the viewer, begging them to find their power and leave behind what is weighing them down, so they can fly away into a world of more power to women. 

The film is available to stream on Tubi TV.