THELMA & LOUISE
“TO ME, THEY got away,” says Callie Khouri, reminiscing
about a light-blue Ford T-Bird soaring in slow motion over the
Grand Canyon, one of popular cinema’s most radical farewells.
Yearning to write a screenplay, one night Khouri pulled
into her Nashville drive and thought, “Two women go on a
crime spree.” In a flash, she could “feel” their story: what led to
a freewheeling trip across the desert states; who Thelma and her
best friend Louise were at the start and who they were at the
end; the central theme of liberation a road movie offered. “The
other thing is,” she recalls, “I had the image of the car flying into
the Grand Canyon. So I knew that was where it was going.”
A Ridley Scott-scale budget gave them Geena Davis as
skittish, innocent Thelma, boxed into a crummy marriage,
and Susan Sarandon as knowing Louise, scarred by the past.
Sarandon would only sign on if they kept the ending.
Cornered on the edge of the canyon, the humour instantly
evaporates. The state troopers, fingers on triggers, have become
menacing and faceless. “Looks like the army,” gulps Louise. “This
is an act of aggression against us!” bellows a cop, meaning men.
So they take the only option — to keep on driving. Shooting
over the edge, the camera freeze-framing at the exultant zenith
before gravity takes hold. It was vital we never see them die.
It isn’t the Grand Canyon. Scott preferred Dead
Horse Point in Utah. There they shot helicopters all day
and Harvey Keitel, the kindly cop, running into the dust
— the film had become progressively dustier and wild.
Scott was waiting for the sun to set at the perfect
angle. “We had only one take,” recalled Susan
Sarandon. It was her idea they kiss. Only Davis knew.
While there were rumours of MGM fretting over the
ending — and Sarandon confirmed Scott had considered
having Louise shove Thelma out of the car — the
director claims they were never pressured for an ‘up’
finale. Sure, they could have been taken alive or downed
in a hail of bullets. Even made it to Mexico to sip
cocktails. But each rang as false as the next.
“In a way,” says Scott, “I think it is an ‘up ending’.”
There is an alternative where we still see the car take
off, the Polaroid snapped away in the wind, before
cutting to the car continuing down the desert highway.
Pure symbolism, but audiences might take it as a miracle.
“To me, the ending was never meant to be a literal,
‘They drive off a cliff and die’ moment,” explains Khouri.
“It was a way of saying that this was a world in which
they didn’t believe there was the possibility of justice.”
It was the only way of letting them stay who they
had become. “Women who are completely free of all the
shackles that restrain them have no place in the world,”
she says. After all they had been through, she didn’t
want anybody to be able to touch them. IAN NATHAN
THELMA & LOUISE IS OUT NOW ON DVD AND DOWNLOAD
1 _
This iconic scene has
since been referenced
or spoofed in titles as
diverse as Sightseers,
Bridget Jones’s Diary,
Wayne’s World 2,
Grand Theft Auto V —
and EastEnders.2 _
Twenty-four police
cars and three
helicopters were used
during the final
chase sequence.3 _
A longer version of the
ending, set to B.B.
King, sees the car
plummeting into the
canyon. It can be
found on the Special
Edition DVD.Instant Trivia
THE
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