The truck driver that appears a couple of times in the film although he is too dim-witted to be believable, is obviously a misogynist, with shiny silhouettes of naked women attached to the mud flaps. When hoots his horn and flicks his tongues the girls, they are completely disgusted and ask, “Why do they have to do that?”
Thelma is forced to rob a store due to money problems; during this scene the camera shows a close-up shot of two elderly women looking disapprovingly through a window. The next shot is of Louise in the car with her hair down looking very independent. This implies that the elder generation feel that it is unfair that they had to be domestic slaves to their husbands and that it is wrong to break the tradition and be different. They probably also feel like they have wasted their lives so serving male needs.
Roughly half way through the film, Darryl is visited by detectives and is asked: “…do you have a good relationship with your wife? Are you close with her?” to which Darryl replies “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I'm about as close as I can be with a nut case like that.” Darryl is patently sexist here. Also he doesn’t seem to realise the point of being nice to his wife, so the detective says “Women love that shit”, at which they all the males laugh. Darryl’s character is perhaps a little too unbelievable but still brings the point across that all males are unpleasant.
The two people that betray the girls in the film are men – J.D. and Harlan. Due to the film being from the girls perspective it appears that all males are deceptive and treacherous. Even though Thelma and Louise are practically the only females in the film, bar a few waitresses and disapproving old ladies, the majority of the males a sexist to a varying degree.
The Rastafarian that features in the movie is not just for comic effect, as even this shows liberation from the normal society. It breaks up the otherwise serious storyline but is important for the wider view of America’s social background; he is leading his life at a tangent, as are the girls.
Throughout the film the relationship between the two girls develops slowly. Louise starts out as the dominant character, this is clear as she organised their weekend break and nags at Thelma playing a maternal role. On the other hand Thelma is very dependant of Louise, this is because of her life at home with her husband where it is apparent that she receives no freedom and is not allowed the leave the house unless especially instructed to.
Louise’s house is very clean; the director deliberately leaves the camera focusing on her gleaming sink at the start of the film. This is because she takes pride in her possessions, which she rightfully owns. She drives a classic car - a green '66 T-Bird, which appears to be in mint condition. These are all symbols of her independence, not sharing with a husband or partner.
Whilst Thelma’s brainwashed background is obvious and shown from the start, Louise’s is kept a mystery, with details such as Jimmy and what happened to make her scared of Texas slowly slipping through, building up the jigsaw puzzle of her past. A key moment showing Thelma’s naivety is when she realises that they are in great danger, being wanted possibly for murder, she panics and regresses to a curled up position and starts crying. Here, Louise takes over remaining calm and tries to think of a plan, this clearly shows that she has a determined attitude, which she has acquired from living independently in a male-run society.
As the journey develops so does Thelma’s confidence. She makes dog-like sounds when she sees J.D. the hitchhiker and starts to speak more openly. When Louise offers Thelma the choice of staying with her or returning home Thelma at first can’t decide, as she is not used to making decisions of any kind in her pre-programmed domestic life. After thinking this over she defiantly chooses to stay with Louise showing that she is becoming more independent.
Jimmy at first appears to just be one of Louise’s old friends and little information is given about him, he just another part of Louise’s cloudy past. When he personally delivers the money it seems that he is a close friend, or perhaps a past lover. It is only when he calls for Louise to come into his room that the whole picture is shown; he becomes aggressive and has a noticeable drinking problem. Louise still has affections for Jimmy as he does for her, but she realises that she can’t be with him. On top of this he is in a band and therefore constantly travelling whereas she prefers living in her own home alone. When Louise says goodbye to Jimmy, it is the highest point of her growing independence, from here on the roles start to reverse between the two girls even more.
Thelma becomes more assertive after J.D. steals the money; she accepts the responsibility for her incorrect actions and takes over, unlike Louise who curls up into a foetal position, which is an clear role reversal. Thelma uses the hold-up technique, which she learnt from J.D. to boldly commit a robbery. This surprises the detectives and even more Thelma’s husband who is left speechless, as before she wouldn’t even touch the gun. Also when Thelma rings Darryl she can instantly tell something is wrong as he is trying to act happy, so she hangs up, this shows her growing confidence and distrust of males. Lastly when Thelma holds-up the police officer she commands Louise to shoot to radio and appears to have complete control of the situation.
Throughout all this Hal, the chief detective is sympathetic towards the girls and doubts whether they shot the serial rapist Harlan in cold blood. He feels protective of them even as he helps track them down, this makes him a better detective as he can see from the girl’s viewpoint and therefore predict their past or future actions. He becomes very angry with J.D. for stealing the money, because if they hadn’t committed the robbery and revealed their position they would have possibly escaped.
“…they had a chance...! And you blew it for 'em.”
Originally a different ending was intended to the one that finally made it onto film. The final chosen ending starts with the outlook being uncertain, the girls look at each other looking slightly worried. The tension increases as the helicopters and police cars close in on them; short shots are used to speed up the pace. A marshal orders them to “Turn off the engine and place your hands in the air!”
The director creates a momentary pause with Hal the detective pacing up and down, this builds up suspense. The girls appear to glow with bright backlighting creating halos around their faces. This together with their smiles makes them look angelic, and at their best. The result of this is that the mood becomes happier, even thought Thelma is talking about suicide. “…let’s not get caught”. The car accelerates and the detective is shown running towards the camera with his hand in the air. The alternative ending is mostly the same up to this point, except some scenes are left out and others viewed from different camera angles.
In the last minute of the original ending the familiar guitar solo plays again, which has followed them all through their journey. The camera focuses on solely on the girls; they hold hands and smile once more. After a quick shot of Louise slamming the accelerator pedal to the floor the car flies over the edge of the Grand Canyon. The camera tracks the car in the air for half a second before the screen fades to white. Shortly after this reprises are shown of the girls journey with them smiling and enjoying being liberated, followed by the credits.
The above picture shows the car just before the screen fades to white.
In the alternative ending, after the detective is seen running towards the camera there is a long shot of the car driving towards the ramp, which is followed by a shorter shot from above the car as it falls down into the deep canyon. Another long expensive shot shows the car flipping over, again from above. The detective runs towards the edge and looks down, a helicopter flies over him and down into the canyon. The police team walk forwards in a horizontal line while the detective chews his lip, he has lost, the worst feared has happened to him and his role is now over. All involved turn around and go back to their jobs. The reprise for this ending shows the girls at the beginning of the film driving off into the distance.
This ending distracts from girls and makes the film a disaster movie. Whereas, simply fading to white ends on the girls, which is what the whole film is about. It is also uncertain what’s going to happen even though it is highly likely that the alternative ending occurred afterwards.
The upbeat B.B. King song entitled “Better not look down” is played during the alternative ending, although this ties in well with the other US music used during the film, it is inappropriate as it is happy song when the two main characters have just committed suicide to escape something that wasn’t entirely their fault. The lyrics also don’t suit the ending:
“Better not look down, if you wanna
keep on flyin'.
Put the hammer down, keep it full
speed ahead.
Better not look back or you might
just wind up cryin'.
You can keep it movin' if you don't
look down...”
I would personally chose the original ending as it keeps with the general theme of the story, about the two girls and is not as over-the-top as the dramatic multi-million dollar ending showing a failure. The girls never really stood a chance anyway, with all the sexist males in their lives. Thelma especially becomes liberated and more independent.
Seeing the girls die is also rather distressing as they are not guilty and certainly don’t deserve death. Ridley Scott chose this ending because it is more artistic, the beautiful countryside and morning sun are the background for a happy ending, not a disastrous car crash.