Thelma is married to a man called Darryl and they don’t have any children together. Darryl is a car sales man and spends a lot of time at work while Thelma stays at home and does all the household chores and prepares his evening meal for when he gets home. Thelma seems to not mind too much about doing all this and never going out. At this moment she is suspecting that he is having an affair with someone else but she just hints about it and he ignores him or her. When Thelma is packing to go away she is very disorganised and she just pulls a draw of clothes out and tips them into the suitcase. She then comes across a gun and thinks that she might need it because of Psycho Killers and Bears. She picks it up very cautiously and drops it in her handbag, as if it is a smelly sock or something revolting. Thelma wears a pair of jeans and a shirt unbuttoned about half way down. This is the complete opposite to what Louise has done. But this isn’t because Thelma wants to attract attention this is because she doesn't know any better and has her shirt half undone because she is hot and sweaty from packing quickly. Thelma hasn’t told Darryl that she is going away with Louise and she is a bit worried about him and what he is going to do to her when she gets back. This is because she has never left him before and she knew that he wouldn’t let her go. She is afraid that if she does anything wrong that she might loose him but it is actually the other way around, Darryl wouldn’t be able to live without her. Thelma is a week person at the beginning and just does what everybody tells her but during the film her personality strengthens and you can’t just tell her what to do as easily as you could of at the beginning.
As the two women travel around they meet a number of different characters and encounter a lot of different situations some of them more dangerous than the other. One of he characters is a man called Harlan and they meet him in a bar called the Silver Bullet. When he first comes over to their table he seems really nice and Thelma falls right into his trap, genuinely thinks he is a nice guy and doesn't pose any harm, but Louise knows what he is about and politely asks him to leave. But once they’d had a bit to drink Louise starts to relax a bit more and they both go and have a dance, Thelma with Harlan and Louise with some other guy that doesn't have any resemblance to the film. At this point Louise is in the toilet and had told Thelma that when she comes out that they were going. Thelma starts to feel a bit ill so she goes out side to have some fresh air and Harlan follows her. Thelma sits on top of a car and at then Harlan tries to rape her. Louise then emerges from no ware and has a gun in her hand, points it at him and tells him to get off her. He doesn't like this so he shouts abuse at Louise and she shoots him. This is the whole turning point of the film and is the point where everything turns around and the two women change immensely for the rest of the film. Thelma and Louise are panicking so Louise decides to not go to the police and get as far away from the incident as possible. The reason that Louise decides not to go to the police is that fact that Thelma had been leading him on all night and everybody had seen it. They had been travelling for a while and decide to stop and decide what to do. They both decide to carry on and not tell the police. This is a semi turning point of the film but the real one is when they meet a hitchhiker called JD who asks them for a lift. They decide not to and carry on but they meet him again and this time they give him a ride. At this point they are running out of money, so Louise rings Jimmy up and gets him to transfer some money to them He agrees and they go to the place where they are supposed to get it but Jimmy is waiting there and so they decide to get a room each in a hotel and spend the night there and Louise gives the money to Thelma to look after. In Louise’ room she is in there with Jimmy and he decides to propose to her and she doesn't really know what to say. In the room where Thelma is staying someone knocks on the door and Thelma seems to be a bit scared. But she answers the door and J.D is standing there in the rain. So Thelma is hesitant but in the end lets him in. On thing leads to the other and they both end up sleeping together. In the morning Thelma and Louise both go to get some breakfast but Thelma leaves the money in the room with J.D and he steals it and runs away. Louise then makes sure that Thelma has the money on her, but she doesn't so they both run up to the room and they realise that it has gone along with J.D. They both panic and realise that jimmy has gone to. They decide to go on and they need some money so Thelma asks to stop at a filling station and she goes in and decides to commit an armed robbery. Everything goes to plan and she runs out of the store and they go on.
These two scenes are major turning points in the film and more so the robbery because although both of the acts were illegal they didn’t really have a choice about the first one and there might be a slight possibility that they might get away with it but they weren’t going to take the chance. Thelma wouldn’t have dreamed about committing the robbery before all the different factors had set in and before they had started the journey. We are now starting to see a different side of Thelma and it seems to be a better one for her. She now takes more control over the situation as a whole and Louise can’t be able to tell her what to do as easily anymore. Although what has happened has changed Louise it hasn’t to the extent that it has to Thelma. I think this is because she hasn’t had any freedom and that this is the first time in her life that she has had a chance to show what she can like when she wants to. This doesn't take much affect on Louise because although she is in a relationship it hasn’t been as intense as what Thelma's is. This isn't because of relationships altogether but because of the other person. Darryl is very strict on Thelma and she really hasn’t had any experience of having the right to do what she wants. Were as Louise’s partener is very laid back and respects that a woman has to have a bit of freedom and not be controlled too much.
When they are both travelling across the desert at quite a speed a policeman pulls them over for speeding, which they were. Louise acts as if they haven't done anything wrong in the hope that he hasn’t been informed about them. Luckily, he hasn’t been told and he has just pulled them over for speeding. He asks to see Louise’s licence and asks her to sit in his car with him while he gives he a ticket and radios to tell head office. Thelma then realises that he about to do this and goes and puts the gun in the police mans face. She then asks Louise to get the gun from him and to shoot the radio with it. Thelma then shoots a couple of air holes in the trunk and asks him to get in. At this point he is almost in tears and is begging them for his life. Thelma just shuts the door and they both drive off on their car again. Most off this scene and how they both get out of it with out getting caught is down to Thelma. This shows that she is learning from all the other experiences that have happened and she is putting the skills into practice. The relationship between Thelma and Louise has almost defiantly evened out now and they both take responsibility for there actions.
There is also another scene in the film when they come across a truck driver who is very sexist and the two girls don’t really like his attitude towards women. They meet him along their travels a few times before the turning points but they don’t do anything about because they knew there wasn’t much they could do without breaking the law. But because of the turning points their will becomes stronger so they decide to do something about him. When they next see him Thelma and Louise pull him over and they both get on top of the car and ask him to come over. The truck driver jumps out of his truck and walks over to them. Louise then asks him to apologise for all sexist remarks that he made to them. He thinks there joking and so Thelma pulls out the gun and fires a shot into the air. The truck driver then calls them something again and so Louise pulls out the gun that she took from the police officer and shoots the tires on his petrol tanker. The truck driver then says something again to Louise so she then blows the whole truck up. He then falls on the floor and the two girls drive off leaving the guy in the middle of the desert. At this point they really don’t know which way to turn and are beginning to think that there is now way out.
Sooner or later it is obvious that the police and FBI are going to catch up on them and they eventually do. The authorities chase them across desert and over all kinds of terrain until they come to a cliff if the Grand Canyon. At this point they brake suddenly because it catches them by surprise and then a large, black, shiny helicopter rises above them from under the cliff edge. They have come to the end of the road and they most defiantly don't have any other way to turn. The Man in charge of the crime, who has now come quite close to Louise, seems to see what has happened and that he feels a bit sorry for the two of them. All the other officers and snipers all have their guns pointing directly at their heads. The guy who knows what they are going through starts to run towards the car, which is about two hundred meters from the fireing line. By now Thelma and Louise have decided to end it all and plunge to their death. So Louise puts her foot on the gas and they ride triumphantly of the side of the cliff.
I think that there couldn't of been a better ending at that it fitted the whole film perfectly. The ending of the film couldn’t really any different in ant other way and it was going to happen, but the way that it sprang up on you was brilliantly disguised. As a whole I thought the film was great and the acting was first class.
