Louise refusing to let them drive through Texas. Is it just because the place holds bad memories for her after her rape there years ago? Or is it more pragmatic - as in worrying that she might run into friends and family members of her rapist? Or, is it because Texas has the death penalty?
Does Detective Slocumb display more benevolent sexism than being a Reasonable Authority Figure? He seems to view Thelma and Louise with sympathy, but is that more because they're women? Or is this simply his normal process, and he retains the sympathy for them once their backstories are revealed?
Right before the car goes over the cliff, the protagonists kiss and hold hands. Is this Platonic Kissing, or a romantic gesture before they die? Susan Sarandon has suggested the latter interpretation in some interviews. It doesn't hurt that the dialogue just before they take the plunge sounds a lot like what characters say before Their First Time.
Angst? What Angst?: Thelma is almost raped, but only a short while later, she is perfectly happy and wants to take a random guy with them, probably to sleep with him! She doesn't seem bothered by a man being shot in front of her either. Louise by contrast was raped years ago and presumably went through a painful trial and still carries the scars of it. It is however possible that Thelma's impulsive decisions - picking up JD and sleeping with him, robbing the convenience store - are subconscious reactions to the incident, and she's doing reckless things as a way of coping.
Anvilicious: Strong anti-Victim-Blaming and anti-spousal abuse message throughout. Also, there's a scene where the women pull over a catcalling trucker to lecture him on his boorish behavior.
Award Snub: It received six Academy Award nominations, making key categories such as Director, achieving the rare feat of dual Lead Actress nominations, and even won for Best Original Screenplay. Despite this strong showing, it wasn't nominated for Best Picture.
Base-Breaking Character: Thelma either gets lots of sympathy for being a rape victim and her miserable marriage before the murder, or else lots of hate for her badly thought out moments like leaving the money with JD, robbing a convenience store and adding to their list of crimes. Basically she's either The Woobie or The Load.
Broken Base: There are constant debates about what the women should have done after shooting Harlan. On the one hand he had let Thelma go, meaning Louise had no reason to shoot in self-defence. On the other, Louise could have argued that she thought he was lunging towards her. Louise illustrates many common attacks on rape victims - Thelma being drunk, the whole bar having seen them dancing together and Thelma being married (Thelma's dress being fairly revealing would also incriminate her sadly). But then again Harlan is said to be a lech by the waitress - which could have helped back Thelma's case up in court (granted the two didn't know this when they fled).
There are lots of questions about the meaning of the scene where Louise trades her earrings for a cowboy hat. Some theorise it was symbolic of her parting with her old life. Or else that she was merely giving them to the old man as a gift. Or even she sold them to pay for something.
There's also the shot right before Thelma robs the store where Louise looks at two old women in a window, who look back at her sadly. The most obvious theory is that she envies them for their normal lives - they got to grow old and enjoy time out together whereas Louise possibly will die young or end up in prison because of her choice. There's another theory that the women envy Louise - with her being younger and breaking free of her boring life.
Catharsis Factor: Louise shooting Harlan to death after he beat and attempted to rape Thelma.
Crosses the Line Twice: Good lord, Thelma robbing the store at the gas station. She threatens people with a gun and they are clearly terrified, but she is so nice about it ("ladies and gentlemen, this is a robbery") that it becomes hysterical. The best part is Darryl watching the CCTV footage of the event and his "Jesus Christ!" when it's over.
Esoteric Happy Ending: More than one reviewer pointed out that the ending tries to play launching your car into an inevitable, agonizing death as some sort of display of "girl power".
Girl-Show Ghetto: Despite its critical and commercial success, years after its release, it would often be mocked in pop culture for being "anti-male" - and many late 90s and early 2000s shows would drop derogatory references to it as something only women who don't like men would enjoy.
Louise telling Harlan that "when a woman's crying like that, she isn't having any fun." After learning what happened to her in Texas, it seems Louise knows too well from personal experience.
At the film's end, Thelma and Louise make a suicidal plunge into the Grand Canyon. Later, Ridley Scott's brother Tony committed suicide by jumping off another national landmark, the Vincent Thomas Bridge.
It used to be a casual way to mock the fleeing the crime scene that rape allegations would be taken much more seriously these days. In Ireland especially in 2018 a young girl accused three athletes of gang raping her and they were acquitted on the basis that she had gone upstairs at some point. Shortly after, another accused rapist was acquitted based on the underwear the victim was wearing. And a third case the same year had the victim committing suicide over how horribly she was treated in her trial. So in a way, Louise was right.
Iron Woobie: Louise is implied to be a survivor of rape and subjected to a horrible trial years ago. She makes a mistake in the heat of the moment and has her whole life turned upside down. She doesn't whine too much though and just gets on with it as best she can.
It Was His Sled: The first thing anyone learns about this film is usually how it ends.
Never Live It Down: Thelma is often attacked for her poor decision making throughout the film, ignoring that she's lived a sheltered life as a housewife well into her thirties, and she'd hardly be thinking like a criminal mastermind after having to go on the run on the spur of the moment. Heck, when she robs the store, she’s just using JD’s description of the act as a guide.
Signature Scene: The film's ending, where Thelma and Louise drive off a cliff once they have nowhere to go, is one of the most famous scenes in all of cinema. It is a frequent subject of parodies, and often accepted as a prime illustration of the film's theme of freedom.
Special Effects Failure: Just before Thelma and Louise drive off the cliff into the Grand Canyon, when they're looking at each other, the scenery is clearly visible not moving in the background.
Values Dissonance: It can seem odd to some viewers that a film made in the 90s would still have as its plot a woman in an Awful Wedded Life, and why Thelma would still be married to Darryl even at the beginning. They were high school sweethearts and stayed together, with Thelma remaining a housewife and no apparent job of her own - even when they don't have children. But doing the math with the character's age (Geena Davis was born in 1956, but is Older Than They Look) would put her in the generation to have been born in a far more conservative time. It makes more sense if you consider that the film had been in development since 1979.
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