Thelma and her friend Louise are getting away for a weekend from the dreary lives they lead. Day in and day out, they have become the relationships they are in or the dead in jobs they carry on with. But in a single moment their lives change forever. Thelma is nearly raped by a man outside of a bar and Louise kills him for it. They go on the run, their lives never to be the same again.
What we find are two women who have lived in a world that constantly pummels them with a false truth that men can take whatever they want and get away with it. This is the impetus for Louise pulling the trigger on Harlan, she has years of rage and pain pushed down within her from being raped herself that it finally comes out against Harlan and takes his life.
And as the two women pursue their freedom in Mexico they continue to establish that they won't play by these fake truths anymore. We see it when they blow up the crude truck drivers rig especially. And we watch as they weave in and out of relationships with men that help, like Jimmy who loves Louise, or J.D. who uses Thelma in order to take everything the women have.
In the end, the women decide to live on their own terms, and that does not include sitting in a cell for the rest of their lives. And thus their last act is against the world that has come to take everything from them, and when it seems there is nowhere to go, they choose death over a life imprisoned.
