FILM · 1991 · UK
Thelma & Louise
- Directed by
- Ridley Scott
- Runtime
- 130 min
- Studio
- Scott Free Productions, Star Partners III, MGM-Pathé Communications
28 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Taking a break from their dreary lives, close friends Thelma and Louise embark on a short weekend trip that ends in unforeseen incriminating circumstances. As fugitives, both women rediscover the strength of their bond and their newfound resilience.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (28)
- #001
The scene in which Louise takes Thelma's headphones away and scares her was not planned. In the DVD audio commentary, Geena Davis said that Susan Sarandon called her from the car to tell her where to get out, but because her Walkman was too loud she did not hear the signal, so Susan came to get her.
- #002
In the documentary The Celluloid Closet (1995), Susan Sarandon said she added the kiss between Louise and Thelma to the end of the film. Sarandon said she told her co-star Geena Davis (and no one else) that she was going to kiss her.
- #003
The scene in which Darryl slips and falls on the construction worker's materials as he leaves for work was unscripted, because Christopher McDonald genuinely lost his balance. Even so, he stayed in character and shouted at the workers as he got into the car and drove off. Director Sir Ridley Scott liked the result so much that, as he stated in the DVD commentary, he kept it in the film.
- #004
At one point during production, Sir Ridley Scott considered changing the ending so that Thelma, who is pushed out of the car by Louise just before the plunge over the cliff, would survive.
- #005
The studio resisted the unhappy ending strongly and was very eager to find an alternative. Because they could not come up with a better ending, they eventually accepted it.
- #006
In the scene where the tanker truck is shot and blown up, Susan Sarandon's and Geena Davis's reactions had to be genuine. Rather than shooting separate reaction shots, Sir Ridley Scott had the tanker blown up during the take so he could get real expressions of surprise from the two leads. Even so, they were so startled while watching that they forgot to react, so Scott had to film their reactions again.
- #007
This is the fifth film to receive two Best Actress Oscar nominations, for both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, and as of 2026 the most recent. They lost to Jodie Foster for her role in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
- #008
Before Brad Pitt was cast, the role had been given to William Baldwin, but he too had to leave the cast. George Clooney was rejected several times. Mark Ruffalo auditioned. In the end the role went to Robert Downey Jr., but Ridley thought he was too short compared to Geena Davis. It was Davis who chose Pitt for the role.
- #009
Jason Beghe improvised the scene in which the State Trooper begins to cry as Thelma holds the gun on him, deciding that this would make his character more memorable than complying emotionlessly with Thelma and Louise's demands.
- #010
Sir Ridley Scott was very open to the ideas of his cast and crew on his films and used many of Susan Sarandon's suggestions during production. Some of Sarandon's ideas that made it into the final cut of the film: the image of Louise putting her shoes in plastic bags as the lady prepares for her weekend mountain trip; the scene in which Louise trades her jewelry for the old man's hat; and the scene in which Louise, while Thelma sleeps in the car, stops the car in the desert at night and has a personal moment looking at the stars. Coming up with the idea for the last scene took half the night. Sarandon and her long-time partner Tim Robbins reworked much of the dialogue between Louise and her boyfriend Jimmy in the hotel in Oklahoma City. Originally this scene required Louise and Jimmy to have sex and hold an impromptu mock wedding ceremony. Sarandon felt that the last thing Louise would want to do at this point in the story would be to have sex, and told Scott that if they did the sequence as written they would need to add a scene in which Louise consequently goes crazy, and before signing on to make the film Scott promised Sarandon that he would not change the ending. She had just experienced this on her last film, White Palace (1990), where the original, ambiguous ending had been set aside for a more optimistic one, and she did not want this film to meet a similar fate.
- #011
Sir Ridley Scott reportedly admired Hans Zimmer's music so much that, instead of placing the main title at the end as originally planned, he created a main title sequence (with Zimmer's music over it).
- #012
Michael Madsen spoke about how proud he was to be in the film, especially given that he was playing against type.
- #013
For the more explicit sex scenes between Brad Pitt and Geena Davis, Sir Ridley Scott had assumed a body double would be needed for Davis. Davis learned of Scott's intention shortly after she began auditioning possible partners and insisted that no doubles were needed for these steamy scenes. B-movie legend Julie Strain said in an interview that she was Davis's double, even though their upper-body physiques were completely different.
- #014
When Geena Davis sat next to George Clooney on a flight 20 years after the film's release, during some small talk George said he had read for the role of J.D. with her, but she had to admit that, unfortunately, she remembered nothing about his audition.
- #015
Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep wanted to make a film together, and this film was one of the scripts they considered. They ultimately got the chance to play against each other in Death Becomes Her (1992).
- #016
Michelle Pfeiffer has since said that turning down the film is one of her biggest regrets.
- #017
Twenty-four police cars and three helicopters were used for the film's climax.
- #018
A total of five identical 1966 Thunderbird convertibles were used during filming: a "star car", a camera car, a backup car and two show cars.
- #019
In an interview, Susan Sarandon joked that when her friends learned she had agreed to appear in a film set in the desert in the summer heat, and in a film directed by Ridley Scott, who is known for putting his actors through several takes, they told her she was crazy.
- #020
Thelma & Louise won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in the same year as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), which swept the major Oscars (including Best Adapted Screenplay), and it was the only other film to win a major award that year.
- #021
Sir Ridley Scott watched Badlands (1973) for inspiration for the film's look.
- #022
As the lights began to go down and a public holiday approached, Sir Ridley Scott had roughly forty-five minutes to shoot the final scene exactly as he wanted.
- #023
According to the DVD commentary, Susan Sarandon revealed that egg whites were used for the vomit when Louise gets out of the car to throw up, adding that they are also used for love scenes in films.
- #024
Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon took extensive driving and shooting lessons for the film.
- #025
Brad Pitt was very embarrassed when he accidentally got an erection during the scene in which he has sex with Geena Davis.
- #026
Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster were initially cast in the lead roles and accepted them, but pre-production ran so long that they had to leave due to other commitments.
- #027
According to a 2011 Vanity Fair article, it was Michelle Pfeiffer's idea for Sir Ridley Scott to direct the film rather than only serving as executive producer.
- #028
While writing the screenplay, Callie Khouri dreamed of casting Holly Hunter as Thelma and Frances McDormand as Louise.
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