When we think of a Western, several images come to mind. 

A tumbleweed rolling through a dusty town. The hero has to be the first to draw his gun. John Wayne rides off on his horse into the great wide somewhere. These stories tend to have one thing in common: a man in his natural habitat. The Old West towns, the wide open plains, the badlands are all considered to be rightfully possessed by the hero who roams them—and that hero is always a man. 

Then Callie Khouri’s screenplay for Thelma & Louise flipped the script on the genre forever.

In lieu of the Western genre’s signature cowboy, Thelma & Louise featured two anti-heroes cursed by their femininity. Instead of a horse, audiences got a blue 1966 Ford Thunderbird. The scenery of mountains, oil rigs, deserts, and canyons were deserving of the genre—but served the purpose of being their escape instead of their domain.